China the puppetmaster?

[RedRed]

I think the Eurofighter has SOME stealth charicteristics - but it IS NOT a stealth fighter....

It doesnt matter really what the platform is anyway - unless you have the weapon systems installed - it wont matter a damn - noone is going to go 'guns, guns, GUNS' in an arial dogfight... its who has the the widest arch of fire on the aims/sparrows/amrams/atolls... who can target/launch against the most 'bogies' simultaneously.... who has the most effective radar systems (be they AWACS or whatever)... I would reckon....

I do think that mig 29 or the Saab are the prettiest warplanes in the air, though...


RedRed

[Pace]

I tell you that every nation that built a plane copied an american design.<hr />If you're gonna steal, steal the best.

Got any names of those Americans?

[GNEP]

I think that they were called the "Wrong Sisters" or something

[Novdid]

Originally posted by ex RedRed
I do think that mig 29 or the Saab are the prettiest warplanes in the air, though...


RedRed

I agree with you on the looks with the inclusion of the Su-32.

Here's a beauty, although deadly. Saab JAS 39 Gripen.


Part of the reason I think it's a cool plane has to be that it's swedish.

[RedRed]

Well, that bit cant be helped, Novid!!!

[Nowhere]

boy...this gonna be long one...here goes...

@GT98 (about the thing that mig29/su27 look similiar to f/a-18)

OF COURSE they do (well...not really imho - admit you choose a photo that makes them look very similiar; when other views come into play, you can clearly see huge differences). But I would disagree that is because of the things you've mentioned. They are just the planes that were constructed at the times when one of priorities was that plane must be more manuvearable, etc...
and one of the best ways to accomplish this are ...(please PM me with english description, if I will translate from polish terminology it's something like "stripe", to what I'm not entirely confident...) wings - and when you're building an airplane around this concept there aren't many ways of placing other things...(not to mention that couple things in mig29 are just unique - for example air intakes; and no I'm not talking just about shape of them; or engine gondoles - comparing to f-18).

Of course there are things "stolen" (mainly radar stuff afaik, something like that), but airframe is rather not...I know that Russians worked very hard developing this design.

And about su25/a9 - again, there's finite number of ways to construct such an airplane - it's hard to think about others (at least when thinking about more classical airframe) than the ones represented by a10 and su25...


@Chrono_Wanderer "LOL Su25 loos like a Harrier" <- see? this is what I'm talking about. Su25 and Harrier haven't got much in common. And...they look familiar. so what?

[GT98]

Nowhere,

I understand what your saying...but you also can't say that the F-18 and A-9 designs wasn't a major influance on the Russian Designers...they had the info in front of them to use, but they did it their own way

[Wombat]

Novdid cheated!

His pics only look cool because the planes have armaments. Everybody else was flying with empty pylons.

[Novdid]

Ooops sorry!

[Nowhere]

Originally posted by Nowhere
...

...

ooops...not only Novdid

[Nowhere]

and GT98, seriously, it's hard not to be influenced in some way or another...
Look at your avatar! I mean, don't you think that 4 wheels in Focus are steal off?

and really, Russians worked hard designing airframe of mig29...

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Originally posted by Chrono_Wanderer
Speaking of loos, IMO Su27 to Su35 (similar airframe) looks the best!

Sukhoi is pretty good these days...





It's nose is awesome!
other than that...

French RAFALE looks cool IMO





edit: Although the F-35B JSF's STOVL looks promising for the navy... its just ugly imo... (Sorry Americans)

OOOPSSS

[ZokesPro]

Love the angle on that last pic.