COLORADO SPRINGS, USA – The U.S. Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs has installed a new flight simulator which is a mock up of the F-35 Lighting II cockpit, the latest fighter plane that the Air Force will receive by 2010. The F-35 will replace the aging F-16, its main fleet of jet fighters that first flew in the 1970’s.

The incoming F-35 manufactured by Lockheed Martin has a top speed of Mach 1.8 (1.8 faster than sound), combines a mix of radar-evading property of Stealth with speed and maneuverability. It is equipped with a dazzling suite of weapons and some models, with VERTICAL TAKE OFF capability. Pilots will use voice recognition technology to operate the many controls on the F-35s and the cockpit will be dominated by touch-screens rather than the dials, gauges and switches of the F-16. The plane controls are wired together with fiber-optic cables enabling computers on the plane to react at lighting speed. The plane includes a video screen built into the pilot’s helmet that displays everything from weapons status to views from cameras attached to the plane’s fuselage.

The Pentagon expects to spend nearly $300 billion to purchase more than 2,000 of this single engine fighter planes. Two years BEFORE the delivery, the cadets at the Air Force Academy are already flying it through the newly installed flight simulator just like in a video game. How I wish the Americans will donate ten “aging” F-16 from the fleet that it will sidelined so China and Vietnam will not bully us on the Spratly Islands issue. At present, the Philippine Air Force has NO decent jet fighter plane except for a few small jet training units.

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The U.S. Electric Power Generation Sources are as follows: Coal – 49%; Natural gas – 20%; Nuclear – 19%; Hydro – 7%; Petroleum – 2%; and Renewable energy – 2%. For the Philippines, electric power sources are predominantly Geothermal, Natural Gas and Coal. Together these three energy sources account for 90% of our electric power supply. We have more natural gas from Malampaya, Palawan than we can use but we need the expensive facilities to convert it to CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) and bring it to Visayas and Mindanao not only for electric power generation but also to power road vehicles and for home cooking to replace the expensive petroleum derived Gasul. The group of Purzuelo, Lim and Oso should instead campaign for the establishment of these natural gas infrastructures instead of pursuing a foolish campaign of preventing the establishment of a coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City. The trend world wide for energy source is coal and natural gas because it is still abundant and conservatively estimated to fuel the energy needs of the world for at least a hundred years.

Renewable energy especially geothermal and wind should be the best energy source because geothermal is cheap and wind is non pollutant. But unfortunately we don’t have these energy sources in Panay and so the streamers of Oso and his cohorts insisting on geothermal and wind instead of coal is deceiving and swindling the people for their own personal gain. Let the Ilonggos beware!

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Systems and efficiency is the trademark of the Americans even in government service. Buying a second hand car requires a NEW Certificate of Registration and car plates which can be obtained in less than two hours (one hour waiting for your priority number and only 20 minutes for processing) in a local county branch of the equivalent of our LTO. The only document required is an insurance coverage receipt and a Deed of Sale which in my case was only a piece of bond paper entitled Bill of Sale, then describing the vehicle, the name of owner and the amount paid and my signature as the buyer. There is no notarial requirement. With our LTO, it will take at least two days to process the same papers and six months to get a new plate. Applying for a social security number also takes two hours despite the many people with SSS transactions. In both offices, the system is just like in our banks where there is a priority number and numerous counters to service the customers. ALL transactions are completed in a single counter. What is also unique is a big TV screen in the waiting area showing cartoons for children. Here in America there is no such thing as helpers or maids at home and so the mothers had to bring all their toddlers when transacting business with government.

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