“just how far can a radio signal travel,?”

Radio waves travel outwards indefinitely at the speed of light. Which means that we are now literally, broadcasting our existence to anything within about 100 light years of us. At that distance you would hear the earliest radio broadcasts ever made – and you could theoretically home on in the signals, hearing radio and eventually TV broadcasts that were more and more up to date the closer you got.

As Tony T says – lets hope anyone listening isn’t hungry….

The Beeb’s noticed….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-26259236

I’ve now answered my own question. Wasn’t aware of this place: looks like a fascinating area to visit

http://www.airshowspresent.com/ashley-walk-bombing-range.html

You do get Tucanos on a regular basis round there. I think they must do practice bombing runs on Centre Parcs….

As a slight aside – The North American Eagle team, who have converted an F104 into a “car” are planning an attempt on the woman’s LSR today – driven by Jessi Combs.

https://www.facebook.com/NorthAmericanEagle

It must take a sizable pair to attempt 500+ mph in that thing… though by definition, hers are strictly metaphorical.

[QUOTE=Anon;2052910]

You might want to have a look at pictures 12 and 17 in this post to see what they mean:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?125304-RAF-Waddington-Airshow-2013-Sunday-(Image-Heavy)

Looks to me that pic 17 IS the image used in the o/p? Certainly very close to it – so it might actually be genuine?

PS – +1 for the backseater….

Bezos has been very lucky: The engines recovered are now confirmed as being from Apollo 11 apparently.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2371494/Apollo-11-rocket-engines-moon-landing-mission-confirmed-ocean.html

quote – perhaps Britain’s leaders were confident (or more confident) of winning by 20th August?

I think it was quite the opposite: The Germans didn’t think we could win, the Americans (certainly in the shape of Joe Kennedy, then American Ambassador in London) didn’t think we could win – and possibly the majority of British politicans didn’t either. Halifax appears to have though all was lost after Dunkirk – his aim was more to “Safeguard the Empire” – protect British interests even if that meant giving Germany a free hand in Europe; which is basically what Hitler had been asking for pre-war anyway. Had they got their way – then possibly we would have had a respite while Hitler turned his attention to Russia – creating the Nazi’s “Living’ Space”. Some British politicians may even have secretly been glad of Hitler dealing with Stalin for them. Long term, no doubt, a “Battle of Britain ” would still have happened regardless. I think we we just very, very lucky to have “that half-bred American Winston and his mob” in the right place at the right time.

As you say – he played an incredible game of Brinkmanship… and ultimately won….