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originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: ManFromEurope
So you would expect aircraft one to be exactly the same as aircraft 100? Changes have been made to improve the thrust to weight ratio among other things. That means later aircraft with the current or final version of the software will do things that AF-02 will never do. They're lighter, and more maneuverable, with a better thrust to weight.
originally posted by: justdust
a reply to: Zaphod58
Having worked at LM for over 26 years, I can tell you that no two aircraft are ever the exact same thing. When we started building the first C130 J models, we found that there were very different flight characteristics resulting from
just small changes in the fuselage. One thing I found out just floored me, we had one guy who knew how to install the crew door that is near the cockpit, and when he retired they had to redesign the hole mess.
originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: nwtrucker
C'mon, people. Don't you find it interesting that we have all of this very expensive high-tech machines today keeping America's industries alive, and we just never got around to making a subsequent backup system for the shuttle?
The toys mentioned daily in the news are those that we intend to peddle to our wealthy friends. When's the last time you heard from an insider source on ATS calmly discussing the triangles and how they may be the missing link to space that we seem to lack but secretly may have operational?
ATS is a controlled environment, created by good people, but being what it is, subject to the desires of those that control us.
originally posted by: LightSpeedDriver
a reply to: MrMaybeNot
The thing is at this moment, according to the test pilot's (probably public official "work report") own words, extremely underachieving. According to Wiki (yeah, I know!) it is also way over budget and experiencing developmental delay after developmental delay. It seems more designed to suck up money than control airflow. I am a layman, but it is ridiculously expensive, not something the world really needs right now and something my country of residence has poured a considerable amount of money into and committed itself to buying multiple aircraft, just because. One of the smallest countries in the world...Holland.
I'm not a hater but I would use that money for more....humanitarian projects.
ETA: As a layman I don't care what they can or want to do with it or compare it to but if a test pilot tells me it sucks, I believe him. He is the one flying it.