Another one

This is a small, but colorful one…..

My father

He flew in the Marines in the 50s, then flew for Eastern Airlines for 32 years. Just grew up in and around it.

Did any Gladiators fight in the the Far East?

I thought I had read once of some, but cannot remember where. China, perhaps?

Originally posted by Phil Foster
PliotGHT is a very proud man which is to be commended, theres nothing wrong with it. Unfortunately he is also convinced that France stands alone as the naton that gets it right first time every time and never makes any mistakes which is not to be commended. He also has a limited grasp of the subject matter which only weakens his arguments more.

Interesting read here:
December 4, 2003: France is considering quietly retiring their new nuclear powered aircraft carrier and joining with Britain to buy a new carrier of British design. Actually, the French had planned to built a second nuclear powered carrier, but they are having so many problems with the first one that they are quite reluctant about building another one. Britain is building two 50,000 ton conventionally powered carriers, at a cost of $2.5 billion each. France would order a third of this class, and bring down the cost of all three a bit. The new French nuclear carrier “Charles de Gaulle” has suffered from a seemingly endless string of problems. The 40,000 ton ship has cost over four billion dollars so far and is slower than the diesel powered carrier it replaced. Flaws in the “de Gaulle” have led it to using the propellers from it predecessor, the “Foch,” because the ones built for “de Gaulle” never worked right. Worse, the nuclear reactor installation was done poorly, exposing the engine crew to five times the allowable annual dose of radiation. There were also problems with the design of the deck, making it impossible to operate the E-2 radar aircraft that are essential to defending the ship and controlling offensive operations. Many other key components of the ship did not work correctly, and the carrier has been under constant repair and modification. The “de Gaulle” took eleven years to build (1988-99) and was not ready for service until late 2000. It’s been downhill ever since. So the plan is to buy into the new British carrier building program and keep the “de Gaulle” in port and out of trouble as much as possible. The British have a lot more experience building carriers, and if there are any problems with the British designed ship, one can blame the British.
NAVAL AVIATION: French Carrier Disaster Gets Very Strange

The plot thickens……………

Originally posted by Ja Worsley

Sader: mate I do have, I have a book all about WWII planes including prototypes, I’ll find it and get back to you on it, but till tells the tale of one flying and fighting B-29’s over Japanese territory (Can’t quite remember off the top of my head, but it’s in the book) It’s apparently fired at 2 B-29’s causing one to loose both engines on the port side, the last time up the guns jammed and the pilot decided to return to base instead of Kamikazi attacking a B-29.

Thanks Ja! I’d like to try and find a copy of that book! Hope it is available here in the States. Love the obscure bits of history.

Fotki

Originally posted by Ja Worsley
Sorry guys, don’t know what’s gone wrong, will look into it, may have to post them individually off my hard drive

If you are using a Free Fotki account, they no longer allow you to link to other websites. They may show for a short time, but will go away eventually.