So. . .what the hell?

Lots of posts for "posting everyday" huh?  Seems to be the story of my life these days.  Z-E-R-O in the motivation department, and nothing seems to be grabbing my interest.  I have a few ideas I've been kicking around but damn, sometimes life just takes it out of ya.  By the time you get home from work you just want to tune out the world.  Ya know what I mean?

Here's a pic from better days:

Convair Aerospace Plane

DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer

     What can one say about the US Navy's new class of destroyer?  So many thoughts. "Groundbreaking", "disappointment", "the way forward", "typical government stupidity run wild".  They all apply. 
     The Zumwalt class has a long and torturous history and now, just as it's coming to fruition, the class is being cut to just three units and even the 3rd won't be up to the standards of the first two.  Undoubtedly I'll expand upon this in a future post but for now here are some pretty nice videos of the first.

 

The F-15 Eagle. Still going strong after 40 years.

     Just a few of the higher quality video clips of the F-15 that stand out for me.

Here's one from the Russian airshow MAKS 2011.  Note the skin departing the aircraft at 3:34.  It came from the inside surface of the starboard vertical stabilizer and can be seen at 5:20.  This is one clip I've seen where they really seem to cut loose (though still not to the degree the aircraft is capable of for airshow safety reasons). 

And a few others. . .

 

 

The F-15K Slam Eagle.  One of the few F110 powered Eagles.

 

 

 

And last, but not least, Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson's ride in an F-15E.

 

5th Generation fighters.

     While there is some controversy around what constitutes a "5th Generation Fighter" (that is a story in itself) the general consensus is that the F-22A, F-35, T-50 (PAKFA), and J-20 appear to fit the bill.  (IMO the jury is still out on the J-31.)  For now, here are the contenders.  While there is a bit of national pride and corporate propaganda at play here, it must be admitted these are some pretty sweet aircraft all things considered.

First up, the American F-22:

Next, the American F-35:

  

 

 

Next, the Russian T-50:

 

 

 

 

Last up, the Chinese J-20: 

 

 

 

 

 



PAC-3 does a pretty good job against planes too.

     There has been a lot of print about how good PAC-3 is doing against missiles in MDA testing.  What hasn't really received much coverage however is how deadly it is against aircraft.  A plane gets hit by it and the pilot probably isn't getting out of the aircraft.  In neither unfortunate blue-on-blue incident did the pilot make it out and the following two videos pretty much show why.

PAC-3 against a QF-4 Phantom from 2000:

PAC-3 MSE against a Lance TBM and QF-4 Phantom from 2013:

French supersonic VTOL from back in the day.

French VTOL Mirage III and one of the few supersonic VTOL aircraft ever to fly.

F-22 & F-35 together at last.