I especially like how:
1. building 4 new SSBNs with missile compartments jointly-developed with (and development mostly funded by) the USN, and
2. buying missiles also jointly-developed with (and development mostly funded by) the USN

is supposed to be so much more expensive than:
1. building several new SSGNs with missile sections developed (and funded) solely by the UK, and
2. developing and buying a new long-range nuclear-capable cruise missile developed (and funded) solely by the UK!

Really? And yes, the Astutes cannot be reasonably modified to carry that new missile… as there is simply no way anything longer-ranged than a Tomahawk can fit in Astute’s launch tubes.

I suppose you could cut them in half and insert a missile section, like the USN did with one incomplete Skipjack class SSN to create their first SSBN (all the others of the first group were laid down to the plans drawn up for the modification, with follow-ons built to a “clean-sheet” design)… but as that would cost nearly as much extra as simply building a new, longer Astute with the missile compartment added from the start, it is NOT a “reasonable” option.

Jonesey,

Wow an ASW Amphibian! I like the idea, however unrealistic it first appears.

Bring back the Martin P6M SeaMaster!

I’ve seen an account by a flier who was aboard one of the carriers, as well as a good close-up of the famous movie shot of the UH-1s being dumped over the side.

They both confirm that almost all of the dumped aircraft (both helicopter & F-5A/A-37s) were VNAF birds, not USAF/USA/USN/USMC.

Of course then you have the famous photo of the UH-1 hovering at the roof of the embassy in Cambodia with people climbing in and lined up on the stairs. The bird is painted white with no national markings… because it was CIA-owned.

I suppose you could say that my first military aviation experience was the ride the Army Reserves were giving in a UH-1H at an open house for the local reserve unit when I was a sophomore in high school, but as it was open to the general public I don’t really count that.

To me it was my junior year in high school, when our HS Army JROTC unit was out for a “field weekend”, and in the middle of us running a navigation exercise we were bounced by a pair of Army AH-1s at ~200′ AGL. We were called back to the base (actually a local National Forest campground with a nice large meadow) just in time for a pair of CH-47 Chinooks and an OH-6 Cayuse to land in the meadow, with the Cobras hovering to “cover” the landing. The Cobras then landed and we got to talk to the crews and look over the aircraft with them.

That was the spring of 1979… that fall we went out to the local Army reserve training area with the artillery unit (105mm howitzers) from Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah and learned how to set up and break down the guns to/from firing positions. We had expected to spend the whole weekend there, and watch some live-fire, but the Army had different plans.

The next morning a batch of Chinooks appeared and landed, and we had to load everything inside… then they took off and hovered while the Reservists slinged up the guns! As I was the senior cadet present, they left me to “supervise” the loadings, so I was on the last Chinook to lift off… having watched them take the guns away.

We flew about 80 miles to the west to the Dugway Proving Grounds, where we set up and fired the guns. They split us up among the gun crews, and during the firing, between all the gun crews, we cadets actually performed every job except setting the fuzes on the shells. Even that was actually covered… they were under orders not to let us set the fuze timers, but I was screwing the fuzes in the shells while the Tech Sgt set them right in front of me, and he explained everything he was doing… and showed me step-by-step.

That evening the trucks showed up, and the next day we drove back to Fort Douglas, where the buses to take us back to our school were waiting.

Here are two photos I took that day.

We took both State and Regional championships my Senior year in Small-bore Rifle Indoor shooting (.22 cal) and in Exhibition Drill With Arms.

And yes, those are real M1903A3 Springfield 30-06 rifles in the Drill Team photo, with the original wood stocks. We always prided ourselves on being able to throw and spin those throughout the whole routine, while many other teams used “drill weapons” (with plastic stocks & sheet-metal-over-wood barrels).

The Drill Team photo has me in the front row on the viewer’s left, and I’m front row viewer’s right in the Rifle Team shot.

The replica HMS Bounty has been sunk, crew taken out of life boats sadly twp other crew members are missing.

Things can be rebuilt, things can be replaced but a life never can be.

The body of Claudine Christian (42), supposedly a direct descendent of Fletcher Christian, was pulled from the water by the Coast Guard a couple of hours ago.

The ship’s Captain is still missing.

http://5newsonline.com/2012/10/29/claudine-christian-missing/

Bager1968, any reading you recommend on that first Beaufighter radar intercept ?

Just the book in the link in the quote in my earlier post.

I’ll repeat it.

http://aircraft-photographs.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Bomber-Bristol-Beaufighter-RAF-anti-shipping-fighter-36.htm

2:03-2:33, stern-stern refueling at anchor?

Port too deep to fuel before undocking?

3:25+, God, I miss that sight (and feel, and smell… the heave of the deck, the tang of the salt air, the wind over the deck, the hull cutting through the water)… VMA(AW)-121 aboard CV-61 USS Ranger 11/1985-12/1987.

Sigh… nostalgia for the vanished days of our youth.

Fixed the Wiki article.

{edit: And the Wikibot undid my edit, because it found lots of entries on the ‘net supporting the Wiki entry. Unfortunately, all those are simply copies or quotes of the Wiki article… creating a false “circular logic” chain! I reported the problem, with the following:

The entry is deceptive, in that it claims the F4U radar-guided interception was the first successful one… period.

To the contrary, it was merely the first by a USN or USMC aircraft, as noted on page 199 of Ace!: A Marine Night-Fighter Pilot in World War II – By R. Bruce Porter, Eric Hammel http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GQr5TXfSGd8C&lpg=PA199&ots=EKE0Dxv7gH&dq=major%20thomas%20hicks%20f4u&pg=PA199#v=onepage&q=major%20thomas%20hicks%20f4u&f=false

The first successful radar-guided interception by any nation was achieved on the night of 19/20 November 1940, by F.Lt John Cunningham of No. 604 Squadron, flying a Bristol Beaufighter. http://aircraft-photographs.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Bomber-Bristol-Beaufighter-RAF-anti-shipping-fighter-36.htm

Please replace my correction, as your bot is wrong (it is likely relying on all the other internet sites that have quoted your incorrect entry as being proof that your entry is correct). Circular logic is never correct.

Now that book only claims that that was the first successful Beaufighter radar-guided interception, but at least it is still proof that the 1943 was NOT “the first” ever.