Thrust Vectoring Technology
April 27th, 2007 | researchmaterial
(Via English Russia)
WARREN ELLIS is the award-winning creator of graphic novels such as FELL
, MINISTRY OF SPACE
, PLANETARY
, and TRANSMETROPOLITAN
, and the author of “underground classic” CROOKED LITTLE VEIN
.
Coilhouse - 20 Nov 09
Every time an issue of the magazine goes to print, things somehow turn Highly Inappropriate here at Coilhouse. This is apparent to anyone who was there on Twitter during the hours of our final revision deadline last night. And it’s only going to get worse before Issue 04’s out. So to celebrate, a video of Miss Piggy singing “Fuck the Pain Away” by Peaches. It’s that kind of day.
[via Shannon]
Brian Wood - 20 Nov 09

Will Blanche, ?The Newly Constructed Towers of the World Trade Center Seen From the South Side on West Street, May, 1973? (via These Americans)
See also: Mitch Epstein, ?West Side Highway, New York City? [looking towards World Trade Center] 1977
Kung Fu Monkey - 20 Nov 09
John Robb - 20 Nov 09
Short Answer: divide it.
It's long been my contention that Iraq was stabilized at an acceptable level of controlled chaos due to a happy accident by al Qaeda (in an attempt to expand/lead the loose insurgency in a new direction). What did they do? They blew up the Golden Mosque in Samara in 2006. This act of symbolic terrorism did indeed disrupt social networks as anticipated, however the consequences were ultimately disastrous for the Iraqi open source insurgency.
The reason for this is it broke the dynamics of the open source insurgency in ways the US and Iraqi government's COIN efforts could not. First, it created a permanent split between Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups/militias. Coopetition ended. Second, it motivated large Shiite militias to start an ethnic cleansing of Sunni areas. This put acute pressure on Sunni guerrilla groups who were too small (by design to avoid US counter-pressure) to defend themselves against large militias operating in the open. The result was an opening, very close to the one I described in my 2005 NYTimes OpEd, that allowed the US to convert Sunni guerrilla groups into militias that were not loyal to the central government (in direct contradiction to its COIN manual).
It's a nice example of the dynamics of many to many conflict, social network disruption, and the development open source counterinsurgency.
See this excellent description at the blog, "Musings on Iraq" for more detail on the ethnic cleansing operations. It also includes this money quote: "the majority of the Sunni insurgency gave up and switched sides to align with the Americans rather than face annihilation at the hands of the Shiite militias, Al Qaeda in Iraq, or the United States."
NOTE: it's pretty clear from the above that social network disruption (either through attacks on symbolic targets or blood and guts terrorism) is like playing horseshoes with live hand grenades. It's ultimately a losing strategy for advancing an open source insurgency. Social network disruption is very likely to break standing order 6: don't fork the insurgency.
Girl Farts - 20 Nov 09
John Robb - 20 Nov 09
Some random items of interest:
Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09

Beautiful (and simple) site design featuring the illustrative work of Yorifuji Bunpei. Via Paul Baron.
Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09

Coming up at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro is the show “Kodai,” running from November 25 until December 6.

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That is one shit-hell of a pilot. Balls of ice there.
That looks truly stomach churning for the pilot.
That was amazing. The forces at work on the pilot must be astounding. How many points of thrust are there on that thing?
It’s rare to see something on a little youtube screen and have a truly oh $#!+ moment. I was alternating between wondering how fast he was going and how slow he was going. Amazing.
the big clue is the smoke trails. The more turbulent, the more he’s breaking the laws of aerodynamics with glee. Cobra flips, turns and Chakras are all pilot killers in unvectored planes.
Glacial cooness in the cockpit.
Tremble Estonia!
For our jetfighters can parallel park in midair.
Not to mention our flying saucers, which can park most anywhere: http://englishrussia.com/?p=810
Thanks for hipping me to English Russia.
that’s something you’d want to practice at a high altitude.
I grew up near an RAF maintenance base, serving both British and US aircraft. I always had a thing for fighter planes. I remember a quote from a USAF pilot well over a decade ago (I’d link it if I could find it) saying the MIG29 would have topped an F-15 or F-18 in a dogfight, purely by dint of the bizarre way in which it could behave in-flight. But I’ve never seen anything like this. Somebody’s been at the drawing-board since then.
Yeah, the Russians have tended to focus a lot more heavily on agility. The problem is the old Russian avionics fits meant they weren’t much cop beyond visual range before said agility could come into play. I think they’ve been getting better at that recently though.
Re Chris Mapley: The thrust vectoring is just off the two engines, so it’s effectively just one line of thrust or two if the nozzles can be operated differentially.
This technology has been around for at least 10 years now. I believe it’s mostly computer controlled. The pilot is literally putting the plane in ‘awkward’ positions and the thrust vectoring compensates for attitude and velocity.
Words fail me.
Re Tapeleg: very much agreed on the “Oh shit!” moment.
Like the commenter says above, this isn’t new, I remember seeing a Sukhoi SU-27/SU-30 (like the one here - not a MIG) doing this at an airshow in the early/mid-nineties. It is very cool though, they’ve been one of my favourite aircraft since then.
In watching this amazing footage, I was struck by an idea and question… I wonder if it could be said that pussy fighter pilots fly fast. The boys with the big balls fly slow…
Yah, big balls because their shit’s gonna get wrecked by AMRAAMS.
Seriously, going slow? Not such a good idea in air combat.
Thunderbirds are GO! The admission standards for fighter pilots just plummeted. This bird looks uncrashable.
[…] [via Warren Ellis] […]
wow. pink frosting, is there nothing previously considered impossible you can’t do for humanity?
Seriously. did they dye the smoke for show? or is pink THE ONLY WAY IT WILL WORK
I do hope there’s some kind of gyroscope keeping the pilot even. OTherwise, how does he keep his stomach intact? Or is that not a concern over in the hardcore parts of the world?