Osama bin Laden is dead...

[Feathers]

I am fascinated by the helicopters used by the SEAL teams.  There was a program for a stealth chopper that was canceled some time ago - I guess that it was somehow kept alive.  Makes me wonder what other tech goodies are out there that we don't know about. 

Really? Which one was that? I didn't think there were any plans for stealth transport helicopters.

[Jobydrone]

Do you realise how frightening that is to the rest of us who aren't citizens and so aren't protected by your constitution?!

Don't fund and train terrorists or plan and execute attacks on our citizens and you should be fine.  ;)

[Bryancd]

I am fascinated by the helicopters used by the SEAL teams.  There was a program for a stealth chopper that was canceled some time ago - I guess that it was somehow kept alive.  Makes me wonder what other tech goodies are out there that we don't know about. 

Really? Which one was that? I didn't think there were any plans for stealth transport helicopters.

Yep, these were versions of the Blackhawk with body panels designed to provide a smaller radar signature as well as a very quiet engine system. They came in low and fast and I will put our boy's in our flying machines up against the Pakistani's any day of the week.

[QuadShot]

I am fascinated by the helicopters used by the SEAL teams.  There was a program for a stealth chopper that was canceled some time ago - I guess that it was somehow kept alive.  Makes me wonder what other tech goodies are out there that we don't know about. 

Really? Which one was that? I didn't think there were any plans for stealth transport helicopters.

Yep, these were versions of the Blackhawk with body panels designed to provide a smaller radar signature as well as a very quiet engine system. They came in low and fast and I will put our boy's in our flying machines up against the Pakistani's any day of the week.

And I think they had Stringfellow Hawk as their pilot! :)

[Bryancd]

Al, you know they make the Apache out at the Boeing facility in Mesa at Falcon Field. I see them flying all over the desert out this way doing training/testing. Sometimes I swear they are hovering and painting me on my bike with their radar for target practice!

[QuadShot]

"Sic Semper Tyrant"

[QuadShot]

Al, you know they make the Apache out at the Boeing facility in Mesa at Falcon Field. I see them flying all over the desert out this way doing training/testing. Sometimes I swear they are hovering and painting me on my bike with their radar for target practice!

:) Yeah, when Joyce and I go up North (Heber/Overgaard) for the weekend, we pass through Fountain Hills and sometimes see the Apaches. Too cool! And now that I think about it...I DO remember seeing once, an couple of Apaches aiming a tracking laser at a bicyclist...guy had short hair, and NO SHIRT ON! :)

[Bromptonboy]

I am fascinated by the helicopters used by the SEAL teams.  There was a program for a stealth chopper that was canceled some time ago - I guess that it was somehow kept alive.  Makes me wonder what other tech goodies are out there that we don't know about.  

Really? Which one was that? I didn't think there were any plans for stealth transport helicopters.

The Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing/Sikorsky_RAH-66_Comanche

Although this is not a transport - it looks like lessons learned were added on to existing platforms.

[Feathers]

Yeah, the Comanche was what I was thinking about. I saw one at an air show here once (static display). It makes sense to take the technology and build it in where possible elsewhere, I just hadn't heard about it (and helicopters is supposed to be my business).

For what it's worth, we build Apaches down in Somerset. I've been on the test rig at the factory for a mini conference once.

The only time I've flown on a military aircraft we were doing pretend torpedo attacks on the merchant shipping round te Isle of Wight. Chances are good that they were targeting you, Bryan.

[Bryancd]

I have no doubt, Mike! The terrain over here is very Middle East looking and I'm moving like a crafty insurgent across the land! :)

[QuadShot]

I have no doubt, Mike! The terrain over here is very Middle East looking and I'm moving like a crafty insurgent across the land! :)

So true, and in fact, the movie The Kingdom that was out last year or maybe 2009, was filmed here in Arizona (Phoenix, Chandler, Mesa) because it looks so Middle-Eastern.

[Bromptonboy]

Not surprised that you didn't hear about this Mike - it seems these modified models took everyone by surprise.  I am just a buff, not in the industry like you are, and I hadn't read anything.  Makes me wonder what other goodies are hidden in the inventory.  I read about rumors of a craft that has no control surfaces, but only uses vectored thrust for all of it's movement - and it can hover and fly at incredible speeds.  

[Bryancd]

I have no doubt, Mike! The terrain over here is very Middle East looking and I'm moving like a crafty insurgent across the land! :)

So true, and in fact, the movie The Kingdom that was out last year or maybe 2009, was filmed here in Arizona (Phoenix, Chandler, Mesa) because it looks so Middle-Eastern.

Jamie was an extra in a restaurantr scene in that movie! We wnet to see it in theaters when it came out but didn't see her int he scene. We walked out after that, the movie was crap.

[Jobydrone]

Osama killed by rogue Bajorans?

http://www.avclub.com/articles/german-tv-reveals-that-osama-bin-laden-was-killed,55968/



by Sean O'Neal May 12, 2011 In addition to all those congratulatory beers that are just going to waste, here's one of the other major drawbacks to not publicly revealing the identities of "Team Six," the elite Navy SEAL group that brought down Bin Laden: It leaves the door wide open for just about anyone to come and take credit, even a bunch of anti-Cardassian terrorists from the 24th century. And that's exactly what happened on Germany's N24 TV network, which accidentally pulled a fan-created logo for the "Maquis Special Operations" group from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, then presented it as the SEAL Team Six logo, complete with analysis, noting, "They don't have the skull in their emblem for nothing."

Indeed, although the skull in question clearly (harrumph!) belongs to a Klingon, boasts a bolted-on eyepatch, and comes surrounded by bat'leths—weapons that, so far as we know, are not typically encountered in normal Navy SEAL operations. Most likely they've also yet to progress to using phasers, like the giant one featured in the emblem. What's more, the German newscasters also didn't seem to blink at the idea that a U.S. special ops team had seemingly borrowed its name from their old French Resistance enemies. Clearly, this is the worst thing the Germans have ever done. [Fox News via Gawker]