F-11 Blue Angels 1/48 ???

If they build it...and the majority of the US buy is for the USAF. The Marines want it, but the Navy don't...something about that single engine...

Here is a quote from the Blue Angels web site :

Q : " Will the Blue Angels fly the Super Hornet ? "

A : " The decision to transition to the Super Hornet has yet to be determined. "

Chris

Reminds me of one of my favorite video's ( films ). Threshold: The Blue Angels Experience. Have you guys see it ? Spectacular photography, and excellent look at the F-4 Phantom. Also has that great funky early 70's music. =3D] And you have to bite your tongue to keep from laughing as Leslie Nielsen narrates. But also ... sad at the same time. The team leader Harley Hall later went MIA in Vietnam. And Skip Umstead died in a mid-air later also.

=3D[

Chris

If they do, it probably won't be for some time - due to budgetary considerations.

As far as the BA goes, they'll probably be in some version of the F/A

-18 for some years to come, moving up to the Super Hornet a decade or so from now. As for the T-Birds, probably the F-16 for some time, although the F-15s could do some great stuff, especially in the vertical plane of acrobatics. Budget is one thing that certainly favors the F/A-18 and F-16; being small and highly aerobatic, they lend themselves to impressive maneuvers on a reasonable budget, and with fairly low maintenance requirements - particularly in their stripped aerobatic team form. Now if the Marines were to take some of their Harrier IIs and strip those of all excess equipment to get their weight down to minimum, they could really wow a crowd with some nifty VTOL and VIFF maneuvers at airshows.

Pat

The Israelis want it also; Lockheed is trying to make the F-35 the new F-16 as far as overseas sales go; and it had better work, or there are going to be a lot of PO'd military services worldwide as many are counting on it to replace existing and deployed aircraft types. The Royal Navy in particular is counting on the V/STOL version working as advertised to arm their new Queen Elizabeth class carriers, and if it doesn't do what its supposed to, it will be the Skybolt missile fiasco all over again.

Pat

Yup - but the problem is the long lead time to get the aircraft to production. I was at an industry gathering a couple years back where a speaker commented on just that...nations can't afford strategically to have such long lead times to bring hardware to the Fleet and then expect it to be in step with developing countermeasures.

Super Hornet, Typhoon, and Grippen (and even the venerable F-16 and/or F-15E) are here NOW, and now is when the need is. If dollars are spent to meet today's need, they may not be there for tomorrow's airplane...particularly in the international market. That's what I'm skeptical about.

That, and that it's an "X" development and not a "Y"..."X" programs are far easier to cancel...

1962: "I say! What do you blokes mean you are canceling the Skybolt? We were counting on it to arm our Vulcans!" "Would you like some Polaris missiles and the sub technology for them instead?" "Well, now that you mention it old boy, that would be just smashing." 2010: "I say! What do you blokes mean the VSTOL version doesn't work? We were counting on it to arm our new carriers!" "How would you like some Super Hornets and two Nimitz class carriers to put them on?" "Well, now that you mention it old boy, that would be just smashing."

(Later, at Whitehall)

"Worked like a charm both times; what do we want them to gives us next? We're saving a fortune in defense spending here and really pissing off the French to boot. Bloody marvelous if I do say so myself." :-)

Pat

Yeah - that or something like it is about the size of it.

this site says it can climb 30,000 feet a minute?

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What is the top speed and rate of climb of an F/A-18? The F/A-18 can reach speeds just under Mach 2, almost twice the speed of sound or about 1,400 mph. The maximum rate of climb of the F/A-18 is 30,000 feet per minute.

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