Spinners

Lockheed-Canadair Starfighter S.1 - No.214 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1966 In 1963, with the Mark 2 versions of the Vulcan and Victor becoming the spearhead of Bomber Command, four Valiant squadrons (49, 148, 207 and 214) were assigned to SACEUR forming a powerful strike wing based at Marham in Norfolk. But during the summer of 1964 fatigue cracks were discovered in the front and rear wing spars of several aircraft and whilst consideration was given to a rebuild programme the estimated cost of this was close to the original price and the rebuild programme was postponed but with further cracks being discovered the RAF reluctantly grounded the Valiant in December 1964. In January 1965, this lead to Denis Healey (Minister of Defence) declaring that the Valiant situation was "causing considerable embarrassment for us with our NATO allies" and that an interim solution was being sought "to restore our missing strike power and commitment to SACEUR". With President Lyndon Johnson already critical of Harold Wilson's refusal to commit British troops to Vietnam, Wilson and Healey needed a quick solution and in February 1965 they pulled off a deal with Lockheed and Canadair to take 50 CF-104 Starfighter aircraft to be delivered straight off the Canadair production line to a build standard approaching that of the F-104G but optimised for the nuclear strike role and equipped with R-24A NASARR radar and associated avionics dedicated to the air-to-ground role. Entering service with No.207 squadron in June 1965 the Starfighter force built up at RAF Marham before being transferred to RAF Geilenkirchen during the Spring of the following year.

Lockheed Starfighter S.1 - No.31 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1973

Buster!

BAC Stiletto F.7 - No.60 Squadron, RAF Far East Command, 1973

BAC Lightning F.Mk.51 - 9 Stormo, Aeronautica Militare Italiana, 1969

Mikoyan I-104Bis - Luftstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee. 1971

Lockheed Starfighter S.1 - No.213 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1966

Poles Apart

Lockheed F-104A Starfighter - Egyptian Air Force, 1967 I was looking at Alex's (Spillone104) Soviet I-104Bis and it includes this two-tone skin with very similar colours to the Third Wire Egyptian MiG-19/J-6 'Farmer' so I repainted the wingtip tanks and used stock Egyptian markings.

P-72A Superbolt - No.134 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1946

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings

Two from 'Shiny Two'

Safely Home

Great work guys. I've always found the stock Meteor F.8 a bit too good in air-to-air combat but this is much better and closer to contemporary pilot reports like the one which described it's altitude performance as "wallows like a sick cow".

Into Dangerous Skies

Hex Editor is what you need (XV132) but I think you must make the number of characters exactly the same so your desired texture must be renamed to xxxxxx.jpeg (or jpg).

View File Spinners' RAF/RN Decal Pack Version 8 Another update of my RAF/RN Decals for you to use on absolutely whatever you want - be it factual, fictional, historical or hysterical. As a keen 'what-iffer' I 'd especially like to see them appear where they shouldn't! So break out the Century Series, Mirages, MiGs and Sukhois and get 'whiffing' and remember to post your screenshots! I'd love to see them! Regards Spinners Version 8 - 24/03/18 Submitter Spinners Submitted 06/30/2009 Category Skin Templates  

And on any given day would one of them be undergoing servicing or repair?

I will get some done for those units and upload a revised pack.

Lockheed Starfighter F.2 - No.92 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1969

Cobra Battle Flight

Lockheed F-104C Starfighter - 119 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1967 The end of the Algerian war in 1962 saw General de Gaulle begin to mend France’s relationship with the Arab world and this put it's previously strong relationship with Israel under increasing strain. For a short while, France tried to balance it's relationships with the Arabs and the Israelis but during the Summer of 1963 things took a turn for the worse culminating in an unexpected and immediate arms embargo on Israel announced on September 1st, 1963. Whilst not known at the time, it was later discovered that this was due to the discovery of a major Mossad intelligence operation being conducted at the heart of the French government. With barely one-half of it's 70 Dassault Mirage IIICJ's having been delivered the Israeli Air Force began urgent talks with several fighter manufacturers expressing strong interest in the BAC Lightning and the Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger before a surprise political intervention was made in early November 1963 by President John F. Kennedy which saw the donation of 36 F-104C's all transferred from USAF stocks. Entering service in March 1964, the F-104C's equipped two squadrons of the Israeli Air Force seeing action in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur war before being retired in 1975.

No problem identifying the damn things but getting the paint to match the camo pattern was a bitch and I don't like getting bogged down (and don't have the time either).