First images of China's J-20 Stealth Fighter.
Ok, hands up, who was expecting it to be an exact copy of the American F-22?
Right down to the empty Coke can beneath the pilot's seat.
Those people gathered around the plane look bored. I can tell boredom when I see it. I see it a lot when I talk to people.
Ok, hands up, who was expecting it to be an exact copy of the American F-22?
Right down to the empty Coke can beneath the pilot's seat.
Those people gathered around the plane look bored. I can tell boredom when I see it. I see it a lot when I talk to people.
They're probably all thinking "They said it would be invisible".
I remember once trying to explain the F-117A to my Gran. Wait, this post is very geeky all of a sudden. Is it getting hot in here?
Anyway, she was watching the news and footage of the Stealth fighter in the Gulf war came on the telly. The announcer mentioned that it was radar-invisible and my Gran immediately came out with "But I can see it! That's not invisible".
I then spent a good 20 minutes trying to explain that she doesn't see with her radar, before I stormed out to have a breakdown in the bathroom.
There was a rumour a few years ago that an F-117A became radar-visible during an airshow visit in the UK. Apparently a build-up of water droplets, drizzle or "normal weather" as we like to call it in the UK, on the plane's surface allowed it to be detected by radar. The legend has it that the ground control and the plane's pilot had a disagreement over whether he was invisible or not.
This is all rumour and hearsay, so it fits in nicely with Stealth technology, which is after all wrapped up in strange rumours about UFO's, illegal test flights and out and out lies.
Frankly, if drizzle can make a Stealth plane visible, then no plane, Chinese or American stands a chance of invisibly attacking the UK. We'll see them coming before they even hit France. Of course we have no planes to shoot them down with. We'll just have to throw rocks and sharp sticks at them until they go away.
I remember once trying to explain the F-117A to my Gran. Wait, this post is very geeky all of a sudden. Is it getting hot in here?
Anyway, she was watching the news and footage of the Stealth fighter in the Gulf war came on the telly. The announcer mentioned that it was radar-invisible and my Gran immediately came out with "But I can see it! That's not invisible".
I then spent a good 20 minutes trying to explain that she doesn't see with her radar, before I stormed out to have a breakdown in the bathroom.
There was a rumour a few years ago that an F-117A became radar-visible during an airshow visit in the UK. Apparently a build-up of water droplets, drizzle or "normal weather" as we like to call it in the UK, on the plane's surface allowed it to be detected by radar. The legend has it that the ground control and the plane's pilot had a disagreement over whether he was invisible or not.
This is all rumour and hearsay, so it fits in nicely with Stealth technology, which is after all wrapped up in strange rumours about UFO's, illegal test flights and out and out lies.
Frankly, if drizzle can make a Stealth plane visible, then no plane, Chinese or American stands a chance of invisibly attacking the UK. We'll see them coming before they even hit France. Of course we have no planes to shoot them down with. We'll just have to throw rocks and sharp sticks at them until they go away.
The best plane the the UK ever had was the Harrier. That was the plane that could stop in mid-flight and hover. Built mainly because the pilots, like all Brits abroad, get lost and have to stop and ask for directions.
We have the new "Euro Fighter", now though. Called that not because it is to be used throughout Europe, but because it cost a heck of a lot of money to make. Frankly with the cost of each of those fighter planes, it would be cheaper to bribe the enemy pilots to crash.
"Incoming enemy aircraft. A single Euro Fighter costs us $122 million to buy, so before we scramble some to intercept you, we'd like to make you an offer. We'll give you $30 million to eject and crash your plane"
"Err, roger that tower....."
When asked about the new Chinese fighter jet, Marine Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Associated Press;
"It is not of concern that they are working on a fifth-generation fighter," since the Chinese are "still having difficulties with their fourth-generation fighter,".
Ouch! No need to get bitchy.
We have the new "Euro Fighter", now though. Called that not because it is to be used throughout Europe, but because it cost a heck of a lot of money to make. Frankly with the cost of each of those fighter planes, it would be cheaper to bribe the enemy pilots to crash.
"Incoming enemy aircraft. A single Euro Fighter costs us $122 million to buy, so before we scramble some to intercept you, we'd like to make you an offer. We'll give you $30 million to eject and crash your plane"
"Err, roger that tower....."
When asked about the new Chinese fighter jet, Marine Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Associated Press;
"It is not of concern that they are working on a fifth-generation fighter," since the Chinese are "still having difficulties with their fourth-generation fighter,".
Ouch! No need to get bitchy.
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