Bigger than Yoda? No, she hasn’t spent enough time on screen. Which said, I disagree that she served no purpose. True, parts of her sequences could have been written around her, but the character, as written, was compelling, IMHO, and done well (in voice and mocap) by Ms Nyong’o. Maz is a cipher: she’s been around a…

“And they do nothing with it.”

That trailer was for ST-III. ST-IV didn’t see an Enterprise at all until the intro of the -A in the last few minutes.

Interesting thought. The F414 runs the same dimensions as the F404s that powered the Rafale A demonstrator, which was subsequently used to test an M88 alongside an F404. However, service ceiling is determined not by power but by engine spec and air flow/density. The M88, F404, and F414 are all low-bypass turbofans. By…

Agreed, I find myself getting excited after watching that... and Affleck does a pretty good bat-voice, no glass-gargling required!

A poor man’s A-10... or a Spad for the 21st century, perhaps?

I’ve loved the look of the Rafale all the way back to the ‘A’, and I’ve never thought of any Dassault product as a ‘muscle’ plane (although the Mirage 4000 could’ve been), but for the first time watching this GIF, I thought, “This plane’s a beast!”

Not as Earth-shattering, but potentially a lot of good character moments:

Sure, play right into their apocalyptic ideology and create a few hundred thousand martyrs in the process, not to mention all the other bonuses that come with a nuclear detonation, like a drifting radiation cloud in a region where the west has damned few friends as it is. Great thinking, what could possibly go…

As of today, Canadian strikes are still ongoing. Policy (supported by the electorate in the recent election) is to end them, but said policy hasn’t yet been implemented. Seems our PM and his defence minister understand you don’t just pull out unilaterally without making sure you don’t leave a gap in capability.

The Russians refer to them as “detents”, small plates that extend and operate as wheel blocks while the engines spool up, first appearing on the Kuznetzov (and, later, on Varyag/Liaoning). They raised an eyebrow or two among western analysts for being a simple, low tech solution to aircraft restraint pre-launch.

I suspect that he will end up reselecting the F-35 if the assessment process is fair if it manages to live up to any of the brochure hype in this decade...

And IIRC, from the same episode, IMHO, the best onscreen look for a Batgirl yet...

Landed on this article following links through your other FA articles. Very well written and informative, though I note your opinions have evolved on the F-35s capabilities as more information on it has come to light. That said, I have only major quibble: