Josh Babcock wrote: > Roberto Inzerillo wrote: >>> Clarification: I was referring to the vertical "hover" for the MiG 29. The >>> Harrier can hover horizontally very nicely, and can "bow", or hold another >>> stable pitch attitude, and while hovering it can also be rotated about a >>> vertical axis, under control. Yes, that gives it capabilities like a >>> helicopter, in some ways. Still, is that really useful in air-to-air >>> "dogfighting", or in preparing to launch a missile while beyond visual >>> range, beyond the range of the enemy's missiles, and while not closing the >>> distance to the target aircraft? >>> >> I think the Harrier potentials in hovering and vertical takeoff/landing >> are not for dogfighting but for strategic reasons. The Harrier can >> takeoff/land without standard airfields, which makes them usefull even >> when enemies destroy nearby airfields. The Harrier can takeoff from very >> small carriers too. >> > > Yes, that was the justification for doing it in the first place, but in > the Falklands RNAF pilots developed an air to air tactic for reversing > dogfights called "vector in forward flight" that is partly credited for > their extreme air superiority in that war. Of course, they were mostly > fighting Pucaras, with a small number of Mirages thrown in, but the > point is that the pilots were definitely using the hovering capabilities > in dogfights. > > Josh >
That's exactly my recollection from the extensive news coverage. I also remember the reports of air-to-air missiles said to be exocets and thinking it was strange as they were more noted for air-to-ship operations, it could have been a reporting error. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce ... Hamradio License G3VBV, Licensed Private Pilot Emeritus IBM/Amdahl Mainframes and Sun/Fujitsu Servers Tech Support Specialist, Cricket Coach Microsoft Windows Free Zone - Linux used for all Computing Tasks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-users
