I’m going to call it right now. This ballista is a rather large, crimson-colored herring. We’re going to think it’ll do something. But it won’t do shit (or *might* injure a dragon) and will get roasted in dragon fire.

I totally understand the evolution of multi-role capabilities, and would say they go back well before the Hornet. You can make a case for WWII - just look at the development path of the Corsair - but certainly by Vietnam you had aircraft that were adept at both air-to-air and air-to-ground, such as the F-8 Crusader…

Interesting read. One thing that’s not really addressed, though. What’s leading to the decrease in range? Typically technology progresses toward more power and more efficiency. Is it just that Hornets, Superbugs and F-35s just can’t carry the same fuel load as an A-6, A-7 or F-14? Why has range not been prioritized in…

Broadly agree. I’d add two things:

I put a whole lot of this on manufacturers. About a year ago, I got a Honda Pilot. Color choices were abysmal, particularly if I wanted the lighter interior (Texas summers). I went with white.

I have a theory about yellow, if you want to avoid the taxi and/or school bus trap.

Or get draconian about enforcing carry-on size and gate-checking. Swear that every flight I’m on, at least a quarter of the people are trying to stuff friggin’ body bags up there.

Somewhere in the exurbs west of Houston back in 2002/2003. Was in a ‘95 Defender 90, which had a rather inaccurate fuel gauge. Driving in from Austin and instead of getting gas at one of the many massive stations along I-10 decided to get gas closer to my destination. So I exited, and drove, and drove, and...no gas…

Mini Countryman.

Test-driving a Mazda CX-9. Love the Miata, love the Mazda3, and when I was looking for something with three rows last summer, the CX-9 and all the reviews praising its handling got me excited.

The new Trek films do some playing with this (the opening shot of the Kelvin in the 2009 film, everything about Yorktown Station in ST: Beyond) thankfully.

Loved something I read in another article that kind of clicked the entire movie into place for me.

Huh. I actually rather like that new design. Evokes a Star Wars hyperspace thing to me.

I would have to nominate purple.

I have a theory about yellow (and other garish colors like orange or bright green). It CAN be awesome. But it has to be a sufficiently deep yellow. No pastel lemon yellow BS. And it has to be used on something small, or balanced with black elements.

Examples - Yellow Jeeps, LR Defenders with black soft tops, black…

OH! Another one. When you have a right turn that turns into its own protected lane, and someone stops anyway. Every damn time.

Oh man. So many ways.

Exactly this. And pulling with steady pressure instead of jerking. Don’t think a blanket would’ve done much to stop that chunk of wood (maybe pulled it down into the tailgate vs. window). But if it had given under a steady pull vs. jerk, totally different story.

From what I’ve read, the Russians have been using that airfield as well. And I’m going to guess we didn’t want to blow up any of their stuff. Which would mean a bit more than “hey, duck!” levels of warning.

Or there’s calculation going on. We warned the Russians, obviously within enough time for them to move people and any valuable stuff out of the area. I’m sure there’s no way whatsoever that the Russians would have told the Syrians.