Message posted by lone wolf on May 31, 2005 at 21:47:44 PST:

Note that not every person in the US pays tax, hence my estimate is more relevant. The Center for American Progress has non-partisan information on taxes, debt,etc.

Regarding Hank's comment, this is an on-topic engineering discussion, not a political one. If you look at current DOD trends, they are targeting lower cost robotic devices (UAVS, etc) versus higher performance manned platforms. This is not only in aircraft, but on the battlefield itself. Yesterdays LA Times had an article about battlefield robots.

Getting back to aircraft, Nellis has expanded it's Predator operation center. From news reports, I gather that they have centers both on base and at Indian Springs. In any event, it's better to have many low cost planes versus a few high cost planes. The F22 may be the end of the road for high performance manned aircraft, at least from the US.

In Reply to: Re: I For One Am Simply An Airplane Fanatic posted by Peter on May 31, 2005 at 20:59:23 PST:

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