Pete TrumanOh I have a very good understanding of the deployment of the F3 having been part of the work-up working alongside 228 OCU and I’m not much interested in the political machinations or BAe’s need to make a fast buck.
The F3 is/was a heap of junk; its only virtue was its supposed cheapness – except it wasn’t. In modern parlance it ‘is not fit for purpose’. How the hell did anyone have the nerve to give it a ‘F’ designation when it’s marginally worse at dog-fighting than a laden Wayfarer? Defenders may say it was only designed to chase Bears, problem is it couldn’t even do that at altitude.
Have I mentioned I don’t like the F3? 🙂
Slightly off thread, but all this criticism of the F-3 is intriguing to me, I presume that the Yanks knew all this when it was relegated to air tanker protection during the First Gulf War and not allowed anywhere near any real action.
Is this why the plan was hatched to use Hawks with an F-3 ‘shepherd’ to face up to any attack, the Hawks obviously being superior fighters!!
Well at least the Phantoms and Jags were about up to the so called end of the Cold War, and I wouldn’t think it possible to consider shoving those types in Room 101, or do some of you service types know otherwise.
Pete TrumanAdmittedly, yes, the Pilatus as a German fighter doesn’t make too much sense – the only reasoning I can see behind this is that the undercarriage were originally Bf109 components. I had thought that this trend was sparked by their use in the last Indiana Jones film, but then remembered they were being painted like that way before then! :rolleyes:
Them’s fightin’ words! :diablo:
C’mon, they used inject a bit of fun into the old Fighter Meets and Great Warbirds shows in the 80’s. Well somebody had to play the ‘Baddie’ after all, at least the Pilatii and the ‘108’s’ had a bit of the Messerschmidt about them, even if it was only the undercarriage and a few other bits, the public didn’t care, they’d seen them all before in the films, and that wasn’t just Indiana Jones.
I can only assume that the Pilatii had been put on to the market in numbers at the time by the Swiss Airforce.
Didn’t you think it was great to see Jeff Hawke stooging around the sky in his ‘Ju52’ with that bloody great gas gun, escorted by the most ridiculously painted assortment of Pilatii and ‘Me 108’s’, oh and the reduced scale plastic FW190.
Good fun, don’t knock it, what else was there to provide the enemy at the time, even that funny Czech twin engined thing, much critised on here provided a bit of Spitfire and Mustang bait, they were only trying to make airshows attractive to the masses, good for them, I never found it offensive and wouldn’t condemn them to 101 on that basis, the airshow fraternity were just trying to do their best to entertain people with what they had got at the time, and, anyway, has the situation improved very much since then, probably not, one Buchon, a dubious FW190, and nearly all the Pilatii have dissapeared.
Those airshows provided great all round entertainment, we’ll probably not see their like again, in which case is there a reason to condemn the a/c taking part, they should be remembered with pride and a huge grin.
Pete TrumanWith respect to all those people who have put in so much time, effort and money in raising it from the deep, may I suggest the Blackburn Skua, or even better, it’s derivative, the Roc, naming an aircraft after a mythical bird just about sums it up.
Pete TrumanI’ve still got my Dinky Toy Belvedere, minus one rotor blade, I always wondered why it was painted light blue.
Pete TrumanWestern interventioism would indeed come in effect if there were something which west could exploid…but there isen’t. And even if there is, west would just put some local chap in the throne and be happy as long as oil floods into the western markets…and what about the Zimbave people?? Who cares…Who cares for the Iraqians?
Well, before der Fuhrer Mugabe ( is that moustache just a coincidence), there used to be lots of maize and cattle for the West to exploit, I can’t believe that we haven’t sent in the heavy boys to protect it on behalf of Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s
As for the ‘Iraqians’, I thought that Allah cared for them, after all, God works in wondrous ways that us mere mortals don’t understand.
Pete TrumanWestern interventioism would indeed come in effect if there were something which west could exploid…but there isen’t. And even if there is, west would just put some local chap in the throne and be happy as long as oil floods into the western markets…and what about the Zimbave people?? Who cares…Who cares for the Iraqians?
Well, before der Fuhrer Mugabe ( is that moustache just a coincidence), there used to be lots of maize and cattle for the West to exploit, I can’t believe that we haven’t sent in the heavy boys to protect it on behalf of Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s
As for the ‘Iraqians’, I thought that Allah cared for them, after all, God works in wondrous ways that us mere mortals don’t understand.
Pete TrumanSomeone once wrote
“War is nature’s way of teaching geography to Americans”
Moggy
Was that one of Shaws, or Oscar Wildes.
‘Your Majesty is like a stream of bats…………’
Never mind.
Pete Truman“We’re going to need a bigger Winchester !”
‘Held in my dead hands’.
Pete Truman“We’re going to need a bigger Winchester !”
‘Held in my dead hands’.
Pete TrumanHi all – I contacted our resident museum pillbox expert who says….
I don’t know Bircham Newton but in
the absence of any other Battle HQ, that’s where I’d
put my money. There are a few odd designs about, often
constructed before the standard 11008/41 was drawn up
(in 1941 strangely). Some have quite small observation
turrets on top of Stanton shelters, others look more
like conventional pillboxes, as at North Weald.It should be fairly easy to identify on the ground,
because the BHQ would need to have a good view over
most of the airfield, rather than a part of it in the
case of a pillbox.If it’s not recorded then it should be as it is a
rarity.Top find!
