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XV107

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Everything posted by XV107

  1. Green helicopters are associated with either the Army or the RAF. Grey helicopters are more associated with the RN after the proliferation of grey helicopters from the late 1980s onwards. It translates as ‘attempting to make sure that people see a grey helicopter and think ‘Royal Navy’ rather than RAF or Army’.... Obviously, given the joint nature of helicopter operations (*cough*), ‘not wanting to be associated with those oiks from junior services’ isn’t an acceptable answer.
  2. I was aboard one almost a month ago - code was 'K'. I'm afraid I didn't get to see the code letter of the accompanying airframe in the flight clearly, but it appeared to be a single letter. Couldn't tell you the serial of the airframe; the tailboom was rather grubby (as in the shots here) and the serial wasn't clear, even when boarding the cab...
  3. Presumably 71 Squadron.... (76 was a Canberra squadron at the time).
  4. 208 was in the running. The rumour is that someone in dark blue with a lack of knowledge of their air power history declared that 208 had spent too long as a single-service squadron and was inextricably associated with the RAF, thus a ‘more joint’ numberplate was required. AIUI, after various persons had picked themselves up off the floor and attempted to illustrate that this was a crass failure to understand 208’s history - an illustration which was given a stiff ignoring, 207 (which was in the running because of its RNAS past and still notable seniority) got the nod instead. 207 was emphatically not the obvious choice on the small list of numbers offered up for selection....
  5. Seat on the T-50 is from Martin Baker. Although not guaranteed, the seat - as a means of saving life - is the sort of thing which wouldn't be instantly subjected to objections. The last time there was a ban on the MB seat for Argentina, it was the previous President (Kirchner) forbidding the use of an MB seat on the IA-63 upgrade. A Russian made seat was to be installed. IIRC, the Mirages had MB seats which (unlike a lot of the A-4 seats in 1982) were fully serviceable as a result of ongoing maintenance. Also, relations have improved slightly - the tragic loss of the sub in 2017 saw a Voyager taking kit to Argentina (the first RAF aircraft to land in the country since '82, I think), and members of the Submarine Rescue team went to Comodoro Rivadavia to assist the international group assembled in a bid to try to find the vessel. We haven't yet got back to the point where the Argentines were starting to send occasional representatives to military courses in the UK (and I think at least one RAF officer did the Argentine Staff college), but sadly Mrs Kirchner's approach to diplomacy rather did for that.
  6. That'd have been rather difficult given that the Ark went out of service a year before the 1979 election which she won.... The F/A-18E/F was looked at in 2010, but the UK's position as a Tier 1 (the Tier 1) partner and the industrial advantages of sticking with the F-35 (Boeing wasn't offering that at least 15% of every F/A-18E/F built would be produced in the UK for a start) meant that it was never really an option. Dr Fox was the driving force behind the move to F-35C, which the scrutineers politely suggested was 'lacking in supporting evidence' - i.e. no justification beyond 'the Secretary of State says this is a good idea'. The cost of operating and integrating the MV-22 into the UK ORBAT compared to purchasing more Chinooks made the 'generous offer' rather less generous on closer examination. The same happened with the supposed 'generous' offer of UH-60 some years ago; on closer examination, it pretty much closed down what was then AugustaWestland and the costs of spares, etc, etc made the deal rather less attractive.
  7. This....⬆️ means that my answer to ⬇️ Is 'yes, there are some facts. And they're not pretty. And that's all I'm saying....' Generically, the feeling in my neck of the woods from members of the AT fleets is that the A400M will be made to work, but that it'll take more time and money that it should to resolve the issues, and that some of them may never be fully sorted out. There is also a body of opinion which says that a new batch of C-130Js will be required rather than the retirement of that type.
