Kiwi303

I'd guess Hobart being smaller and not so busy as a big mainland centre would have more expensive gas, so the airlines may just find carrying their return flight fuel along with them is just as cost effective. Economies of scale et al.

It looks like it wandered around a lot, burning off fuel?

I would have to go find the article again to confirm, But I am pretty sure it was the F35. I'm sure it said the F35 built-in system is equal to the Litening II system, which allowed the data generated by the pod to be used organicly by the host aircraft, or linked to a C3 asset, but not linked to another secondary network node like ground troops. That functionality came in on the Litening III, with the current state of the art being now the Litening IV.

No, I'm saying their network systems are obsolete already due to being frozen at a stage when only Hub-And-Spoke style comms links was expected to be used, while new networks are neural network type connections. New systems currently allow any unit to obtain any streamed data from any other unit. So a F16 with either the US SNIPER ER pod or the Isreali LIETENING IV pod can downlink data direct to units on the ground to allow them to maneuver tactically to engage enemy forces located using that data, while the older built in units the F35 has have to relay the data to a central comms clearing unit like an E3 or RIVET JOINT which would then forward on the datastream to the ground units.

The problem is that the built-in knicknacks were frozen for production, and won't be upgraded for a long time at current porjections. The F-35 sensors are equivalent to the Isreali Litening II pod, whereas the currently deployed model of Litening is now IV. One example of this is the design parameters were frozen before it was expected to be sharing info from airplanes to ground squads, so while the new pods and knicknacks can take data and relay direct to ground units, the F-35 needs a C3 communications bird in the air to recieve the datastream, and retransmit to ground units.

He's already southerly, South Africa not somewhere "opp norf" like the recent guy from Scotland. :)

Well, Flat-Pack gripens would be able to be put together in Aussie following a "Tab-A into Slot-B and affix Retainer Clip 43" approach. The problem with letting you Aussies try and put together something military in Aussie however means it would probably end up like the SH2 saga and you fellas will throw up your hands several years later and sell it on to us Kiwis for 1/12th the original price and we'd apply some #8 wire and get them going properly toot sweet! :P If you want them to work properly out of the box, better let the Swedes assemble them at home. ;) Besides with the Gripen, you have the option of out-of-the-box ASRAAM and Meotor support with a small-panel AESA version of the Eurofighter Typhoon radar. The Typhoons radar is based on an updated LPI version of Blue Vixen from the FRS.2 Sea Harrier with larger scanner/emitter panel, the Brits worked with the Swedes on an updated Blue Vixen unit with the original sized mechanically scanned panel converted for AESA to fit the Gripen. Since the RAAF already have the ASRAAM rather than the AIM-9 it would make sense to go with the unit already with working connectivity rather than adding more code to an already bloated flying MS-Windows style bloatware. I've read the ASRAAM can be radar cued to fire off bore rather than helmet cued. The computer takes the data of where the enemy is, sends the data to the missile, which launches and uses inertial guidance to fly blind until it is turned and aimed at the enemy where the seeker head can scan and lock. Same as the idea of using the helmet guidance, but just getting the data from a different source.

As I commented on HomeBuiltAirplanes, the designers seem to be applying the F4 "flying brick" Phantom approach to flight. I.E. Apply sufficient thrust to evade the laws of physics.

As I believe I have mentioned before, the Shenyang J-8B with modern avionics is really all NZ needs... Effectively a twin engined MIG-21 chassis with side intakes clearing room for a radar radome in the nose. Effectively a F/A-18 equivalent with a 2.4Mach top speed in an Interceptor A2A clean config rather than the F/A-18's 1.8Mach

Well, it is the Bears shooting a Man out the test capsule... the US did it the other way and had Men shooting Bears out of their test rigs. Part of the research for the B58 Hustler system included drugging man sized bears and strapping them into the ejection seat capsules the B58 was to use and poping them out in various ways, face first, arse first, sideways, etc. Then once that was all done they got put down and autopsied to see what happens internally

not with Satans brewing skills... it would make Budweisers from the states seem like good beer... as impossible as that seems.

I read that thread title as over Nigera.... I thought it was some 50's or 60's active service bomb-the-revolting-oter-tribesmen action. Wouldn't have surprised me to see former WW2 planes active in the Nigerian Air Force still then.

The early Great Wall utes were Nissan Navara D40 utes with new panelling. In fact you could unbolt Navara panels and bolt them on the GWs, they were so faithful with the licensed body the bolt holes were all in the same places. Not a copy as such, to make foreign cars in China to sell to the Chinese market, any foreign company must have a 51% Chinese owned subsidiary company with tech transfer and upskilling/training systems in place. Nissan and some other Chinese company have 49% and 51% respectively of Great Wall, which lets Nissan make and sell a quota of real Nissans in China. Part of their Tech Transfer was while Nissan made the D44 outside China, Great Wall made the D40 inside.

