Gripen becomes even better

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

And the traditional Finnkampen with our dear neigbours starts.:p

Seems to be a Scandinavian National sport? I once knew a guy from Norway, who complained that on board a jetliner from SAS the stewardess made an announcement: "We are about entering Norwegian airspace, please adjust you clocks accordingly by setting them back by a hundred years."

[Heibges]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Yes, but they are not alone with that ability. Harriers, and any other plane with short distance takeoff-and-land capability would be able to do that.

If you really want to learn about wonders and miracles of airforce logistics, check Switzerland's air force, at least in the past. Hollow mountains. Perfectly cloaked hangers. Nazguls.

Well, maybe no Nazguls.

As Hyman Rickover pointed out, the loss of their air bases cripples the US Airforce. Obviously, he was not looking to make friends in the Air Force. He was talking about bombers, but the same thing could be said of most of our fighters also.

[Happy Times]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Seems to be a Scandinavian National sport? I once knew a guy from Norway, who complained that on board a jetliner from SAS the stewardess made an announcement: "We are about entering Norwegian airspace, please adjust you clocks accordingly by setting them back by a hundred years."

This is even different from those, Finland was part of Sweden proper for over 700 years. Those were the days, raping and pillagin over Poland, Bohemia and Germany. Sweden is still our second official language, we study it atleast 6 years in our schools, many for over 10. You need to speak it to get any goverment job, teacher, civil cervant, police officer, military occupation etc..

[Konovalov]

The Gripen has always been a classic favourite of mine. I remember SAAB often used the Gripen to advertise it's cars. Pitty the car wasn't up to par like the Gripen.

[Tchocky]

Hmm, scandinavian jokes....

Sky, I thought suicide was the national sport?

What does Sweden have the Finland doesn't?

Good neighbours!

(I'm sorry!)

[Happy Times]

At the airport...

A guy sitting at an airport bar in Atlanta noticed a beautiful woman sitting next to him.

He thought to himself, "Wow, she's gorgeous! And I think she's a flight attendant...but which airline does she work for?"

Hoping to pick her up, he leaned towards her and uttered the Delta slogan, "Love to fly and it shows?"

She gave him a blank, confused stare and he immediately thought to himself, "Hmm, no, she doesn't work for Delta."

A moment later, another slogan popped into his head. He leaned towards her again; "Something special in the air?"

She gave him the same confused look. He mentally kicked himself, and scratched American Airlines off the list. Next he tried the United slogan, "I would really love to fly your friendly skies!"

This time the woman looked at him, irritated, and screamed "What the $%#! do you want?!"

The man slumped back in his chair, and said: "Ahh, Finnair..."

Drinking

Sakke and Ville are sitting in a cottage in the middle of nowhere. They've been drinking for three days straight and they finally run out of booze.

Sakke says to his mate "Hey, go and look in the tool shed and see if there's anything to drink there."

Ville comes back with a bottle of methanol, and says "We could drink this, but we'll go blind!"

Sakke slowly looks around the cottage and out the window, and says "I think we've seen enough."


Finnish soldier

A young female reporter from a British newspaper was sent to Finland to write an article about Finnish soldiers returning from the Winter War. Interviewing one infantry-man, Jussi, she asked

"When you came home, when the war was over, what was the first thing you did?"

"I screwed my wife," Jussi replied bluntly.

The journalist went red, and tried to change the subject.

"After that, I mean. What did you do after that?"

"I screwed her again," he answered.

The journalist turned an even darker shade of red.

"Other than that! Uh - what did you do when you were finished with all that?"

"I took off my skis and had a beer."

Finnish weather explained

+15°C / 59°F
This is as warm as it gets in Finland, so we'll start here.
People in Spain wears winter-coats and gloves.
The Finns are out in the sun, getting a tan.

+10°C / 50°F
The French are trying in vain to start their central heating.
The Finns plant flowers in their gardens.

+5°C / 41°F
Italian cars won't start.
The Finns are cruising in cabriolets.

0°C / 32°F
Distilled water freezes.
The water in the Vanda river (in Finland) gets a little thicker.

