Someone wanted a cartoon or something. Here's one for them. Polish Pilots, American Airplane. A fine tradition.
Posted on 05/19/2004 1:28:26 PM PDT by Grzegorz 246
First Polish F-16 Tests The first test flights of the multi-role F-16 aircraft in Poland took place May 13 at the military airfield of the First Tactical Squadron in Miñsk Mazowiecki near Warsaw.
The F-16 was purchased by the Polish air force as part of the contract of the century, as it is called. One of the show's guests was Gen. Robert H. Foglesong, commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and of the NATO Allied Air Forces Northern Europe.
Poland will receive the first eight F-16s by November 2006. By 2008, the Polish air force will have 48 such machines. Lt. Col. Stefan Rutkowski, commander of the First Tactical Squadron in Miñsk Mazowiecki, took part in an F-16 flight and in his opinion, Polish pilots should not have any significant difficulties in learning to fly the planes. "The F-16 is controlled similarly to the [current, Soviet-made basic combat aircraft of the Polish air force] MiG-29, except that the F-16 has more electronics," Rutkowski said about those first test flights. According to Rutkowski, the Polish air force needs a plane like the F-16 in order to be able to perform diverse tasks, including support missions for army and navy operations.
For the time being, Polish pilots still fly MiG-29 planes. According to Col. Ryszard Grzeliñski, head of the organization group to introduce the F-16, the switch to those machines will be a large technological and qualitative leap for Poland's armed forces. "The F-16 features better armament, radar and defense systems which enable the pilot to detect danger faster and perform the best maneuver," Grzeliñski said. "Pilots from over 100 countries fly F-16s. The aircraft has been proven in combat conditions." Grzeliñski emphasized the fact that the F-16 will enable broader cooperation with countries which use the planes.
Foglesong, who piloted an F-16 and then took part in a MiG-29 flight, praised the quality of Polish pilots' training. "The Polish air force is very professional (...)," he said after the flights. "My presence in Poland testifies to the air force's importance to NATO."
Maj. Roœcis³aw Stepaniuk is to date the only Pole who is having F-16 training in the United States. Twelve other Polish pilots will fly to the U.S. next January and February and join Stepaniuk in training. Five of these pilots and Stepaniuk will become instructors to train Polish pilots in the future.
Wait if you're in a Finnish University, can it be Poland? parsy the querulous.
I found FR by chance, when I was looking for some informations in foreign sources about Polish soldiers in Iraq and GROM unit.
Your English is better than most of our Polish.
I think (no comma) that FR is a very good forum. For me it is a good way to improve my English.
Hey, we're here for yah man! :)
I tried to say that I'm trying to graduate.
Someone wanted a cartoon or something. Here's one for them. Polish Pilots, American Airplane. A fine tradition.
What F-16 varient did they buy?
Spread the word in Poland about Free Republic.
Yes the Mustang. They also flew Spits and Hurricanes.
It was a joke, not to be taken as a profound statement.
"for yah" ? Is it in English?
That's American, not English. "We're Here for Yah", is slang for "we are willing to help", but in the context usually is meant as irony, an offer to help someone neither needs or is asking for help.
Now my English sux.
Try this
That's American, not English. "We're Here for Yah", is slang for "we are willing to help", but in this context it is meant as irony, an offer to help someone who neither needs or is asking for help.
If you read literature pre-WWII, it was Irish jokes that were the most prevalent.
Try Mark Twain:
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
- Innocents Abroad
The objects of which Paris folks are fond--literature, art, medicine and adultery.
- The Corpse speech, 1879
France has neither winter nor summer nor morals--apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
- Mark Twain's Notebook
There is nothing lower than the human race except the French.
- quoted by Carl Dolmetsch, Our Famous Guest
It has always been a marvel to me--that French language; it has always been a puzzle to me. How beautiful that language is! How expressive it seems to be! How full of grace it is! And when it comes from lips like those [of Sarah Bernhardt], how eloquent and how limpid it is! And, oh, I am always deceived--I always think I am going to understand it.
- Mark Twain, a Biography
M. de Lamester's new French dictionary just issued in Paris defines virtue as: "A woman who has only one lover and don't steal."
- quoted in A Bibliography of Mark Twain, Merle Johnson
I like to look at a Russian or a German or an Italian--I even like to look at a Frenchman if I ever have the luck to catch him engaged in anything that ain't delicate.
- Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven
It is human to like to be praised; one can even notice it in the French.
- "What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us"
In certain public indecencies the difference between a dog & a Frenchman is not perceptible.
- Notebook #17, October 1878 - February 1879
It appears that at last census that every man in France over 16 years of age & under 116, has at least 1 wife to whom he has never been married. French novels, talk, drama & newspaper bring daily & overwhelming proofs that the most of the married ladies have paramours. This makes a good deal of what we call crime, and the French call sociability.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879
France has usually been governed by prostitutes.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879
French are the connecting link between man & the monkey.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879
Trivial Americans go to Paris when they die.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879
It is the language for lying compliment, for illicit love & for the conveying of exquisitely nice shades of meaning in bright graceful & trivial conversations--the conveying, especially of double-meanings, a decent & indecent one so blended as--nudity thinly veiled, but gauzily & lovelily.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879
A Frenchman's home is where another man's wife is.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879
An isolated & helpless young girl is perfectly safe from insult by a Frenchman, if he is dead.
- Notebook #20, Jan. 1882 - Feb. 1883
A dead Frenchman has many good qualities, many things to recommend him; many attractions--even innocencies. Why cannot we have more of these?
- Notebook #20, Jan. 1882 - Feb. 1883
...Of course, There was no insult intended.
...its' an American tradition...like state vs state jokes...etc. :))
Welcome to FR.
Yes, but after you factor in all the investment that the US will make in Poland as part of the deal, it will cost Poland a lot less. Poland got an extremely good deal here, which is why they chose the F-16's over the more capable JAS-39.
Yep, the F-16 Block 50/52 is a multirole fighter. It carries a very wide assortment of weapons which allow it to be used for everything from dogfighting to bombing to anti-ship missions. The Mig-29A that Poland currently has is a point defence fighter optimized for dogfighting. It is a deadly dogfighter, but it can't do much else, it can't even carry guided air to surface weapons.
But a hundred years after Twain, the wheel turned yet again, and Roger Corman was taking pot shots in the pop/cult classic,
Death Race 2000. Maybe he was taking shots at politicians that scapegoat the French. Been a while.
"Poland got an extremely good deal"
Yes Poland got also a loan from US government, but US government did it to help Lockheed Martin.
"they chose the F-16's over the more capable JAS-39."
I don't think that JAS-39 is better than F-16 block50/52.
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