It's funny that Grosjean was a staunch critic of the Halo device that ended up saving him from likely being torn in half. He has since changed his mind

"I wasn’t for the halo some years ago, but I think it’s the greatest thing that we brought to Formula One, and without it I wouldn’t be able to speak to you today." - Grosjean

*ban
HOSPITALITY SOLUTIONS FORMULA ONE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3VM7S6Zm5E

LOL I can't be a pig and Sarah Palin at the same time. Make up your mind

Those are all valid criticisms, but nobody apart from the flight engineers and test pilots truly know whether this plane is a lemon or not. If it does everything it's supposed to do, then it's exactly what the military asked for, just 10 years too late....

Any suitability and fit for purpose criticism that anyone has ever come up with for the F-35 also applies to just about any piece of military equipment that has been created in the last 70 years. Engineering is a balancing act, and an iterative process. Almost every aircraft, and vehicle in the military today was built to fight a soviet army. Luckily that never happened. But that means that most aircraft and vehicles in the military today have been grossly modified to make them fit for a different purpose. The F-35 will probably go through this as well over the next 30 years, because it's a normal part of the life-cycle of military equipment. Almost every plane dropping bombs now was previously designed as a fighter. But nobody ever calls them out for being mutants like they do with the F-35, they call it additional capability. The F-35 was born with these capabilities instead of being added over time.


Expensive: I'll agree. Could the money have been spent better else where? Definitely. You could argue that the cost is tiny compared to that of a full scale war, maybe F-35 is a good deterrent. Air superiority is the key to winning a war. If you're going to spend money then that's where it should be spent. When the oceans rise enough, is a country like Indonesia going to lash out and try to take land and resources for their civilians? Maybe. I doubt all 200 million of them will just stand there and starve. (Ok I'll concede, this does make me sound a bit like Palin. But hopefully not as dumb )
They could have probably made 3 different stealth planes for 1/2 the cost, but that has it's own strategic downsides. You have to have the right assets in the right places or you have to spread them quite thinly. With a multi-role plane you have all of the capabilities everywhere. Just a matter of a loading it with different weapons.

Not needed: Time will tell whether this is the right plane, but new planes are needed. And they absolutely must have stealth. Within 10 years, weapon systems will be so advanced that if you are spotted, you're as good as dead. We are currently dropping bombs on fairly unsophisticated enemies, but wars tend to escalate quickly. You just never know either way, and it's better to be prepared for the worst. There are plenty of countries with very good planes and pilots that could get sucked into a conflict. If you're really unlucky you could be fighting US made planes with pilots trained in the same way, and you don't want to be fighting a fair fight.
Further still, Russia, China and Japan are developing their own stealth planes, which pretty much forces everyone else to do the same thing.
Especially if Donald Trump gets elected. You never know who that crazy asshole is going to provoke into a war

Doesn't work: It's still in development and testing.

Overtasked: It does the same stuff the aging multi-role planes (that were originally built as fighters) do. With the addition of stealth, and better weapons/sensors/comms. Small performance variables don't win wars, superior tactics and situational awareness does.

Underpowered: Almost every plane ever built has had it's engines upgraded to give it more thrust through it's life. And engines on planes are almost a disposable item, they're constantly being replaced throughout the life-cycle of the plane. Like a formula one car.
The current engine, is already the most powerful engine ever in a jet fighter. It is good enough to fly super sonic without an afterburner, which none of the planes it's replacing are capable of.

Piloted: Agreed. But who knows, maybe a Boston Dynamics robot will be flying it soon

Test Failing: That's only a good thing. You want things to fail during tests, and not in the real world. Testing and finding flaws is a normal part of developing anything.

Fragile: That can be said for all US aircraft. They all need to have the runway checked for FOD, because one little rock can destroy even the best plane. Russian aircraft on the other hand are designed to be rugged though, because they're runways are in terrible condition. But in reality, all sophisticated equipment needs constant maintenance, especially when even a simple failure at 40,000 feet becomes an emergency.

