Re:Props: Small Planes for Small Wars
by nradov on Tuesday October 03, 2017 @09:14AM
(#15392146)
Those cheaper aircraft won't seem like such a great deal when the single engine fails and the pilot gets tortured to death on YouTube after ejecting over enemy territory.
The article doesn't mention anything about drones / UCAVs, which seems like a major oversight.
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Re:Props: Small Planes for Small Wars
by woodandsteel on Tuesday October 03, 2017 @08:23PM
(#15397388)
F-35's are also single engine.
Right and that was another terrible decision. The V/STOL F-35B variant was only practical with a single engine because twin engines would have caused dangerous thrust imbalances during landing. But that constraint forced the F-35A and F-35C models to also have single engines for commonality, resulting in lower speed, higher drag, and reduced survivability. The whole program is full of misguided compromises like that.
Re:Props: Small Planes for Small Wars
by woodandsteel on Wednesday October 04, 2017 @11:45PM
(#15406564)
Well the F-16 is also single engine, as are a great many other successful fighter planes.
People these days don’t really seem to care much if a serviceman dies. Now if the terrorists wife dies in a raid, people act like something far worse has happened. This plane will help target terrorists better because it’s slower.