American Football Vs. Real Football

A quick deviation from my normal topic:

This is a huge debate in America. So many people believe that American football or even baseball are the best sports in the world. This is so close minded that it literally pisses me off. Real football is most dominant sport in the ENTIRE world. Yes, some countries actually do have other sports as their main sport, like the US clearly or even China. Ya, China's number one sport is table tennis. You just have to think about that one and say wtf?! And table tennis being a sport?? Ya, but that's a whole other issue. The thing that annoys me is when big headed people believe American football is the shit. I don't understand what is so great about the sport to be honest. Like don't get me wrong, like any other sport its exhilarating, but it does not even require half the skill as a sport like real football. Football, or soccer as its know here in the US, takes so much precision and skill and team work. That is one huge thing, teamwork. In American there is like barely any team work. You work yourself to get yourself open only. Then you get the ball and basically just muscle your way to the end zone. I'll give the sport that certain few positions like the quarterback and halfback do take skill and precision in finding those openings. Do not get me wrong by the way, I am not trying to say football is the best sport I am just trying to prove that American football is not as amazing as people believe it to be. Even this image proves that football (soccer) is the most dominant sport in the world:
Just look at all that green. I think that explains itself right there.
Now baseball is whole other issue as well. That sport can't even compare to football (soccer). It does take some skill to hit that fast, small ball but that is pretty much it. There is no teamwork or strategy involved. And people think that pitchers are all that cause they can throw a ball like 98 mph, but like one movie points out, "so what, they just means they can have a wank faster." - Green Street Hooligans.
Hopefully, in that little rant I proved my point haha.

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV, is a relatively new feature in the US Air Force's inventory. It's features are revolutionary and open the Air Force up to many new possibilities. Unfortunately, even though working with the state of the art technology, I dislike the UAV's to a pretty intensive degree. The UAV's are piloted by normal USAF pilot. Therefore, those pilots that are selected from Air Force ROTC Cadets that want to fly fighters like the F-35 or A-10, can be made to sit in a room instead of being out there in the fight. Technically, UAV's are a safer way to conduct operations. This may be true however, when a Cadet makes that decision that he wants to be a pilot and understands that he will serve a minimum of eleven years, he is excepting a huge commitment hoping do do what he loves and feel the exhilaration of flying up high in the sky.

The USAF had initially utilized the UAV primarily for reconnaissance purposes. However, as technology is ever advancing, the UAV has slowly made its way into the fighter theatre. The first UAV that the USAF put up that actually had the capability of firing two Hellfire missiles was the well known MQ-1, or commonly know as the Predator. However, recently introduced is the brand new MQ-9, called the Reaper. This new UAV is much more capable than its predecessor. It contains a 900 hp turbo prop engine unlike the Predator's 119 hp engine. It can also hold up to fourteen Hellfire II anti-armor missiles or an assortment of other guided missiles. Finally, it has an extended service ceiling of up to 50,000 ft. That's pretty high for such a small and somewhat light vehicle. The Reaper, "is designed to go after time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision, and should the Reaper ever be assigned your case, you are indeed very likely to become toast." - http://www.gizmag.com/go/6149/

Gen. T. Michael Moseley stressed that the key advantage of the UAV is not keeping pilots out of harm's way, but the persistence UAV's can inherently provide. The new UAV may be accurate from a much greater distance up in the air. However, what about close air support? It cannot do that and therefore is very limited I believe. The technology is no doubt state of the art, but I must be partially biased against it since I want a "real" pilot slot. What I think they should do is instead of making selection pilots fly UAV's in some closed room where their SEER training becomes useless and pointless, they should just make it a whole other category to choose from for anyone. Its basically like being really really really good at Flight Sim. for the computer. You can see from this picture that as the guy is doing is sitting there for hours flying this incredible machine with two small screens. Overall, the UAV is an incredible aerial vehicle, but they way that its being incorporated I don't necessarily agree with. We all know that obviously it won't change, so.....better start practicing MS Flight Sim more haha.
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/predator/

F-35 Lightening II

"The F-35 is the result of the Defense Department's Joint Strike Fighter program, which sought to build a multirole fighter optimized for the air-to-ground role with secondary air-to-air capability. The F-35 supposedly covers the functionalities of almost 15 other aircraft.The requirement was to meet the needs of the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and other allies. Its main requirements were improved survivability, precision engagement capability, and reduced life cycle costs. The new F-35 utilizes many of the same technologies that were introduced in the F-22. The also wanted a fighter that could achieve a completly vertical takoff and landing as well as to still achieve reaching supersonic speeds. The Lockheed Martin F-35 was chosen over the competing Boeing F-32 primarily because of Lockheeds lift-fan STOVL design, which proved superior to the Boeing vectored-thrust approach. The lift fan, which is powered by the aircraft engine via a clutched driveshaft, was technically challenging but Department of Defence concluded that Lockheed has the technology in hand. The lift fan has significant excess power which could be critical given the weight gain that all fighter aircraft experience.Lockheed Martin developed four versions of the Joint Strike Fighter to fulfill the needs of the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and the United Kingdom Royal Air Force and Navy. All versions have the same fuselage and internal weapons bay, common outer mold lines with similar structural geometries, identical wing sweeps, and comparable tail shapes. The weapons are stored in two parallel bays located aft of the main landing gear. The canopy, radar, ejection system, subsystems, and avionics are all common among all different version as is the core engine which is based on the F119 by Pratt & Whitney."

