New Competition for the F-22

[NAKID]

They can have all the pictures and blueprints they want.


They will never have "our" Pilots.  

True, but a lot of foreign nations' pilots are trained by us...

[CMDRDAVE]

Looks like the stolen F22 plans have finally been analized.

Anal-ized?

[Kopfjäger]

True, but a lot of foreign nations' pilots are trained by us...

Of course they are. They are trained by us but, they aren't us. 

This I promise you. 

[NAKID]

Oh I know, we show them enough to get by, but not compete with us...

[Drjones]

Anal-ized?

Engineer types  . .  alone . . . with interesting design schematics.   enough said.

[He Man]

Im not worried about anyone but the middle east. China? Theres too much of a connection going on between the two nations to start shit. same with the russians, when the country starts destablizing, then ill worry.

[IZ]

Clint Eastwood is going to fly it back to America!   boo yeah!

Dammit..beaten to the Firefox reference!



BTW..watching that movie was pretty friggen cool on the big screen back in 1982.

Saw it a couple years ago and hmm..not so good with the effects by today's standards.

[DRKWNG]

I thought the Stealth fighter was the F-117?

The aircraft that actually made it into production, and subsequently into the AF's inventory, was the F-117.  But there was another design that was going through prototype testing around the same time that borrowed heavily from SR-71 technology.  The latter aircraft was designed more as a stealthy high speed intercepter as opposed to the much lower speed fighter/bomber (ironic as it was used almost exclusively as an attach aircraft) F-117.

[Langanobob]

Of course they are. They are trained by us but, they aren't us.  waytogo

This I promise you.  Wink

I used to work near NAS Fallon and at that time at least, there were Israeli pilots there training us.

[ZLTFUL]

I remember I had a Micro Machines version of that plane and also this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-47 which, according to the mighty Wiki was one of the two precursors to the Sukhoi PAK FA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_X-29

[ducatiz]

Not the F-22s but the F35's prints were snatched up by some cleaver hacker.

[ducatiz]

You can get a lot of explanations of who has the best overall fighter pilots.  The best way to determine that I think is to look at the selection and training programs, their equipment age and maintenance, and lastly, their retention policies.

Most military reviewers (i.e. Jane's) put the USA and Israel at the top two, depending on how you ask the question.

Israel has a conscription military, as most of you know, so selection for their pilot program actually starts around 9th grade.  Also, until recently, Israeli pilots see far more actual combat than American pilots.

USA has better overall equipment support and maintenance, but some would argue that because Israel has a "no mistakes" policy that iffy pilots get weeded out faster. 

Israel also does not have female pilots, which I don't know which way that cuts, if at all.