Gripen. Eurofighter a little more priceier but still less than the F35 and in current serial production ready to go. Not being updated constantly like Apple pushing iOS updates to your iPhones.

Can't be bothered about the chinese buying the tooling for last model overseas cars and building them in China... The Kenyans and some South Americans (Brazil? Venezuala?) did it with the Peugeot 504 which was made until 2002 in Kenya and some similar time in South America, despite stopping in the late 70's in France. As to dogs, I've tried it while in CQ, gamey, reminded me of venison, old chewy trophy buck flavour venison, but with a softer texture, more like normal supermarket beef texture with old stag flavour. Not a fan of gamey meats, prefer things a bit less sandpapery harsh on the tastebuds.

"This was a surprise display engine, the infamous P&W R-8720! A spoof of what a “Double Wasp Major” would look like, eight rows, each with seven cylinders. What would the racer look like? The sign says “P&W 5600 XBSAP”, a reference to there being 56 cylinders. The “XBSAP”?" http://www.enginehistory.org/Reno/Reno2013/Reno2013Pub.shtml googlefu to the win :P

The Hummer is actually Legit. DongFeng licenced the Hummer back before Tienanmen square and even through the US cut ties, Dongfeng already had all the tooling and details to carry on production alone. It's not a reverse engineered clone or cheap copy, but the real thing made on the real tooling for a real army, which just so it happens makes more in the down time between army contracts to sell for a bit of extra cash.

The Kaman Seasprites? Returned to Kaman by the RAN, bought by the RNZAF on behalf of the RNZN in 2013, expensive faulty Australian custom modifications junked and reliable standard systems installed instead, currently flying without problems. They got binned with only 1200 hours or so on the airframes after full strip and refurbish to 0 hours, the 5 RNZAF birds they are replacing (4 after a certain incident in bad weather at sea, I don't think that one ever came out of maintenance, might have become the parts bird and the parts bird shifted into the fleet.... ) have a LOT of hours on them now. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1304/S00386/seasprite-helicopter-project-approved.htm

Sounds like your experiences with the SH2... When you fellas gave up and sold off the SH2's for a song, Kiwi Air bought them up for pennies on the dollar and the RNZAF has them up to scratch, working fine and in the fleet. What's wrong with your Maintenance and Assembly crews? Can't they manage Tab-A into Slot-B and use M8 Nylock?

when everyone has the offswitch codes for everyone elses hardware, it suddenly becomes very sporting as the old steam gauge mk-1 eyeball aimed machine gun equipped prop planes with no electronics get rolled out of museum hangars to go fly once more. Welcome to the High Tech Cyber War :P where a low tech 1940's airplane is the weapon of choice :D lol

They've already hacked the US DOD/CIA and stolen the off-switch codes for the SuperHornets you guys fly! So why not? :P

There's the old story about the captured intact and flyable FW-190 being put through it's paces, flown off against other British planes, Supermarine was asked to send along a Spitfire to test against, the Spitfire at the time was expected to come in last since the current model of the time was getting a bit old (months is ancient in that war) but they cheated and sent the latest prototype of the next Mark they had developed. Which instead of coming last, trounced the rest, including the FW-190, and resulted in continuing orders for the Spitfire in the new configuration. I THINK that may have been the Mk IX.

Personally I think what would suit the RNZAF to bring it back to a combat capable force would be the latest model of the Chinese J8, fitted with the APG-66 radar the B model was designed around before Tianamian Square meant an embargo on military co-operation from the US. The APG-66 is still made, in the latest and greatest upgraded models, for new build F16s et al. Fit a dual mode Sea/Air search mode and you have an aircraft with similar performance to the legacy F/A-18 C/D models. Slightly faster and longer ranged in Air-to-Air mode, similar bomb weight in Air-to-Ground. Fit it for Meteor and ASRAAM plus Brinstone and a Paveway pod and it will do what we need a plane for. MUCH cheaper than American fighters, through fitting an American radar and combat system will bring the cost up. It may not match the likes of the F-22, but for anything liable to head towards NZ, it's quite capable of hauling a pair of Harpoons or a quad of Naval Strike Missiles out to meet them half way. As well as being a cheap bomb truck for the likes of post-air-superiority-attained operations.

I cheated... Dropbox can be cut n pasted to display images without downloading.

just a wild ass guess, but could be the local volunteer ambulance somewhere rural and the heli was just to cover the distance to the city hospital instead of an hour plus on the road. Happens here in places like East Cape and the Coromandel, or the Taharoa ironsands operation. Local ambo gets there, stabilises them while the heli takes it's time getting out and ferries them back rather than the journey over the hills and windy narrow roads. The ambo then just has to make the short trip back to base to clean and restock, rather than another hour or so plus back over the hills and twisties home.