Got to pet a Raptor today.

[RevnR6]

Went to the Nellis today and got to look at and pet a raptor, absolutely beautiful airplane. Saw a few taking off and landing as well. They had all the weapons bays open on it so I got to look inside. Only bad part was they had the intake and exhausts covered, but we were allowed to take pictures.

Once again, BEAUTIFUL aircraft, I would love to fly one. I also talked to a few guys about capability. They had some interesting stories to tell about some fights(BVR, and Close in) with -15s and -16s. :icon_smil

 

[beau]

My Cousin and his wife fly Block 50's out of Shaw....he was passing through OK while i was visiting his parents and he got to stop to refuel.....he let me sit up in that thing....wow, I though there was no room in a T-45!!!

 

[Ryoukai]

Pretty? Oh come on, am I the only one who thinks these new planes (Raptor and JSF) are ugly as sin?

 

[petescheu]

Yeah that thrust vectoring is supposed to be pretty sick in terms of adding to high alpha performance.
Hopefully we'll never have to use them, but I think it's a necessary expense in order to maintain our technological advantage over the rest of the world. Gotta give it to the Air Force though, they sure know how to get lots of money...

 

[FLYMARINES]

Raptor is ugly as sin, but the JSF looks alright.

 

[Geese]

Shiney... pretty... over priced and useless... I'll be surprised if the thing ever see's action.

Oh, you mean like a ballistic missile submarine? Or how about a B-52 strategic nuclear bomber? Wow, I can think of many "useless" military systems that are simply expensive and may not see any action. Yeah, we should just junk em all and strip ourselves naked.

 

[Geese]

Raptor is ugly as sin, but the JSF looks alright.

I'm 180 on this. If they had picked the OTHER JSF I'd agree, but the huge gaping A-7esque JSF is ugly in my book, just as the A-7 was.

JSF, A-7 with different body panels

 

[FLYMARINES]

I believe that the JSF you are speaking of is the Boeing X-32 (The A-7 looking model, which by the way lost the JSF competition.) The X-35 is the one that won, and doesn't look at all like the A-7. In my opinion it actually looks pretty cool.

 

[jarhead]

Oh, you mean like a ballistic missile submarine? Or how about a B-52 strategic nuclear bomber? Wow, I can think of many "useless" military systems that are simply expensive and may not see any action. Yeah, we should just junk em all and strip ourselves naked.

both of those examples carried Nukes, i suppose we are pretty lucky they never saw the "action" they were originally built for, eh ...

speaking of eyeballing a F-22, i snapped these badboys a couple years ago:
$
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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

S/F

 

[Ryoukai]

I forgot to add, the YF-23 was sexy and hot. Why didn't it get selected?

 

[Geese]

I believe that the JSF you are speaking of is the Boeing X-32 (The A-7 looking model, which by the way lost the JSF competition.) The X-35 is the one that won, and doesn't look at all like the A-7. In my opinion it actually looks pretty cool.

Oh, duh, that's right. I remember it hovering with many body panels removed.

 

[cricechex]

Enjoy:

http://www.jsf.mil/images/gallery/cdp/misc/cdp_misc_004.jpg


http://www.jsf.mil/

 

[Super18Ordie]

Oh, you mean like a ballistic missile submarine? Or how about a B-52 strategic nuclear bomber? Wow, I can think of many "useless" military systems that are simply expensive and may not see any action. Yeah, we should just junk em all and strip ourselves naked.

B-52 got lots of use in Vietnam

 

[hendogg311]

Yf-23

I think the Black Widow is much cooler than the Raptor. I heard a story that the Test Pilot who flew both aircraft was pissed when they selected the F-22 and was basically told to shut up. Not sure why the YF-23 lost though. Couldn't be cost because the Air Force always gets all the money for the new toys.

 

[Geese]

B-52 got lots of use in Vietnam

exactly, and tactical bombing was something that they never envisioned the B-52 would be used for, and how could you even see how something like that would be used in the future? The point is that you don't know the future of the F22 and what it will do, or even what it is capable of.

And ballistic submarines are launching tomahawks and delivering seal teams, again, something that may not have been forseen, but something that they've done and they have most certiainly gotten some use.