  8. RAF announces AEW&C, Space, Drone Test Squadrons refers
  9. Announced today at the Air and Space Power Conference: 23 Squadron is to reform - with the UK’s military space assets rather than aeroplanes (i.e. Carbonite II, other satellites, etc). Which is an interesting one (not least since the available number plates for the 3rd F-35 squadron are reducing to the point where we might get one of 19, 20, 43, 74 or 111 back on the books) Rumours that the USAF is providing Capt B. Lightyear as the first American exchange officer are yet to be confirmed...
  10. She should certainly be pursued for the compensation claims which people have put in for damage caused by the sonic boom...
  11. The suggestion is that Airbus offered the RAF something like 20 A310 MRTT to replace the Tri* and VC10 fleets at a very good price. The RAF was then told that it was either keeping the money off the books via a PFI - and there are suggestions that Gordon Brown ignored the rules over PFI which, in essence, allowed the RAF to say 'Er, hang on... capability can't be provided in the manner needed via a PFI' when the RAF said 'Er, hang on...' and given a choice of maintaining the Tri* and VC10 in service for the foreseeable future, went with the PFI deal. Which, of course, ended up being almost late enough for the RAF to have been able to have gone to Mr Osborne, said 'Er, hang on...' and seen our former Chancellor delight in the 'easy win' of buying the RAF new kit and rubbing his predecessor's nose in it for denying vital capability, making sure troops returned late because the airbridge was always broken, etc, etc, etc. The RAF also wanted to have C-130J and C-17 fleet, which is why we have Atlas...
  12. Agreed - it was an option in the Academy Special Edition XIV, although the only hint that there weren't any stubs was in the decal placement guide. Thunderbird decals did a set including the aircraft, and there are some photos of CF-GMZ to be found here . ISTR that there was a photo of the aircraft going round a pylon at an air race somewhere - probably the Key Publishing site. ETA - on a bit of digging, it turns out that the photo I was thinking of is the same photo as in the link above.
  13. Just as a matter of interest, how long is it normally on a pre-order between Airfix taking the money from your PayPal account and the product arriving? Money was taken from my account 15 days ago, and the notification was followed by an email saying my Spitfires were being prepared for despatch. My uncharitable thought would be to add 'By snail, presumably.... ', since I've had ne'er a notification or a parcel, but before concluding this, my sense of fairness made me wonder if this sort of delay is normal. I ask since this is my first purchase direct from Airfix and I thus have no experience of whether the gap between taking cash and the customer getting the parcel is usually this long (I accept that they may have had a 'wow, we didn't realise how popular this would be' moment and that this has delayed things).
  14. There's someone enjoying their day at work! Great photos, as usual, thank you.
  15. Agreed - the Hasegawa kit is much nicer. It can be got a decent price, but you're looking - in the main - at something between about £33 and £40 (quite a few sellers on a certain site do free p&p when they have the kit available). As I may have said before, I treat the box as containing two kits, namely the Typhoon and the European weapons set. This means that you can create a (obviously rather false) sense that you've not done too badly - the weapons set costs £14.99 from Hannants, so if you bag your Hasegawa Typhoon boxing of choice for (say) £35, you can tell yourself that you've done well - £20 on the aircraft, and £15 on the weapons, if that £35 includes free p&p, you can go even further with the delusion and say that you've got the Typhoon for about the same price as the Revell. As I say, deluded, but it comforts my credit card to approach it that way... Being more serious, neither the Revell nor the Hasegawa kit provides the standard air-ground weapon for the RAF Typhoon, namely the Paveway IV. Nor is the previous standard AG weapon, the Paveway II, to be found in either. That said, post the Centurion project, Brimstone and Storm Shadow can be loaded quite happily (as can Meteor), and Hasegawa gives you those options; if going for the QRA fit, then the Hasegawa one provides all that's required.
