froobyone

Ironically, the silhouette of an F22 if I'm not mistaken.

Terribly sad news. Thoughts go to the family at this tragic time.

Adrian- That must have been such interesting work to do, I envy you. Are you still in aerospace? In my mind, I was cutting the Russians a little slack and thinking maybe they do come to the same designs independantly. But then, while I was researching Gen 6 and Gen 6 aircraft I came across this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_LMFS Look like anything familiar? Only a concept pic, obviously, I believe the actual proposal has forward canards, but still...

Adrian- I'm probably getting mixed up, but I thought I'd remembered the main stores bay being big enough for bomb racks and JDAMS on the YF22, but I'm happy to admit if I'm wrong. Probably didn't help that all the F22 simulators out in the 90's had you flying Air-to-ground missions too. These were Lightning IIs 9based on the YF22) and not Raptors. It may have been artistic licence from the game developers. I don't know, but I know that playing F22 Total Air War consumed more of my 20s then I care to admit publicly. I remember doing a mission in real time that required me to meet up with a tanker twice, once on the out leg and on the return. Searching for a KC135 at night, after 10 minutes of Betty calling out "Bingo fuel, bingo fuel," was enough to get the old ticker racing, nevermind actually merging with it and waiting to hear "fuel flows". I can see the argument for "best design practice" and as you say, things with similar roles have similar shapes, unless Burt Rutan is involved, in which case it will look nothing like you could even imagine. Sometimes, not even like a plane at all. I love the way he sees things. I think we may come to look at these Generation 5 aircraft with misty eyes one day, when our skies are filled with drones. Airshows are going to be weird.

That's an interesting point Woodenhead. The Americans have said the F22/F35 will be the last manned combat aircraft, what comes after will be unmanned combat drones. Indeed stealth cabability is geared mainly towards incursion into to enemy territory. I hadn't thought about the implications of why India would need that. I don't know if the PAK will have an air to ground mode, I know the F22 was originaly envisioned to be a mud mover, but it was then redesigned from the YF22 to the current air superiority fighter spec. It could probably end up being an air to ground platform, as they turned the F14's into Bombcats for the Gulf War. I imagine Pakistan aren't very happy about it.

Just to correct you there on an otherwise very informative post. The F22 can in fact tailslide also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=judo212eSA4 Also, the design fo the T-50 didn't start until 2002, it was the Mig 1.44 and the Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut that were the prototypes that preceeded it. Neither looked much like the F22, though the Berkut had a similar forward swept wing, as seen on the X-29.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14568093 I nearly spat my coffee when I saw the clip. So Sukoi sat down and said, "We going to make a stealth fighter." and someone else said, "What should it look like?" "Ooo, I don't know." said the first guy and another guy sniggered and said "Why don't we copy that?" and got out his Top Trumps Planes F22 card. Admitedly there are differences, the engines are much wider and although that version looks like it lacks any thrust vectoring, the actual engines, once developed probaby will have. It also looks bigger. I got to talking to one of my friends about this today and we couldn't decide if there was any sort of copywrite protection for military hardware. Knowing as I do, the Russians propensity of reverse engineering western technology. I site the B29/Tu-4 and the Rolls Royce Nene Jet engines we generously licensed to them, that they then RE'd into the the engine that powered the Mig15, which, if my knowledge of hisory prevails, was used against us in Korea. o.O Even Stalin is quoted as saying, "What fool will sell us his secrets?" Us, apparently.. You could argue that the Russians are just as technologicaly advanced as the rest of us, but I have trouble with that. If only because their SST the Tu144 looked rather like another "Speebird", their "Buran" Space Shuttle is, at a glance, a dead ringer and more reverse engineering with the Sidewinder/AA2 Atoll air to air missile. These are only a few cases, I admit, but two of them are arguably two of the greatest achievments of mankind. I'm not Russian bashing, I just think it's a really strange way of doing things. I'm sure we have reverse engineered things of our own and I'm probably just not aware of it. Apart from the Jerry Can of course...

Kickstart, that's a really usefull quote thank you. Just been to the site and it's opened my eyes to what recourse we have against these phone pests. I've got caller ID on my phone and quickly punch an unknown number into google if I don't recognise it. Most of the time they are listed as telespests. If I can't find a reference to the number online, I'll risk answering it, mainly because I'm in business and it doesn't help, if potential clients can't speak to you. o.O On the rare occasion I feel sporting, the girlfriend and I will come up with all sorts of mad things to say to them. One time, during a mobile phone hard sell and after the southern hemisphere sounding man had given his full spiel, my girlfriend said, "Oh I'm sorry, I can't use phones." When asked why, she said "Because I'm totaly deaf.." There was a long pause, before our caller said. "But you are using a phone now." "No," she said, "I'm not." He then said "Well what about your children? Can't they have a phone?" To which she answered, in an amazingly sorrorfull voice. "I c-can't have children..." and pretended to blub. He hung up. It makes you feel better for a bit, but after a few days, you go back to wanting to shoot them with a high powered rifle.

