Message posted by Duke on June 30, 2020 at 17:26:02 PST:
In early 1989 I was sent to Grumman to give an independent assessment of whether the Chinese F-8II we were upgrading under the Peace Pearl program was safe for USAF test pilots to fly. It was a piece of junk, still used vacuum tubes. Their flight personal flight equipment was archaic, they were still using leather flight helmets. I recommended our pilots not fly it, but the whole the question was OBE after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Hard for me to believe they've come far enough in just thirty years to present a threat to our fifth gen aircraft.
In Reply to: China readying a 'New generation' fighter for first flight in 2021 posted by Smythers on June 29, 2020 at 18:32:56 PST:
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