When a government "source" says that "we do not recognise the account of the meeting" you do realise that means they dare not deny such a meeting took place and that the substance of the claims are false. "We do not recognise..." is a hedge against someone having the minutes of a meeting, or a recor...

According to the news travel to Europe might soon be possible without the need for quarantine on return to the UK and hopefully there will be a quid pro quo arrangement for entry into Europe. I personally wouldn't be travelling by air anytime soon but I think a car ferry is perfectly acceptable. So...

I wonder what reserves the A330 has should it arrive in the region of the Falklands to find Mount Pleasant closed. Surely a factor in safe operations rather being a long way from home with few options and limited fuel. I guess fuel for a diversion to SCCI - Punta Arenas - which has a 2400m runway. ...

Starfighters and Tooms - what is not to like?

Afraid not. The runway total length is, according to AIS circular, 6473 ft with the displaced thresholds reducing it to 6289 ft. :whistle: Such a runway length would render the airfield unuseable for operating B-47s in the 50s and 60s, a quick measure on Google earth suggests its the standard SAC r...

When you live in a society in which the cost of everything is known with precision, but the value of anything is immaterial, then this is what you get. Government's first and only priority is to turn redundant airfields into cash - and that means housing developments and the odd business park. When ...

I was there, in Air Traffic, no pictures therefore. Thanks.

OK. Imagine that Time Travel were possible and that possibility included a specific geographic destinatiuon as well as a timeframe. Where would you go? When would you go: it does not have to be a specific date but maybe a calendar year? Why would you choose that? And what would you hope to see? I wi...

Blackcat1 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 17, 2020 5:28 pm

Ah Pately Bridge, a great low-level entry point for the RAF years ago

Before my time up here. I arrived in 2015 and we got a few Tornado GRs before they folded. Now we see the off Typhoon but otherwise its Hercs; Helos and Ospreys. The Embraer BizJets have started appearing recently.

We live just south of Pateley Bridge and have noticed a fairly regular occurrence of a Herc running low-level up Nidderdale after dusk and then transitting south maybe 30-40 minutes later. Someone further north filmed an RAF Herc heading south over the reservoir north of Pateley at dusk last night.

Does anybody else recall the Canadian F-104 formation display calling themselves "The Tiger Romeos" or am I imagining it? I recall them at Mildenhall as a five ship and the four doing a dirty pass with the singleton running in over the crowd at just about sub-sonic speed. Obviously pre-Ramstein days...

My understanding is that the auto eject is controlled by the front seat, and only when selected. Further, it never works the other way round - i.e. Captain can eject both, but passenger can't. If the precis of the accident report posted by Tim Davies at FastJet Performance is to be believed, the Ra...

TS010 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 06, 2020 5:25 pm

We used to fit chaff to Lightnings during air defence exercises in the 80's.

Was that in the airbrake recesses - a one shot Chaff dispenser? I dont recall seeing pods etc.

There is also the possibly apocryphal story of two traffic police in The Borders pointing an old-style radar speed gun at an RAF Tornado coming off Spaededam, whose Sky Shadow pod reacted as designed and the reultant high power jamming on the gun's frequency fried the electronics inside. Sadly, the...

Hopefully a simple question. Do aircraft participating in large scale exercises, for instance Frisian Flag, deploy countermeasures such as chaff or flares during their training sorties ? Many thanks I know its not chaff and flare, but back in the Cold War days when nobody had mobile phones and TV w...

Managed to open the Boeing teaser video. Its an animation. Future Attack recconaisance Aircraft. Appears to be a hybrid helicopter with a multi blade pusher prop at the back. March 2020 is the teaser date.

"Command & Control" by Eric Schlosser. Built around the 1980 story of the "dropped wrench" explosion at a Titan 2 ICBM silo in Arkansas, it is an exhaustive story of the attempts, and resistance, to establish effective control and safety mechanism for the US nuclear weapons from 1945 onward. There i...

Chap in the pub said that they used Boscombe because the chemtrails flights are cancelled for the weekend ....................

I suspect Duxford's runway is too short for Lightning ground runs, or at least it would be over before it began as it were. Elvington is a nice idea though.

Yes, I was there too. Another epic haul up from London on the motorbike. Great memories, thanks.