pigsty

Is near enough the right answer. The same engine was adapted for the LSRV and generated over 22,000lb thrust - on unleaded petrol! And yes, it's not strictly an aviation answer, but since almost all the other 17,000 J79s all got off the ground maybe we could stretch the point a bit. @GiampieroSilvestri, it's over to you.

Ah. Looks as if this one has slipped behind the sofa while we were all celebrating. So I'll throw one in to keep the pot boiling. What was the most powerful variant of the J79, and what was it fitted to?

"Fred, what's that white thing on the side of your head?" "Oh, come on, Bill, it's a - oh, hell, hang on, it's a suppository. How did that get there?" "That's not the question." "No?" "The question is, where's your hearing aid?"

These traders need a quick refresher in the concept of commercial competition. I've never completely bought that complaint anyway. I can see that four traders have a lot less chance against two dozen clubs going at it like gangbusters, but if it's just one or two ordinary bods, they're effectively just other traders with lower prices. And there's close to no chance that those bods bought their kits cheaper than the "real" traders did, so they'll be taking a serious hit - and that means the traders can't complain about having to keep their prices up because their stock cost them so much.

They hope some time this year - the tool maker lives in Ukraine so it's a bit uncertain. Price: they said around the price of an Airfix 1/48 Buccaneer, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Apparently, Marcel Marceau died of gesticular cancer.

They said more than they meant to here: It sort of goes downhill a bit after that ...

Really? A flammable gas in the suspension units? I could have sworn the name comes from a combination of hydraulic + gas, and the gas is nitrogen because it's inert.

QED Well, who'd buy 'em?

Yes, but also no. The starting points are: no under-the-table sales at the venue. This is because of the TIC's insurance. It's been like that since the year dot, so it's not a sop to commercial traders. hiring the space for the Kit Swap is expensive (even with commission), and then it entails a lot of organisation, which (as I've pointed out separately) still leaves it as a nightmare. Plus it does odd things to the tax position. Anyone who can front up the money can buy a trading spot, but as John Tapsell pointed out a couple of weeks ago, there's been nothing official about IPMS members paying for one to replace the Kit Swap, at any scale. There are so many actual traders wanting a space that it would be hard to accommodate trading members anyway, and if it were possible I can absolutely see why they wouldn't and shouldn't get a discount. There is also, of course, nothing to stop anyone who's going to the show arranging to sell things to someone else. I've done it myself - I lean across the table with ten quid, he leans the other way with a Sea Harrier, job done. The crucial thing is that he doesn't have a crowd round his stand browsing through the stock, and there's nothing poking out into the gangways. This has always happened, it's never been a problem and the IPMS Committee has never raised it. It's always been open to anyone, too, not just members, and it gives you more certainty than putting stock into the Kit Swap and hoping someone buys it. And you don't have to wait for your money or pay commission. So, my guess: nothing has deterred anyone from buying a pitch to sell off their stash, other than the availability of pitches and members' willingness to ask. If you want to know whether anyone actually did, you could look up the show guide to see who the traders were. Or you could ask the Committee. I'm sure they'd be happy to say.

Oh. Er ... I think BillF67 should take the next one.

I've just read a book covered in marmalade. It was brilliant - I couldn't put it down.

I don’t think it’s especially difficult, exactly. It has no more problems than most kits, especially Airfix kits of its time. It’s just that it’s oversold - all this talk of the Lightning and the late Spitfires & Seafires being the best kits they’ve ever produced. I suspect that’s just another version of It was all better in my day, even the days were longer - and the hours all lasted eighty minutes. I did take longer than usual over it, even for me, but that was mainly because continual hitches with the aftermarket stuff kept killing my enthusiasm. I have a Dragon Ju 88 coming up next, with its own host of problems. Which only goes to show - I don’t learn, do I?