I completely agree, it's a lovely idea. Like you say, people are happy to fill the street for other reasons and there's more us of than there are of them. The problem is, the decent people aren't organised and connected enough to be able to bring something like that off. Added to that, is the genuine fear that castigating or approaching these thugs, would end in serious injury. Having just watched the footage of a young injured boy being robbed while the animals pretended to help him, I'm incensed with anger. If they choose to act like animals, maybe we should treat them as such. No, the humanist in me, tells me we have to be better than them, or we have no right to judge. I hear people calling for the army on the streets on my facebook and twitter and although I think it would have the desired affect, it would make us, at face value, just like Libya or Barhain or any of the other countries that we've tried to prevent soldiers being used against civilians. Once you start down that slippery path, liberty slips with you. This is almost a new phenomena, these are not riots, these are thieves and thugs on an unimpinged crime spree. Is this all it takes for certain people to fall into anarchy? Are those people existing in a state almost collapse? I don't buy the argument about lack of jobs, because Hull's unemployment is the highest in the country, according to a report last week and we're not pillaging. They are thieves and scumbags and not representative of the rest of their own communities and they were thieves and scumbags well before one of their own was killed for shooting a policeman. Here's hoping that tonight the streets stay quiet.

Well, you're not alone in not being able to sleep. I'm not especialy worried about my own city, Hull has its problems, but most of our underclass are too lazy to be that organised. Can't stop watching Sky news though, as I've got friends in all the cities so far affected. This feels like our own version of the Kristallnacht. My beloved country is burning and there's nothing I can do about it. Very sad.

My thoughts go out to those in London caught up in the madness. Hope it's over soon. Be safe.

I'm not sure if turning your hog into a motorcycle and scrapecar combination can be called handling. But it's one helluva cool clip. We'll still call them Hardly Movidsons though...

Heh, I have other things to do. Sorry I missed it.

The whole story is a hoax. Bet those people who felt superior, feel a bit silly now... BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14389430

Just to clarify, as there is some erroneous information posted here. At 16 you can ride a moped on a provisional licence after passing the CBT (DL196 certificate), this lasts for two years. There is no such thing as a provisional moped licence, it's a car licence. All car licences have moped entitlement. Full car licence holders need to validate the full moped licence by completing a CBT, if they passed after 1st Feb 2001, this means they can ride without L plates and carry a pillion. Ones that passed before 1st Feb 2001 don't need to. After 17, providing you have requested catagory A on your provisional licence, you can then ride up 125cc with a power output of no more than 11kw (approx 12bhp). Category A lasts for two years, after which you lose the entitlement, unless you have passed either of the two motorcycle tests. The motorcycle tests consist of the "light motorcycle test" A1, which is a full licence, but restricted on the power output of the bike you can ride. Up to 11kw. You can do the test on your own bike. The other option, if you are under 21, is the full motorcycle licence A. This allows you to ride a motorcycle up to 33bhp for two years, then it automaticaly turns into an unrestricted licence. If you are over 21, then you can do "Direct Access" test and which you are trained, usually on a 500cc (at least 35kw) motorcycle. Then you have an unrestricted licence. Hope this clarifies things. And if you want to know how I know this, I'm a fully qualified CBT1C and DAS instructor. (CBT1C allows me to train instructors) To answer some of the other points made on here. CBT saves lives. If you saw the ability of some of the 16 year olds I've instructed and then imagined them heading out on a brand new Peugeot Speedfighter, which can do 0-30 in a little under half a planck second, then it would make your skin itch. Even after 3 hours doing off road area work and then a two hour classroom lecture, some of them still don't grasp it. So I fail them and they have to come back for extra training. I know there are people alive today, that wouldn't be if they hadn't have spent a day with us learning the how to control a bike and be safe on the road. The amount of car drivers that came in for DAS courses who didn't even have the most basic grasp of road signage/markings/rules. Terrifying. Ask most of them what the right hand lane of a dual carridgway is actually for and they look at you blank... The government don't make a lot from CBTs, most of the money you pay is to the training school. We, in the industry, have been calling for years to have the CBT as a pre-requisite to having any type of licence. The roads can only be a safer place.

I have to wonder how much sympathy people would have if she wasn't a "talent" and instead lived next door and was breaking into your shed to nick your lawnmower. She had little respect for her fans anyway, judging by the way she treat them at gigs. The same outpouring of grief happened when Jacko passed. In the public's eye, he went from being the guy who climbed into bed with small boys, to the King Of Pop again. Why, because he could do the moonwalk? I don't feel any sympathy for Amy, I don't see it as a great loss. But I do feel for her family at this sad time for them. Now she's gone, maybe a more deserving talent will get a chance at the top, and won't use it as an exuse for excess and selfishness. She was a a terrible role model. I, like other on this forum have been in close proximity to hard drugs, due to being a musician. I've had close dealings with bands of which three out of the five members were "chasing the dragon" regularly. I've known people who would shoot speed and snort ketamin, but I've never been tempted myself. I lost one of my best mates to heroin addiction. He's not dead, but he's dead inside. It's easy to say no to drugs, I've managed it all my life. No one forces you to take class A substances, unless your kidnapped and sold to the sex trade. We all make choices in our lives, some good, some bad. But if you continously make wrong ones, even after everyone around you is trying to help you make right ones, then how can anyone sympathise. I certainly wouldn't expect or get any sympathy if I plowed my R1 into a wall at 180mph. But if I got a record deal...

That HST pic is ruddy marvellous. One of the best I've seen. Good work. Frooby