From: 'Old Man Tom'
To: soc.military.starfighters
RE: Glass Cannons (was: RE: The entrants are in. A few surprises, and surprise ommissions)
I have to second Jennyr's point on this. Nobody's expecting a hypothetical Zig replacement to take a direct hit from an AMRAAM and keep fighting, but like I alluded to on the podcast the other day, we're not looking at throwing cheap expendable ships flown by -let's face it- cheap expendable pilots at a problem out of desperation anymore; training standards have been tightened up considerably and training costs have gone up as a result, which means aircrew are no longer a renewable resource. At a bare minimum, we need a design that won't fall apart from a glancing hit with a 20-30mm autocannon until after you've had time to grab the eject handle.
Besides, the Zig isn't so hot on the "cannon" part either, certainly not for the secondary ground-attack role we're going to need an aircraft for one day. Can you even attach a couple of thousand-pound bombs to a Zig without breaking something? I certainly wouldn't want to fly one if you did.
To: soc.military.starfighters
RE: Glass Cannons (was: RE: The entrants are in. A few surprises, and surprise ommissions)
I have to second Jennyr's point on this. Nobody's expecting a hypothetical Zig replacement to take a direct hit from an AMRAAM and keep fighting, but like I alluded to on the podcast the other day, we're not looking at throwing cheap expendable ships flown by -let's face it- cheap expendable pilots at a problem out of desperation anymore; training standards have been tightened up considerably and training costs have gone up as a result, which means aircrew are no longer a renewable resource. At a bare minimum, we need a design that won't fall apart from a glancing hit with a 20-30mm autocannon until after you've had time to grab the eject handle.
Besides, the Zig isn't so hot on the "cannon" part either, certainly not for the secondary ground-attack role we're going to need an aircraft for one day. Can you even attach a couple of thousand-pound bombs to a Zig without breaking something? I certainly wouldn't want to fly one if you did.