7 ms·
World trembles in confusion and/or fear at Iran's fiberglass airplane
- jlgreco 14y agoWhy would all those labels, like the labels on the "engine plug" be in English and not Persian? I mean, unless this thing were meant to be consumed by an english speaking audience...
- asynchronous13 14y agoYou make a good point, but it is not uncommon for engineers to use English around the world. There are so many text books and source materials available in English, especially in aerospace. They claimed to use CATIA software for the design, which is originally French but has an English version. I'd be shocked if there is a Persian version of the software. The flip side is that you would really want ground crews to be able to read warnings and such. So while one could justify english on the engineering front, native language makes more sense on a production version.
- tomjen3 14y agoI am a Danish software developer. All our code, all comments, designs, file names, variable names, etc is in English. If I am looking for a solution to an issue on the internet, chances are I am googling in English. So labeling something in English is peculiar, but not that strange.
- Udo 14y agoUsing English on labels is already extremely unlikely if we are talking about a country as nationalistic as, say, France. It becomes downright unthinkable in the case of Iran.
- paranormal 14y agoIn addition to what asynchronous13 mentioned, the Iranian Air Force maintains and fields several US exports (notably the F4 and the F14). It wouldn't be terribly surprising if their techs were already proficient in English in order to service those aircraft.
- speeder 14y agoI used to doubt stuff like this, but Iran did built their own uranium centrifuges. Also seemly they did captured some drones, and this would be plenty of material to reverse engineer.
- jstalin 14y agoDid you actually look at the pictures?
- jlgreco 14y agoThe most shitty looking part is that canopy. I wouldn't want to drive a car looking through that, much less a plane.
- shpxnvz 14y agoOh, just look at the pictures! Look at the fiberglass seams on the body and the shoddy finish of the skin and moldings in the cockpit. Look at the edge where the canopy seals. See any structural attachment points for the canopy? Compare to a real airplane [1] and see if you can spot the differences. 1. http://www.airforcetimes.com/xml/news/2009/01/airforce_pilot_assignments_012509/012509_airforce_pilot_assignments_800.JPG http://www.airforcetimes.com/xml/news/2009/01/airforce_pilot...
- Create 14y agoThe De Havilland Mosquito ("The Wooden Wonder", also known as "The Timber Terror") was a military aircraft that excelled in a number of roles during World War II. It was a twin-engine aircraft with the pilot and navigator sitting side by side. Unorthodox in design, it used a plywood structure of spruce and balsa in a time when wooden construction was considered outdated.
- CapitalistCartr 14y agoNo they didn't. They used oil money to pay the Russians to build/assemble/train them on their illegally imported centrifuges such as the Siemens ones the Stuxnet worm targeted.
- RyanZAG 14y agoThe 'plug' at the back seems about the right size for an ICBM. Maybe the idea is to fit this contraption in front of an ICBM and then crash it into targets while people are still confused why the plane is angling for the ground. Can't see how else it would work!
- jlgreco 14y agoI could see it being a cruise missile of sorts, but I honestly don't see them pushing that thing into space as is anytime soon and it certainly wouldn't withstand reentry.
- ynniv 14y agoSwap out the ICBM for a cruise missile and you might be on to something.
- ohwp 14y agoI think the second they launch it on top of an ICBM the hatch will break open...
- jostmey 14y agoHa! The Iranians are trying to pretend to be a military superpower. Iran is so backwards that the country can barely keep their planes flying. It takes an open minded culture to achieve technological advancement. The brightest people may come from anywhere, from any background, sex, or sexual preference. If you don't embrace everyone an open mind, you will never have the top talent working for you. Now I do believe that North Korea could make great scientific and technological strides on its own. Its economy may be faltering, but I suspect their culture seeks out the very brightest people & puts them to work on very hard problems.
- warmwaffles 14y ago> Now I do believe that North Korea could make great scientific and technological strides on its own. Its economy may be faltering, but I suspect their culture seeks out the very brightest people & puts them to work on very hard problems. or kills them.
