Take that, free world!
For all you naysayers out there who thought Iran’s clown car, er … stealth fighter … smelled a bit fishy, the Islamic Republic has the ultimate retort: a badly-Photoshopped image of the Qaher-313 set against stock photo #3.
Oh ye of little faith!
The Iranian website, Khouz News, released the image in question, and I don’t think it’ll take an army of aviation experts to debunk this one — unlike the Qaher-313’s official unveiling. Any idiot who’s turned on a PC in the last decade should sniff out this malarkey.
For those late to this three-ring circus, the Islamic Republic unveiled the Qaher-313 — allegedly, the regime’s first indigenous stealth fighter — on February 2, and the world let out a collective snicker.
With its diminutive size and gangly pilot, the “stealth fighter” looked like a clown car. It appeared to be missing an engine, a proper canopy, and instruments that weren’t plucked from a small commuter plane.
And it looked like a clown car — a small vehicle for transporting jesters that couldn’t possibly house weapons, avionics, or radar. Oh, and it appeared to be made of fiberglass.
Was it a full-scale mockup? Not according to the Iranians, who presented the Qaher-313 as the genuine article and even released a video of its “first flight” (though the “jet” looked conspicuously like an RC plane).
That said, it still looked like Iran put in a modicum of effort to convince a disbelieving world that the Qaher-313 was a real, live airplane (fashioned in the same workshop as Pinocchio).
But this latest Photoshop … well … to paraphrase The Simpsons, Iran crossed that line between everyday villainy and cartoonish super-villainy.
And once again, the Internet came to the rescue.
One intrepid Iranian blogger called schenanigans and juxtaposed the original, stock image with the Photoshopped version.
The Atlantic did a Google search and managed to find the stock image from PickyWallpapers.com.
Tsk, tsk, Iran. I expected more from you.
Update (2/15/2013): ECN has received this image of the Qaher-313’s first aerial battle. I’m sold.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense
