The circa 2008 diesel emissions laws make a significant difference with diesel mpg numbers. The need for frequent scr regen cycles after that point basically leads to dumping large quantities of fuel into the exhaust to burn pff the contaminants that the scr collects, causing fuel economy to plummet.

I see that there are a lot of people complaining about the price tag on this project and others like it. While I’m not shocked by the cost, nor do I want to shy away from building it because of that (the B-52s can only fly for so long), I do realize that these costs have just gotten absolutely crazy over time.

I…

I stand corrected. I thought the Allison was in the -b as well. There were sub versions of the -d with only 4.x .50 cal as well as they were tailored to particular missions later on. I was always more enamored of the later twin mustang myself.

The -d was a bubble canopy and a new engine removed from the -b. This is fundamentally a new design with different overall dimensions with a different skin, engines, cockpit, electronics suite and bomb bay arrangement. The only thing in common with the B2 is the general shape and probably the general aeeodynamic…

Possibly a shitty render, or they’ve taken exgaust diffusion to the next level and spread it out over a good bit of the trailing edge.

Except, when you account for all the new R&D, amortize that over a small number of frames, include the now higher cost of all the new electronic goodies, newer, more expensive engines, and now required greater crew safety standards, each of these bombers will likely cost north of $1 billion and likely be no more…

The problem here is obviously one of expense to operate. The A-10 is consuming more and more man hours of maintenance as it ages, and it’s lugging around a VW Beetle worth of weight that it just doesn’t need in its current mission. The terrorists that we’re hunting down aren’t normally driving APCs or light tanks,…

I agree on both points.

People here are missing the big point here, they now offer a V6 version for fuel cost conscious fleet purchasers. If they can score a few big orders in the fleet market, they can make enough volume to support the rest of the line and actually afford to reinvest in improvements. This was a major issue for the 1st gen…

COTD is not good enough for this. I do hereby declare that this is the quote of the month!

I’ve been in IT for decades now and lifecycle managed hundreds and hundreds of laptops for a myriad of different users. There are three types of laptop users in my experience: Casual users that do just the bare minimum on a laptop and use it more for light entertainment and productivity, dedicated users that basically…

Lol, certainly! Just not so good for air to air, and ammo is rather limited...

Not really the Phoenix... What would be more ideal would be an AIM-120D mounted to the front of a RAM-jet/Scram jet or rocket propelled boost section. The problem is, when you’re queuing and calling missiles from 50+ miles behind you to strike a target that’s 100+ miles in front of you, it’s got to cover 150 miles in…

The 747-8i makes a perfect, massive platform. Honestly, it’s almost a no-brainer to use it. They are developing IFR for the two they are making for the replacements for air force one,so that part’s already done. They’re doing a massive communications suite for that as well, so a lot of that will already have a lot of…

There really is only one answer...

See, now this is the kind of solution to the problem that I can get behind... er, to the side of. Don’t want to be anywhere near the back of that thing when it lights off...

Wow, I don’t have enough kleenex for that...

Meh, I was underwhelmed with that engine until its final version. Port Fuel injection was the best thing that ever happened to that engine. Properly tuned and it would pull stumps all day, and not some puny tallow tree stumps, no, redwood stumps! ;)

I largely agree, once the F-35 is finally sorted out, it will be a better platform for MOST tasks than a silent eagle. My point is that, in volume, the F-15 will have a lower per unit cost than the F-35. It won’t be by a wide margin at all though, and for the difference in price, I’d rather have F-35s. The case can…

Only in small numbers. If we ordered up 100 of them, there are a lot more to spread development costs over. While I’m not in favor of the US actually buying any, the SA and Silent Eagle models are a significant upgrade over the existing A B C and D models we have.