Additional systems on the F-35 include:

1. Northrup Grumman advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) multi-function radar

2. Snader/Litton Amecon electronic countermeasures equipment

3. Lockheed Martin electro-optical targeting system

4. Northrup Grumman distributed aperture infrared sensor (DAIRS) thermal imaging system

5. Vision Systems International advanced helmet-mounted display

http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/uswpns/air/fighter/f35.html

There are a lot of arguments both for and against the F-35, mainly one of them being using the aircraft to replace both the F-16 and F-22. Many people belive that even though the F-35 gives us the cost benifit of having so many capabilities in one aircraft however, other critical things are lost such as the F-16's superior manuverability. Former Capitol Hill staffer, Winslow Wheeler belives that the F-35 was doomed from the start. this believes this is because of how they are trying to form this fighter to fight in three very different ways (air to air, air to ground, and close support) for three different branches of the military. "The service record of these multi role fighter's are terrible." And again he states how because of its weight, its too heavy to be extremly agile and have good manuverablilty that you want in a fighter. In short, the F-35, he belives, is an "ok" fighter in many areas instead of a superior specialized fighter role.

However, there are many positives aspects for the F-35 too. Maj. Gen. C.D. Moore says the F-35's near invisibility to enemy weapons systems is one of the factors that will make it an effective warplane. Even though the F-35 will not be as manueverable as the F-16, it will still be manuverable to the degree which satisfies the degree to which it is needed. One of the most signifigant aspects is the fighters survivability which is a very key part. The centrifusion of the aircraft is a very significant part to the F-35. This mean that it will be able to receive a wide range of variant input sources and simplify them into a way that gives the pilot and clear and detail understanding of the battle space. Regardless of the only small variations of the aircraft between branches, most of the aircraft systems, for instance the mission avionics, are identical to one another making it easy for each military branch to support one another as well as eight other international partners.

Author and journalist Bill Sweetman, also points out that for the first time the re-equipment plans of the U.S. fighter force is reliant on one program and one manufacturer. This is a big thing and greatly helps with the cost of the aircraft as well as upkeep for the aircraft. He does say that the F-35 program has suffered several challenges including an overall continuing delay, the aircraft is much more difficult to manufacture than they had hoped, and the flight test program has proceeded far slower than any before. Despite these setbacks, Sweetman points out that they have nothing to do with the program itself. It has yet to prove itself worth of all this trouble.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/04/f-35-extended-interviews.html

Mandatory IT109 Questions

1. Are you more or less likely to be misunderstood online? Why?

I believe that you are definitly more likely to be misunderstood online rather than in person. There are many reasons for this. First off what you write is essentiall set in stone, what you say is what you say. People will interpret what you write in thousands of different ways other than what the writers intention was. For Instance the writer could have been trying to use sarcasim in his words, while the reader could have interpreted it as an offensive comment. Audience is everything. You can never write a certain way online, as people will always interpret it another way.



2. What are two advantages of social networks?

I believe that social networks have many advantages. Communication is huge in our world today; we rely on it. One major advatage is that social networks offers the ability for people to stay in touch almost anywhere. This is especially good for staying in touch with someone that has moved away or just to stay in touch with friends and family. A second advantage of social networks is that they are a great way ot obtain feedback. With several people reading posts and commenting on various things, you can recieve a great deal of feedback on whatever you are talking about. This can help to improve an idea and get multiple points of view on a subject. Overall, social networking offers endless possibilities and opportunities.


3. What is an acceptable use policy? Who decides what constitutes acceptable use? What can happen if you violate an acceptable use policy?

An acceptable use policy, or AUP, is a set of rules applied by the owner or manager of a network, website, or large computer system. An AUP restricts the ways in which the network site or system may be used. The person who establishes the AUP constitutes acceptable use. The AUP holder sets forth in the policy law and regulations for which will be enforced when violated.

C-17 Globemaster III

Possibly one of my favorite aircraft in the USAF. There are so many awesome aircraft ranging from the Stratofortress, to the KC-135, to the brand new F-35 Fighter. The C-17 Globemaster III is so unique in that it has got so many modern features. Unlike many of the aircraft in the USAF's inventory, the C-17 has a full glass cockpit. This means, that it does not have countless round dials and gauges showing all the information needed to fly. Instead, all ofthe information given by those round dialed instruments are channeled into two digital displays, the Primary Flight Display, or PDF, and the Modular Flight Deck, or MFD. This greatly decongested the instrument panel and makes it much easier for the pilot's to find and interpret information.

Another awesome feature of the C-17 is its ability to move countless items from one place to another. It's cargo hold bay is huge and can fit almost any military equipment in whether it be the Army's huge M1A1 Abrams tank, Marine helicopters, or even up to 134 personnel.

Another unique feature of the C-17 is its ability to takeoff and land on extremely short runway distances. For instance, when completely empty with no cargo or fuel requirements, the aircraft can both land and takeoff of a 3000 ft runway. That is extremely short for such a large aircraft and is quite a significant feat. Naturally, that distance changes once fuel for certain distances and cargo weight is added. However with max fuel and max cargo weight, the takeoff and landing distance is not much over 6000 ft. Also an additional feature of the C-17 is its reverse thrusters giving it the ability to not only land in shorter distances but to also reverse.

First Blog

Hey, my name is Andrew Shayler and this is my first blog.
Current, I am majoring in Aeronautical Science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. After college, my hope is to fly for the United States Air Force. My primary aircraft that I would love to fly is the C-17 Globemaster airlift/mobility aircraft. It has some of the most up to date technology in its aircraft compared to many others in the USAF fleet.
Also, if/when I come out of the Air Force, I will , most likely stay with general aviation if not pursue a carreer in it.
Thats all for now.