"ArVa" wrote in message
...

"Ian Craig" a écrit dans le message de
...
Only cos they did what they always do - join up, get the idea and then
****
of and make their own. Granted Rafale is in (limited) service, but its
a
MMI nightmare!

"NEMO ME IMPUNE" wrote in message
...
At least, and by chance not by France




Another gratuitous statement.... "Always"? What about the Concorde, the
Jaguar, the Alphajet, the Mig AT, the Tiger and the entire Eurocopter
line-up? What about Airbus? What about EADS? What about the ATR family?
What
about SNECMA working with GE to produce the CFM-56, one of the most
successful family of jet engine ever? What about all these successful
partnerships and some I may have forgotten?...

You'd have got me if you hadn'#t mentioned Jaguar and Alphjet, and probably
MIG AT. They've not been that successful? The others have.

See on http://www.eurofighter.starstreak.ne...r/history.html the
reasons of France's withdrawal from the project : "The F/EFA project
called
for a STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) twin engine air superiority
fighter
optimised for Beyond Visual Range (BVR) combat but retaining a ground
attack
capability. France however wanted a small lightweight system which may
operate from its aircraft carriers. In addition they wanted a guaranteed
50%
workshare and overall control of the project, these were of course
unacceptable terms to Britain and Germany".

As for the Rafale being a man to machine interface (I hope I get it right)
nightmare, on which facts do you base your statement? It might be right
(though I have never heard nor read anything stating such a thing) but I'd
sure like to know your sources.

I've seen the Rafale prototype in flight at the 89 Paris air show, three
years after the program was officialy launched (and it had already flown
over 400 times), when all the EFA stand had to offer to visitors was
posters
and stickers. Not so bad for a country on its own, isn'it?

The only actual part in your post is about the Rafale being in limited
servi
ce, with about ten commissioned planes. In case you don't know, we don't
exactly have the US DoD budget. Why don't you send us $100 000 000 so that
we could quicker buy a couple more?

ArVa