Cheers
TT
When can we expect it to be moved to Sywell, you won’t get away very easily with digging that one up in the middle of the night, unless of course you deal in ‘Lucky White Heather’.
Pete TrumanBazv
Found a good site:-http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk.
Sounds an unlikely site, but there’s some interesting information on there. I didn’t realise that some of the ‘Dambusters’ was filmed at Langham and that the Wash and the Fens were used as ‘the Dutch coast’.
Another one is http://www.wheredidtheyfilmthat.co.uk, but it’s not very good, still can’t find that other site.
Pete TrumanGlacier Girl is now talking about 2009 but Liberty Belle still planning this year.
I hope that they don’t attempt to land at Framlingham, as the runways were removed a few years ago, they could be in for a bit of a surprise.
Perhaps they should check with Google Earth before setting off.
Pete TrumanThats given me an interesting time on Google.
I gather that the power station originally provided 60% of the power supply to the underground system and having recently been demolished, is now subject to various planning applications, well the site is bound to provide hideously expensive apartments overlooking the Thames isn’t it.
Not being a visitor to London for a while, I was surprised that the heliport was still in existance, I remember it years ago.
I gather that it is now owned by Sir Robert McAlpine, his company having bought it off a certain person that owns Harrods, no doubt to pay for legal fees in a pointless on going legal case concerning a late member of the royal family, unless the dear man is going to donate the money to pay for the public expenses of this case.
I would be interested to know whether there have been any serious accidents involving helicopters using this helipad, after all, it has been in use for nearly 50 years. The sight of a Belvedere landing there must have been quite exciting, I recall seeing these beasts at airshows many years ago, unfortunately, I can’t remember what they sounded like, a Chinook flew over here the other day and they have a very deep throbbing sound, I would imagine a Belvedere to be even noisier, anyone remember.
Pete TrumanSo, following that debate, what have you got to say about the Olympic torch protests yesterday.
Who exactly were protesting, do we have that many Tibetans in this country then, I think not, well they seemed to appear on que for the cameras, but most of the protesters I saw were white.
I think that what summed it up for me was a comment from Joanna Lumley.
Having delivered flowers to that priveleged, rascist, ‘slitty eyed’ member of the Royal Family, in bed and recieving the best medical care in the world because of a cold stopping his ‘Royal appointments’, we then have a tirade against the Chinese, mainly stemming from her fathers experiences in the diplomatic service, which no doubt occured during the Maoist period, followed by some comments from an equally obnoxious upper class woman who hopefully had a reliable nanny to look after her grandchildren in her expensive Surrey farmhouse.
I bet they were all full on for a Chow Mein last night.
So what happened to the student protest of my day then, they couldn’t give a monkeys, sensible. My son went to a party near the Millenium Dome on saturday night, got blathered along with the rest of his cronies, then was more concerned about watching the FA cup semi final on Sky, sounds much more of a reasonable attitude to me, better than throwing yourself in front of a police horse for nothing, and we are talking about astute, aware kids here.
Oh dear, as my mother would say.
Furthermore, the media and god knows who else are trying to incite an Olympic ban on China in relation to what happened to the Soviet Union in 1984, wasn’t that something to do with their invasion of Afghanistan, oh dear, shock horror, they proved to be right after all, a bit of help and understanding at the right time and we may not have been in the bloody mess that we are in now.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it.
Perhaps we had better look out for these orange clad, world dominating monsters from Tibet, the Chinese obviously have it sussed.
Pete TrumanSo, following that debate, what have you got to say about the Olympic torch protests yesterday.
Who exactly were protesting, do we have that many Tibetans in this country then, I think not, well they seemed to appear on que for the cameras, but most of the protesters I saw were white.
I think that what summed it up for me was a comment from Joanna Lumley.
Having delivered flowers to that priveleged, rascist, ‘slitty eyed’ member of the Royal Family, in bed and recieving the best medical care in the world because of a cold stopping his ‘Royal appointments’, we then have a tirade against the Chinese, mainly stemming from her fathers experiences in the diplomatic service, which no doubt occured during the Maoist period, followed by some comments from an equally obnoxious upper class woman who hopefully had a reliable nanny to look after her grandchildren in her expensive Surrey farmhouse.
I bet they were all full on for a Chow Mein last night.
So what happened to the student protest of my day then, they couldn’t give a monkeys, sensible. My son went to a party near the Millenium Dome on saturday night, got blathered along with the rest of his cronies, then was more concerned about watching the FA cup semi final on Sky, sounds much more of a reasonable attitude to me, better than throwing yourself in front of a police horse for nothing, and we are talking about astute, aware kids here.
Oh dear, as my mother would say.
Furthermore, the media and god knows who else are trying to incite an Olympic ban on China in relation to what happened to the Soviet Union in 1984, wasn’t that something to do with their invasion of Afghanistan, oh dear, shock horror, they proved to be right after all, a bit of help and understanding at the right time and we may not have been in the bloody mess that we are in now.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it.
Perhaps we had better look out for these orange clad, world dominating monsters from Tibet, the Chinese obviously have it sussed.
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