Military experts say Iran�s new fighter jet is actually a US plane from the 1970s

[Cow Poke]

Claims by Iran that is has produced a new domestically-produced fighter jet have been questioned by military experts.

On Tuesday, Iranian state television screened images of President Hassan Rouhani sitting in what was reported as a new "Kowsar" fighter aircraft.

Local media also reported that the plane was a fourth-generation fighter jet that had been designed and manufactured solely by Iranian military experts.

However, international aviation experts have been quick to cast doubt on the claim of pure Iranian technology and have suggested that the design is that of the U.S.-made F-5F jet, first built in the early 1970s. Tehran purchased F-5s from America in 1974, five years before the Iranian revolution.

Joseph Dempsey, a defence and military analysis research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), took to Twitter to illustrate the comparison.

F5.jpg

[kiwimac]

I'm reminded that the military experts of the day thought that the new FW-190 was a repurposed Curtiss P-36 Hawk. The only way to find out is to try them out.

[Sparko]

Remember the Russian Space Shuttle?

[Cow Poke]

Remember the Russian Space Shuttle?

Look at the insignias on the wings --- two TOTALLY DIFFERENT craft!

[Leonhard]

Look at the insignias on the wings --- two TOTALLY DIFFERENT craft!

They were actually rather different if you can look past the superficial similarities. The Buran was fully automatic, and could be completely teleoperated. The Buran itself had no main engines, but only small orbit insertion engines and instead it was a payload of the booster rocket which took it completely out into orbit.

The fuselage had a pretty similar design though.

The Soviet Union only made it because they were worrying that the US would use the Space Shuttle to build a huge military installation in orbit, and wanted similar capability. Unfortunately the Space Shuttle program didn't work out as well, instead of it taking a single week to refurbish a Shuttle it instead took three month. This meant that it couldn't be used to launch military payloads, even though it was built big enough to hold them in its cargo bay.

The Soviets wisely quit the project and continued using the much cheaper Proton rocket.

[Cow Poke]

They were actually rather different if you can look past the superficial similarities. The Buran was fully automatic, and could be completely teleoperated. The Buran itself had no main engines, but only small orbit insertion engines and instead it was a payload of the booster rocket which took it completely out into orbit.

The fuselage had a pretty similar design though.

The Soviet Union only made it because they were worrying that the US would use the Space Shuttle to build a huge military installation in orbit, and wanted similar capability. Unfortunately the Space Shuttle program didn't work out as well, instead of it taking a single week to refurbish a Shuttle it instead took three month. This meant that it couldn't be used to launch military payloads, even though it was built big enough to hold them in its cargo bay.

The Soviets wisely quit the project and continued using the much cheaper Proton rocket.

That was a joke, son! I'm well aware of the "form follows function" argument.

[Leonhard]

That was a joke, son! I'm well aware of the "form follows function" argument.

At any rate I'm no fan of the Space Shuttle. It should have been axed in the nineties. It was a pork project sucking up funds from NASA. As long as they had to fly it they couldn't start work on a new rocket.

Obama stopping that moronic project, and starting the COTS which has given us SpaceX, Blue Origin and Boeing soon being able to deliver commercial crew (and already cargo) at a much cheaper rate.

[One Bad Pig]

They were actually rather different if you can look past the superficial similarities. The Buran was fully automatic, and could be completely teleoperated. The Buran itself had no main engines, but only small orbit insertion engines and instead it was a payload of the booster rocket which took it completely out into orbit.

The fuselage had a pretty similar design though.

The Soviet Union only made it because they were worrying that the US would use the Space Shuttle to build a huge military installation in orbit, and wanted similar capability. Unfortunately the Space Shuttle program didn't work out as well, instead of it taking a single week to refurbish a Shuttle it instead took three month. This meant that it couldn't be used to launch military payloads, even though it was built big enough to hold them in its cargo bay.

The Soviets wisely quit the project and continued using the much cheaper Proton rocket.

The Space Shuttle was used to deliver a number of military payloads.

[One Bad Pig]

At any rate I'm no fan of the Space Shuttle. It should have been axed in the nineties. It was a pork project sucking up funds from NASA. As long as they had to fly it they couldn't start work on a new rocket.

Obama stopping that moronic project, and starting the COTS which has given us SpaceX, Blue Origin and Boeing soon being able to deliver commercial crew (and already cargo) at a much cheaper rate.

What was truly moronic was shutting down our only independent means of getting people in space without a replacement in place.

[Leonhard]

The Space Shuttle was used to deliver a number of military payloads.

Ten of them sure. It was the reason why it had such a huge payload bay to begin with, to launch spy satellites and to use the bay for experiments. It was made that large due to a request from the Department of Defence.

[Cow Poke]

What was truly moronic was shutting down our only independent means of getting people in space without a replacement in place.

...until a Plan B could be implemented without Russian Collusion!!!!

[Mountain Man]

They were actually rather different if you can look past the superficial similarities. The Buran was fully automatic, and could be completely teleoperated. The Buran itself had no main engines, but only small orbit insertion engines and instead it was a payload of the booster rocket which took it completely out into orbit.

The fuselage had a pretty similar design though.

The Soviet Union only made it because they were worrying that the US would use the Space Shuttle to build a huge military installation in orbit, and wanted similar capability. Unfortunately the Space Shuttle program didn't work out as well, instead of it taking a single week to refurbish a Shuttle it instead took three month. This meant that it couldn't be used to launch military payloads, even though it was built big enough to hold them in its cargo bay.

The Soviets wisely quit the project and continued using the much cheaper Proton rocket.

There are some fascinating photos taken by an urban explorer featuring an abandoned Russian space shuttle facility:

https://www.businessinsider.com/phot...-mirebs-2015-6

[Zymologist]

There are some fascinating photos taken by an urban explorer featuring an abandoned Russian space shuttle facility:

https://www.businessinsider.com/phot...-mirebs-2015-6

This is so cool.

[Leonhard]

What was truly moronic was shutting down our only independent means of getting people in space without a replacement in place.

No, what would have been really moronic was keeping the Space Shuttle. It cost too much. Unless more money was to be poured into NASA (not happening), then it was either "Keep running with the Space Shuttle" or "Stop the Space Shuttle project and start on something else".

Of those two I prefer the latter. I don't understand why you'd prefer the former?

It was by all accounts a failed project if you study the goals the project had. The goal was a rapidly resusable space plane with a large cargo capacity cheaper to fly than ordinary rockets. That failed. It was not rapidly reusable. And it was a lot more expensive than conventional rockets.

What would you have done if you weren't allowed to increase the budget for NASA?

And now you have SpaceX who's making actual strides towards reusable rockets with Blue Origin (made by Jeff Bezos of the Amazon fortune) making strides to match them. What's not to like about that?

[Mountain Man]

This is so cool.

I'm fascinated by urban exploration, but I'm not nearly brave/foolhardy enough to attempt it myself.