A difference of nearly £220,000 from the NONE AIRCREW WAGES, which surely must account for aircrew wages

There are at least 7 aircrew so that would be costs of about £31K or so each (assuming each paid the same, but it really doesn’t matter), from which PAYE, NI and employer’s NI will be deducted leaving take home pay for each person at around the £21.5K mark.

I’m sure you’ll agree this is a pretty poor wage for aircrew.

VAC flyin? I think you mean Sywell Jubilee flyin. Nothing to do with VAC.

Unfortunately the deal fell through and the aircraft was disposed of elsewhere, due in no small part to the deal being blabbed about on forums before it had been concluded. Hopefully the person responsible will keep their mouth shut in future. 😡

At least one of the two serviceable engines that are currently installed (perhaps both?) will have been in situ since she flew in 2007. It’s likely to have used up a good chunk of its 200 hours, so this is likely to be the limiting factor on future operations even if there are no other unexpected incidents.

Bearing this limitation in mind, surely it’s going to choke off donations for what’s likely to be a much shorter lifespan in the air?

See post #21 this thread

It’s already been suggested that if you stick anything into an intake, whether it’s a dessicant bag or a sack of pickled frogs, a tag visible from the ground provides a useful hint that it’s still in there that can not only be seen by the person responsible for checking the intakes, but to everyone on the ground who looks at the intakes.

Would the absence of a visible tag be proof enough to you that the item is not there?

What if the tag had come away from the item?

A nice idea but a physical check inside the intake would be required anyway so the tags would be actually introducing a problem of their own.

I have seen the first 30 minutes of Red Tails. I couldn’t take any more.

By far the most gash attempt at WWII action ever committed to celluloid (or USB stick). Michael Bay style cartoon rubbish CGI with a script that makes it clear that the film’s intended audience is the mentally sub-normal.

Compare to this Pearl Harbo[u]r was a cinematic tour de force. And at least that had some nice grey ships in it.

The new prototype, XF828, designated the Mk.20X made its first flight on 20 June 1955 at the hands of Jock Elliot and John Allen from Christchurch, where the whole DH.110 programme had now transferred to. The aircraft itself still looked pretty much the same, however it was now becoming an integrated weapons system and a far more complex beast, especially in regard of control systems. The Ferranti integrated weapons, instrumentation, and sighting systems, and the decision at this stage that it would be guided missile armed, for the first time guns/cannons were deleted, were firsts on British combat aircraft. The structure of all Sea Vixens retained the gun bays.

The latter points about deletion of guns/cannons from XF828 and retaining gun bays in all Sea Vixens are incorrect.

XF828 initially flew with guns (see photo, though I believe they were never fired) and the gun bays were made up of the cannon bay, ammunition boxes and barrel bays. The ammunition boxes were located behind the observer’s seat (which hinged forward to allow access). The 30mm Adens themselves were located behind the nose gear bay and this area was used on the Sea Vixen to house the air brake (on XF828 split dive brakes initially occupied the top and bottom of the rear fuselage, various brake configurations were trialled on the belly location later on before arriving at the final spec). The barrel fairings were later replaced on XF828 by dummy rocket packs and once the layout of these was finalised the FAW.1 was produced with all of the various gun bays now gone – even the area for the ammunition boxes was used for something else.

Other than that an excellent summary however and well done for marking the date.

Damien’s book covers fighter (really aew/interceptor) versions. Not an idea taken at all seriously and not at all a planned use for the raf’s buy.

It was two trailers, one with a pointy thing under a cover, the other with pointy thing’s wings under a cover.