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From: Stefan Viljoen
Subject: A sad day for the vintage jet fighter fraternity
Date: 16 Nov 2009 12:51:25
Message: <4b01911d@news.povray.org>
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http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/local/article194296.ece
I always remember whenever I hear of such old aircraft, that they were
designed with paper, pencils, and slide rules!
Even today, the remaining Lightnings at Thunder City are apparently STILL
faster than an F-15 to 10 000 feet... says something for all those old
fuddy-duddies with their pocket protectors, eraser shields, pencils, and
their aircraft they designed on paper, by hand, with no CAD support
whatsoever.
Now I just got to get myself the +- ten thousand euros a 40 minute
supersonic flip to 50 000 feet in one of the remaining ones would cost...!
--
Stefan Viljoen
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From: Stefan Viljoen
Subject: Re: A sad day for the vintage jet fighter fraternity
Date: 16 Nov 2009 13:09:08
Message: <4b019544@news.povray.org>
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Stefan Viljoen wrote:
> http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/local/article194296.ece
>
> I always remember whenever I hear of such old aircraft, that they were
> designed with paper, pencils, and slide rules!
Watch the bit where he reaches the end of the runway and goes vertical...
oooo!
Pilot Dave Stock died in one of those, one of only four still flying - now
three are left.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SC-kiIzchA
--
Stefan Viljoen
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From: clipka
Subject: Re: A sad day for the vintage jet fighter fraternity
Date: 16 Nov 2009 13:51:03
Message: <4b019f17@news.povray.org>
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Stefan Viljoen schrieb:
> Even today, the remaining Lightnings at Thunder City are apparently STILL
> faster than an F-15 to 10 000 feet... says something for all those old
> fuddy-duddies with their pocket protectors, eraser shields, pencils, and
> their aircraft they designed on paper, by hand, with no CAD support
> whatsoever.
They sent people to the moon and brought them back without CAD support,
didn't they?
But today's jet fighters would be even a lot faster, if the mission
profile of jet fighters hadn't changed since those days.
Back then, the task of those jets was pretty straightforward: Scramble
from their bases to intercept high-flying strategic bombers ASAP, fire a
set of missiles at them, and pray that there'll be life after an all-out
nuclear war.
With the advance of ICBMs, the huge nuclear bombers of early cold war
days became obsolete, and so did the pure interceptor fighters.
At the same time wars like vietnam showed that speed wasn't all that
mattered, and that a sane balance between maneuverability and speed was
needed for any other purpuse jet fighters might be useful for.
Nowadays supercruise is sort of standard, i.e. the ability to fly a tad
above sonic speed when cruising. Apparently it still allows to optimize
aerodynamics for subsonic maneuverability.
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