Hm, i wanted one of those beaded things on my ejector seat.

Come to think of it, if we all pooled our money u think we could buy something just for “bombing” around in on weekends?

I have a nice Corgi diecast model of a TU4, but the Russian bomber, not a Chinese version, and just for comparison it sits beside a model of the Enola Gay on a shelf in my bedroom, both same scale.

Does anyone know why the MH-68A Stingray won the tender for a “gunship” type helicopter. Surely Dauphins could do the same job or Jayhawks and that would cut down down on number of types in service. Actually I could just imagine a HueyCobra painted white with a big red stripe on it.

No, sorry, I don’t know. I’ll hunt around sometime later for an answer on the USCG in the Gulf

I thought the Enforcers had a door mounted, hand aimed machine gun. They appeared in an AFM issue a few months back, not sure which one. I think it said they are the only gunships in use by a law enforcement agency or something like that. My understanding of the role of the USCG is that it is a federal agency like the FBI, Customs and others. It can though be brought under the command of the military in times of war but isn’t usually. Some of its ships were actually in the gulf during the war policing Iraqi port facilities. I don’t know if they are still present.The Department of Homeland Security as I understand it hasn’t brought the services under one command. It just seems to be making sure they are all communicating with each other so that intelligence and resources are shared when needed.
Also the C23 Sherpa is one of Short Brothers most successful products. A great aircraft in its class and built a couple of miles from my house.

Englands little gitters with the IRA which is technically no longer a problem.

Sorry but I hate to start an argument but I have lived in Belfast all my life. The ROI government doesn’t like the IRA anymore that the British do and they aren’t going to charge them anymore for jets. The IRA have nothing to do with the Irish government and don’t. Also the IRA are still a massive problem here. To quote Gerry Adams talking at a Republican rally after the so called ceasefire “they haven’t gone away ya’ know”.He grinned after this, got a cheer from the crowd, confirmed that the IRA will cause trouble any time they don’t get what they want. Things have actually got worse here since the ceasefire. The bombs are still being planted, people being shot and attacked but because the IRA and others have declared a ceasefire its just not getting the coverage it did.Their criminal activites such as drug running and other stuff is also causing havoc. For an example for the none Irish here imagine a turf war between the Mafia, Russian Mafia, Yardies, Yakuza, Triads, Colombians and Haitians, yep its that bad. Ok that has nothing to do with jets but I have to correct anyone who talk about the IRA not technically being a problem.