Flying replicas instead of the real things?
Like the idea – but it would take a big, big storm before it takes flight. Personally I would rather things were grounded now 😮 😮 😮 (pauses for gasps of shock and anger to pass before proceeding), much like the Dutch Dakota boys were trying to do, so that future generations would be able to see the 20th century’s finest where they should be – safely in the air.

But maybe you ought to ask how genuine the winged wonders we see before us are anyway. :confused:

I used to live near Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy and the world famous reconstruction that used to be HMS Victory (for those of you too busy staring at the girl in the next aisle during your history class it was Nelsons flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in1805). There were dark mutterings that the Mary Rose (aargh! Ok, she was King Henry VIIIs apparently favourite warship but sunk in the 16th century, bits of which got raised in 1982 and have been under preservation ever since) was more original due to HMS Victory being continuously under repair and replacement of rotting timbers. One day soon there won’t be a single plank of wood aboard which served at Trafalgar – much like (I have been told) Comet G-ACSS (Doh! Not that she served at Trafalgar!).
So, when a wreck is hauled out of the jungle and is sold on as being potentially airworthy just how much will really fly again? The engine? The panels? The main spar, perhaps? Or just the identity? :confused:
Lets face it, spending 50+ years out in the elements isn’t a recommended way to preserve anything manmade so in an effort to fly their new purchase the owners will start prefabricating like hell. Aluminium is a great metal but it decomposes eventually, so that gets replaced. Other parts of the airframe will get replaced straight off because they are out of hours or have been damaged or stressed. Every rivet or welded seam has to be replaced to satisfy the regulating authorities, as does the wiring. What are you left with when everything has been done to get a CofA; that can be called original anyway. :confused:
And even then the identity need not be real: there have been Mustangs stolen away from a dull life as a gate guardian in Latin America or the Philippines (I forget which and where, but probably both) and probably given the serial numbers of aircraft which had crashed long ago and scrapped or just disappeared into the paperwork.
Sorry but lets make it legal – sort out the design copyright and build a production line… Oops! Then who would want a knackered old aeroplane with a dodgy past and non factory-fitted parts? 😉
Think I’ll go back to FS2002 and just concentrate on getting my B737-400 up to 98,000ft again!:D Much more likely to happen…

Another late night rant from Flood – you’d think he didn’t have anything better to do!

American democracy… Hmm, I remember that.
Was that what was exported to Columbia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, etc?:mad: If you asked all the Latin American people who had experienced “democracy” under the guidance of shady Raybanned American advisors – well, those who survived that unique style of questioning – what they thought of being saved from communism then you might have a totally different view on life. Not that I as a Brit can gloat too loudly, but at least we never (in the latter part of the 20th century, anyway) took part in the rape and murder of nuns, the assassination of priests, trade unionists, politians, and the wholesale slaughter of anyone who just happened to be protesting in the wrong place at the wrong time, nor made up lies to blacken the names of those who tried to bring this sort of news to the world.:mad:

Don’t mean to drag this down to a base level but was this started as some sort of Freudian cry for help?:eek:
Used to have a guy in the office who boasted all the time about how fantastic he was in bed… Didn’t like it when he got a ribbing about it and would frequently mutter dark threats and offer anybody the chance to have a go outside.
Looking at this in internationalistic terms would he have been called American?

And as for the world learning about America from Hollywood?
Hell yes! Top of the list is don’t buy an American car – they explode all the time!:D

Flood (sorry, I had a bad day at work)

Willow sez:- “One could always be returned, fully restored, later on when the situation was better.”

Pardon me for asking the bleedin’ obvious but which of our museum facilities, which of our warbird entrepreneurs, or even which of you with your bright ideas is going to dig deep in to their usually empty pocket to restore a Fury just so that it can be given back at a later date?

Fine, the Fury does have a very good British connection but they were sold over 50 years ago! They have been part of another air force and, whether good or bad, that is where they should stay, at least until someone in authority – and here I mean Iraqi authority – decides what should be done with them. And since there is no real Iraqi government at the moment I would hazard that decisions like that will be the last thing on their minds. Granted, that will not help the airframes now but at least it will not look like the western world is trying to pillage their history – as well as their oil – from them.
Even if the Furies were to come here what in the world makes you think that they would stay here? We don’t have a great history with keeping Furies, usually flying them for a year or two and then selling them to (bites tongue, hard, to swallow his poisonous bile) American gentlemen to lop the wings off (:mad: hsss!) and hang big engines off the front (:mad: boo!). If the Iraqis wanted to make money from the Furies then they are probably going to cut out the middleman anyway.
Hopefully the berk who cut the tail off will have been apprehended by his military police – although the chances are they won’t have a clue about what it is and may even just dump it like they apparently do with Iraqi helmets – but I am informed very little is being tolerated in the way of plunder so I just hope it isn’t disposed of over the side of a ship just like my grandfather and his mates slung their hoards of Japanese Samurai swords overboard in 1946 (he apparently had 4 and his squad had similar numbers each, but I am glad that the pickled head also went overboard! Or maybe that was just a story to scare us young lads?).
Leave then where they are; they are safe enough (unless the US forces suspect them of being weapons of mass destruction, of course) and maybe, one day, they will form a museum for us to view in the future.
It is a crying shame but…

Flood

Must say that the missing man formation – anywhere, any aircraft – always sobers me up.