Here’s my latest, Airfix’s quarter-scale Lightning, built as the Mk.2A and in the muted colours of 92 Sqn at RAF Gütersloh in the mid-1970s. Additions are: True Details cockpit; CMK undercarriage; Master pitot; Aires exhausts; and Xtradecal decals. Let me say right at the start: I think this kit is a bit over-rated. The surface detail is brilliant, as good as anything coming out of Japan at the time and a match for a lot of kits now. The shapes are right, the missiles are good - better than some later ones from Airfix - and the overall look of the thing is spot-on. But, while the engineering mostly makes sense, the fit’s often poor, and a lot of details are still soft or underdone. For instance, the gun troughs (all six, depending on which version you build) are just slight dings, there are no rings ahead of the guns in the ventral tank, and the alternative blanking plates need a fair bit of work. The wing leading edges were a swine to fit and fair in. The exhausts are basic, so’s the cockpit, so are the undercarriage bays - hence the extras. And, while I used a resin cockpit - as so often, too big for the job - I got the nose to close round it, so I don’t think it’s all my fault that the canopy and windscreen have come out narrower. Having said all that, it was me who left a terrible seam along the underside - embarrassing. The undercarriage is a mix of kit and CMK parts, and some of it’s poor. Airfix give you a couple of struts with no obvious way of connecting them to each other or the kit, and CMK have gone no further than producing a slightly more refined part that’s smaller than the kit part and thus fits worse. I should have thought that, of all aircraft, kits of the Lightning need a robust undercarriage that ensures the damned thing stays on its feet. We’ll have to see as next year’s show season progresses. But the resin wheels are nice, and the maingear bays are very nice. Some of the other extras were a bother, too. The cockpit sidewalls simply wouldn’t fit and True Details’ coaming fouled the instrument panel and the control column (!), so I’ve done without it. The CMK set included a woeful radome that I threw out: it was too small, it was completely missing one of the intake braces (not broken off - it was never there, and never mind what the instructions said), and the nosegear bay could have been salvaged except that it was so thin, removing it would have destroyed it. Handily, the kit’s radome is hollow, and it holds just the right amount of weight. I was hoping to get that from the Aeroclub nose ring, but I had to bin it because one side was so thick that it couldn’t be filed down without cutting away part of the lip. On the plus side the exhausts were just about perfect and fitted the kit parts exactly. And, as ever, Master’s pitot was lovely. So, on the aftermarket front, I make it just about a score-draw. Good thing I can’t remember how much I spent on it. The paint is largely aerosol. It’s Halfords Peugeot Aluminium underneath, with some panels in other metallic shades, and Humbrol 163 on top. If you’re ever in Cornwall, Kernow Model Rail Centre in Camborne is a godsend for paint and glue and stuff, and a few kits. (Or there’s their other branch, in Guildford - where else?) I got the Xtradecals because some of the kit’s had poor register or lacked detail. They were actually for trainers, but the squadron-specific markings were good for the single-seaters as well, and the finish is a mix of the two. Airfix’s decals went on okay, although some broke up and others seemed to have too little glue on them. A few were illegible specks that I couldn’t use. Making the serial numbers entailed a bit of surgery on numerals, plus some paint where the decals just collapsed. One nice thing was that the Micro decal system plus Klear have mostly done a good job on the decal film (it looks better in real life). Despite all that, I’m glad I’ve built it, and it’s growing on me.

A political one. Compromise: you change your opinion so that you agree completely with me, while I carry on as before.

This has a reason. I'm not saying it's a good one, but it has a reason; and again, it's to forestall lawsuits. If you illustrate your can of tuna with a picture of a plate of tuna, with some lettuce, and a fork and a napkin, if you don't put "serving suggestion" someone will sue because the can contained only tuna, and not a plate, or a fork or a napkin, nor any lettuce. Mad but true. Mind you, I do wonder how many of these cases actually finish off that way. The usual media thing is to make a lot of fuss about the "stupid lawsuit brought by stupid customer and supplier charged millions", and then ignore the appeal where the case is thrown out or damages are reduced to buttons. That's what happened in the notorious one about McDonald's coffee. But even if that does happen, it shows the lower courts are on something, and firms probably play it safe because they know that even if they win on appeal it will have cost them a fortune that they'll never get back. Sorry ... not very funny, this contribution.

Well, yes, but when did that stop people updating the B-52?

Many years ago a magazine ran a competition, asking for the best spoof advice for foreign visitors to Britain. The sainted Gerard Hoffnung won and threw in a few other entries too, such as: On boarding a London Underground train it's customary to shake hands with all the other passengers in your carriage Try out the famous echo in the Reading Room of the British Museum A single yellow line means you can park there for an hour. A double yellow line lets you park for two hours All British brothels display a blue light outside Who wants to try for some more, for the modern era?

Just in case you was wondering ... the answer I had in mind was that Ambassador, G-AMAD. When it crashed at Heathrow in 1968 it wrote off Trident G-ARPT and damaged both another Trident, G-ARPI, and a Viscount, G-APKF. Then G-ARPI crashed just outside Heathrow in 1972, and G-APKF (by then XW-TDN) crashed at Phnom Penh in 1975. Which makes the Ambassador a bit of a Jonah, in my book. But as most of them were in Dave Swindell's answer, I'm happy with that. Pre-decimal ... how far back are going? Marks? Groats?

You're so close I'll let you have it. Details to follow, but @Dave Swindell, it's over to you.

As in Trident? No, but very, very warm.

Not that. And we're looking for a specific airframe, not a type. One clue to be going on with: it was post-war.

Wow! That 70s upholstery!

You could try @NAVY870, keeper of all things Sea Venom down under.

Here's a couple of suggestions for keeping this thread going. First, try if you can not to embed images with their addresses still visible if you hover the cursor over them. Second, apart from that there's no problem setting a question if the answer's fairly easy to look up. But not too easy! Last, the playing method is, if you get the answer right, you set the next question - so it's best to have one ready. If you know the answer but you can't set one yourself, you could let someone else have a try and then see if you agree with them. Right, then, as I have a few ready, I'll take the load off @stever219. Next question is: which British civil aircraft was the link between itself and three others being destroyed over a seven-year period?