  16. Original configuration: https://airbus-h.assetsadobe2.com/is/image/content/dam/channel-specific/website-/products-and-services/helicopters/PT2 Tiger.jpg?wid=1000&qlt=85,0 First flight of HAP prototype, 1993* http://www.hottail.nl/special/prototype/multinational/TigerTigre/images/Tiger.jpg - this is 1993 at Le Bourget https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5006/5209613235_e43bcfacbf_b.jpg - as is this https://www.airliners.net/photo/France-Army/Eurocopter-EC-665-Tigre-PT/214501/L - as in 1999 https://www.airliners.net/photo/France-Army/Eurocopter-EC-665-Tigre-PT/166674/L - this from 2001 when the HAP prototype was down under as it went for selection by the Australian Army *The first prototype - the 1991 first flight - was, I think, in the HAC/PAH-2 configuration https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1991/1991 - 0353.html?search=tiger Not quite the airframes at the times given on the decal sheets, but maybe a start?
  17. Credit to whomever UK Defence Journal credited on the page from which I've borrowed this.
  18. I assume that this won't be arriving in time to be my Mother's Day present to my wife? Which may be no bad thing, on reflection... Do we have any idea of a release date, though? Have I missed rumours/tales of it being delayed, or is this a rare instance of such news not breaking out all over t'interweb?
  19. I think the 1939-40 volume is Volume 1. As I recall, the blurb on the back cover says Volume 2 will cover Dunkirk to the end of 1940. As an aside, it always struck me as a shame that Brian Cull's 2nd volume of 'With the Yanks In Korea' hasn't made it onto the shelves (or if it did, it was there for a very, very short space of time).
  20. Su-30 has been claimed, but no evidence seems to have appeared, unlike the MiG and the Mi-17. Things are not being helped by some news outlets and enthusiastic nationalists Tweeting images claiming to be shot down aircraft - so far we've been treated to: 1. Photos of the wreck of a n IAFHawk 132. Which crashed in 2015 2. Video footage of the Su-30 pilot. A very unlucky man, since identical footage from last week shows that he was involved in the mid-air between two Suraya Kiran Hawks a few days ago. 3. The wreck of the Pakistani F-16 which was shot down. For some reason it appears to be wearing American markings.... 4. The wreck of the Pakistani F-16 which was shot down. Wearing Belgian markings.... 5. The wreck of the Su-30, which appears to have turned into a MiG-27 as it crashed, altering the time-space continuum as it fell, since there is TV coverage of it dating back to 2016... 6. The wreck of the Su-30, which has rotor blades (this one, to be fair, is probably confusion on the part of a picture editor rather than a deliberate use of some random image taken off the internet).
  21. The Meteor-carrying jet was from II(AC) Squadron. The knot on the tail gives it away; you can just make out the 2 Squadron 'fighter bars' as well. ZK306 was with 1(F) last year, complete with squadron markings. This would've been in the Autumn, so that may well have changed now.
  22. Bear in mind that OC IX's aircraft lost hydraulics shortly after landing, and he and his Nav (OC 31) returned to the flight line via a minibus while some linies sighed and headed off for what certainly isn't the first time and probably won't quite be the last to retrieve the jet...
  23. Yes - I believe that it's the aftermath of an air-to-air two 54 Sqn Hunters had over Libya in April 1967; one aircraft crashed (pilot ejected) and the other returned in somewhat 2nd hand condition to El Adem. If this is the aircraft I'm thinking of, HSA bought it, rebuilt it and sold it to the Indian Air Force.
  24. As Rich's post suggests, they've made a correction - but have corrected the wrong thing... It should be 1994, but I rather suspect that it was Lossiemouth not Honington, for the Buccaneer finale. The aircraft never served with 216, but was painted so that all the squadrons which had used the Bucc were represented; there was also a nod to the RN, with one aircraft being painted in 809 Sqn markings (although ISTR that Tim Laming lamented that an airframe which hadn't served with the FAA was chosen when there were still a couple available which had). https://www.aviationphotocompany.com/p783529736/h2694F3#h2694f3 may be useful here - it would seem to be taken at the finale, or from around that time.
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