Not an airshow in the strictest sense but…
On a friend’s yacht for the Dartmouth Regatta – even better with the smoke blowing over those million quid gin palaces and their crews who forgot to check for wind direction – the only way to watch the Red Arrows! Done that a few times and it still never ceases to amaze me that some seem to enjoy being covered in clouds of coloured paraffin! My oppo insists that it makes the Bolly taste better… 😀 😀 😀

For real bravado – or do I mean sheer stupidity? – one of those new fangled things without a propeller at zero feet in one of those lovely heavy rain editions that Biggin did so well, mid to late ‘90s. We heard the roar of an engine but couldn’t see anything from our position, on the wrong side of the bump at the eastern end of the crowd line, when WHOOSH and then he disappeared in to the murk. My mate insisted it was so low that it was sucking the water off the runway – but his video only showed what looked like a wake across a lake because he couldn’t keep up with it!
It confirmed to me that those Russians were mad! What was it? Don’t know – a MiG or Sukhoi without a doubt – but to me it meant that I didn’t always have to leave when the rain fell and the ducks were walking.
Why should our memories always be with clear blue skies and perfect lighting – mine aren’t that’s for sure!

Flood – not a good example but a horrible warning. 😮

Not strictly speaking bad, but not good either!

Not sure if this counts as a ‘bad’ airshow, but…
I even forget the year but it was definitely the first time I attended Mildenhall – probably in the mid eighties.
A local coach company had a trip going – great! 6:00am start – not so great! A mate and I were literally first ones aboard and then had to endure a trip around our area picking up other travelers from various bus stations. Boring.
Then came a journey around the M25, up the M11, etc. I forget now where we went but do recall passing through Peterborough town centre, and maybe Ely too, before our amiable coach drivers admitted they were lost.
Result? A near seven hour mystery tour but with a lovely and quick(!) straight-in arrival to the coach park.
Then…
‘Sorry, folks. We are going to have to depart by 3 o’clock!’
Can’t remember if it was due to the fact that we were last ones in and therefore had to be first ones out, or maybe the drivers on duty hours were fast approaching.
Quite sure we left two passengers behind as well!
When the hat was put around for the crew I don’t recall there being a thing in there.

And when I went to collect my slides from the processing house I discovered my camera had an over exposure problem…
And they say it never rains!

Flood – who is still upset about the RNHF Firefly. Very sad.

Sorry people, would have a whole lot more respect for americans if they didn’t try to brainwash everyone into believing that whatever they do is right and that you are wrong if you don’t tow their line.

A school teacher that I am regularly in touch with (used to go to school with her) mentioned that an exchange teacher from across the Atlantic, at her school, has been ‘informally’ disciplined because she spent a whole series of maths lessons apparently justifying that Bush sent troops into Iraq because Saddam was behind the World Trade Centre fly in. A child complained (and this never normally happens, apparently!) that they weren’t studying maths! When the teacher was asked what this political discussion had to do with helping children prepare for their exams she apparently launched into a tirade of abuse against the rest of the world for not backing the american people when they had right on their side! I am led to believe that the last straw was when she called the deputy head a communist because he tried to explain that she should be teaching maths and not politics – very funny because he is apparently a big wig in the local conservative party… (for the good ole boys out there – they are further to the right than Tony ‘Brown Nosed’ Blair – who claims to be a socialist (bit like a communist, but not quite!))
My friend tells me that – from an educational aspect – her observations are that children in america seem to be taught current affairs purely on what ever is flavour of the month, i.e. when the World Trade Centre was attacked then it was Iran that was being floated as the monster over the horizon (even when Afghanistan was being returned to the stone age, and she should know – she was on exchange out there and told to push the presidents line!), then Afghanistan was officially public enemy #1, then Iraq, now it’s Iran again trampling on democracy – but with North Korea and their nukes making a go for next week! Mustn’t forget Libya, and Pakistan was another that was, until recently, one of the naughty boys! Of course Turkey will also be out of favour at the moment (fancy worrying about your own population and not allowing a war to be launched from your southern border!) – and as for France!!! It must be hell to be a teacher out there, coming back from a week off not knowing who you are supposed to be bad mouthing!
Anyway, as for those locked away in Guantanamo I agree with the stand up comedian (whose name, much to my shame, currently eludes me) who said that by the criteria laid down by Bush/etc for being a terrorist that there would soon be dawn raids on members of the Cub/Scout movement! ‘Let’s see, taking an oath, being prepared, wearing a military-style uniform… Whut’s a woggle anyhow, huh, an’ how many people kin it kill?’

Flood.

STOP SHOUTING!

Evening,

http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/
has an entry for a preserved Fi 103A-1 in/at Wilrijk, Antwerpen, Belgium. No other details, no picture. Could it be this one?
(Incidently they also mention a partial replica in the Musee Royal de l’Armee, Brussels)
From the images under the entries for Fi103A-1/Re4s (manned versions) the rear fuselarge of this one looks very similar and I am sure that, as Roger S says, this is a meeting of manned and unmanned parts brought together as one. These pictures seem to show a noticeable joint or join in line with the front of the engine – to help with mass production maybe?
A quick look through Google fails to bring up anything under Antwerpen, Antwerp, and Wilrijk in connection with Fieseler, Fi103, V1, etc being preserved – not even the Preserved Axis Aircraft site (discounting all those mentions of V1s being aimed at Antwerp, of course).

From the point of view of the noise from the engine being close to the pilot, I would have thought the possibility of going deaf would be the last thing on the mind of anyone who would have volunteered to fly one of these beasts operationally (ie, once). In fact, according to http://www.thehistorynet.com/WorldWarII/articles/1997/09973_text.htm, by 1945 it had been decided that only criminals or pilots who were in a depressed state or ill would be allowed to fly them. But maybe they’d make this last trip dosed up on aspirin coz, personally, I’d hate to enter the halls of Valhalla (“Oh gods! Not another beer! Tell those valkyrie to stop singing, please…”) with a headache!

Flood