Trotski

Aside from my flippant remark about it being a family tiff, which in some respects, was actually an issue, I think we have to transport ourselves into the mindset of the time, as we look at the First War with a modern mindset in part, the whole Empire building thing was paramount then, the 4 of the major powers had Empires, and expanding, and or keeping hold of those was vastly important at that time, the same with all Empires throughout history, also there were perceived slights with the tripartite pact between England France and Russia, which put the paranoid Kaiser off his Cornflakes somewhat, then with all the unrest in the Slavic world and Austro Hungary flexing its muscles, it was a bomb just waiting to blow, the Naval power race was another aspect, so what caused it all ? It was I believe a forgone conclusion, and no one thing lit the blue touch paper, and what a bloody awful waste of time, resources, life, and just about everything else. Because really, at the end of the day, 1914 -18 achieved very little, except for the advances in aviation, and the usual advances that come from conflict, and then the worst part was it did indeed sew the seeds of WWII as the treaty of Versailles was horrendous for the German people, I do wonder though if Germany hadn't turned to National Socialism, what the world map would look like now, and how more impact the spread of Communism would have had.

perpetually drunk because of the pint glass on its nose you see......errrm

yeah the beer glass was actually embedded there after a disagreement in the Naafi with one of us RockApes, and they thought it looked so distinctive that they would paint it over and make it look like an indispensable part of the airframe hahahaha.......don't worry , the Navy will pretty it up, they did with the Sea Harrier after all.

An Army Air Corps Gazelle pilot once told me that a Helicopter is a lot like a Bumble Bee, aerodynamically, it is impossible for it to actually fly, however, the Bumble Bee doesn't know that !!! brilliant story mate, I have major respect for Helo pilots, flown in the back of many over the years, but flying one .....nah I'll leave that to the crazy buggers who like flying around in the tree tops !!

hehehehe ah lets be fair now, there is a difference between fugly ( and the US has done its fair share on the fugly front too ) and purposefully pugnacious looking, a lot of people call the A-10 ugly, nah, that is most definitely purposefully pugnacious, the F-16 isn't the prettiest bird in the aviary either, but, she has a kind of graceful ugliness that you just have to fall in love with, the BUFF, and the SLUF beautiful ?....nope, sexy ?...hell yeah, so there is a definite distinction on the fugly front, and I am afraid to say, the F-35 is definitely beyond fugly, in fact it falls into the , OMG !! what did I just look at there !! I need eye bleach now, category. the harrier was never a great beauty, far from it, but by Christ, you just know she was a naughty girl. F-35 is that girl ( we all knew one ) at school, the one with bad teeth, a bit smelly, and snot stains on her tie, it wouldn't be so bad if the horror of her demeanour was offset by blindingly brilliant intelligence, but she was so bad she made a wood louse look clever.......and I hate to say it, but the styling bureau that handled the boatrace on the F-35 was not very good, so come on America, please for goodness sake pretty the damn thing up a bit, the Royal Navy has to fly those for goodness sake !!

In fact, it doesn't look like a flying packing crate, it looks like a half built Ikea flatpack, bloody thing looks half built, stealthy sensors......hmmmmmm.........like passive sonar of the sky !!! or does it mean they sense when they are being stealthy.....or maybe when other canards are being stealthy.....need more input

It was a family tiff.

Sorry I did mean the F-35, I'm not a fan I'm afraid. it's the US equivalent of our own Typhoon, lots of money thrown at it, and not finished on time, plus its got to be one of the ugliest pieces of kit in the air. The old pilots saying of if it looks right it is right , tends to be accurate, and I'm sorry, and I know I will ruffle some feathers here, but this thing looks like a flying packing crate. But that is just my opinion, not ever going to be one of the pilots actually flying it, so my opinion is just my personal one, so apologies to any F-35 aficionados out there.

The Harrier is , or at least was a superb aircraft, however it is outdated now unfortunately, and there is nothing that can really replace it, at least not in the same VSTOL capacity, the F22 isn't the same as, and well I don't suppose India will get their sticky mitts on 'em (I'm not a fan of the 22 by the way, sorry guys I think its a bit of a white elephant) unfortunately, McDonald and BAE will not re imagine the Harrier, and is going to pass into aviation history. Sad, but that's progress I guess.

like I say, these guys seem to get precious about their babies, which I sort of understand, however, if you are not going to further develop something, and it isn't raking in the lolly anymore, then, if a community wish to take it over , then sell for a fair price, however as my mate Nick said, the asking price may be a little rich for our ( as a community) blood.

But it would entail selling his intellectual property, and the price of that must be extortionate, so he will end up with his intellect, and no spondoolies !! now if it were me, I would sell it for the best possible offer, and add it to the profit I already had from it.....but that's me.

Oh if only it were possible !! but I fear, 'tis naught but a pipe dream.......oh well.

Spey engined Phantoms rocked ! bloody things used to deafen us on IRF as our GDoc was right on the taxiway at Akrotiri.

Yes the RAF were using several types at the time in Transport Command, the Beverly, the Argosy ( whistling wheelbarrow ) the Andover , the Britannia, and the Belfast, also the Comet 2 and 4 the Beverly was phased out once we started re equipping with the C130 also the Argosy went too, the Belfast stayed in service until around 1977 I do remember my Father who was a Flight engineer on Britannias praying not to be posted on to a Herc Squadron, as he disliked the C130 for some reason, I never did find out why, So after the Brits were retired from service, he was posted fromm 99 Squadron at Lyneham, to 53 Squadron at Brize Norton, and he went on to fly on the Belfast, an aircraft he loved almost as much as the Britannia, when the Belfast was demobbed in 77, the RAF in their wisdom decieded that a Master Flight Engineer, who had served from 1942 until that time, and only had about 18months of service left before mandatory retirement , that they would post him to a VC 10 squadron, my Dad was horrified and mystified at the same time, as he had never flown on Blow jobs, as he always said a good screw is much better So he banged his notice in and ended up flying with Heavy Lift on the Belfast so he was a very happy bunny indeed.

its got nothing to do with looks....the F4 Phantom was even called a double ugly, and look what a great aircraft it was, Tornado was ok as an attack aircraft, but it was crap as a fighter, especially compared to the likes of the F-15 and 16, and the Mig 29 & Su-27 s as for being a beauty.......errr...no.....the Jag was a beauty, the Bucc was, the Tornado was all fin and nothing else.......The Lightning was never ugly...Brutal yes, ugly no...and what pray is a Viper ? unless you mean the F-16 so the article is about the actual aircraft and how pants they were, and nothing at all to do with how poncy they looked....Just sayin'

wonder if it had anything to do with the Farnbrough disaster ? Also were procurements different for the RAF and the FAA......there was a lot of political wrangling going on at the time too the Labour Government of the time wasn't very Forces friendly. TSR2 scrapped etc. plus I guess there was some amount of competition between British aircraft companies and the American ones as well, so that may have caused a few issues as well......Didn't we aquire the Phantom as a stop gap ? and look how long the Rhino served in both the FAA and the RAF.