JohnT

Firstly my condolences on your loss to you and your fmaily I had a look at what AI says (Yes I know !) :- " In aviation, "tailwind" (one word) is the correct term. [1] Here is the difference between the two forms: The Correct Term: Tailwind Definition: Wind blowing in the same direction as the aircraft's travel. Usage: It is standard aeronautical, meteorological, and legal terminology. Effect: It increases ground speed and shortens flight times. [1, 2] The Incorrect Term: Tail wind Definition: A common misspelling or casual separation of the compound word. Usage: It is not used in official aviation manuals, charts, or pilot communications. If you are writing a flight plan or studying for a pilot license, always use tailwind. To help further, would you like to explore how a tailwind affects takeoff distance, fuel consumption, or landing calculations?" I hope that helps John

My thoughts are with their families and their colleagues.

Nice one from the days when we were just excited to get it home and finished before Mum and Dad said bedtime. Did we care if the dihedral was wrong or the nose a bit pointy. Not a bit. 2 wings - tick. 2 engines - tick. Pilot - tick. Wheels - tick. No guns - hmmnnnn. Box lid says Oxford. Good enough for wee Johnny who was a happy bunny. And yes you’ve done a great job on her. Frog Martin Baltimore or a Beaufort next maybe ?

On the Lightning versus the Tornado F3 there is a great photo in Ian Black’s book Last of the Lightnings which was up in the crew room of 11 Squadron showing the rear end of an F3 taken through the gun sight of a Lightning. I guess the answer is fight to your aircrafts strength and your opponents weaknesses. If you don’t you lose. Air combat is pretty Darwinian. Of course the mature F3 should have picked off the Lightning from way out. Actually several Lightnings given it’s endurance and weapons load plus radar advantages but as the photo shows life is not always like that I am betting the RN pilot was the late “Sharkey” Ward? He reckoned his pilots and FRS- combo was pretty unbeatable in the right circumstances. 1982 proved him right given the best missile fit possible at the time. That said the geography of that conflict imposed restrictions on how that aerial battle played out. There is much in what @TimB says. Flying computers are here to stay and that introduces a whole new set of complications when looking to update/upgrade.

No Giorgio. Not too harsh at all. My eyebrows were raised very early on in my reading. I was very surprised by the language used by a journalist supposedly their expert in the matter. It came across more in content and style as a rant than an informed fact based newspaper piece. The tenor rather betrayed the slant which reads as “multi national programs bad” and “going it alone good”. Tornado wasn’t without its issues but it was good at the primary job it was designed for. The F3 came good in the end. No dogfighter for sure but it was intended to take out Soviet attack aircraft far out in the North Sea. It became quite potent in that task. As for Typhoon it would have arrived much sooner if the Germans hadn’t made it a domestic political football or so I believe. There is no reason to condemn Tempest based on the frankly nothing he said about the Tempest program in the article. I was surprised at getting to the end without him making a single argument to support his hypothesis other than look what has happened in the past and a lot of what he did say was debatable

I pulled my copy of Cold War Shield Vol1 and looked up 80 Sqn Spitfires. The photos are not great quality but there is one of F.24 VN309 W2-D viewed from the starboard side profile. Its a small size and in black and white however I am sure it shows fairly clearly a "light" strip along the wing leading edge from a distance for the cannon to the wing tip. I would say that was a yellow leading edge. The Modellers Datafile Part 2 on Griffon engined Spits has a colour profile of 80 Sqn F24 VN318 W2-Fat Kai Tak 1950-51 and that has the yellow wing leading edge. Beyond the usual reasons of identification of a friendly behind you for the yellow leading edge I can't imagine any other special reason for it being applied to 80 Sqn. EDIT - I have since found this post on another forum where the poster references the late supreme Spitfire expert Edgar Brooks so cut and pasted here. The poster writes:- "Nobody seems to know when it was deleted. [the yellow leading edges]. It may have remained on camouflaged aircraft after the war. It did not appear on uncamouflaged aircraft. Edgar Brooks, in a reply on Britmodeller, referred to an order of February 1946 concerned with aircraft finished in silver in which there is no mention of the yellow stripes."

Is posting about going off topic going off topic in itself ???🤣 Had to think of an Operation Rheinubung subject not already done. 1:48 Swordfish. ? The Tamiya one was good but yes it does not make money for Airfix. In 1/24 it would be sensational. Ship wise most of the participants are already kitted though some are as old as I am. Oh a 1/72 Tribal. Big but yummy Thing is what realistically might Airfix look to be doing.

Saw that when they were short of pilots and didn’t think it was a good look. Sad state of affairs when the UK aerospace industry can’t produce a trainer aircraft whether in partnership with another country or not. What beggars belief is didn’t anyone see the Hawk retirement coming. It looks like we just were sleepwalking into it with some vague ill considered nonsense as @wellsprop points out so well I am minded that this could easily slip into politics so please think before posting my friends and give the Mods a quiet weekend.

Aye, indeed. I did smile at the thought of how many of the oldies they sold recently 😁

Excellent news. Did have a wry smile noting their relatively recent re-issue of their old 1/32 Harrier from 1972. Maybe sell a few more presses from the old moulds before the big reveal. Shirley knott 🤣 Either way I don’t care. I’ll have one of each of the new moulds any day. Great call Revell. Keep them coming.

I did think that they were being ambitious but then again English Electric were too back in their day. I don’t know enough but why given the success of the Hawk in the past does BAe seem to be sitting this out. Or is it their proposal just didn’t meet the Whitehall expectations? No one seems to be desperate to get this contract. Hardly speaks of entrepreneurial management. Not dynamic government. Interesting the the Original Poster @cathasatail quoted the BBC report in Nov 2016 - ten years ago - that the Government confirmed the Red Arrows were here to stay and that they would get a new aircraft “in a few years”. I’d say few should not mean “still nothing on horizon” ten years later. I am totally bemused by the whole thing.

F-104 one of the truly admirable aircraft of the last century. The pilot not so much.

For clarification- is that doing ok in getting back to normal or the nose picking. Just asking for a friend who is worried

Pete. Haven’t you had tea with Mike. All that posh pinkie hooked out in midair.* No wonder he got a problem. Very posh is our @Mike you now. Britmodeller Towers has standards. @general melchett always turns up in full regimental dress with the mascot in tow. *. PS reminds me I saw a documentary on the late Adolf Hitler and saw him drinking tea holding the cup with pinkie akimbo. Looked quite surreal PPS. Hope you get back to normal soon young man. It will curtail the nose picking for a while mind

Dov there was a convesrion set produced and discussed/ reviewed here on BM - not sure if that helps you John