Weis and Hickman’s Dragonlance novels were some of my favorites as a young teen super into fantasy novels. I had no idea they were connected to a roleplaying game. I did eventually find my way to roleplaying (and then LARPing), but it never became part of my life the way that reading fantasy novels were. I was way…

Pretty damn boss article Cecilia, like one that would be at the end of a dungeon or something.

I think all that “devil worship” mass hysteria stuff from the 80's really made D&D conservative. It took most of the sex and “questionable” content out of circulation. Hell, RPGA (as of my last encounter with it) didn’t even…

But it did start Tom Hank’s movie career. Knowing this movie exists really makes me want to see Tom Hanks play an actual game of D&D.

Yeah, I think the main (aerodynamic) advantage, possibly the only aero advantage, the F-22 has would be the ability to carry the AMRAAMs or the 9Xs internally. So the real world capability is really pretty good compared to a Starfighter that has to drag along its Sparrows or 9Ls. In any event, still like the…

Flying most of military aircraft has to be boring. I mean, it’s only in the movies like Top Gun that we see some crazy ass fighter jet action. In reality, the US Air force is primarily used as a truck for the army equipment, and as a bomber.

They don’t need to get anywhere near the enemy air defenses. The missiles that Tu-95 can launch are rumored to have 2000-3000km range.

You could say the same thing about a B52. These things don’t get used in anger until the enemy’s air defense is completely degraded.

You got the shot that has the close-up of the Russian tail gunner smiling at the camera?

Yes! The F-14 fit that really well.

“The Russian Bear has been probing not only American, but NATO and Japanese air defenses as well for decades. Its shape is unmistakable with huge swept wings, a protruding refueling probe over the nose, and its four large and loud NK-12 engines attached to two four-blade contra-rotating propellers.”

The B-29 was a space ship compared to other WWII planes though. Pressurized cabin and remote operated gun turrets were unheard of at the time. Give it swept wings and some jet engines and it’s basically a small B-52.

I got to fly an F-16 simulator once, at an Air Force base. The graphics were meh, but I was sitting in an actual F-16 cockpit! They put me up against a Bear. I shot him down like THAT.

It also had a slightly lower bomb capacity than the B-29 due to the thicker sheet-metal used to build the Tu-4.

Flying a Bear must, must be brain-damage boring to hell. Hauling diapers in a semi truck is more fun. Manning the order window at a drive-in burger joint is more fun.

Just like the good bad old days...

Fun fact, the fuselage is based on the older TU-4, which was a part for part clone of a B-29 that made an emergency landing in the Soviet Union.

The RAF has a Chinook (CH-47) which was heavily damaged in a crash, so they used the rear end of another, which had been captured from Argentina during the Falklands war, to rebuild it. (linky)

Two WW2 mixups: A B-24 with a B-17 nose, and a captured Spitfire with a Daimler-Benz engine.