Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine - *Discussion* Thread

Just something about the make-up of the Russian army: Russia has conscription. But those people who are better connected and life in St. Petersburg or Moscow, they can elect to serve their two years of service in the FSB interior secret service. They can also join the paramilitary (Rosgvardia). Ther...

Re: Why do we "check in?"

I would be okay with you being free that time that you would otherwise spend tutoring me, but I would not be okay with you tutoring another student in my place during that time and charge him/her as well as me. That means you can sell the same time twice, once to me and once to the other student. I...

Re: Why do we "check in?"

If you don't check in by the cut off time, they cancel your reserved seat and possibly assign it to someone else. But should they have that right? After all you paid for that seat, regardless if you use it or not. If you don't use it, you paid for that seat to be empty. Not for it to be reassigned....

Re: Why do we "check in?"

In some cases, airlines have to do the job of immigration authorities. If a passenger is not allowed to enter the destination country ("inadmissible persons"), the airline has to bring him back... and that will cost the airline. A better question would be why everything in an airport is so...

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine - *Discussion* Thread

It's due to their offering asylum to people Turkey calls terrorists. Can we boot out Turkey? Probably a move to negotiate concessions. You would think NATO would be more willing to trade Sweden and Finland for Turkey even of it means losing control of the Bosporus Straight. And Turkey knows it. bt ...

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine - *Discussion* Thread

Putin reacts in a quite disheveled way after Finland and Sweden expressed their wish to join NATO. If these two countries joining NATO is soooo terrible for Russia... ...I propose a deal: "Dear Vladimir: We peace-loving Scandinavians will not join NATO if you'll withdraw all your troops from Uk...

Re: Boeing moving HQ to DC

They should be moving back to Everett but seemingly the only thing Boeing learnd from the max fiasco was that that they need to do more lobbying. That's my thought, too. Also: Why are the company execs moving closer to the DC area? If you're building airplanes for a living, your company should be p...

Re: What would you have spent the B-2 money on?

Well, that and the Soviets deliberately chose artillery dimensions that are 1 or 2 mm different because they felt the same way. Are artillery shells actually interchangeable between the guns, if the diameter of the round is the same? Would it just require some experimental research (e.g. different ...

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine - Military Aviation News and Discussion Thread

Seems like a good place for it: Russia/ROC earns the world record record at turret-tossing. https://en.defence-ua.com/news/russias_t_72b3_turret_toss_world_record_100m_up_in_the_sky_video-2885.html Congrats to the Russian Olympic Committee! And here's another incredible thing. A freedom-loving dron...

Re: Favorite Military Blogs

Not aviation-related, but I like the answers given by Roland Bartetzko on Quora. German paratrooper, attended both German and French commando courses, and then fought in ex-Yugoslavia. Really insightful when it comes to infantry, their training and tactics. Nowadays he's managing things in Ukraine, ...

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine - Military Aviation News and Discussion Thread

Uh-oh. You remember the footage of rescued Russian sailors from the Moskva, standing in ranks and files? Apparently, a sailor's family sent Radio Free Europe a photo which was taken long before the Moskva sinking. And it appears to be a still frame from the very same video. The family reports that h...

Re: What would you have spent the B-2 money on?

Only in hindsight we know the B-2 was not needed. But at that time, it was the correct decision. Then, we didn't know that the Soviet Union would eventually collapse. It was just good luck that historical events made the B-2 jobless, while many older aircraft soldier on. The military does not think ...

Re: Boeing Starliner News and Discussion Thread

texl1649 wrote:

That’s still the most Boeing ‘action scene’ I have seen this year.

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine - Military Aviation News and Discussion Thread

TheSonntag wrote:

some Italien Tornados were flying sorties in Germany, but were crossin Switzerland on the way. I do not know whether this is SOP or something special.

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine - Military Aviation News and Discussion Thread

This is wrong on several levels. I simply wrote what happened and you use tons of "if"s and "would"s to fabricate a history that supports your strange narrative. Using the same number of ifs and woulds I could create a scenario, in which the pope would have become king of Switze...

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine - Military Aviation News and Discussion Thread

"Hated" is too strong. More realistic would be diplomatic tensions. But the mood already changed in 1946 by this event and later by this event. Toni Spinas (one of the Swiss mountaineers, who was brought to the crash site to retrieve the deads) personally sat on my grand parents kitchen t...

Re: T-7A Red Hawk News and Discussion Thread

OK. But that seems bad. I *want* the government to consider price .. and in many cases price seems very important. Lower taxes, more money for poor people or extra tanks, etc. But if the contractor almost always underbids, and the government has to pay the excess .. that *ought* to go to supplier r...

Re: T-7A Red Hawk News and Discussion Thread

Also the problem is the absolute crap under estimates that every defense contractor always provides. They give an estimated price, and almost always it’s an under bid. If the problem was uncertainty, then some estimate would be too high and other estimate would be too low. But that’s not what happe...

Re: Airbus model designator font

You can isolate the text, and use https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ - but maybe that Airbus font was really, really, really, really custom-designed, and not intended for any widespread use. With the blue-ish "AIRBUS" you get two fonts, Avalors Regular (especially the R and the B), and A...

Re: Rocket Labs - Tests, Launches, Developments