Su-47kv Berkut/caiman

[Rafael]

History shows that an estimated 30000+ people were missing presumed dead, the actual number impossible to quantify.  100000 people were left homeless.  They probably wouldn't sleep for days.

Excellent!!!

When Whif meets Real Life.
So sad, so terrible.

So true.

Sad, sad Rafa.

[dragon]

Rafael,
    Think of it as "Cuentame a Venezuela" (by Arturo Uslar Pietri) meets Forrest Gump and TOP GUN.  Which makes an interesting combination.


Next pictures will be posted soon.  Even with an assist from my Dremel tool, I know that I am going to be exiled to "putty, sand, and repeat" island for a while. Va ser mas largo que un peo de culebra (Venezuelan colloquialism translated to "It's going to be longer than a snake's fart").   Business travel doesn't help either.  

[dragon]

Progress from Putty, sand and repeat island.


January 2000

MATADOR had been helping in the rescue efforts at Vargas.  Word had come in that countries around the world would send help of some kind in this tragedy.  A few days ago President Clinton of the United States of America had promised to send in a battalion of SEABEES, helicopters, lots of bulldozers, transport planes and above all water desalination equipment.  He stared at the map and wondered where he could best put all that equipment to use.  Wasn't technology great?!  With all that equipment more lives could be saved.  

    "MATADOR!" said an officer peeking his head into the area where MATADOR had pasted his maps.  MATADOR looked behind at the officer.  "You check out the news lately?"
    "No.  I have been here doing logistical planning."  Suddenly he wondered what time it was, looked at his watch and realized it was later than he thought it was.  "What did I miss?"
    "We have TV sets set to the news stations all over the world, and you turn off the sound"  the officer searched for the remote control.  "Wait, they are looping it again."
    The President of Venezuela was speaking about turning down US help because he felt it was an invasion force, a trojan horse, bent on taking over Venezuela.  Instead he would be taking help from Cuba.  MATADOR looked in disbelief at the screen and wondered what kind of man does this, where a nation that has been a friend for over half a century gets turned down in favor of a nation that had actually sent guerillas to kill Venezuelans at places like Muchurucuto and El Encanto.  MATADOR realized then that Venezuelan politics were heading elsewhere, but what could he do?  He felt a moral obligation to enforce whatever the civilians wanted for Venezuela and not interfere in the decision making portion of the process.  While the military had the physical power, the civilians call the shots- or so his father had taught him long ago.  Either way, he realized that his F-20E and Fs were not going to be upgraded anytime soon.  Long time friends were not to be trusted and long time enemies were now our friends, at least that was the "truth" as reported by the Venezuelan President.  What was this country turning into?, wondered MATADOR.  Not to mention, the Cubans did not have Bulldozers and contruction equipment like the Americans had.  Why would the President ask for less able help?  Didn't reality need to enter in the equation sometime?

    History shows that eventually Hugo Chavez had to bend to reality and accepted a much smaller amount of humanitarian help from the US.  Even with US help, it was too late for many in the Vargas area, all because of ideology.

[Eddie M.]

Excellent work and great story! I really love the shape of that jet!!  B) Eagerly awaiting the rollout.
  Eddie  

[John Howling Mouse]

Wow, I am overwhelmed.  Love the sleek yet imposing breadth of that beastie.

Very cool.  Very!

[BlackOps]

Lookin' good!  That is one long and lean fightin' machine!

[Mossie]

I like it!  You've got the name right with that long, thin looking nose.  Good stuff!

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Ohhhh that is just Forward Swept Wing Flying Sex ![/size]
Ian

[ysi_maniac]

Yes, really cool        

[dragon]

Looks okay from here.

