Pardon Our Dust

As you can tell, Carpetbloggers is receiving a face lift. I've transferred to a new layout and started to reacquaint myself with the old Carpetbloggers HTML layout.

Please be patient as this process continues as I clean up the layout, transfer old data, check for dead links, and hopefully integrate the old comments system.

If you find anything amiss, please don't hesitate to let me know.

ETA: Links have been verified. Wow, after two years, fully a third of the blogroll dropped off the face of the earth, stopped blogging, or changed addresses. Talk about a dynamic environment.

F-35

This last Wednesday I had the privilege of being invited to watch the F-35 fly its third test flight. The cold pre-dawn sky gave way to a sunrise when a white minivan passed us by. Somebody remarked, "Well, there goes Jon." Jon Beesley is the chief test pilot for the F-35. A few fire trucks passed by and after a feet-numbing hour, there was a roar of engines. Soon, we could see down the flight line that a gray Lockheed Martin F-16 had pulled out. It taxied right in front of us to the end of the runway followed about ten minutes later by a white F-16 with Edwards AFB markings. Chase planes. They disappeared behind a building that hid the end of the runway from our view. About ten minutes after that, the F-35 pulled out of its hanger and taxied by.

It was incredible to see it in person.

It, too, disappeared behind the building and it was another half hour before there was a scream of engines and F-16s tore by and pulled into the air. Circling around, they approached the runway low and slow from where they took off. Then the roar of the F-35s engines spooling up echoed off of the buildings, I noted that a couple of antenna dishes seemed to be trained on the aircraft. After a few moments, the sleek, gray shape of the Lightening II rushed by, it rotated on its main gear and lifted into the air with a slight flutter. Escorted by the chase planes, it continued to climb out from the airstrip. I thought I saw the landing gear retract, but it was too far away to be sure. We couldn't stay and wait for it to land.

Still, it was a worthwhile trip to see what could be the last manned fighter-bomber. UAVs might not be an effective substitute, but one cannot ignore the technological and political advantages of not having to worry about a pilot.

Of interest: The powerplant of the Edwards F-16 had a much higher and louder pitch then the Lockheed Martin test F-16. The F-35's engine sounded lower than either. Both F-16s had flight control surfaces bouncing all over as they taxied, but when the F-35 ran over the same segment of pavement, nothing moved--everything was tight. The pilot also seems to sit much higher in the F-35 (warning huge image!), the impression I got reminded me of an F-117 than the F-16.

Random thought: If this aircraft has the low observable coatings, just how will the Dallas-Ft Worth air controllers be sworn to secrecy? Not sure how that would work out.

Sen Boxer and San Francisco - what a way to start the day

I normally try to post once or maybe twice a day, but saw these two articles and had to tell the 1 or 2 people that may see it. Ok, so I could reach more people by shouting the news on the sidewalk, but this way I don't get arrested for disturbing the peace.

News story 1

The city of San Francisco will mandate every business in the city limits to offer sick leave to every employee. Full time, part time and temp. It doesn't matter if you have 1,000 employees or 1, or if you hire domestic help or a factory worker. Don't get me wrong, I like sick leave as an employee, but I also know that for small businesses, they often don't have the profit margin to pay for this. Add this the rise in SF minimum wage and the requirement for businesses to spend on health insurance for employees and you have a recipe for small business disaster. And less we forget, small business the the engine that creates most of the new jobs in an economy. I expect to see every small business that can't afford to already offer sick leave and is not dependent on foot traffic (like restaurants and the like) to look to move out of the city as soon as possible.

Yes the measure was passed by the citizens of SF by over 60%, but I expect most of those who voted for it either already have sick leave (from working for the government or at a large company) or think they can get a free benefit from their employers. It will be interesting to see what the law of unintended consequences will be.

Hat tip Lucianne

News story #2

California's junior senator says those who don't have children shouldn't have an opinion supporting the war because they

"pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family."

Funny, I thought we were passed the days where childless couples or people were not supposed to scorned by society, especially our Liberal Elite. But I guess politics trumps all.

I wonder how this will play with Boxer's friends and neighbors in SF? Probably well because the intended target was Secretary of State Rice, a woman who chose a life different then Senator Boxer and I think is a far better person then the Senator.

Yes I'm in California and am not pleased with my elected officials.

Hat tip Lucianne.

Killer Rabbit??

You gotta see this to believe it.

A rabbit that weighs 10.5 kg (that's roughly 23 pounds)???

A rabbit that can provide 7 kg of meat (15.4 pounds)???

Check out the story. North Korea wants them to help solve their food problem, but as the farmer who breeds them says, "they (the rabbits) eat a lot". What will NK feed the rabbits to feed the people when there are reports of the NK peasants eating grass because there is nothing else to eat?

Hat tip Lucianne

The Correct Degree of Aggression

Hat tip Blackfive.

I'm borrowing the title and will borrow what Blackfive said:

Best post of the week, maybe month.

China's new toy - the Jian-10

The Christian Science Monitor has a story about a new Chinese fighter called the Jian-10.

They were helped by the Israelis and appears to have features similar to the F-16, The Euro Fighter, Russian planes and French planes.

I don't know what generation of jet aircraft they think it is (F-35 & F-22 are fifth generation, F-14, 15, 16, 18 are fourth generation, F-4, A-6 are third, F-104, 105, 106 are second and F-86 is first generation for reference), or if the plane is has any stealth abilities. That is not meant to mock the plane, I just don't know and looking from the small pictures I've seen (actually the same picture in different articles), it looks like it a lot of sharp angles that radar can get a return off of.

I've read about this plane a week ago or so on Strategy Page (can't find the article) but linking to CSM since the information isn't very different from the earlier story.

Yes we need the F-22 and F-35 (maybe more F-35 then F-22) because we need to make sure we have either the best planes or at least others do not have better planes then we do.

(hat tip Lucianne, check out the comments by visitors to that site about what they think about the Jian-10)

Have a good day.

Silly String

An article on Strategy Page talks about how the troops are using Silly String to help them find booby traps. The spray a line into a room they need to search and if it falls to the floor, the room is safer to enter. If the Silly String hangs in the air, its most likely resting on wires that can be almost invisable to see that will set off the booby traps.

Go read the article and if you wnat to help the troops get the Silly String they want (its not GI issued so most of it is provided by Mom and Dad), there is a woman who is buying the stuff and sending it to her son (who is in Iraq) and other units as well.

Another example of our troops finding a new way to lesson their danger and the US public getting the troops the stuff they need with out the red tape.