What a great thread ! Thanks people ! Vampire was my uncle’s favourite aircraft. He flew with 14 Squadron.

BTW… I am looking for Vampire drawings to start a CAD project like my Spitfire one.

Beagle Pup, Bulfinch, Basset and Bulldog.

Surely, on return, RT traffic with the goodies isn’t going to interest the baddies anyway? Also, some PR flights were made to show the baddies they were being recce’d….. i.e. to deceive the baddies that we hadn’t broken their encryption.

The 159 is good, but Hawk is a whole lot more. Don’t be too impressed by words like ‘Advanced’ (in ALCA). The Yak 130 is more equal to Hawk, but has 2 engines to make it so ! Alphajet was Hawk’s contemporary, and a good aircraft, but sold only half the Hawk numbers, and also uses 2 engines. The L159 is not really comparable to Hawk, in my view.

F-16 XL ?

Of course the pilot’s inspection SHOULD find such damage, and usually would, but any other airline personnel who know they have accidently caused damage to an aircraft and fails to report it would be deemed to be ‘criminally negligent’. This is not a term I have invented, but is unfortunately perhaps not explained to some ground staff. As a passenger I am sometimes a little alarmed at the rather casual regard some ground staff seem to have towards aircraft. I apologise to those ground staff who work properly and probably know what I mean, because I am not talking about them.