Ugly but huggy

Hi Broncho-The first thing that I thought when I saw it was ,this is ginormous’it was flying quite low & was being followed closely by what looked like a single engine GA aircraft which looked miniscule. The next thing I thought was Hell this Ugleeee!!! It is much fatter than its pics. but I think it is huggyyyyy!! we have it ,I just wish all military procurements were this simple.

Fairy tales can come true

I feel that this thread is running out of gas so I will make one last effort to save the CVF.Despite the obvious fact that I think the CVF is headed to the Pearly Gates & not the Main Gate I would actually like to see it built .
So far we have not been to come up with a serious proposal for a partner,but who said the partner had to be another country. In this era of blatant capitalism how about a corporate partner. Painted in its magnificent Corporate light blue colour & with its sides covered in tasteful advertising the HMS Microsoft & the HMS Bill Gates would be the pacesetters in the funding of future big Naval projects. There is no doubt that the RN already uses a lot of MS products. A major beer sponsor would be popular with all sections of the public The idea of an HMS Hangover is almost irresistable. Over & Out

Fairy tales can come true they can happen to you

Lost me there

“Lost me there” why? This paper ship can be upgraded to CTOL but there no initial plans to go in that direction ,any change to current ideas would only take place after a long gabfest etc.inevitibly causing more of the delays in construction of anything that I have mentioned before.Cheer up it is not getting built anyhow & it will save taxpayers in the UK heaps now & into the future.

SIA

I saw what looked like the C-17 flying slowly over Canberra today unfortunately I was in my car in traffic & did not see as much as I would have liked. I see you still have the SIA at the bottom of your post ,I was never a member but used to read it regularly, is it gone forever,I have bombed out trying to get it for some time now. also have you been married yet.Good Luck

A more powerful m88

Hi Arthuro- You mentioned a more powerful M88 is to be ultimately be provided along with other upgraded toys.Do you have any definite info about what improvements it would make to the performance of the Rafale carrying typical loads. I suppose we could make some reasonable guesses but despite my criticisms of the plane I would have thought that the current motors would be powerful enough for a plane of its size and weight.How much extra performance would it really bring under typical operating conditions, I imagine more thrust would help it lug some of the large loads we have seen carrying in promotional pictures. These loads are unlikely to happen in practice very often if ever.[I think anyhow]

Hope at last?

I have just got off the other forum I belong to,an OZ forum called The Fifth Column. A member who subscribes to Defense News magazine {weekly mag] has given us a brief news summary from this weeks issue . He claims among other news that the German Navy is seriously looking at the possibility of an Aircraft Carrier no info re size etc was given. It also stated that the German Air service was looking to replace its Tornadoes {I thought they had got rid of them some time ago} with another fighter bomber capabile of operating off other European carriers.Info on this forum is usually fairly reliable.Maybe at last some hope, if the UK could convince Germany to think big they might become a partner or is this just more pie in the sky stuff.

Havent got a clue

I am interested in the proposition of a modern conversion of commercial ship to aircraft /helo carrier conversion but unfortunately know virtually nothing about merchant ships.During WW2 the probably most successful conversion was the Sangamon Class Oiler later evolved into the Commencement Bay class however a ship of that size would not be big enough today. What dimensions would a successful modern conversion need to be, I reckon a ship about 600-700 ft long capapable of of having good seakeeping qualities and also capable of supporting a flight deck about 100 ft wide & capable of dealing with aircraft weights up to about 25-30 tons.Anybody know of a commercial ship about this size,I imagine a container ship would be the go these days. I think a ship like this would need to be only an easily convertible standby measure to be used in times of emergency. It is obvious that I have little idea of what might be able to be done. I have a distant memory that the RN toyed with the idea in the early 1980s I think it had a project name that sounded like a North American Indian tribe but I cant remember what it was.

Aussie Miragi 111.0s

This info is probably already well known but here goes anyhow .Specs. for the Aussie Mirage 111 are listed as follows Wing,fuselage and rocket bay tanks giving a total internal fuel capacity of 3332 litres ,two under wing drop tanks of 625,1100,1300 or1700 litres each or two 500 litre fixed supersonic tanks or two jettisionable JL-100 tanks each housing 280 litres of fuel and 18-68mm unguided rockets.I would ask if a pilots report of flying the Mirage has ever been on a Mirage thread ,I have sent an E-Mail to the publisher to see if I could put it on the Forum but have not got a reply yet.