-5°C / 23°F
People in California almost freeze to death.
The Finns have their final barbecue before winter.

-10°C / 14°F
The Brits start the heat in their houses.
The Finns start using long sleeves.

-20°C / -4°F
The Aussies flee from Mallorca.
The Finns end their Midsummer celebrations. Autumn is here.

-30°C / -22°F
People in Greece die from the cold and disappear from the face of the earth.
The Finns start drying their laundry indoors.

-40°C / -40°F
Paris start cracking in the cold.
The Finns stand in line at the "grilli-kioski".

-50°C / -58°F
Polar bears start evacuating the North Pole.
The Finnish army postpones their winter survival training awaiting real winter weather.

-60°C / -76°F
Korvatunturi (the home for Santa Claus) freezes.
The Finns rent a movie and stay indoors.

-70°C / -94°F
The false Santa moves south.
The Finns get frustrated since they can't store their Kossu (Koskenkorva vodka) outdoors.
The Finnish army goes out on winter survival training.

-183°C / -297.4°F
Microbes in food don't survive.
The Finnish cows complain that the farmers' hands are cold.

-273°C / -459.4°F
All atom-based movent halts.
The Finns start saying "Perkele, it's cold outside today."

-300°C / -508°F
Hell freezes over.
Finland wins the Eurovision Song Contest.


:p

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

Sky, I thought suicide was the national sport?

Öh...? Do you refer to the higher rate of depressions and substance abuse (and caused by both of this: suicide rates) in these countries due to lacking light and bad weather ?

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by P_Funk

Don't the Swedes have the ability to land their planes on any long straight highway and have a refueling crew drive out to the aircraft? I saw that somewhere.

Not only that but that refueling/rearming crew consists of only an NCO and two or three conscripts!

Compare that to the dozen or so people need to just check the oil and wash the windshield on a US operated jet.

[bookworm_020]

All these Finland jokes!:p

Reminds me of one I heard when reading a book on crash investigations.

"Did you hear of the plane that vannished? It disappeared into Finnair...":rotfl:

[Safe-Keeper]

People in Spain wears winter-coats and gloves.
The Finns are out in the sun, getting a tan.

That is so true:rotfl: (of Norsemen, too).

[Happy Times]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Not only that but that refueling/rearming crew consists of only an NCO and two or three conscripts!

Compare that to the dozen or so people need to just check the oil and wash the windshield on a US operated jet.

And the number of sorties in a day, per plane, is a massive 3-6. This compensates for the small sizes of the forces.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

And the number of sorties in a day, per plane, is a massive 3-6. This compensates for the small sizes of the forces.

Up to 6...? That is... exceptional!

[Happy Times]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Up to 6...? That is... exceptional!

Ofcourse they cant sustain that surge forever, but they do have the pilots to do this at times. Most missions would be short interception missions over Finland. Better would be to have more planes, altough there are some 50 BAE Hawks that ive seen equipped with Sidewinders and rockets.

[Skybird]

Gripen cockpit - still very modern, I would say, ergonomic and reducing the number of instruments, optimizing presentation of information. Note the huge HUD, and three huge MFDs - planned and designed in the 70s and 80s!

http://www.eurocontrol.int/gallery/m...e_550x_JPG.jpg

http://www.aviation-fr.info/militair...en_display.jpg

In the late 80s I read a couple of books on fighter planes. All authors back then seemed to agree that the Gripen had by far the most modern cockpit of it's time, even more so than the F16C.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Found at simHQ:

On of my most favourite fighters of the present continues to become better:

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?session=dae.26509089.1181683682.LCQz3H8A AAEAAGdGJVkAAAAM&manuel_call_cat=3&manuel_call_pro d=83146&manuel_call_mod=release&modele=jdc_inter

The Swedish from the beginning were one of the most innovative and leading players when datalink capability was being introduced to military platforms.

Very great and clever plane the Gripen is. Sweden certainly knows a thing or two about designing military equipement, since their traditon of fighter aircraft is not the only thing where they excel.

Thats why I drive a SAAB most days! Its a helluva lot better on gas mileage than my SUV too!

-S