Originally Posted by NH2112
Originally Posted by cichlidfan
Originally Posted by NH2112
Originally Posted by cichlidfan
Originally Posted by Mr_Blastman
Panzer, the amount of burst acceleration demonstrated in some of these videos is essentially impossible with today's technology without telltale wakes and exhaust trails--none of which we see. While it is easy to scoff and dismiss these as top secret military excursions, when air force pilots themselves can't figure out what the hell they are looking at, then they have my attention.


You are talking about technology that you are aware of. Also, the average AF pilot has not a clue what is in development or in experimental stages.


No, but he has a fairly intimate acquaintance with the physics of flight.


So does a hummingbird.


Inertia. A hummingbird has very little to overcome. How much energy would be required to let an F18 move with the inertia of a hummingbird and also protect the pilot from virtually instantaneous acceleration?


It's quite possible to protect the pilot from those forces, but the cockpit wouldn't look like anything we're accustomed to. As for allowing it to change directions and accelerate on the fly, well, that's an entirely different and more complicated issue.

I believe that many advanced civilizations we encounter now would...

a) Be benevolent or peaceful, more often than not
b) Avoid direct contact with us or sharing of technology, seeing how destructive and wasteful a species we are--or be quite wary of such, in the least

They'd probably be very worried what we would do should we get our hands on vastly superior technology.