The Military Thread

New jets. Wear and tear (particularly structural wear) cause increase maintenance costs. This is how airlines save money by buying fleets of new multi-million dollar planes, due how the maintenance costs add up.

Also, on the topic of standing watch.

Ah, so when the maintenance costs become too expensive, it's better to just buy new aircraft. Just like cars!

Heh, I knew TL would come up. I was more expecting that comic about being a mook guard under fear of getting Solid Snake'd.

Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes is going to be hilarious to people who have been in the mook role in Real Life.

edited 18th Mar '14 2:17:31 PM by TheHandle

Also on flight hour vs maintenance hour. It also depends on the aircraft's construction and what it is made of. F-18s are at a 6 to 1 ratio. The F22 is something 20+ to 1. The SR 71 had some horrendous number.

And sometimes you still get a good return on the investment, if that aircraft has some capability you need but can't get otherwise, such as the SR-71's unique ability to escape any flavor of Anti-Air by pushing the throttle forward slightly.

True but in the case of the SR 71 for a time it had a unique capability but was very very expensive to fly it even once.

So, would superstong materials decrease maintenance hours?
Or wouod the best way be an infinite supply of planes and tossing them after one flight?

wouod the best way be an infinite supply of planes and tossing them after one flight?

Tossing a plane after one flight is horribly wasteful. You are unlikely to get your money's worth in material and manufacture cost with that method.

Better overall plane designs to reduce maintenance wear and tear and possibly future advanced materials may also help in that regard. Improved maintenance method, tools, materials, and techniques can also possibly cut down the number of maintenance hours needed per craft.

edited 18th Mar '14 4:31:10 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Say you had the magical ability to make planes appear from thin air.

-_- I will feed you to my perpetually hungry Chihuahua's.

Say, you know what plane could fly for days with minimal maintenance?

The F-35

edited 18th Mar '14 4:34:40 PM by LeGarcon

-Shoots Garcon repeatedly with a quad mounted 20mm Hispano auto cannon-

edited 18th Mar '14 4:40:52 PM by TuefelHundenIV

-Drops a MOAB on the remains-

- Sprinkles salt on the site -

,,

edited 18th Mar '14 5:27:52 PM by Achaemenid

There's a name for aircraft designed to be used once and disposed: Missiles. They are usually a bit cheaper than a reusable airplane, granted.

....

-Summons a Covenant fleet to glass the planet-

You know what could be an ideal aircraft to take on the mission of glassing planets...?

I think you've confused "slipspace bombing" with "glassing".

Now now, I've gone and solved the maintenance issues without the F-35. We just need more F-16s is all.

Look at how helpful they are◊

Is that a ...no, that's too big to be a model. What exceptionally fortuitous timing.

Estimates for fighting corrosion in the US military is 1.4 Billion Dollars.

Yep, billion with a b. Metal wants to return to the ore it was, most metal corrodes. Aircraft are worse because they move in 3 dimensions at tremendous stresses.

Cracks start as "micro cracks", corrosion sets in and then the airplane is scrap. Oil and other liquids can actually cause corrosion when they eat the paint away.

That's why various wings and squadrons work together, in case one aircraft is down for maintenance.

Ragnarök Proofing is impossible unless a plane is stored under controlled conditions or a lot of work is done. Yes they did restore Glacier Girl, the P-38 buried under lots of ice in Greenland. But they didn't fly it out, it had to be worked on.

As for the T-34 buried in a peat bog, it's a special case. They can be cold enough or chemically tame enough that bodies have been found dating back to pre-Roman times. Try that T-34 trapped in Korea or any metal in the jungle.

Something that never ceases to astonish me is the Hungarian protesters who managed to drive a T-34 off a war memorial in Budapest in 2006 and use it to charge the police. Both for the ability of the protesters to get it working and the fact that whoever put it there was dumb enough to leave the engine and transmission in place.