Trotski

Yeah we used to call the hind by many names, hunchback, bogey man, a scary helo, but you just have to love the look of it, even if it did scare the crap out of us, ans attack chopper, which after it shot the bejesus out of yer sorry arse, could then deploy a section of Soviet Infantry, to spoil your whole day a little bit more. We worried more about the Hind than anything else the Sovs wanted to throw at us, and as I was RAF Regiment, and tasked with airfield defence, and Harrier defence, we would have been on the calling list of Sov Airborne and Spetznaz , but they didn't really bother us much, it was the Hind that got us a little concerned. An ugly brutal menacing beasty, with big teeth, and lot of 'em ! so ugly it is sexy too, I envy you getting a ride in one, even if it was a bit of a pukey ride !! lol

AC/DC and Daft Punk ? human after all is an album by daft punk, and Robot rock is in Ironman, there are 3 tracks to choose from by AC/DC Thunderstruck is probably the one ? Oh yeah and Daft Punk did the soundtrack for Tron

Oooh la la !! That looks a bit tasty !!

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.