Pete T

Sweden is not a NATO country so does not follow the NATO colour coding, and uses green to denote its non operational weaponry.

Do these help: Both were taken on a visit during May 2006, by March 2007 they had changed to the silver trestle style ladder. The only nose art I am aware of on the Harrier, other than that you have mentioned already, was 'Lucy' and 'Michelle', and a sharks mouth that is well documented. Most other markings, also carried exclusively on the port side, appear to have been mission marks.

The the photo credits in '607 state it is a RAAF photo. I believe it was taken during an exercise at Butterworth, but this could just be old age playing tricks

Its a long time since F4's at Coningsby and Wildenrath but IIRC the Aux Air Doors, both upper and lower, were 'open' from start up and at lower speeds, they closed automatically at, (Memory fades here LOL) 240 kts. They were, I believe, actuated by the change in air pressure, generated by aircraft speed, but you'd need a 'Sooty' for a definative answer on that. Pete

Both SHARS are now resident at RNAS Yeovilton. The Hunter is still in situ outside the former IV Sqn hangar I believe.

Surely thats an Oxymoron?

Ed Heinemann of A4 design fame did indeed design the Mk80 series of bombs to reduce drag way back in 1946, The reason the M117 continues in use is its weight of 750lb which fits nicely between the low drag Mk82 at 500lb, and the Mk83 at 1000lb

Pappy, I assume this is a typo? As XV 430 was a Phantom FGR2.

Judging by the Intelligence estimates on numbers of Fitters, Floggers and other assorted airborne hardware that was supposed to hit the airfields in RAFG they would have denied use of the runways to us, and therefore themselves in quick time, which would have been quite an upset as they would have probably hit the Mally at the same time The furthest forward of the RAF bases, Gutersloh had its own method built in to deny the runway if required. At several locations along the runway edge were manhole covers which lead to tunnels under the runway. These were to be filled with explosives and subsequently detonated to deny the runway to approaching 'Orange forces'.

In a word - yes. However the training will not include the airframe getting set light, its more usefull to use it to train rescue techniques from larger aircraft.

Its not really a problem in this instance as the time of exposure to the heat from the fire was relatively short. The weapons would have got a bit hot but would have needed more time being heated before things went 'awry'. The CRV-7 would have cooked off first, the rocket motor being the most sensitive to the heat of the fire, and being unguided could have gone anywhere. The Paveways, providing the casing remained intact, would have sat quite merrily for some time in the fire, and were no where near getting an en masse detonation from the amount of time they were exposed to the fire. Although post the fire suppression they would have needed a long soaking in water spray (The rule of thumb being if the water dries off when the spray stops its still too warm!!) for a good while. Had the casing cracked it wouldn't be a problem as the explosive contents would have burnt off with some very nice colour flames (the colour depending on the filler type) and a light grey smoke. I would have liked the mass discharge of fire fighting media from the vehicles to have been a bit more effective (ie actually hitting the fire!) but thats just me, a hairy old RAF fire fighter of 24 years being critical from my very comfy armchair Still in that 24 years I was the guy running towards the fire when everyone else was going the opposite way, which makes you wonder

Alternative parts for the 1/48 GR7/9 wingtips and the ventral strake ECM are contained in both the Hasegawa and Revell boxings

The top one is a straight Acqui AIM9, the bottom one is, I believe, a RAIDS pod. It allows crews to carry out ACM and collect all the data on board the aircraft. It saves having a massive instrumented range and also means you can train anywhere, rather than having to go to a specific area.

Not having seen them, they are most likely baggage pods as the F4 wasn't plumbed for fuel tank carriage on the inner pylons.

No probs fitting the F3 in the hangars with the wings fully forward there was bags of room: http://www.british-towns.net/offshore/falk...er%20Hanger.asp