Much nicer – & helpful – to know who one’s talking to.

A less formal shot of me (and about as close as it is wise to take delicate photographic equipment)!

Ant-blast paint? I hadn’t noticed but I’ll have a look now.

With regard to running the engines I understood that they were run daily but on a Russian convoy wouldn’t an engine left overnight risk damage if it wasn’t heated? I know you said that CAM ships weren’t used on winter convoys but maybe this was a modification so that they could?

I must say it is a real pleasure to be able to discuss this with somebody who has ‘been there’! 🙂

If it is anything like the Dunmoore Moss Whirlwind…

Tell me more about this ‘Dunmoore Moss’ Whirlwind; presumably it was a recovery, what happened to what was recovered?

And which Whirlwind are you comparing to it, the one buried under the runway?

(4) Increase defence spending 25,000% – We should be “The arsenal of democracy” – and the Defence industry spins-off dozens of other industries and inventions etc.

Ludicrous! :rolleyes:

Do you seriously think that the UK alone can afford to spend $16,250 BILLION (yes, billion dollars) on defence when in 2009 the total world spend on defence was less than $1500 billion?

How will this be paid for? :confused: Almost every other measure you have suggested will reduce government income.

Between the ignorance and the apathy I’m beginning to think we have the government we deserve in this country! 😡

I have seen a photo of a finish hurricane where there is a draincock on the bottom of the radiator for draining the glycol for freezing…

I bet that was a popular job…..draining and filling the coolant at -40°C!

I wonder if its a case of nothing still exists, or whether people prefer to keep quiet about what they actually have.

Funny you should say that, I have a mystery component I’m trying to identify right now.

…for all we know there is enough out there to resurrect one without having to go down the ‘replica road’!

I certainly doubt that with the Whirlwind. I’m sure a very large proportion of any ‘rebuild’ will have to be totally new material, maybe 95% plus by airframe weight but I don’t see that as a problem so long as what is new-build is as faithful as possible to the original.

Isn’t there a whirlwind buried under a runway on an ex-Westland site?

Whatever condition it is in, crushed, fragmented, corroded, it will give important information about the construction of the Whirlwind. Taken as a whole, aircraft are daunting structures but aren’t they really a collection of (relatively) simple to produce, flat shapes, that are bent and riveted together and then skinned? Aircraft of that period should have been manufactured in an efficient way, using simple to produce components…..well maybe not the British ones!

Change the government? Things can only get better, right…..now where have we heard that before? :rolleyes:

Don’t get me wrong I agree it is time for a change but whoever is running the country will still be left with the problems created by the last administration, and the one before that. Successive governments have managed to ‘paint the country into a corner’ and there are no quick fixes for that situation.

Cut taxes? Well it would be popular but the country is in debt and everything still has to be paid for so the country needs to get the money from somewhere…..any suggestions?

Solutions?

Well I’m a simple man (that didn’t come out right :o)…..what I mean is I’d like to simplify the way of looking at this problem.

Assume money cannot be created or destroyed but only passes from person to person so the only way to lose money is to buy something and the only way to gain money is to sell something (or our services, but it is still selling something).

If we in this country want to prosper we have to sell stuff. While selling stuff to each other may make individuals within the country richer (and others poorer) it doesn’t change the total value of the money within the country. So who should we sell stuff to?

If we sell stuff to other countries we get richer and the other countries get poorer. Brilliant! (And simple.) 🙂

If we think only in these terms the country must prosper.

The only problem is that I can’t remember the last time any government in this country understood this principal! 😡