Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: C(Sea)Bass on September 08, 2007, 08:55:12 AM

Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on September 08, 2007, 08:55:12 AM
(http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/2981/lowf18ht4.png) (http://imageshack.us)

I wonder if he could get lower....?
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Spikes on September 08, 2007, 09:01:27 AM
all the demo teams do that...when they get just enough speed they pull into a stall right off thr runway.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on September 08, 2007, 09:07:25 AM
I don't remeber seeing the Thunderbirds do that, but then again I havn't seen them in 5 years. Thers not too many shows near me so I don't get to see many of the teams either.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Spikes on September 08, 2007, 09:11:47 AM
I saw the T-birds in Rochester...can't remember how long ago...

They sped up and pulled straight up.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on September 08, 2007, 09:24:20 AM
It doen't look to me like he just took off though. the gear is entirly up and judging by the vapor coming off the plane he is moving quite fast.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Spikes on September 08, 2007, 09:27:31 AM
True...he also might have been on the deck until his gear came up
By then he would have had much speed.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Maverick on September 08, 2007, 11:12:26 AM
Quote
Originally posted by SpikesX
all the demo teams do that...when they get just enough speed they pull into a stall right off thr runway.


That would result in a nasty crash if they did that. A stall is not conducive to remaining airborn.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Gunslinger on September 08, 2007, 12:08:30 PM
I've seen their show and he didn't just take off.  They do a low alt pass at just barely sustainable speed like that.  Then he hits the gass and goes vert.  It's pretty cool to watch.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Spikes on September 08, 2007, 12:17:46 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Maverick
That would result in a nasty crash if they did that. A stall is not conducive to remaining airborn.


I should re-phrase that...just over stall speed
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Spikes on September 08, 2007, 12:18:51 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Gunslinger
I've seen their show and he didn't just take off.  They do a low alt pass at just barely sustainable speed like that.  Then he hits the gass and goes vert.  It's pretty cool to watch.


A little bit off topic...but I love it when they take off in formation.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: AquaShrimp on September 08, 2007, 12:19:03 PM
F/A-18 only costs 16 million?  F-16s cost 3 times that much, some of the newest models are coming in at near 100 million I believe.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Wolfala on September 08, 2007, 01:10:00 PM
Quote
Originally posted by AquaShrimp
F/A-18 only costs 16 million?  F-16s cost 3 times that much, some of the newest models are coming in at near 100 million I believe.



Its not the plane that costs only 16 mil. The fly away cost of 40-50 mil is with all the crap they put inside from radars and other various ASE equipment.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on September 08, 2007, 02:51:49 PM
I have no idea what it costs, I just put a figure up. I have a book somehwere about modern planes and I rember it saying the f16 is 12 million (most likely just the plane, not all the avionics and radar). I figures an f18 would be more expensive on the simple fact that it has 2 engines as opposed to 1.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: AKIron on September 08, 2007, 03:00:19 PM
Here's a page I found interesting on the F-16.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-16.htm
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: AWMac on September 08, 2007, 03:00:59 PM
I bet the pilot is thinking "Shrinkage!"

Way to close for comfort...

Mac

#6

Wasn't he the one that crashed this Summer?
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on September 08, 2007, 03:45:43 PM
I managed to dig this up: "The price of 300 F-18s after 500 fighters have been procured would average about 5.8M," from
http://www.georgespangenberg.com/vf16.htm

but with the info from this site: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread222426/pg
If you do the math the F-18E/F comes to 95.3 Million per plane.

as a comparision the F-22 comes to 338.4 Million per plane.

All rather cheap compared with the 2+ Billion for the B-2
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: nirvana on September 08, 2007, 04:02:14 PM
I was thinking about that too, Mac.  I believe 6 was the one that went down.

Amazing skill to get it that low.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: RTR on September 08, 2007, 05:10:30 PM
When Canada bought 130 F18's back in the early 80's they came out to about $35 million ea. That included spares support etc I believe.

Great airplane, but a bit dated now I suppose.

cheers,
RTR
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on September 08, 2007, 05:43:52 PM
F14 was better and would have been cheaper to upgrade, but still F18 isn't bad, ugly looking though.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: evenhaim on September 08, 2007, 06:20:30 PM
Quote
Originally posted by C(Sea)Bass
F14 was better and would have been cheaper to upgrade, but still F18 isn't bad, ugly looking though.


why do you figure that, f14 was more dated thereyby requirium more numerous upgrades, and at a higher maintenence cost, the 14 is dated, and it was costing 2x as much to maintain them as much as the f18, which is also btw multirole :furious
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on September 08, 2007, 06:38:40 PM
It would have ended up being cheaper by far to upgrade tomcats than to buy new F18's to replace them. Not to mention the F14 is more capable of doing AG roles and about equal at AA roles. On top of that the F14 has a better saftey record than the F18, which should be more important than cost because, after all someone has to be in this thing when it goes into combat.
Give me 24 hours and I'll have sources to back this up.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Spikes on September 08, 2007, 07:09:05 PM
Quote
Originally posted by evenhaim
why do you figure that, f14 was more dated thereyby requirium more numerous upgrades, and at a higher maintenence cost, the 14 is dated, and it was costing 2x as much to maintain them as much as the f18, which is also btw multirole :furious


Tomcats forever!



F14 had much better fuel than the F18
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Wes14 on September 08, 2007, 07:13:58 PM
and in my opinion F-14 looks prettier. :)
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Spikes on September 08, 2007, 07:27:06 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Wes14
and in my opinion F-14 looks prettier. :)


(http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/2488/l1b84f4d8505bbe6a86f98ciy0.jpg)

(http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/570/f14climbvk2.jpg)

Yeah? so what if the F14 was dated...
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: LePaul on September 08, 2007, 11:52:26 PM
Quote
Originally posted by SpikesX
Tomcats forever!



F14 had much better fuel than the F18


Compare maintenance hours required.

Beast of a bird to maintain...but I agree, she's a beaut!
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on September 09, 2007, 12:09:04 AM
The best wway I've ever heard the F14 described was with one word, Sexy.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qw6Yw3hmR2M
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: AquaShrimp on September 09, 2007, 03:12:20 AM
F-16s arent as expensive as I thought:

Unit cost:

    * F-16A/B: 1998USD 14.6 million
    * F-16C/D: 1998USD 18.8 million
    * F-16E/F: 1998USD 26.9 million
    * F-16I: 2006USD ~70 million[15]

Only the Israelis use the I.  On another note though, F-16s use block numbers instead of letters indicate specialization, so there could be a big difference in block number price even though it was still an F-16C.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: Reschke on September 09, 2007, 11:21:44 AM
I had a friend from college that was a RIO in a Tomcat. They just flat out disappeared and were never seen again. No wreckage or other floaty stuff in the area where they were last seen. This was in late 2001 or early 2002 and they were deployed flying over Afghanistan.
Title: One way to play with an $16 mil. plane
Post by: evenhaim on September 09, 2007, 11:45:22 AM
Quote
Originally posted by AquaShrimp
F-16s arent as expensive as I thought:

Unit cost:

    * F-16A/B: 1998USD 14.6 million
    * F-16C/D: 1998USD 18.8 million
    * F-16E/F: 1998USD 26.9 million
    * F-16I: 2006USD ~70 million[15]

Only the Israelis use the I.  On another note though, F-16s use block numbers instead of letters indicate specialization, so there could be a big difference in block number price even though it was still an F-16C.


thats not the final cost of the I