Hi All,

Am still up for a second snap with the camera if there are any frames left – or is it doing the rounds again as per original list?

Paul F

Perhaps he’s planning to use one floor of it as an indoor training camp for the team?

Or maybe he’s going to operate flights to overseas matches for the team’s fans?

Paul F

If my memory serves me correctly the best solution for the Lightning driver was to attack from below in a steep climb.

Moggy

Indeed it was, such that the Lightning could get in a few shots on a pass, then continue to climb safely out of harm’s way before repeating the process at will.

In a turning, fully developed, close-in dogfight IIRC the Spit proved more of a challenge for the Lightning, but who in their right mind would get involved in that sort of scrap, when a few climbing passes, courtesy of two RR Avons with reheat potential, would keep you safely out of harm’s way. The point of a combat situation is all about “winning”, not about playing fair….so why do anything that reduces your advantage.

Paul F

While it would be good to have a permanent museum of this type, how much of the “original” Biggen Hill actually remains to be viewed? As I said on a past thread (about preserving the Brooklands site IIRC) how is “original” defined in this context? An airfield will, by it’s very nature, evolve over time, and buildings and features will be added, replaced, and removed – with or without the added impetus and practical intervention of a world war.

Sure, Biggen is probably most famous to the world at large in it’s “WW2 fighter station” incarnation, but what about its’ pre-war use by the radio telephony trials unit. One could argue that the legacy of that work is at least as important to modern aviation/society as the role the station played in helping to defend London/UK in the second world war?

In terms of how much of the WW2 period remains, the excellent museum at the former RAF Tangmere proves that you don’t need too much in the way of “original” buildings left to be able to build a popular, imaginative, and informative museum that can tell the wider story of a famous airfield.

No criticism intended, I’d love to see a Biggen Hill museum come to fruition before it’s too late, I just hope the “revisionists” (as under discussion in a another recent thread)are kept at bay. I hope the end result is a well presented history and not something that simply focusses on WW2 in order to attract the masses.

Paul F

MYT – Our experience

Haven’t flown MYT short-haul, but I have taken the family to Florida with them twice in the last few years on their A330s.

I must admit we had paid extra to travel “Premiair Gold” so that we would get reasonable leg room and wider seats etc (definitely worth the extra dosh on a 9hr flight) but we were pretty impressed with the overall standard of service, and although the economy class cabin looked pretty tight for space, it looked okay too.

I’ve experienced far worse service, and far scruffier aircraft, when travelling on scheduled flights with “the Worlds Favourite” airline and other scheduled carriers.

Paul F

High Down test site – Isle of Wight

The High Down test site is accessible to the public as part of the “Needles Old Battery” National Trust (IIRC) site, right out on the western tip of the IoW. Although there is an admission charge for the Old Battery itself, access to the High Down site is free.

The main concrete structures are still there, and you can easily see the two test cells where they bolted the rockets down for static tests, with the access road and a concrete blockhouse set midway between the two test cells. Nothing of the gantries or steel work remains beyond a few fixing points in the concrete.

Given the location, it must have been one heck of a job actually getting a Blue Streak launch stage up there and into place, as its a very remote location, with access via a narrow and somewhat twisty road – let alone getting the beastie to that part of the Island anyway, as island’s roads aren’t exactly “motorway standard” even today. Were the rockets shipped across from the mainland intact, or were they assembled on the island/in situ – I can’t remember if the displays told you.

The shape of the chalk cliffs at the site makes a natural bowl, and the immense noise from the rockets must have been channelled out into the channel and rumbled on for miles out to sea. For me, the “animation” sequences on “Coast” were very well done, and showed the place looking just as I imagined it must have been when in use.

There is a small display/exhibition on Britains space programme inc Blue Streak/Black Knight, and the use of High Down and Woomera etc in the nearby “Old Battery” buildings. Definitely worth a visit if anyone’s on the Island, but be warned, its a bit exposed up there in bad weather!

Paul F

I’m surprised that no-one has yet managed to revise history to paint the German Nation and Hitler as the innocent victims of the Second World War.

Regards,

kev35

Give ’em time Kev …… 🙁

An interesting thread, and for the record I’m definitely not in the revisionist camp. Yes, adjust figures/information if new data comes to light that stands up to “even-handed” scrutiny, but the trend to make thinly veiled politically correct “adjustments” to bring history more in line with current “preferred thinking” has to be stopped.

Present the facts, warts ‘n all, and let the reader/viewer decide for themselves. Trouble for those in charge is that, if you do that, there is always the chance that the reader/viewer might not adopt the preferred “PC” view.

Long gone are the days of battlefields that occupy only a few acres, where only the “professional” soldiers/sailors get involved. Modern warfare is total, innocent people get caught up in it, on land, on sea, and as a result of air-warfare, people acting under the intense pressure of war will make genuine mistakes, and, some evil people will always use the excuse of war to commit attrocities against other people.

I’m not advocating glorification of war, nor presenting a “they were all evil, we were all whiter than white” interpretation, just present the facts, what triggered the war, what happened along the way, what the outcome was, how many lives were lost (on all sides)…and most importantly perhaps ask the question “What can we learn from all this….”. Surely it is only when we start to face the facts, and try to answer the latter question that there is any real chance that we may help avoid a repeat of it all.

With education standards on the slide, and the fact that students are perhaps not taught to think for themselves, but merely to “toe the politically correct line” (a deeply contentious statement I know, but as a grumpy old(ish) man I feel empowered to say such heretical things :diablo: ), fewer people will be equipped with the intellect to process such info and make a rational decision for themselves, base dont he facts before them. Lack of this ability will leave them ever more open to political manipulation of the sort we are starting to see…..

As the current Kaiser Chiefs’ song says “We are the angry mob, we like what we like, we hate what we hate, but we’re oh so easily swayed…” . Doesn’t that sum up the modern population? All too afraid of standing out from the trend, and all too happy to follow the politically correct “mob” when it changes it’s mind.

Too few people seem willing to stand up and be counted for what they believe to be the truth these days, especially if their view is contrary to the “expected” PC stance.

Paul F