Clark Griswold

Because I was inverted... http://alert5.com/2017/06/30/f-35c-fires-aim-9x-while-inverted/

Yes and Hell Yes to flying. Despite the bullshit of being a part of any large organization (public or private), it is a unique challenge, personally and professionally rewarding and a chance to be part of something occasionally historic and always important. Would do it all over again. Pitfalls as a young officer (somewhat generic but my two cents looking back): - Alcohol Related Incidents. Enjoy but be aware of your limits and/or surroundings. Not to be condescending or cheesy but stupid shit does happen in the bar on Friday and on the road. Newbies sometimes feel a need to prove their bravado and limits are exceeded with damage to egos, reputations, friendships, faces and careers. - Realistic significant others (if you are single). Just a quick count but I can think of several buds (male & female) who got divorced about 3 years into their flying careers due to the lifestyle and requirements due to a military flying career (work hours, last minute schedule changes, TDYs, non-vol assignments, etc...) - Blue Kool Aid. The company line will be emphasized a lot and most of the time it is like the repetitive commercials on AFN, harmless but somewhat annoying. Take it with a grain of salt, don't be naive but don't be cynical, find some mixture of the two that suits you. - Career Priority Indecision. Towards the end of your second tour, the end of your youth as an AF officer, you'll need to decide the red pill or the blue pill. Operationally focused, Military career focused, Transition to the ARC or the road not taken... That is not to say I think you have to have it all figured out and/or if something changes (lifestyle, personal choices, new opportunities, etc..) but have a rough idea figured out of what you want, one more time - what you want, so you can work towards it and make the case to the AF that they should help you do that. Wisdom: Work hard, keep the end goal in mind, don't sweat the details until it is time to sweat the details, recognize nothing goes exactly to plan ever and always remember what you have already accomplished. I am in no way 100% in compliance with said advice but I try to remember that which was passed to me by smarter men.

Future scenario with DE use envisioned via datalink cue at the 2:30:00 mark... For the first generation DE aircraft mounted weapons, build a multi-engine attack aircraft with payload bay either around a tactical laser system or built with it in mind at least (power / cooling / targeting) readily available Two engines for the power generation, recessed bay for at least a reduced signature until your ready to deploy the laser turret and give the target some love. Resurrecting the Flying Dorito (A-12) would be an ideal platform IMO, designed with two weapons bays, one could hold the laser system, other for PGM / Defensive AAMs

About as practical

This could also go in the WTF? thread... Giant Soviet six rotor SA-2 launching helicopter... https://medium.com/war-is-boring/this-monstrous-soviet-missile-helicopter-would-have-been-a-flying-nightmare-1693f03369be

NASA program - too good for a civilian controlled program with military application - gobbled up by DoD to prevent inadvertent data dissemination That would be my guess - no first hand knowledge

This is the problem now with our most basic way of organizing our branches of the military by domains, everybody's mission(s) overlap into someone else's domains at least a little bit and lot sometimes. Domain(s) are probably past their time in the way we organize and assign forces/missions. I would say reorganize more on the way you carry out operations or the type of operations: conventional / special / strategic / hybrid. Conventional - traditional kill people and break things with kinetic energy / explosive force and soon directed energy in mass and overt formations. Special - focused kill people and break things with aforementioned means but in small(er) units, clandestine methods typically and executed from different political circumstances or authorizations (often). Strategic - usually and hopefully only promising to kill people and break things with nuclear weapons, monitoring from space the threat of attack with nuclear weapons and I would add now monitoring for major or national security threat level cyber attack and responding in kind or in defense. Hybrid - light(er) conventional military capability usually done for humanitarian / stabilization or for LE support.

Next Gen Helicopter: http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/g2988/bell-concept-helicopter/

I'll commit to IDK... seems tempting but is it analogous that the "Air" Force which currently has the majority of military space assets is not investing / exploiting space to its fullest extent for military purposes in power projection for the US as the US Army was judged to be immediately after WWII thus beginning our existence as a separate service? I would argue that Space is not to be separated from the Air Force but the Air Force needs to become the US Air & Space Force.

Agreed and those were interesting programs/ideas, good stuff either gets built or the LL get rolled into another program(s). Another pic of this concept: Would need to "smoothed" out and joined for one continuous edge from fuselage to wing tip.

Why the hell did the guy filming think the Class C accident happening right in front of him was less important than a routine takeoff?

Not to mention at probably 15% per flight hour cost and the logistical / security costs of parking a T-bird configured F-35s while out on the road. T-X T-birds would likely have a much lower logistical footprint. Bar napkin math but 8 pilots flying 750 hours a year (WAG) in T-bird F-35s @ $30k an hour comes to $180 million but in a T-X @ 5k an hour comes to 30 million, 150 million in savings, real money even for the AF.

Unclass footage released

Copy all It could do the job but damn that is one expensive show... not sure what the requirement per hour max cost for the T-X is but probably around 1/5th (or less) of what a 35 will cost per flight hour of rage.

This. Question (not just for CH) but has it ever been discussed to go back to 38s or ideally whichever jet is picked in the T-X competition? New jets, lower operational costs, all are two seaters, etc...

Copy that NG proposed design and article on 6 gen Fat and flat is the new hotness Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Add ons, more 5+ / 6 gen vaporware but plausible:

Early Gripen design:

Demo at Paris Air Show: Luke F-35s flying again also: https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/luke-air-force-base-to-resume-f-35-flight-ops-after-oxygen-deprivation-incidents

Excellent. Someone at LM leaned the ABC's... Keep closing multi-year sales and keep dropping that price, particularly for the A model. Still want other partners (sts) and just my two cents, but coaxing Germany & Poland into the club are the Glen Gary leads. That could be another 150+ aircraft and would give the Ruskies something to worry about.

Yup, well said. The test pilot (Kurt Schroeder) said pretty much the same thing. Good technology but not needed. Presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOmvrk3LPGc FSW research accomplished its goal, proved it was viable / gathered data, but FSW deployment became unnecessary due to advances in other areas / change in the operational environment. Still an interesting concept and with its low speed capability, surprised it was never proposed for carrier aircraft. But ask and Google sometimes provides interesting vaporware...

Yup Watched a presentation on FSW / X-29 from one of the retired test pilots - he addressed that a little and thought / said LO and FSW probably didn't work together Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Heaven has a new pledge... RIP Flounder.

FSW F-35 vaporware

How Trump Can Fix The F-35 Fighter Program Without Hurting American Warfighters, Workers Or Allies https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2016/12/20/how-trump-can-fix-the-f-35-fighter-program-without-hurting-american-warfighters-workers-or-allies/#35690e5a59d8 Take with a grain of salt but some decent suggestions for cost savings

Inevitable that some part of operations / combat become fully autonomous (once released for the mission). On the topic of concept RPAs / UAVs...vaporware but a reasonable extrapolation of the MQ-1/9/X series...