I suppose overengineered could mean aircraft designed to overly demanding requirements which result in a final product too complex and expensive for operational use. Many of the famous cancelled aircraft such as TSR2, XB-70 and Avro Arrow would probably meet this description.

On another note supporters of other services can also play underhand tricks for example Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten had became famous within the industry for slapping ten photographs of a Buccaneer on a desk followed by a single picture of a TSR.2, and then stating that he could buy that many Buccaneers for the price of a single TSR.2. Then when an Australian delegation visited the UK, Mountbatten joined them to discuss the TSR.2. Afterwards the Australians had lost interest in the TSR.2; we shall never know what Mountbatten actually said, but it had obviously had a big effect, and the TSR.2’s export prospects had suddenly disappeared.

I dont approve of Mountbatten’s tactics which may well have rebounded on the RN by angering the RAF but in hindsight I think that the point he was making was correct. The Buccaneer was a highly capable aircraft and with better avionics it could have carried out a lot of the TSR2’s role for probably a lower cost. The TSR2’s OR was very stringent especially the STOL requirement, I appreciate that it was designed to fight a war in which it’s primary airfields would most likely have been destroyed in the initial enemy strikes but personally I believe that the requirements which the designers had to work to were too demanding.

But in the end the fact is that unless Britain’s post war economic performance had been like West Germany’s there’s no way that both CVA-01 and TSR2 could have made it into service in the numbers that the defence planners envisioned. Even if the government of the day had wanted to maintain Britain’s defence commitments there wouldn’t have been the resources to do so.

What about the Franklin Roosevelt? When was she decommed?

September 1977, not sure the RAN would have wanted her as she had higher operating costs than Melbourne or an Essex class. FDR was in pretty bad shape at the end of her career, as she hadn’t received the extensive upgrade that Midway got she wasn’t as capable. Therefore she would have needed major work to have been suitable for further use.

Have to say it makes sense as Ocean is the dedicated amphibious platform and without Harriers or any fixed wing alternative then there’s little point keeping the carrier.

It’s such an ignominious end for the Invincible class considering all the service the ships gave to the RN. Hopefully one of them will be preserved.

As has been said above this is an entirely predictable result. I hadn’t known about the issues over the overloading and the missing spacer until I watched Concorde’s Final Flight on C4 back in July. Something that’s always stuck in my mind was the fact that Concorde barely missed a 747 incidentally with Jacques Chirac on board, that had been waiting to cross the runway. I got the impression that the filmakers were hinting that when Capt. Marti realised he was going to hit the plane he carried out the take off to avoid a greater disaster. Could that have been a factor or was he committed to take off at that point?

As for Continental what legal options do they have now?