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Showing posts from September, 2017

"INTERIM FIGHTERS"... NOW WHAT?

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Welp...  So much for that! Thanks to " Trumponomics " the plan to acquire 18 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets is now effectively dead . While not yet official , Boeing has now positioned itself  persona non grata  to Canada's Liberal government.  After months of rhetoric and threats, the Liberal government would be foolish to back down on their threats to cancel its Super Hornet buy if Boeing continued its suit against Bombardier. Procuring the Super Hornet at this point would be political suicide to the Liberal party.  They would be roasted, and rightly so, all the way to the next election.  In the meantime, they risk appearing weak in NAFTA talks.  Who would back down against a government full of empty threats? Barring any last-minute compromise, the idea of a Canadian Super Hornet dead on arrival.  And we were so close, too . What is Canada to do now though?  We still have a fleet of rapidly aging fighters and a "capability gap".  We need new jets.  Sooner,

Boeing/Bombardier Brouhaha... (RANT)

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Well...  Shit. The U.S. Department of Commerce sided with Boeing and imposed a whopping 220% tariff on all Bombardier C-Series airliners sold to American-based airlines .  Needless to say that effectively  tripling the cost of the C-Series seriously jeopardizes the plan to sell 125 units to Delta airlines. This was very much a make-or-break moment for the the troubled C-Series.  Delta would have been considered the aircraft's first major sale; encouraging other prospective buyers to get on board. Boeing claimed that Bombardier was "dumping" C-Series airliners on the US market.  The argument was that since Bombardier was the recipient of government assistance during development of the C-Series, it is able to sell the aircraft at below market value. The sheer hypocrisy of all this is mind-blowing.  Boeing, America's largest recipient of corporate welfare  accused Bombardier of an unfair advantage for doing the exact same thing that Boeing does .   This, desp

ATLANTIC AIR SHOW PICTURES!

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Sorry (not sorry) about my summer hiatus.  I've been enjoying the weather and spending time with friends and family.   Anyway...  Here are some pictures from the 2017 Atlantic Air Show!   I have posted them without watermark so anyone is free to use them.  Consider them "open source".  (I still have the unedited .RAW files so I'm not too worried about someone claiming them as their own.