Recent content by SAVORYapple

That was a beautiful ending! Bravo! I'm slightly confused by your rendering of Alpha though. One, the robotic arm rail along the length of the truss is blocked by one of the US modules, and second, wouldn't the placement of Kibo interfere with shuttle docking at the "top" PMA? And wouldn't the...

Presumably there'll be non-Buran payloads on Energia in the future? I've always wondered just how wide a non-Buran payload could be on Energia. I know Polyus was around 4 meters in diameter, and I've seen plans for a cargo pod of 6 meters diameter, but realistically could Energia have taken a 7...

Maybe the MUSTARD concept becomes more than just a concept? It wouldn't get much into orbit, but if you only want to return a few humans and some samples, it would do the job at a 2 metric ton payload to LEO. The triamese concept also called for hydrolox, which would be easier to source in situ...

I suspect that the first option would be easier, simply due to the fact that adding weapons hardpoints and forward firing machine guns isn't that difficult (the Rhodesians did that with their Cessna Skymasters [1]), but engineering a dedicated COIN aircraft like the Super-Tucano with floats...

Yes. Hell Yes.

Might there be significant influxes of Jewish colonists as well, in the future? I'm thinking of the breakup of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but there could be a steady trickle regardless. I don't think Drake and Hawkins will be particularly picky, and with hostile natives the various...

Didn't realize there was an update. Very interesting way to go about social advancement for females and religious tolerance early on.

I doubt the Soviets would differentiate. If they have an ICBM or SLBM to spare, The North Island's taking at least one nuke.

This type of barrage has never been tried in real life combat before. I know the Soviet Mig-23 had a two-system barrage (one heat-seeking and one radar-guided), which would force enemy pilots to simultaneously pull of two different countermeasures (and thus increase the chance of a kill). Why...

What about the corporate-wise? Are trans-national corporations as dominant as they are today, both globally and politically, or is it the state which has co-opted them instead? Did the great privatizations in the UK during the Thatcher years IOTL happen ITTL? Does the US ITTL have the same...

You'd have to change Evo Morales's personality. Bolivia's been well run under his presidency, regardless of what he spouts.

I was wondering whether Imperial Iran could have acquired the B-1, actually. Would a surviving Imperial Iran have remained a close US ally? I was thinking about whether it might have been able to procure a down-graded F-22 (assume butterflies remain limited).... The more I think about it, the...

Without Japanese initial successes against the Western powers in WW2, the western powers would still underestimate Japan and China (Note the British Pre-WW2 thought the Japanese pilots had difficulty hitting targets due to poor eyesight), and believe that the Japanese attack was a fluke or just...

A failed Taranto would dampen enthusiasm for naval aviation in Europe.

Rather interesting comment from the ISIS chat thread. So how do you get a situation where Islamist states in Iraq and Syria are under threat by secular guerilla organizations in the present day (2013-2014 ITTL)? Actually, going further, is it possible for there to be a complete inversion of...