- jostmey 14y agoNorth Korea appears to have had at least partial success building a nuclear weapon. It is my personal belief that Iran is incapable of doing the same. I base this belief on the little that I know about the two cultures. One society is a communist government, that will presumably accept anyone provided that they tow the party line, and the other demands religious fanaticism, and disrespects over 50% of their population. I am not saying I approve of the North Korean government (that said, I don't like most governments). But I do believe the North Koreans are better positioned to be a real threat.
- SoftwareMaven 14y agoMy father-in-law was a VP for Northrop Grumman's satellite and aerospace division whose primary customer was the US government. Needless to say, this put him in contact with many people and many defense secrets. North Korea is the thing that keeps him awake at night. The combination of the capability you mention with egotistical insanity at the reigns is never a good combination.
- namidark 14y agoThis was posted on reddit a few days ago and was called a giant hoax / RC controlled. Any deeper insight on this? The pilot seat looks way to small, and there are no landing or take off videos either.
- bradleyland 14y agoIt's difficult to offer a deep insight on this, because it's so patently absurd. The easiest way to understand why this can't possibly be a real aircraft is to look at photos of actual aircraft. Do a Google image searches for F-117, F-22, F/A-18, F-15, and F-16. Keep in mind that the F-16 is a very small aircraft. Now compare the proportions of the Iranian "aircraft" to any of these actual aircraft. Also keep a close eye on the surface textures, shapes, and connections on the real aircraft and compare them to the Iranian hoax. Reality quickly comes crashing down around it.
- jug6ernaut 14y agoI have a hard time believing anything Iran releases to the "media" as anything but propaganda until proven otherwise. Is this suppose to be functional plane? Prototype? Mockup? Until this thing is seen in the least flying this isn't even cause for a second look. While i am 100% american and other countries are following this i can bet with almost the same certainty that they are in no way in "fear" of it. In comparison to there nuclear program this is a mere side note. IMO this thing looks like it will fly about as well as a whale, but then again i am no aerospace engineer.
- jcromartie 14y agoWhatever they want the world to believe it to be, it's a mockup. It's a thin fiberglass shell with non-functional canopy, and it's the wrong size to actually fly.
- nick_gully 14y agoI think people are mistaking a flying bomb for an actual fighter aircraft. The goal would be to overwhelm naval resources in the cramped gulf. If you have enough people willing to do one way missions, a different sort of chariot is in mind. Considering the massed wave tactics of the Iran-Iraq war, I don't think they were thinking of making something to show at the Paris Air Show between the Lockheed and EADS booths.
- pyre 14y agoIt must be pretty expensive to create these all as basically cruise missiles with a human for guidance.
- simonh 14y agoThey'd have a hard time flying it into anything with the cockpit controls not even wired in, and no attachment points for the canopy. It also doesn't look like the landing gear is even retractable.
- Encosia 14y ago> flying bomb Otherwise known as a missile, which doesn't require designing and building a clone of the incredibly expensive F-22. Why would they waste time and money designing something that would fly slower than a missile and be much easier to shoot down? The whole thing is a poorly executed hoax.
- jseip 14y agoThe plane as a whole is clearly non-functional but there are parts that are from a real aircraft. Where do you think that landing gear came from? Certainly not the downed RQ-170...?
- Avitas 14y agoI happened to flip past Fox News on Saturday and caught their coverage of this aircraft. The Iranian claims about the aircraft were presented in a serious and menacing fashion. Their coverage reminds me of the US policy of trumpeting a huge imbalance of power favoring the USSR back in the Reagan years.
- nnq 14y ago...this joke aside, I really wonder how the first 3d printed / milled aircraft will look like (I mean put together entirely from printed components using a home-brewed or bought from ebay 3d printer and metal mill) ...and then I imagine someone getting their hands on some "printable" cruise missile schemes and printing one his garage - scary shit...
- pyre 14y agoA cruise missile milled out of plastic and missing components like the explosive payload and the rocket fuel...