Quickly Obsolete: Time will tell. Perhaps it would have been better to keep upgrading current planes with more technology like plasma stealth gas that make then partially stealthy, better sensors and more computing power. But by the time you've done that you've got a plane that's as heavy as F-35 anyway, and not as capable. Although it might have been cheaper in the long run.

Like I said in my previous comment. All of this doesn't make an interesting story so you'll only ever hear the two extremes which are "the plane sux" vs "it's invicible!!11" depending on your media source.

When I was in Shanghai for Formula one, I rode a bike to the buses that went to the track every day. One night I got lost on the bike ride back to the hotel. The next day I realized it was because they repaved one mile of road that was on my route within the time I was at the race, (maybe 9hrs) and it threw me off. Would have taken a week here minimum.

Jackie Stewart won the championship that year by a huge margin.
side note; 6 of the current formula one drivers live/grew up in monaco. WIsh i could afford to go there

A Formula One Lap with Simona De Silvestro has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo.

If there is a button the the steering wheel that gives an extra 100hp for overtaking by whatever method, I'm willing to call it push to pass. I expect that hitting the button would switch the engine to a high power torque mapping, use the MGU-H to spool up the turbo faster, and give a MGU-K boost exactly like last year's KERS button. I would also expect that not every team uses a steering wheel button for this function, but if Williams called it "push to pass" over the radio, I expect that they do. You could also have a separate engine mapping to do the same thing, and I expect that probably some teams do.

The RBR infringement was a bit more complicated than that. The FIA sensor was giving them inaccurate readings (it was reading high), and the FIA told them to apply an offset to the sensor values. They chose to use another method to ensure they weren't exceeding the 100kg/hr limit, and were excluded on the grounds that they had not sought permission from the FIA to do so and that it is not within their discretion to run a different fuel flow measurement method without the permission of the FIA.

I expect their appeal will be on the grounds that they did not in fact exceed the limit, and gained no advantage from their actions... and despite Christian Horner's level of confidence it could go either way. The last report I heard was that although they have lodged their intention to appeal, they have not yet actually tabled the appeal (but have a few more hours to do so).

Actually Mercedes were warned about the same issue. They chose to turn down their engines a bit to avoid the problem.

Formula one has been about getting around the rules at least since the 80s, and RBR have been very good at it. The camera mounting is very much in the category of satisfies the letter of the law, but very much goes against the spirit. I like the approach of using the camera mount as an extra wing actually (is it only the one team who did this?).

Transforming Formula One: 2014 Rules Explained by Red Bull has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo on that post.

Im guessing the possibility to one day create a competitive table tennis robot is doable but doubt they are anywhere near that now technologically (just a guess). The info that has to be gathered before each shot and the ability for the computer/robot to counter with the best type of shot seems like a daunting task for the computer/robot to make.

From this video im guessing that it wouldn't take much of a table tennis player to destroy a robotic competitor. I see nothing here that makes me think this robot could play worth a shit competitively. Way to easy to exploit it's shortcomings is my guess.

Now a robotic pool player seems much more realistic.

How about computer controlled car in a formula one race?

In the LiveLeak comments for this, autowolf says:

sleds tend to have lower top speed numbers compared to say sports bikes etc because spinning that track requires an incredible amount of effort. That snowmobile might be making 300 or so hp but its top speed probably wont be much over 130. The thing is it will get to 120 in about five seconds. A really built out race sled will have a power to weight ratio similar to a formula 1 car. most stock snowmobiles will have one equal to about half that of a formula one car. an average weight sled with a 150 or so hp engine will be sitting at around 500 HP per ton

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Wheels' to 'Wheels, cars, f1, formula one, drivers, quotes, racing' - edited by grinter

"Shell's priceless..." This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Formula One Management.

http://i.imgur.com/k5oZFqo.png

I'm sure this will be fine but if anyone wants to see a great Formula One film on the greatest driver of all time, go check out "Senna"

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