Now were talking!

I have every single episode on official VHS and intend to move onto the DVD’s.

As for the best from that series well it has to be the Thunderbolt class starfury!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDmtJROZBRk

And for those who are interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoaQgL509z8

If the government had decided to not extend the life of the Type 23 in service and gone with the Frigate replacement program we might just of seen the Trimaran concept go forward.

The Americans were certainly interested as they are looking for a follow on for the OHP class. There was definately an opportunity for a joint project with the Americans stumping a share of the development cost for a common platform.

I think if the French carriers had been big enough they would of gone for the F-4 Phantom but as has already been said the Phantom is just too big.

The British Phantoms needed the Spey and a double extendable nose leg to get off the Ark Royal with a reasonable load. I presume the USN Phantoms that cross decked onto the Ark had to launch with a reduced load.

How does the Y-12 compare cost wise to the roughly equivalent DHC-6 Twin Otter?

I’m not sure what your trying to get at here Foofoone? Wikipedia is NOT seen as a valid source on this forum.

If you look at the Rafale page you will probably see just as much biased French sources.

Here is a design I found in a german magazine called Naval Forces from 1995.
It is an early design of a Harrier capable BIP which became Mistral.
I like this design very much – today Spain is building a simillar ship.
I added one of the designs mentioned earlier – the PH75.

Does anybody have more of the Vickers designs from the 80ies?

Thats quite a handsome design, I especially like the deck edge elevator.

I also wouldn’t call the engines weak, they are some of the lightest most powerful ones out there.