Nice pic Unicorn 🙂 JAZZ posted a pic of another Air Capable Spruance design in post 49 http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showpost.php?p=641142&postcount=49

Some nice new Tu-22M pictures to go with the theme: http://www.avtor.newmail.ru/

Great pics 🙂 thanks for sharing.

I think it’s the Martin-Baker Mk 12 http://www.martin-baker.co.uk/eject_mk12.html

Do a patent search on it at the US Patent Office and check out all the interesting stuff that pops up for the search results. Select “Quick Search” not “Patent Number Search” and use 4,802,639 for the search term.

Here is a link for the above http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&f=S&l=50&d=ptxt&Query=4802639

Take a look at this Lockheed delta rotor wing aircraft from 1988 http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=D0319041&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO2%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-adv.htm%2526r%3D38%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526d%3Dptxt%2526S1%3D4802639%2526OS%3D4802639%2526RS%3D4802639&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=BC67E1424B3C

What does it mean? The FAA has no longer aircraft for his carriers??? :confused:
HMS ARkroyal doesn’t operate sea harrier.
Italy, USMC and Spain are still operatig them, why?

The FAA will now operate Harrier GR9’s. The USMC, Spanish and Italian navies operate Harrier II+, not Sea Harrier FA2’s.

In hind sight its a shame that they didnt go for the original supersonic harrier, the engine had already been built and a prototype was under construction.

The RN/FAA version of the P.1154 did look very nice and if it had been successful the history of V/STOL aircraft would be a lot different.

The UK/US AV-16 was another missed opportunity that looked good. Pics from http://prototypes.free.fr/p1127/p1127-8.htm

It bugs me that they decided not to take the radars from the Sea Harriers and put them in the Gr.9s … until the F35 comes along our carrier capability is severely reduced.

As sealordlawrence said this would have been very expensive because the RAF Harrier II fuselage is not big enough for the Blue Vixen radar and would have needed replacing with a Harrier II+ fuselage like the USMC, Spanish and Italian navies operate 🙁

by my opinion 2 bombs and 2 missles ain’t gonna cut it with a carrierbourne vstol strike system nowadays. They should have ordered the harrier 2 instead of a pimped out shar

2 bombs and 2 missiles are the standard armament for a F-35B JSF 😉

Unfortunately ordering the Harrier II+ for the FAA instead of the Sea Harrier FA2 wasn’t really a option at the time, the available money and program timescales didn’t match up. In hindsight it’s a shame the Harrier II wasn’t designed to be radar capable in the first place.

I love the SHAR but I have to admit it’s capability/performance mismatch made it a easy target for defence cuts. I would have liked to see more effort put into improving it’s performance with simple fixes like better engine nozzles, lift improvement devices (LIDs) and weight saving measures such as lighter weapons (500lb JDAM?), lighter pylons, fuel tanks and access panels.