November 2000

    MATADOR was back at his parents' house watching TV with Ignacio.  He had come to Caracas from Palo Negro an hour early and with plenty of daylight.  Crime had gotten worse since Aunt Isabel and Uncle Ramon had died.  One tended to eye approaching motorcycles viewed from the driver's seat of one's car with great suspicion.  It was not unheard of to find out one was about to be robbed by the tapping of a gun's barrel against the driver's window by a motorcyclist.  For this reason, he drove in to Caracas as early as he could.  This way he also was able to spend some more time with Ignacio.
    A viagra commercial played on the TV.  MATADOR pondered idly; since when did a Venezuelan male need help pleasing a Venezuelan female?  After all, Venezuela either won or placed whenever any international beauty contests happened.  Then he remembered a conversation he had had some time ago with a friend of his from High School, who was now a well respected psychiatrist.  Apparently there was this emerging anxiety disorder that was causing performance issues among Venezuelan males.  Watching the dreaded "cadenas" (Editor's note: Cadena is a coherced tranmission across all channels by the Govenment.  The TV station has no choice but to transmit whatever the government wants shown or risk having their transmission license pulled and station closed.) and the anxiety caused by the dread of what crazy idea Hugo Chavez wanted to speak about for what seemed interminable amounts of time seemed to cause the "performance" issues.  At that moment the intro music for yet another cadena began.  
    "Why, this is going to lead us to a dictatorship" said Ignacio, now a precocious 15 year old.  He would be able to vote in 3 years.  MATADOR could hear people banging on empty pots and pans as a way of protest.  There had been few at first, but as the months went by, more and more Venezuelans that did not agree with the Government adopted this form of protest.  
    The next day MATADOR became aware of another emerging social phenomenon in Venezuela- political polarization.  

[dragon]

Looks like I am headed back to Polish, Sand and Repeat island....

Apparently Venezuelans came in only 3 flavors these days: Chavistas (followers of Hugo Chavez and his revolution), Opositores (the opposition, often described disdainfully as "squalid" or "oligarchs" by the Chavistas), and the Ni-Nis (Neither here nor there.  People who described themselves as belonging to neither end of the political spectrum).  In the past being partial to either one of the main parties did not matter much since both parties alternated at being in charge and at the same time inept and corrupt.  Political conversation tended to sound a lot like a baseball fan talking to another baseball fan (partial to an opposing team) on how they would improve the teams.  They would have a good laugh and things would be okay.  Now, such things could lead to fist fights, even among those related to each other.  At the parrillada (Venezuelan BBQ party), MATADOR had to separate two uncles, one a Chavista the other Opositor, from beating each other senseless.  Where was Venezuela heading to?  MATADOR didn't know, all he knew was that his country was changing, pressure was building up, something was about to happen.

[BlackOps]

Cool color choice, I was totally not expecting that

[dragon]

Black Ops:  Look at the F-20F and imagine that camo scheme on the Su-47. B)  

[BlackOps]

Black Ops:  Look at the F-20F and imagine that camo scheme on the Su-47. B)

Ahhhhh, Should look good.

[dragon]

October 2001

MATADOR stared in disbelief at yet another "Cadena".  He watched as Hugo Chavez used his usual taunting style and tone and began to insult what had been Venezuela's friend and best paying customer for the better part of the past century.  Like most of the world, MATADOR had been shocked by the savagery of the terrorists flying a pair of airplanes full of innocents into the Twin Towers at the World Trade center (also with innocent victims inside).  Apparently Chavez was not.  The president of Venezuela began by saying "September 11, 2001 was a tragedy, but the bigger tragedy was September 11, 1973 when the CIA toppled Allende...." .  Adding further insult, he started to show images from the war in Afghanistan.  
    "What a year!"  Said MATADOR to himself.  The year had begun with four soldiers being severely burned in a disciplinary cell.  The case had been severely muddled by politics, even the president himself being caught in a lie.  To MATADOR this did not bode well for the Venezuelan military, since the Lieutenant eventually charged with the burning had chosen this method to discipline his own men.  This was very unprofessional as far as MATADOR was concerned.  The rest of the year had been marked by protest marches and rallies as well as assorted strikes by different professional groups.  There was also an enabling law that granted the president wider latitude in the lawmaking role, voted in by the mostly (66% Chavista) National Assembly.  "Hopefully someone in High Command is thinking about going shopping, cause we are certainly not going to get parts and upgrades from the US after this."
    Apparently someone in High Command had that thought.  A MiG-29SMT had been brought down from Russia for the FAV to try out in December 2001.  It was found wanting.  The FAV had found that it was no better and no worse than the F-16 and the F-20E.  The Venezuelan Air Force would have to go shopping at non-US aviation sources.