Hmm, G-ANSY, I’m a York, slow and plodding…..

This post in particular, and most of the others in general, just shows a complete lack of understanding of political and commercial pressures on the UK manufacturers / forces of the day

Oh I have a very good understanding of the deployment of the F3 having been part of the work-up working alongside 228 OCU and I’m not much interested in the political machinations or BAe’s need to make a fast buck.

The F3 is/was a heap of junk; its only virtue was its supposed cheapness – except it wasn’t. In modern parlance it ‘is not fit for purpose’. How the hell did anyone have the nerve to give it a ‘F’ designation when it’s marginally worse at dog-fighting than a laden Wayfarer? Defenders may say it was only designed to chase Bears, problem is it couldn’t even do that at altitude.

Have I mentioned I don’t like the F3? 🙂

Don’t know if this ones been said:

Bucaneer – Banana Jet

Dunno, a Buck’s a Buck…..

Any bloke who was on Shacks or even had dealings with them and didn’t know the term Shacklepin must have been in a different Air Force

That will be me then – ages spent talking to ‘Anyface’ Shacks, occasionally known as Shackelbombers – wonder who’s Air Force I was in? Just because we never called the Phantom anything else but an F-4 doesn’t mean other people didn’t use ‘Toom or whatever was hip and happening at the time

CO2 bottle from a Luftwaffe ‘May West’ recovered by my good self when the (modern) Luftwaffe EOD were clearing RAF Gatow (Berlin) in 1992. Missed a Ju-88 undercart leg and a FW-190 wing.

No, just spilt my tea….

Just to add something else Norfolk county council have put the 1946 UK air survey photos for the county on line, now whilst the quality isn’t fantastic you can spit screen compare and contrast with the 1988 survey or the old OS mapping. It might be possible to spot aircraft dumps/pits on the many airfields from the ’46 photos and identify the current locations using the ’88 survey – just a thought

There is no basis to say that the Meteor was more practical than the 262

apart from the small matter of engine life? I’ve been on Squadron pi**-ups that lasted longer than the life cycle of Jumo 004 engines 🙂 Call me picky but the aircraft with engines that don’t work isn’t pratical, on the other hand the Meatbox was solid, rugged and didn’t throw compressor blades at 5 min intervals!