RE: Increased security at London Heathrow.

Scary times, Arthur? I guess it depends where you were born
and grew up. I’m sitting less than a mile from a pub that
the IRA blew up in the 1970s and travelled to London every
day via a railway station and past a restaurant that were
also subject to bomb attacks at the time I worked there.

Well, considering i’m from just across the border from former RAFG Brüggen and Wildenrath, a total of three IRA attacks happened within my everyday surroundings. One hand grenade attack and the gunning of (accidental) Australian tourists both in Roermond, and a gunning near a restaurant/bar on the border towards Wildenrath. And if you add the handgrenade attack on a few Laarbruch-servicemen a bit to the north, i can’t say i have never been aware of the existance of terrorism.

But it didn’t scare me back then, and neither does it now. That is, as long as the anti-terrorism-awareness doesn’t grow out of control and turns into total paranoia (so yes JJ, i agree with you).

RE: Crusader’s wing

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 14-02-03 AT 12:35 PM (GMT)]…is because at higher speeds than those
encountered in the pattern, the raised wing might blanket
the tail or worse, part company with the rest of the
airplane for the same reason that aircraft have maximum flap
and gear extension speeds. Nothing would ruin my day like
looking in a rear view mirror and seeing that massive wing
somersaulting independently of the rest of the ensemble.

You’re forgetting that it is the wing which is doing the flying, not the fuselage. In fact, when an F-8 lowered the wing back into the fuselage after takeoff, it was actually the fuselage being moved up to match the wing in stead of the other way around. There is no way the wing could have flapped in case of a hinge/hydraulics failure or it could have blanked out the tail. Long before the wing would have reached such an AoA, it would have stalled anyway. It’s simply not possible.

Edit: Ah, my post of last night is back as well. I was typing that but when i uploaded it, the Script Error appeared. Although the post was on the index this afternoon, i couldn’t see it so i retyped something similar. And now there’s two…

RE: Crusader’s wing

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 13-02-03 AT 07:20 PM (GMT)]I never knew of Phantoms phlying with their outer wing panels pholded. Wouldn’t surprise me though. However, the Crusader has quite a number of logged takeoffs and landings with the outer wing panels up – i think they should be somewhere in the archives on AFM, i remember typing something about that a few months back.

As for the AoA-adjustable wing: this was controlled by a separate lever in the cockpit (or actually two: the handle itself and a separate locking handle), hence functioned independently from the landing gear. So a flight with gears up and wing out is possible, although i think it was only common right after take-off. The only pic i could find of a Crusader in that configuration seems to be just that. Interestingly, the wing was not crancked up for other cases in which the Crusader had to fly really slow, for example when being refuelled by a slow bug like the AJ-2 Savage or KC-130.

This pic’s from Wings of Fame vol. 5, showing an RF-8G with VFP-63.

http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/groups/g_1338143/RF-8G+with+wing+out.jpg?bcfO_…

Edit: i couldn’t get the image uploaded (…again… do i owe anyone some pictures still, btw?), so i rerouted it via Yahoo.

RE: Increased security at London Heathrow.

I don’t think the WTC would have been saved if there were light tanks patrolling there, or at the airports where the planes took off.

It seems like a nasty, nasti spin to me. I guess the old Kennedy motto “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” is finally said goodbye. After all, we have to fear in order to agree with what certain governments are proposing.

These are scary times. I’m just not sure if it’s a terrorist threat, or the ‘democratic’ governments i have to be afraid of.

RE: Geforce…..sigh…….

Well, what Gefore is right about it that the European population is generally against a unilateral US attack on Iraq.

But it seems he got a bit upset about it for some reason, perhaps he’s too young to be suitably cynical 😀

Funny thought which crossed my mind today:
Saddam grew his bio-warfare germs in the incubators his army stole from Kuwait.

}>

It would be fun though – reviving an old lie to produce a new one.

RE: 9 Aircraft Carriers to Gulf?

Bad news is that some of those carriers will be equipped with Subpar Hornets. Ah well, the Euphrates and Tigris are large rivers so i guess it will be possible to reach out and touch Baghdad from a F/A-18E/F carrier after all… }>

RE: war in Irak and the Franco/German resistance

Great link, Icarus!

And be sure to thank the French for Dimona and your *ahem*
indigenous Jericho missiles.

Yes, France has got quite a history of vague arms deals. Sometimes they are called Nesher.