Crazy Ivan - Russian 6 vs 2 F-22's 55 miles Alaska

[dave1251]

Originally Posted By: L_Sludger

Originally Posted By: Schmoe

Am I trippin' or does that Russian plane look like a new, modern version of the F14 Tomcat??? Funny how just about all Russian planes over the past 3 or 4 decades seem to be a mirror image of our own....F14 and F15 come to mind. Oh, and the space shuttle.

If you think that's bad, you should see China's repertoire. Hoo-ee!

This Chinese aircraft looks like a rejected Japanese FSX prototype of an improved F16.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: gman2304

Just after WWII The USSR built carbon copies of the B29 from a plane that had been left/abandoned in the Soviet Union....right down to a repair patch on the tail section. By then the U.S. had developed and deployed the B52.

There's some truth in that, but it's a bit unfair to try to sum up Soviet aviation on the Tu-4. The USSR never favored strategic bombing in WWII, relying instead on a low level tactical blood fued with the Luftwaffe. The Red Air Force hadn't developed much in the way of four engine bombers and only conducted a handful of strategic raids on Germany. But that doesn't mean they didn't make some excellent aircraft over the years. One could argue the USAF made some awful lame ducks in a row and blunders because of their obsession with strategic nuclear warfare and SAC resulting in faulty conceptualizations of tactical aircraft. It wasn't until Vietnam that errors were recognized that the groundwork for planes like the F-15, F-14, and F-16 were laid. Aircraft like the F-104, F-102, F-105, and even the F-4 to an extent were mainly duds ill suited to dogfighting or tactical strikes. One could argue there was no excuse for this based on experiences in the Korean War.. Around that time, the Soviets also had a little plane called the Mig-15 that was very effective and at least had parody with the F-86 Sabre. Yes, they bilked the British for the Rolls Royce engines, but there has always been tech transfer and a lot of our strategic rocket technologies were based on German work in WWII...

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: dave1251

Really? Africa and Asia? You actually believe the United States is not directly involved in Africa and Asia? I have some friends that would like to sit down with you.

Involved being another word for ineffective. The military equivalent of leaving a flaming lunch bag on someone's porch and running away. Results don't lie. Not that I'm complaining. I don't want to see us get wrapped up in the problems of those continents either. All of this stuff everyone keeps going "OMG" at, involving ISIS, is just another typical day in Africa, Asia, and South America.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: gman2304

Just after WWII The USSR built carbon copies of the B29 from a plane that had been left/abandoned in the Soviet Union....right down to a repair patch on the tail section. By then the U.S. had developed and deployed the B52.

Our then-frenemies, Russia, was the designated alternate landing site for any B29 that potentially could not make it back to base after a nice BBQ run over Japan. 8 B29s landed in Russia, and we never got them back. They also did a lot of reverse engineering using a captured 86 Sabre during the Korean War. The US got its revenge later on, when it captured a MiG brought be a defector, declared it a worthless pile of dog feces, and returned the plane to Russia in a lot of boxes filled with airplane parts. At least weren't as dumb as the UK, who gift-wrapped their jet engine technology and shipped it to Russia.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp

Originally Posted By: gman2304

Just after WWII The USSR built carbon copies of the B29 from a plane that had been left/abandoned in the Soviet Union....right down to a repair patch on the tail section. By then the U.S. had developed and deployed the B52.

Our then-frenemies, Russia, was the designated alternate landing site for any B29 that potentially could not make it back to base after a nice BBQ run over Japan. 8 B29s landed in Russia, and we never got them back. They also did a lot of reverse engineering using a captured 86 Sabre during the Korean War. The US got its revenge later on, when it captured a MiG brought be a defector, declared it a worthless pile of dog feces, and returned the plane to Russia in a lot of boxes filled with airplane parts. At least weren't as dumb as the UK, who gift-wrapped their jet engine technology and shipped it to Russia.

The U.S. has always had captured Migs, I think we got more than one out of Korea. I think it is again a bit of an overstatement to say we dismissed the Mig-25 a pile of "dog feces". The issue was that it was severally overrated by the defense establishment always embellishing Soviet wonder weapons to justify their own pet projects and defense spending. The Foxbat was certainly not the fearsome world beater it had been made out to be, but it was an effective interceptor if it had severe limitations and was not the maneuver fighter it had been thought to be based on the wings and airframes' looks.