Steve Davies

Clearly the former in this case, seeing as how he took off and landed the jet (probably just to demo how to do it for the pilot):

Your sarcasm notwithstanding, the fact that the trespassers had to tell they guards that they were trespassing before they were apprehended is more noteworthy (and newsworthy) than a bunch of conspiracy theorists getting arrested (which happens much more often).

If I were you lot, I'd be more interested in establishing the veracity of this statement.

Got it.

BONE?

Not necessarily. Articles and determiners should not be capitalised when creating an acronym. G-LOC should therefore be written G-LoC. While the former appears to be the generally accepted way of writing it, it's incorrect from a prescriptive grammarian's perspective. I therefore submit to you that BQZip was not extra wrong, but only 2/3rds extra wrong.

"Dozer"

Damn. Here's to you, R.

Thanks for the feedback. The Nellis link doesn't mention that "Evil" Peck's own book on the subject has just come out: America's Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project CONSTANT PEG It's getting mixed reviews, mostly because the publisher has clearly not given Evil any editorial input. However, I have read it and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the story - it gives a much bigger voice to the enlisted guys than my book did, and there are some nice anecdotal gems in there, too.

The SAS (and other British special operations types, presumably) have for a number of years been required to sign a contract that explicitly prohibits them from publishing books once they leave. This followed a spate of books written after Gulf War I. Interesting to read the Admiral saying that these guys have a right to write about their adventures, therefore.I'd have thought that the US would have had pretty much the same controls in place.

Turkey is now admitting the incursion.

Syria now reporting that the F-4 was downed 0.6 miles from their coastline. Turkey is not so far contesting that... BBC linky. It was going in the wrong direction to defect - came in from the west. Syria said it was very low and fast.

From the Beeb:

You guys have flown MiGs that were acquired in much worse shape.

So did anyone get disciplined for releasing that photo?

The logic makes sense, Nunya - I suppose that I am just surprised that since the USAF took over operational control of The 'Heath in 1948, they'd have solid relationships with just about every man and his dog by now. I am obviously oversimplifying things, though.

^ Nicely done. Shame that she's being penalised. Someone should tell the Air Force that we do have hospitals here.

Out of interest, why does anyone need "medical clearance" to come to the UK?

Even after the dust settled, the Air Force still fucked him. PM me if you want his contact details.

From the article: Well, what does that tell you? a) That the course was deliberately provocative and that most attendees saw it for what it was? b) That they are genuinely concerned about the spread of Islam? c) Or that they are warmongering bigots who do seriously want to nuke Meca? d) None of the above

If they're protected by the Military Whistleblower covenant (or whatever it's called), and senior AF leaders have let it be know that they should not be punished, then how is it that the LOR and FEB came about?

Crosswind Thanks for the compliments on the book. Glad that you're enjoying it (so far!). My reference to 20 years was, as you point out, incorrect. From memory, I had 1972 in my head for Eagle IOC, whereas this was of course the year of the first flight. My bad. Let's just say then, they had fatigue data stretching back to 1972 - probably enough for them to work with. I'm no engineer, so I can't answer your specific questions about the robustness of their simulations, but they did use an Iron Bird simulator for extended lifecycle testing of the flight controls and hydraulic systems. It maybe that their Iron Bird also had a hydraulic load testing function. I don't know. Ref. comparison with the loads experienced by the Eagle fleet, McAir factored in a much more demanding set of criteria - namely that the Strike Eagle would spend much, much more time in the denser, more turbulent air of the low-level environment. I don't have the data for what percentage of time it would spend there, but given that it was to replace the F-111F and was designed specifically for the Fulda Gap scenario, I'd hazard a guess at "the majority" of time. Again, not an Engineer, so cannot comment on which variables that had an impact on, but they certainly weren't planning for the E-model to be spending time at medium-altitude delivering PGMs from relatively sedate delivery profiles. Since that's exactly what the Strike Eagle has been doing since Desert Storm (with some noteable exceptions), I'd take a wild guess that even if McAir's original engineering calculations were out by 10 per cent, the actual *structural* fatigue life of the Strike Eagle fleet is probably better at this point in time than originally forecast.

Nice.

I'm sure he'll enjoy his stay here during the Olympics.

No, the Strike Eagle was always intended to have a 16,000-hour fatigue life, even before it had won the DRF competition. I think that the study you refer to occurred prior to the competition, when McAir already knew that the NACA 64A aerofoil section used in the Eagle was good for 8,000 hours and used almost two decade's worth of fatigue data from the F-15A to predict that it was good for double that. They therefore left it untouched. The F-15E fuselage, however, was specifically designed to meet the 16k requirement. Again, they had the fatigue data from almost 20 years' worth of Eagle operational flying, so they knew what they needed to change and what they could leave untouched in order to satisfy the 16k milestone. In the end, the focused on the rear fuselage keel, and developed new manufacturing techniques for titanium - "Superplastic Formed (SPF) Diffusion Bonding (DB)", otherwise known as "BLATS" (built-up, low-cost advanced titanium structure). They also thickened the bulkheads compared to the Eagle.