F/A-18... great plane or Greatest plane Ever!!

[Darb85]

The F-22 is going to replace the F-18 Supers isnt it?

[pinoyman]

Jet Blue ($75.00 Round trip, SFO to LAX)






























Thanks for the thread, very nice!

[Seanohue]

Originally Posted by Darb85

The F-22 is going to replace the F-18 Supers isnt it?

No, the F-22 is supposed to replace the B-2 (too expensive) and F-15.

[RETSF]

I may be wrong but the old F-86 had a 14-1 kill rate over mig alley dog fighting with guns. With the advent of air to air missiles the pilot against pilot skills are not tested as much, but I'm a firm believer in that "Why send a man in when you can send a bomb first".
If I was to rate the aircraft from today back to WWII they would be as follows: Raptor, Eagle, Tomcat/F-18 (? as to which is better), Falcon, Phantom, F-86, Mustang and P-38. Just my uneducated

[Fenwick]

Originally Posted by Seanohue

Probably won't. F-35 is, from what I know, exclusive to Navy and the A-10 is exclusive to the Army/AF. F-35 is supposed to replace all AV-8 Harriers and F-18 A/B/C/D. Your beloved F-18 (well, the superhornets at least) will remain in service

Nope.

The F-35 has three versions, F-35A, F-35B and F-35C.

The F-35A is for the Air Force, the F-35B (STOVL) is for the Marines and the F-35C is for the Navy.

I also love the F-22s. Those are and most likely will remain the premier air-to-air fighter, better than the F-35.

[Fenwick]

Originally Posted by Seanohue

No, the F-22 is supposed to replace the B-2 (too expensive) and F-15.

Where on earth are you getting this from? The B-2 is a "bomber" and the F-22 is a "fighter."

The whole reason the B-2 was developed was as a long range bomber. They were supposed to build 135 of these at about a billion dollars a copy (which was scaled back to 100) but when the USSR collapsed, there was no longer a need for a long range bomber (to bomb the USSR) and they only wound up building 21 of them. The multibillions had already been spent on this program back in the late 1970s and early 1980s so if they had built more of them, the development costs spread over the price tag of each one would have equaled the billion dollars a copy price tag I quoted earlier but the fact that it was scaled back to only a total of 21 makes the per plane cost as high as over 2 billion each depending on how you want to count (or write off) the dollars. Each of the 21 existing B-2s are designated as the "Spirit of XXXX" where XXXX=a US State with the exception of the Spirit of Kitty Hawk which I supposed you could say is North Carolina and the first one in the series (AV-1) which is called the Spirit of America.

The Spirits are awesome aircraft!

You are correct in that the F-22 is designed to replace the F-15, not the F-18.

Back to darb85's original question, the answer is pretty much "no." For the most part, the F-22 serves a different purpose than the F-18.

[Galaxie_xl]

I love the discussion. Wasn't really intended to end up as a who knows what about planes, though I am impressed with Fenwick and everyone else's knowledge. Every plane is purpose built and it's kind of like apples and oranges to compare. Bottom line is if it has wings and you like it... It is the Greatest plane ever!

P.S. The Hornet still rules all!

[ragin' cajun]

I don't care what plane is the greatest ever.... I know what the GREATEST sound ever made is. It's the sound of a pilot rogering up getting ready to drop bombs or provide CAS to me the grunt on the ground. Its the sound of a Cobra hovering overhead letting loose with his cannon while all the terrorists/insurgents run and hide. It's the sound of all my brothers saying their okay when we get back to base. It's the sound of me being able to thank the pilots in Person, and hearing them say no problem when I tell them well call on him again (hopefully not). Its the sound of the CO telling me and my boys that we got a few days for r&r. Its definetly the sound of the next day! Thanks to the pilots.

[Ron1YY]

Originally Posted by ragin' cajun

I don't care what plane is the greatest ever.... I know what the GREATEST sound ever made is. It's the sound of a pilot rogering up getting ready to drop bombs or provide CAS to me the grunt on the ground. Its the sound of a Cobra hovering overhead letting loose with his cannon while all the terrorists/insurgents run and hide. It's the sound of all my brothers saying their okay when we get back to base. It's the sound of me being able to thank the pilots in Person, and hearing them say no problem when I tell them well call on him again (hopefully not). Its the sound of the CO telling me and my boys that we got a few days for r&r. Its definetly the sound of the next day! Thanks to the pilots.

Thank you and all that you have mentioned in the above. I know those sounds and know them very well. True to your words, they ARE the greatest sounds anyone will ever hear!!!!


Ron