I agree 100%. The Su-27/35 airframe is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

yeah, when I first saw the Fulcrum and Flankers, I thought they were some of the baddest looking fighters I'd seen. (This was back in around '97 for me) especially the 27/35s.

Indulge us with that story, that makes Crocodile Dundees knife look like a toothpick

it's like Link from Zelda, metamorphasized into a middle aged, mid-management, suburban husband with a proclivity towards 'knives'.

That is a kriegsmesser aka war knife.

See back in high middle ages Germany, the peasants couldn't walk around in public with a sword* but you could with a knife because a knife is a tool. For protection, the knives got longer as a longer blade protects you better. Eventually, they became the size of sword but were still constructed like a knife even usually blunt on one side. Eventually, the nobility picked them up as the messer and kriegsmesser actually brought new features to sword form like the knuckle and hand guards. Basically, the sword sized knife became so popular as a form of protection that the nobility couldn't ban it rather they rules lawyered it away as a knife and adopted it for their own use because of the features introduced to it.

*Unlike the east, peasants in middle ages Europe were expected and required to have arms as they would be called up in the local militia or as a peasant levy. They were not allowed to go armed in public normally though.

Those crazy Russians.

Ekranoplan KM 'Caspian Sea Monster' seaplane

http://media.moddb.com/images/groups...044/lun_03.jpg

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...2e6029fe04.jpg

http://www.aviapress.com/book/oth/oth045_7.jpg

http://www.aviapress.com/book/oth/oth045_4.jpg

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rUTWWsh6iGA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Pretty sure you just won the thread, Notorious

That has to be the most ridiculous, non-aerodynamic and seaworthy as a brick looking monster of all time

8 engines up front LMAO

wow
.

Ground effect is magical, y'all

Translation, please

Russians drink alot. What about that helicopter that is like a jumbo jet with rotors they made.

Mi V-12.

The K7 was out there

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraf...mber-Title.jpg

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mcGLYUr7E...Fortress-3.jpg

British Major General Percy Hobart served during WWII and was tasked by Lord Alanbrooke (the British version of George Marshall) and Winston Churchill with designing tank modifications that could overcome various obstacles/ impediments/ problems in the D-Day landings. The results were interesting, bizarre and sometimes effective. Indeed, some were then used by teh US, and others, not used by the US, resulted in criticism, when they arguably could have saved soldier's lives.

The whole group of whacky designs became collectively known as "Hobart's Funnies".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart%27s_Funnies

The next few posts will highlight some of these "funnies"

A "Churchill ark", this was a vehicle designed to provide a bridge to, well, other tanks.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Carrier_02.jpg


Here's one in use:


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...mp_Carrier.jpg

Double ark!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ill_Ark_03.jpg

A post-war Churchill "toad", a mine-clearing tank, which basically uses a flail at the front.

http://www.milweb.net/features/toad/9.jpg

Similarly, a Sherman "crab" tank

http://www.royaltankregiment.com/9_R...s/image004.gif