The contract was signed 2005, work began 2006. Should be in service soon.

Work began end of 2006. Thales said the first would be delivered in three years.

IMHO…

1) If you’re not driving, then from London go by train to Swindon (quick and no changes from London). I think there’s a shuttle bus from Swindon, and possibly from elsewhere. Allow plenty of time to get there/get back – there will probably be big queues and long waits for the buses, especially on the way back. The airshow website will have the details

2) In my limited experience your choice of hotels in London is decent OR cheap.

For the airshow weekend you would be much better off staying somewhere nearer to the airfield, but public transport into the show from anywhere other than Swindon can be a problem. Swindon itself is not the nicest place in England (apologies to any residents), but you should be able to get decent/cheap accommodation there. Be advised that local accommodation gets booked up quickly.

Of course, if you have a car there’s lots of nice towns/villages with cheap B+Bs in the Fairford area.

3) Never been in the grandstand so have no real opinion to offer. I would say beware that the flying programme usually differs between the two days – some items (usually the more interesting ones) only fly on one of the days. If there’s something you really want to see you can bet your life that it will be the day you choose to do the static!

It’s a long, long day (or weekend) whatever you do, but has always been worth it in the past.

Radius of Operation?
Payload?
terrain hugging?
EW and self-defence suits?
Operation envelope? ( I think the pig wins this one flaps down, but no harm asking)

Relevance to current operational doctrine?
Versatility?
Commonality with existing fleet?
Maintenance costs?
Spares supportability?
Ease of deployed ops?
Interoperability?
Growth potential?
Weapon options?

Thar she blows ….

I think the ‘Dove’ might be a Pembroke.

RF-4C was nuke-wired, F1CR isn’t. No contest :diablo:

how u came to this conclusion?

Presumably because they are talking about 40% of an aircraft’s bare structural weight, rather than 40% of an entire equipped aircraft.

If you can reduce the bare structural weight by 25% you will not reduce the overall empty weight by anywhere near as much.

By the way, the word is guerrilla, not guerilla. :diablo:

Has anybody else tried Google Sketchup? You can make 3D models and insert them into Google Earth. There’s a little bit of a learning curve, but it’s easy to get the hang of. See if you can figure out what I’m working on here 😀

Yes – I’ve been playing with Sketchup for a few days now. I found it easy to get the hang of and yet another way to waste a lot of time! (As if GE wasn’t enough already). Haven’t tried inserting anything into GE yet – but I do like the idea of having a TEL in my back yard!