On the radio last night they interviewed an Indian chef and she said she didn’t really recognise it either 😮

I think the biscuit in the ‘evidence bag’ was really taking the Micky (or the biscuit) to be honest.

Apparently DefenceManagement.com have an current article that suggests that a complete redesign or even possible cancellation is being considered. Is anyone here registered with that website who can post a link ?

I Don’t think all of this can be put down to incompetance, just a failure to appreciate the complexity of the task in hand with new technology. A380, 787, A400M, Nimrod MRA4 all overdue and with numerous problems but all large aircraft that have significant new features in their designs

More stuff ordered today. Mainly fixtures and fittings, but they are now cutting and assembling steel at appledore 😎

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/EquipmentAndLogistics/90mContractsForWorkOnCarriers.htm

Although not an airliner, a Nimrod ditched in the Moray Firth in Scotland and everyone got out on that one as well. Mid nineties I think.

Is it correct that the Airbus’s have a ‘ditching’ button in the cockpit that closes as many as possible of the external leak points on the aircraft at below potential water level ? I could have sworn that I read that somewhere. It still floats very well doesn’t it. I wonder how much fuel they dumped before the ditching as that would likely make some difference to the level that it floated at.

Hutton is now being quoted in parliament as saying that more C-17’s are on the cards

http://www.reuters.com/article/COMSRV/idUSLC46751820090112?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

I hope that they manage to squeeze a couple of the A330’s out of airbus on the cheap as well as part of the so called ‘bridging option’ 😡

Great Diagrams of the Dassault airframe there 😎

I think part of the problem is with the terminology though. We have Reaper UAV’s dropping weapons with some regularity now (but they don’t use the ‘C’ ) but as Lordassap suggests the term UCAV is being used on the Taranis airframe and that may not ever carry anything hostile based upon his assertions, and that maybe the description UAV might be more appropriate.

Then to confuse things more we have the many documents at the UK Parliament that seem to describe Taranis as both a UCAV and UAV almost interchangably. They are the ones paying the bills so you would think they would know :eek::D