Robin Hood wrote:Londonrake wrote:Pyrpolizer wrote: Russia can produce better war planes than the US at 1/10th of the price.
China itself has more industrial output than the US and EU combined!
Sticking my neck out here.
Do you truly believe that?
If you consider the statement in a broader sense it is probably true!
The sophistication in US military aircraft is extremely expensive. I read somewhere that the helmet alone for an F-35 pilot costs $500K. When the US sells these aircraft outside the US a lot of this does not come as part of the package, so the specified capability will be downgraded.
The Russian military aircraft are designed for rough airfields and for use where quite often there is no ground back-up. So rather than ‘
fly-by-wire’ like US aircraft, the Russians are flown by ‘
the seat-of-the-pants’ type pilots.
As I have said to Paphitis, once a modern pilot loses all the sophisticated electronics designed to take the load off the pilot and they are suddenly faced with blank screens and a lot of flashing warning lights …… they are ‘f*****d’! Pilots of Russian jets drop down to road level and fly by road signs and the Mk.1 eyeball.
Did you know only Russian helicopters are fitted with ejection seats for the crew …….and
NO, they do not eject vertically into the rotors!
The helmet of the F-35 is over $1 million, and it isn't just a helmet. The entire HUD is displayed through the helmet no matter where the pilot is looking, and is highly configurable to display any flight or mission critical information to the pilot and is even used for target acquisition. It's worth $1 million, because it is actually worth it with all the tech built in, designed to give the pilot the upper hand.
Apache Pilots have been using these helmets for years as well. So the technology isn't exactly new, but without doubt, the F-35 helmet will be more cutting edge. This cutting edge tech will also filter through to the Apache and other types.
All this stuff does come as part of the package. At least the British, and Australian F-35s do anyway and I would say it will be part of the package for all NATO members who are F-35 partner nations. Partner Nations are actually involved with the design, and even involved with the construction of the F-35. Some parts of the F-35 are manufactured in Australia for instance, the UK is involved with the design and manufacture of other components and so on and so on. All the reports from the British, Australians and Israelis who are already flying F-35 is that the F-35 is a game changer. There are no negative reports other than random software glitches early on in the testing phases which are always expected with tech so advanced, but all issues as far as I know and we all know is that they are just random bug fixes not design faults. Every new plane has had them - from the F-16 to the F-15, F-18 and everything else since.
The same thing will occur with the eventual design and construction of the new AUKUS Submarines. Billions will be spent and when the first one goes to sea trials, there will be reports of massive failures and issues and it will take months, to iron out.
And aside from the F-22, which has a primary strike capability, the F-35 is cutting edge and superior to anything Ruzzia has at present and by a long margin.
The West has many aircraft that are far superior to Ruzzian aircraft - F-35, F-18, EW-18 Growler, Typhoon, Eurofighter. Rafale, SAAB Grippen are all cutting edge and will demolish any Ruzzian Aircraft. It simply just wouldn't be a contest. So it isn't just the Yanks, but the Europeans are churning out some cutting edge aircraft in their own right and which are at the very least arguably just as good.
So it isn't just the F-35 Ruzzia must worry about.
And no, pilots are not fucked when things break down. There is so much redundancy built in that the chances are practically zero for starters, but all pilots are trained with limited panel flight data just in case. Each time we go to the sim, we do about 6 Take offs and Aprroaches, 5 of which are with one engine out, and about 10 v1 cuts, at least 1 is on limited panel, and all in 0 visibility.
Limited Panel means flying on the gyros - everything else is failed or switched off to simulate BUS1, and BUS2 failures. Every pilit has been trained on the 6 pack gyro Flight Instrument Panels, and from their they will even fail the everything except for your Artificial Horizon and Direction Gyro. All these exercices are designed to overload the workload of the crew to see how the crew implements their flight FCOM Flight Procedures in highly stressful situations. Not fun, but there is a good sense of accomplishment afterwards, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the door opens and you walk the gangway out of the complex for a beer.
The only variation you get if you breeze through it, and believe me, it's not easy to breeze through it and even the best veteran pilots can struggle, but you may get an engine fire, dpressururized cabin, and emergency descent from about 35000 feet.
That's how the training and checking is. It's repetitive over and over until everything is etched into your brain and you forget nothing even to the day you gop to the grave.
And if you fail just one, you fail your check and have to repeat. Fail again, and you go back to Ground Training or get sacked.
- you have always posted interesting stuff.
