if Blackstar is really flying, we would also be seeing much faster progress in SST (supersonic airliner) development. if the SR-3 realy exists it would be the only operational heavyweight supersonic aircraft today, after the retirement of Concorde.

Civilian SST development is all about economics and environmental concerns, I doubt a military supersonic program would have these as a primary goal so, in my opinion, the technology wouldn’t transfer that well.

Very interesting article, a ‘Black Project’ Two-Stage-to-Orbit carrier/orbiter system does sound highly likely.

Here are some images by Adrian Mann that could be similar to the Blackstar (Brilliant Buzzard and BTSTO) http://www.aemann.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/aircraft/black/black.html

The C-295 has no real STOL performance (C-235 had), but the wing area wasn’t increased, and it has no APU.

According to http://www.team-futurecargoaircraft.com/295_walkaround.html the left engine gas generator can serve as a APU.

A400M is a joke. (Had two or three post about why I think this is). And what the real price for anybody outside of the consortium members is, one will only see after a couple of years in operation and experience with spares prices.

The A400M isn’t the ideal airlifter, but it will be a big improvement over the types it’s replacing. I expect it will turn into another money pit program though 🙁

Construction of the A400M has started http://www.airbusmilitary.com/countdown/index.html#

The Skycar also has dual ballistic parachutes among it’s safety features http://www.moller.com/skycar/safety/

So , could the missile actually have a switch to set it to air-to-ground mode? Suprised noone has actually thought of that before

It has been thought of before in this thread 😀 – MULTI-ROLE METEOR http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=29303

It’s basically a matter of adding a multi-mode seeker and GPS/INS to give it a a2g role, the warhead wouldn’t be that impressive but it could prove very useful against some targets.

Hi SteveO you like the 130J? I think it’s a waste of money….

The C-130J (or Jerkules as Arthur likes to call it 😀 ) had a disappointing start but it’s now finally starting to impress in service.

It’s not the ideal airlifter for the RAF but it was the only one available at the time that seemed affordable.

I like the idea of the C-27J and C-295 filling the gap between the capabilities of the C-130 Hercules and CH-47 Chinook, but I’m not sure if it would be a good idea for smaller airforces to do so.

I think the UK already has too many different transport types, so I don’t think we should buy any more for a while.

Here are the Future Cargo Aircraft (FCA) websites – C-27J http://www.c-27j.com/ and C-295 http://www.team-futurecargoaircraft.com/