Interesting conversation Nash!

Since starting work in London I’ve had to correct these Essex yokels numerous times… There’s no such word as ‘aint’.

By the way, we had ginnels in Manchester as well. A tunnel like passageway between terraced houses giving access to the back yards. (Strange that… I typed yards without thinking. No gardens on terraced houses just a paved surface out t’t loo.)

One that has arisen recently is a cuz in Manchester using ‘mard’ meaning chicken/yellow. I hadn’t heard it in decades. Down sarf, I’ve heard ‘wuss’ with the same meaning.

BBC news showed Canadian 18s going through Prestwick. Can our military not host them? No funds, no airfields?

I recall a quote that the Woodford factory had the longest ‘through’ sheds in the country. Is that still true and how does that quote stand in world rankings?

If we can’t build aircraft in them, they would make a fine indoor racing circuit. The noise would be luverly! Just what Cheshire needs.

Also, don’t forget that a goodly number of drawings will have DOM (Design Office Memo) and DDI (Design Office Instruction) related to them with no mention of these on the drawings. All well and good when on the production line but will cause no end of problems many years later. Though one would have imagined that anything this major would have meant a new issue of drawings. Perhaps we’re seeing a related issue to the Nimrods where each aircraft was different by mm or cm.

Did all manufacturers have the same issue or was it just those in Manchester?

To be honest, after working in the ground based aviation industry for 35 years and having flown on 20 + types I have very little desire to fly again. However, should anyone offer me a VC-10 or F-14 Tomcat flight I would be there! There’s a few which were possible in my timeframe that I missed the one that stands out being a Cimber flight booked from Humberside to Esbjerg which I was hoping would be the Nord 262 but was an ATR42. First flight of type but no chance of having a 262 now.
Never done a typical four jet airliner meaning DC8, 707 CV etc so would for the experience though imagine they’re all much of a likeness.
Still would like to do the Loganair Islands tour, looks good value, and perhaps the Scilly S-61, looks expensive! And would love to do a floatplane/ seaplane flight.

Some of the, non-military, discussion here takes me back to the interesting and perhaps alarming program on UK TV over the last two weeks showing how China has it’s capitalism spreading around the world.

Manufacturing industry and capability, in my mind, is what makes a country great. We have suffered through the lack of investment, demand for immediate profit, over zealous health and safety, desire to end a perceived exploitation of other nations and peoples. We don’t do it, others will. We suffer.

Is that a photo or a fleck of paint?