“Envelope protection would go without FBW, too.”

not strictly true, aircraft controls have been fitted with artificial ‘feel’ for years, this stop, or reduces the chance of you operating outside the envelope. other controls are can be stopped from working above certain speeds, or have their movement restricted at different speeds.
all this goes towards envelope protection.

that one in the pictures reminds me of the old royal jordanian one, and in fact may even be the same aircraft, it used to be the king of jordans personal aircraft, and the interior was something to behold!
just checkout the countermeasures equipment on the fairings behind each engine.

and yes there are plenty of tristars still flying, thr RAF still use them, there are a few in passenger service, but quite a few have been converted to freighters.

when i was stationed at honington we used to get C5’s AND C141’s , lining up and trying to land all the time (even the occasional airliner), as its on a similar orientation to mildenhall, but a couple of miles short.
once when i was stationed at Valley working on the visiting aircraft section, we we told by airtraffic that an american airforce shorts sherpa was diverting in, very short of fuel. once we had it connected up to the bowser, we got chatting to the crew, one of them, looking rather puzzled, with a handfull of maps said to me “say, what part of scotland is this?”

snap!

i was a keen collector of biggles books as a kid, you used to be able to pick them up for about 5p in jumble sales, along with other classics like eagle annuals. they are all still stashed in my parents loft!
did anyone else read the space books that w.e. johns did?…i thought they were great, and always wished he’d written more of them.

yes, but that could be for the either the vehicle bodies, or the aerospace machine shops, both of which, ibelieve, are due to move, as land from that part of marshalls is released for housing.

I have seen a proposal that includes new hangars for the C130 and C17, office accomadation etc As MA are on the verge of winning the 25 year whole live support for the RAf C130 and various other military contracts there will be more then enough work to go round without civil, IMHO.

yes there’s plenty of c-130 work, but i don’t think they’d just stop doing civvy stuff. what about all the staff that are type rated on airliners, most of whom have been trained up a great expense.
also if the c-17 work is being bid for, that will need a hanger a lot bigger than a c-130 needs, and if you have a hanger that size, you may as well keep on doing airliners as well.