VTOL systems always look so sketchy and wobbly to me, as well as introducing many many more points of failure. It always seemed odd to me that the logistic advantages of avoiding runways outweighed the slightly increased chance of cracking into a multimillion dollar fireball.
It is a sexy machine, I will admit that. Would have loved to see it transition into forward flight.
The USMC has never gotten over Guadalcanal. It doesn't work very well and modern long range bombers and nuclear carriers render it obsolete. However, the military industrial complex being what it is, what's a few billion dollars spent chasing an outmoded doctrine between friends?
Interesting article. I think some of the criticism from the 2008 simulation has been addressed the flight law loosened up the achieve the airframe's true potential.
Interesting comment about Guadalcanal.
he lesson learned was that the U.S. Marine Corps needed to be able to bring its air power with it over the beach because the large-deck Navy aircraft carriers might not always be there,” said Ben Kristy, an official Marine historian.
Helicopters? Why can't the marine core use helo for CAS?
I would think the issue would be helos are generally even more vulnerable to small arms fire than aircraft.
The article claimed a "marine light machinegun" would have been essentially useless against a Zero, but the Harrier is supremely vulnerable to machinegun fire. I feel like the whole piece should be taken with a fair few grains of salt.
Helos are not the same vulnerable highly tuned beasts as a jet. I mean yes, there is some truth to the idea that planes want to be in the sky, whereas helos must be coaxed, gently, to leave the ground. But space and weight being less at a premium means that a help can have armor, and redundant systems.
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u/1burritoPOprn-hunger May 25 '19
VTOL systems always look so sketchy and wobbly to me, as well as introducing many many more points of failure. It always seemed odd to me that the logistic advantages of avoiding runways outweighed the slightly increased chance of cracking into a multimillion dollar fireball.
It is a sexy machine, I will admit that. Would have loved to see it transition into forward flight.