I think it was the best fighter of WW11 in it’s Merlin engined guise, much as I love the Spitfire and all it stands for. It did the job that it was designed to do brilliantly.

I’ve always thought that the problem that a/c manufacturers have to contend with is that governments want a/c to do everything, which the F4 made as good a stab at as any other a/c. But they usually finish up as Jack of all and master of none. It’s OK having a cost effective solution in peacetime but if it’s going to get blown out of the sky come a shooting match then those savings are complete losses.

I think it was the F15 that had the design motto ‘Not a pound for air to ground’. It was designed purely as an interceptor/fighter and as a result has shot down some 100 a/c without a single loss (in combat). Of course they then thought they would hang bombs on it and call it the F15E. Low wing loading=very bumpy flight at low level. Not good. Conversley the TSR2 had high wing loading which gives very good gust damping but poor turning performance. This instantaneous turn rate may be high because a highly loaded a/c will tend to roll quicker but all bets are off after that. So as a turner and mixer the TSR2 was always going to be at a disdvantage.

They were by far the best display last year at Waddo, IMO of course.

I was brought up on the TSR2 myth until I met a guy who was a development engineer on it. Far from being misty eyed about it he said that the avionics didn’t work (nothing new there then) and oddly enough they had a lot of trouble with the undercarriage. He reckoned in the cold light of day it was the right decision to cancel it but the wrong decision to cancel the buy of the F111.

We finished up with the F4 that we had to swap the engines for political reasons giving us an aircraft that was inferior to the US F4 in almost all the flight regime, apart from not leaving the sooty trail of the J79 that you can see from miles away. A UK F4 with the SUU gun pod fitted and two Fletcher external tanks had to be dived to go supersonic with full burner. Hardly scintillating performance for an interceptor. The much vaunted Harrier couldn’t lift a war load worth a pig’s ear in it’s earlier incarnations and the Lightning was a two shot rocket (and the shots weren’t that brilliant, especially Red Top) that was always hampered by range, not to mention the infamous engine fires. We lost a higher percentage of Lightnings than the NATO guys who flew the F104 did, and that earned the sobriquet of Widow Maker.

Luckily everyone else was having the same problems. It’s easy to go all gooey (I still do when I see a Lightning) when you see these aircraft, because we’ve all seen Lightnings/Harriers and all the rest at air shows where they make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Truth is they were built as war machines to kill the enemy, not as display a/c and some of them came far short of the mark in their primary function.

Except the P51 of course 🙂

Yes indeed, smell is a powerful memory stimulant. I’ll never forget the first time I went aboard a Shackleton and smelled that indefinable pong that aircraft of that era had. Canberras smell the same so it wasn’t a piston engine thing, more probably hydraulic fluid and electrical cabling. The smell of mown grass and burnt avtur together always conjures up the magic of an airfield.

Even in GA, Cessnas have a different smell to Pipers. Work that one out, same engines, ali body and same instrument fit more or less.

These British a/c from the 1930’s are very much the fine wine of historic aviation.

My favourite era and aircraft too. Takes you back to the days of no CAS and being able to fly from A to B in a straight line. You could fix them with a bit of dope and fabric and a box full of spanners too.

Next Saturday?!?

19th

You could try a trip up to Breighton (not sure you can just walk in if you arrive in a car) but fly in is no probs. They have some beautiful old stuff up there. If you still live around Lincoln I’m flying up from Sturgate on Sat to Breighton as long as the runway isn’t waterlogged, I’ll be on the gound for half an hour or so, be glad to give you a ride up there (as long as you buy the bacon butties and pot of tea!)

http://www.realaero.com/bugle.htm

Another of the world’s character’s gone. We’ll soon be left with nothing but grey suits. I’ll probably be gone myself by then thank God.

RIP Carroll.