Well I hope the mods don’t mind, but I’ve gone over to a red font for just this one post because I feel so strongly on this issue. I’d be glad if all of you, whether north or south of the border, would take the time to read it.

There is in fact a common thread running both through this discussion and the one on the Falklands, and there is in fact a similar solution to both.

I would like to state categorically that I was born British. I was born in London and have lived in England all my life, but I have never seen Scotland as something seperate or lesser than England. I love the United Kingdom, we are an example to the world of what can be done when brother nations pull together. All very high and mighty talk I know, but think about it.

I’m not a ‘Scots basher’, and frankly in 31 years of living south of the border I’ve never met any. I sincerely wish that English (and Welsh and NI) people would publicly express thier upset at what is being proposed, and would publicly declare thier affection for Scotland. I think in a reserved English way we’re pretty torn up about it.

Why do things really need to change?? What we have presently is a group of nations that live harmoniously, and we have peace and shared wealth etc. Why do political barriers have to be put up? Surely all it does is make life more difficult for ordinary people, and create stronger feelings of seperation.

I sincerely believe that the move toward Scottish independence is causing far more hurt than is realised, and that many feel that thier nationality would be stolen from them by a Scottish vote for independance.

How does this tie in with the Falklands? Well, the Falklands has a tangled history with regard to claims over sovreignty and we could frankly be here for a fortnight discussing whether the islands are rightfully Spanish, French, American, British or Argentinian (all have had claims on the islands in the past.) The best thing to my mind would be for the international community to focus on what the islands are now, ie. a colony made up of decent people making an honest living, and living in peace. Whether or not they are British is irrelevant to an extent, the fact is that they are there now and what is the point of disturbing global peace for the sake of an ancient territorial claim? The people are there now, and as it happens they would like to remain British. What happenned to the concept of protecting ordinary peace-loving people?

So, in short, my feelings on both are that what currently exists isn’t all that bad and that changes could lead to further animosity. I sincerely feel that ‘stirring things up’ in either case is extremely unhelpful, and that we are all better off together.

I think it would be a great book with the right author for the job, given your past writing experience and tool-makers training. The very best of luck with it!

I’d agree with Creaking Door in that it would be good to see the book written as a general reference on production, ie. how and why things were being built rather than if it was a fighter or bomber etc. I think splitting it up like that would be too simplistic, but what do I know!

If possible, I would like to see some emphasis and detail placed on logistics and material supplies. The amount of metals and specialist aviation grade woods and plastics etc was simply staggering and it would be great to see something written on how government and industry sorted out the supply difficulties. Even aircraft like the Mosquito, which were supposed to be made of non-strategic materials, were made of imported wood. How did that work out as a good idea?? It’s that sort of question I’d love to see the answer to.

To waffle further, it would also be good to see some explanation of production techniques and materials in layman’s terms. The engineering IS interesting to alot of people, but it needs fleshing out and explaining a bit.

Just my thoughts, as requested.

I’m by no means an expert, but from an anecdotal point of view I’d always thought inverted engines were more hassle. You have to pre-flight the engine carefully to avoid hydraulic lock (a la radial) and you have to be careful about not fouling the plugs when the engine is at lower RPM’s (eg. when taxying). I have heard it suggested that part of the reason for the large number of Bf109 undercart collapses was due to pilots having to keep the revs up to keep the plugs clear, therefore leading to some fairly brisk taxi speeds and higher risk of collaps under sideloads and over bumps etc.

Merlin,

Whilst I understand your sentiments, it’s not the practical way forward for all sorts of reasons. This person’s actions are clearly wrong to all of us here because of the standards layed down in life, with some instinct thrown in. In order for a society to judge the criminality and wrong-doing of an individual, that society has to remain above the actions of the individual.

Yes, that often means murderers get a life sentence and a telly, rather than the gallows, but in the long run it’s better for society as a whole, and for the legal process. As soon as death penalties and so forth get talked about, all sorts of things get turned on thier head and things can get very messy.

Just my tuppence worth…

Ok, I wasn’t going to comment, but you’ve all dragged me into the discussion for better or worse. Here goes…

The fact here is that we don’t know all the facts about what went on, details of the people involved and so on. It’s very difficult to make any kind of informed comment based on a news article. The basic facts as stated are indeed terrible, but I think that’s all we should say for now.

There are many reasons why people commit crimes or inflict cruelty on others, and many of these cases turn out to involve people with mental health problems, learning difficulties etc. Passing judgement just isn’t our place, and starting a thread by asking just how nasty you could be to another nasty person is hardly the kind of thing that lifts humanity into decency. I feel terrible about this incident, but it’s important for the sake of all and sundry that we remain human and decent, especially in a case like this where we have so few facts.

Thing that got me was what are current RAF crew doing digging a tunnel wearing new and expensive nomex flying suits, cape leather flying gloves and flying boots, haven’t they heard of RAF Coveralls, seems like sod the expense in these austere times…. Very good programme though.

I think the idea was to give the aircrew a feel for what it was like for the original escapers, who often spent the rest of the war living in the uniforms and flying clothing they were captured in. You never know, perhaps it was good escape training for them! I certainly wouldn’t accuse them of wasting valuable gear etc etc. Just my point of view.

Overall I thought it was a good programme, although it would have been interesting to see more of the site as it is today, particularly the camp graveyard. I don’t think the programme quite managed to convey the physical and mental hardships of being a PoW, but I suppose that would be another programme in itself.

Thanks for the picture. I was lucky to see it. I was just on my way to pick my
wife up from work when they called up Southend on the radio. I think they
were flying with a Lear Jet that was handling the comms. ?

It looks in lovely condition, does she still fly ?

She was completely restored when she arrived in Holland, having been flown across the Atlantic in ferry-flight conditions with borrowed engines etc. Since then various financial and/or beauracratic hurdles have been overcome, only for new ones to arrise. She’s been airworthy and ready to go since something like 2005 but has yet to fly.

I sincerely hope things can be resolved positively for the museum as a whole, a great collection. 🙁

Built the Airfix kit a few years back, and my main gripes were the poor fit of the fuselage halves along the belly, which needed some scraping and sanding etc, and the wing-fuselage joints which needed a fair bit of filler. Not bad all things considered (the price especially!), it’s basically a nice little kit.

Oh and be careful getting the Sabrinas off the sprue as it’s hard to tell where the sprue ends and the Sabrina starts.