- jlgreco 14y agoYou can build a 'cruise missile' right now in your garage pretty easily, being able to print one shouldn't be any scarier than that. The scary part is the warhead, and you don't just print that from a spool of plastic. If someone can make such a thing for a printed cruise missile and do mean stuff with it, they can surely stick it in the back of a pickup truck too.
- Zarathust 14y agoThis is described as a "fighter plane" but I fail to see how you could attach any destructive payload on such a tiny plane. The wings are so small that anything attached underneath would severely impair airflow
- ohwp 14y agoSome funny things I noticed: It looks like they built in 2 or 3 car radio systems. When the pilot is sitting in his chair he can't reach the controls in front of him. The exhaust will melt the body. The canopy doesn't give a clear view.
- frankydp 14y agoAlso funny I showed this picture to Science Editor Dr. John Timmer, who knows a thing or two about how science works, and after a moment of silence he responded by saying, "No f------ way."
- jcromartie 14y agoThey are actually real avionics, but off-the-shelf ones. https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=6432&ra=true https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=6432&ra=true http://www.trutrakflightsystems.com/products/Sorcerer.html http://www.trutrakflightsystems.com/products/Sorcerer.html
- jcromartie 14y agoThere's an official video here http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/02/286841/iran-unveils-new-indigenous-fighter-jet/ http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/02/286841/iran-unveils-... Iran's state media is hilarious.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- calibraxis 14y agoThose of us from the US really shouldn't be laughing. Had US propaganda wished, we'd be running around in fear of these things, just like with Saddam Hussein's WMDs and all the other boogieman tales which whip up support for international violence.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- shimon_e 14y agoAnd full of fiction. They reported Hamas shot down an Israeli F16 back in November. No one else reported such a thing. Not even the Palestinians. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/16/272691/israeli-f16-jet-shot-down-in-gaza/ http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/16/272691/israeli-f16-j... If anyone watches Iranian TV in it's native language they will see it is full of military propaganda. I.e. showing off Iranian combat and military marches. Iran has bilateral media cooperation agreements with many countries. A quick Google search shows: Turkey: http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9106062786 http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9106062786 Pakistan: http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=125694 http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=... China: http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9104252409 http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9104252409 I personally remember a few years ago when China first signed such an agreement. For this reason you find recycled PressTV content in Chinese media. I've witnessed PressTV interviews being repackaged on SBS in Australia where it seems like SBS presenter Lee Lin Chin is conducting an interview, but in actuality, it is just repackaged Press TV propaganda. As in, PressTV has the exact same anti-West/Israel interview but on SBS it is Lee Lin conducting the interview instead of the PressTV correspondents. Press TV's correspondents promote Holocaust denial and the anti-Semitic trope that the U.S. government and media are controlled by Jews. They also propagate that the US and Israel orchestrated the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/144012.html http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/144012.html I'm okay with freedom of press but this form of anti-Semitism in mainstream international media is beyond discuss. Honestly I feel this is more disgusting than the protocols of the elders of zion. How is it okay that innocent Chinese who have never met Jews and Israelis are being indoctrinated with anti-Semitism?! How is it okay that SBS in Australia can pull such bullshit in Australia? I wonder if SBS' motive is tight finances and some anti-Semite is in their board?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- olympus 14y agoThis thing has more in common with a homebuilt kit plane like a Vans RV-8 than it does with a modern fighter jet. No HUD, and the rest of the c*pit looks like it is made out of styrofoam and plywood. The exhaust doesn't even have a variable nozzle, let alone thrust vectoring. The exterior is absurd, I know that LO coatings and materials take special application, but they should at least be able to have a non-wavy surface. I'll second the opinion of most other people, I doubt this thing actually flies, and if it does manage to fly I'll bet its performance is dismal.
- philhippus 14y agoThis is an embarrassing and desperate stunt from the Iranian establishment. They are clearly aiming this at an uneducated voter base who outnumber those who know the reality.
- rivd 14y agoWhether points made about the aircraft are valid or not, the tone of the article is very biased. As if only the idea of inventing your own modern airplane is ridiculous, let alone iran could do such a thing. I highly doubt iran is not aware of the (critique &&) attention it gets with this news and their space monkey.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]