

Thunderbirds-style Military Planes a go - DanielBMarkham
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24522183-5006003,00.html

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hugh
Although it's very cool technology, and I like the Thunderbirds reference, I
can't really see it being especially useful. Instead of having a "crack team"
of Marines ready to be deployed anywhere on Earth within four hours, why not
just have a bunch of teams positioned four hours' flight from most potential
trouble spots?

The comment about finding Osama Bin Laden seemed particularly odd. They really
thought that the best way to respond to a report about what cave he might be
in would be to load some Marines into a rocket somewhere in Alabama and blast
them around the world to land in Afghanistan?

And that's without worrying about how you actually land a billion-dollar
spaceplane in presumably-hostile territory without any teams on the ground yet
to help. Perhaps it drops them by parachute and then finds a friendly airbase
to land at?

Anyway, it definitely seems like technology looking for an application rather
than vice versa. But hey, I'm fine with that.

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LogicHoleFlaw
One of the mentioned benefits was that a space-plane is well out of the reach
of enemy radar. Helicopters and conventional jets give fairly large notice
when they are inbound.

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tom_rath
Wasn't this the same shtick used to sell DC-X in the early 90s?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X>

Such a shame the SSTO funding went to that VentureStar thing instead.

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jcromartie
Is it just me, or does a project code-named "Hot Eagle" sound like something
you'd see on Bravo?

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LogicHoleFlaw
Wow. This reminds me very heavily of the tactics in Starship Troopers. (The
book. Haven't seen the movie.)

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ardit33
you have to see the movie. It is so bad and so good at the same time. It is
one of those full of cliches bad movies, which is actually really
good/entertaining to watch. <http://www.hulu.com/watch/37498/starship-
troopers>

