Michou

Is it possible that the tinted windscreens which we can see in the photos of the Vulcan and VC10 is the result of light being polarised by the perspex? Is there anyone out there with a knowledge of optics/physics who would care to comment? Mike

Valiant anti-flash screens. Mike

That kit dates from Autumn 1958 and it has been many years since I have seen it. I do remember the transparent canopy in two parts which would result in a very obvious join down the middle. I would stick the two halves of the kit canopy together and use it to make a mould for my own. Is it feasible to remove the canopy frame from the fuselage and reproduce it with paint or strips of decal?Mike

A bit more. Jean Cluny's book, "Les Avions de Combat Français", has a chapter on the Gerfaut. Briefly, the Gefaut belonged to a class of light interceptors such as the Trident, Durandel and Mirage I, all of which offered superior performance. Not all the pilots were very happy with the flight characteristics of the Gerfaut. Then, in 1956,the concept of a light interceptor was abandoned as being too specialised. A part of the funds planned for subsequent Gerfauts was transferred to the Griffon programme. On the positive side, Gerfaut I tested the Nord Toscan interception system and Gerfaut II tested numerous electronic systems and armament. It was one of the first aircraft to launch the supersonic, air-air missile, Nord 5103. Mike

There is a French book, "Gerfaut et Griffon" by Serge Kaplan and Philippe Rico. Published by Avia Editions in 2006, price 50 Euro, ISBN 2-915030-15-4. The text, obviously, is in French but there are loads of photos and 1:72 scale drawings of the two aircraft. At the end of the book are a few pages of detail photos in "walkaround-style". Mike

The first photo shows a Gerfaut 2 and the second a Gerfaut 1. There are photos of the Gerfaut 1 both with and without roundels on the wings. Photos of the Gerfaut 2 (where the wings are visible) all show roundels. Mike

F-86E dimensions Mike

I have seen an early drawing of the Griffon with a missile mounted on the ventral pylon but nearly all the photos show no pylon. The exception was when the Griffon took the speed record in 1959. The pylon carried a fuel tank. Once at altitude the tank was jettisoned, the ramjet ignited and the aircraft entered the circuit to establish the record. Mike

I am not familiar with the expression "wind up". It must be one of those new words which entered English after I emigrated. However, I think I can guess the sense from the context. I did write "beginning of April" and it is very definitely an Aprilscherz/poisson d'avril. More seriously, if nothing to do with aircraft, there is an interesting account of the Swiss merchant navy to be found here: http://www.swiss-ships.ch/listen-see-aktue...hip-aktuell.htm Click on "History of the Swiss flag (at sea)". Mike

Why not a Swiss Navy version? This photo was released to the press at the beginning of April a few years back. :-) Mike

"British Experimental Jet Aircraft" by Barrie Hygate, Argus Books 1990, has 1/72 scale drawings. At one time these drawings were available separately which was extremely useful as, in the book, they were spread across two pages with a fair chunk of the drawing buried down in the binding. Mike

Mikkel, I have tweaked the photo slightly. Mike

If you enter Myasishchev into the Google search engine using Cyrillic script there are quite a few photos which a search using Latin script fails to find. You don't have a Cyrillic keyboard? Neither do I :-) . Look up Myasishchev in the Wikipedia and you will find the word written in Cyrillic. It's on the second line just before the closing bracket. Copy this (minus the final letter "a") and paste it into Google. Add "M-4" and you are ready to find a lot of Russian stuff. Mike

Some numbers which may be of help. If it is difficult to read the length of the wing fence from this scan, it is 405mm Mike

There was a Belgian Starfighter team called "The Slivers" which I saw a number of times in the past. The first time was at an American base open day in Germany and when I read the programme, "Starfighter Aerobatic Team", I just laughed. At the end of the afternoon laughter had changed to a jaw-dropped wow! http://www.sbap.be/archivalia/slivers/slivers.htm Mike

Here is a photo of XV741 taking off from Somerstown Coal Yard, St. Pancras. Just discernible through the clouds of coal dust are those who thought it would be a "good" idea to be close to witness the event. One photographer had the bright idea of getting himself in, or on, an adjacent building. Mike

FROG does indeed mean Flies Right Of Ground. They used the name "Penguin" for their pre-war plastic kits because penguins can't fly. And FROG kits in France were labelled "Tri-ang" as it was felt that the word "frog" might be offensive to the French. This is over-sensitive, politically correct nonsense as is demonstrated by the fact that there is a pub in Paris called The Frog and Rosbif, where rosbif is Froggish for roast beef, the culinary preference of the Brits. I can't imagine that someone is going to hang such a sign outside his establishment if he risks offending the majority of his customers. Mike

I have taken a preliminary look at the AA Shenyang F-IIM which I have. I started to stick some of the smaller components together and they refuse to respond to the usual polystyrene glues which I normally use. Is this thing moulded out of ABS plastic? Did you have any problems with the FH7? Mike

The Valiant was a very clean aircraft as most of its systems were electric. However, it could leak fuel. If the aircraft was in the sun and the tanks were full, expansion would cause fuel to leak from the vents at the wingtips. To collect the fuel a device which looked like a cross between a wheelbarrow and a dustbin with a chimney was placed under the wing-tanks vent. I have never seen a photo of this as most photos of the period were taken at events put on for the press or from open days, and unphotogenic ground equipment was not present. Mike

Some 3-views to be found here: http://www.airwar.ru/other/draw_fn.html#2 Mike

I am not a pilot, either, but I can well imagine that when the seat of your pants (i.e. vestibular system) is telling you that you are moving in one direction and your eyes contradict this, it is probably easier to line up on a very prominent white line than to decipher rotating needles on instruments.

Russian fighters had (have?) a white vertical stripe in the middle of the instrument panel. The idea being that if the pilot was in a spin and totally disorientated, he would align the stick with the white line. This gave him one direction less to think about. Mike

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/de...illaFirefox.jpg This is RAF Marham today and there have been lots of changes over the years. "A" was our work area, where the squadron's aircraft were normally situated. ""B" is the control tower and "C" opposite used to house the Bloodhound missiles. I think that the QRA pan must have been "D". It is large enough to house four aircraft and has a single access to the taxi-way, which I remember. Most landings and take-offs were from right to left and, as you can see, the QRA pan was a considerable distance from the end of the runway. We did scramble four aircraft in an impressively short time from the pan at the top right corner of the photo. One over-eager pilot cut a corner and went over the grass. Fortunately it was summer and the ground was very hard. Another nearly ran down the crew chief in its haste to get away. It was very impressive and I remember watching them until the aircraft were just a smudge of smoke on the horizon, the noise had died away and the birds recommenced their singing. Mike

The word ACCUMULATOR is being used in two different contexts here. Selwyn is discussing hydraulic equipment where I am using the word in the sense of a Trolley-Acc. See my initial response to ground equipment surrounding a QRA aircraft. I do not recollect any external electrical supplies for Valiants other than the generator (photo posted above) or the "king-sized" trolley-acc which I mentioned. However, after all these years my memory is failing. I was at Marham prior to December 1962. Mike

This is my old Frog Venom built over 50 years ago and which has survived the passage of time and several changes of address. I believe that the mould was damaged and that this was the first kit to be withdrawn from the Frog catalogue. The last time I saw the Frog Venom in a model shop was around 1961/1962 and I bought a second kit for myself (which I still have!) and another which I sent to the late Alberto Anido of IPMS Philippines. http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/de...frogvenom_s.jpg Mike