Forum: Off-topic

Because an A1-D can crash into a P-51 while up in the air and tear the Mustang apart, and the A1-D can lose nearly half its wing while doing it, but still land safely. Who needs stealth technology and 5-generation engineering when you got an airplane like that? Could an F-35 do that? Hell no.

Vote: Team Spad

Bronc

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yup ... move it to some other section.

It's seems to me that a few years back there was lots of talk about buying COIN aircraft, after all, why do we need a Super Hornet or even an F-16 to put a bomb or two on a mud compound? Somehow, the whole idea got thoroughly quashed. I thought it was an interesting idea, certainly worth testing out.

Here's an interesting article on the subject: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/ira ... aft-03281/

I can't wait to try to test your theory and see the AD-1 get shotdown by AK-47s and technicals.

svenphantom wrote:

I can't wait to try to test your theory and see the AD-1 get shotdown by AK-47s and technicals.

It's always painfully obvious who the twenty and thirty somethings are on the internet... The A1-D "theory" has already been tested--for well over a decade--a whole bunch of dead NVA regulars and Vietcong tested that theory real well....

Bronc

I've had my rants about the F-35 program, but this has grown tiresome... Ban

stereospace wrote:

It's seems to me that a few years back there was lots of talk about buying COIN aircraft, after all, why do we need a Super Hornet or even an F-16 to put a bomb or two on a mud compound?

You bet. The guys on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan have been begging for a COIN aircraft and would be tickled pink to have the A1-D. Given the realities of the world, and the future world, an F-35 can't do nothing an A1-D can't do better.

Bronc

1st503rdsgt wrote:

...but this has grown tiresome...

Why? Because no logical argument exists to counter such a wildly absurd premise? But that could only mean one thing: We need the F-35 A/B/C/D like we need 5th-Gen stealth locomotives to pull coal trains.

Bronc

The jet age did not make the skyraider obsolete, the Apache did. If you need rockets and lead...get a chopper. If you want to vaporize acres of hostile activity, in short order, get a F-35 with external loadout.

LMAggie wrote:

The jet age did not make the skyraider obsolete, the Apache did. If you need rockets and lead...get a chopper..

Yeah...except that's nonsense. An Apache can't loiter over the battlefield for 10 freakin' hours while carrying twice the bomb load of a B-17, plus rockets and four 20mm cannon. By the way, the F-35 can't do that either...

Bronc

broncazonk wrote:

stereospace wrote:

It's seems to me that a few years back there was lots of talk about buying COIN aircraft, after all, why do we need a Super Hornet or even an F-16 to put a bomb or two on a mud compound?

You bet. The guys on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan have been begging for a COIN aircraft and would be tickled pink to have the A1-D. Given the realities of the world, and the future world, an F-35 can't do nothing an A1-D can't do better.

Bronc

I'm a ground pounder, and I would be humiliated to be covered by this aircraft in a modern war (maybe we could kill the Chinese with laughter). Between the A-10, helicopter gunships, and swarms of armed drones, we already have PLENTY of COIN aircraft, and it's actually becoming a problem.

When these wars are over, we will be left with piles hardware (eg. drones and MRAPs) that we built for fighting poorly armed insurgents... all of it useless for fighting a real war, which will be more likely because no one is intimidated or deterred by prop driven RC toys or Wells Fargo trucks on lift kits.

broncazonk wrote:

stereospace wrote:

It's seems to me that a few years back there was lots of talk about buying COIN aircraft, after all, why do we need a Super Hornet or even an F-16 to put a bomb or two on a mud compound?

You bet. The guys on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan have been begging for a COIN aircraft and would be tickled pink to have the A1-D. Given the realities of the world, and the future world, an F-35 can't do nothing an A1-D can't do better.

Bronc

Ever hear of a plane called the A-10 Thunderbolt II?

There's also the little problem of where to find the ultra refined avgas that you need to run that R3350 at high power settings in theater. There's a reason why the USAF is spending tons of money to find a way to get Predator-A's to run on diesel or JP-8. By the time it gets to the aircraft in Afghanistan, 100LL costs upwards of $60 a gallon, and good luck trying to pull enough power from that radial with that low octane of fuel for very long...

broncazonk wrote:

LMAggie wrote:

The jet age did not make the skyraider obsolete, the Apache did. If you need rockets and lead...get a chopper..

Yeah...except that's nonsense. An Apache can't loiter over the battlefield for 10 freakin' hours while carrying twice the bomb load of a B-17, plus rockets and four 20mm cannon. By the way, the F-35 can't do that either...

Bronc

Apaches have the use of FARPs which can keep the Apaches in the fight for as long as needed. They also have the ability to put a Hellfire missile down some insurgents throat. Can a B-17 do that? No!

Avgas storage is also an issue. What about a turboprop?

Forum: Off-topic

Why the A1-D is better than the F-35...