Particularly liked D. Dimbleby’s little joke:

“What do you put on a Tesco beefburger? £5 each way !”

That’s in poor taste.

I disagree.

If someone has made the principled, ethical stance not to eat meat then they have full rights be surprised or upset which animal gets slaughtered. Likewise when we found out that chicken was being pumped up with water and beef juice those who had made a decision not to eat cows for religious reasons or mammals for ethical had grounds to complain.

But if one eats hoofed ruminant mammals whether they were called daisy, buttercup or dobbin is not an ethical complaint. It’s squeamishness dressed up as morals.

All of the above IMMOO of course.

The reason to replace the Mk 208 Avons (11,000 lb.s.t.) with Mk 101 Speys (11,030 lb.s.t.) is all about that reduction in SFC from .86 kg fuel/kg thrust/hour to .63 kg/kg/hr!

A 36.5% reduction in fuel use… thus a 36.5% increase in range/radius!

Not to mention that the Buccaneer Mk2 also uses the Spey Mk 101… thus you reduce the maintenance & logistics load aboard HMS Victorious, HMS Hermes, HMS Eagle, & HMS Ark Royal!

Thank you for that. You have nicely reaffirmed my faith in my big ‘what should have been!’

Did it actually have had to fly?

As a lad I loved the p1154RN, ******* love child of the harrier and the phantom

Timeless elegance and simplicity goes to the Mosquito
Brutal power and ‘I wouldn’t want to spill his pint in a pub’ goes to the Eagle
Out and out most beautiful plane ever is the Blackbird
I always had a soft spot for the Flogger (with Radar not duck nose) when in flight but I’d never call it graceful.

I guess part of the attraction of the spit for us Brits (but not that abomination with the clipped wings) is its visual association with the Battle of Britain. Possibly it was the first war machine of WWII where it finally looked like we had technical superiority over the Third Reich?

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Moggy
Moderator

And whilst you are it correct the image.

With that godawful raised second cockpit the SR71 is only the SECOND most beautiful aircraft ever.

The Hobbit

I always liked hobbit best of all of JRRs books. In part i think because it is much tighter and leaner. And was worried about the bloat of going to 3 films.

However with the exception of about 100 battles all following the same format.

Run away
Two make a heroic stand to buy the others time
Two get overwhelmed
The others come charging back in
Baddies defeated

It was good.

Number one son loved it and insisted we stopped at library on the way back to get the book out. He is already half way through. So job done.

India have developed fighters before, but allowed lapses between programmes to waste away hard-gotten ..

The UK made a similar mistake with boat technology in leaving it so long between T boats and Astutes (insert comment about Vanguards here) and paid the price.

I like the proposal.

Any kind of deal which provides FAA with an appropriate airframe and ties Argentina closely to the big South American superpower has got to be sensible in my view. If it can also generate export income then so much the better.

My only reticence is that the FAA will still want a supersonic interceptor. Just as a statement of intent over its ability to defend a large mainland territory.

I still believe that they could be clever by inviting a friendly nation to base a squadron in Argentina (I suspect that UK is being far too naive and optimistic but Brazil or USA might be for more realistic) rather than pony up the money themselves.

Captain America the first Avenger

I am not really a big superheroes fan and even when my interest aligned more as a kiddie Captain America was probably of least interest.

However I rather enjoyed it. I dig spent large parts taking more interest in the German Reichpunk planes than the plot.

Favourite line: so many people forget that the first country the Nazis invaded was their own.