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[oatcakekev]

if aerospace engineering was left to engineers and not pen-pushers, penny pinchers and indecisive politicians, we would still lead the way in technology. The teeser 2 was the real start of the rot, fancy cancelling an aircraft that was 30 years ahead of anything else in the world and then play catch-up ever since??!! mad !!! When left to our own devices, we come up with the goods. Mosquito, lightning, as previously mentioned, and the greatest of em all, the spitfire.

[Martin_1962]

if aerospace engineering was left to engineers and not pen-pushers, penny pinchers and indecisive politicians, we would still lead the way in technology. The teeser 2 was the real start of the rot, fancy cancelling an aircraft that was 30 years ahead of anything else in the world and then play catch-up ever since??!! mad !!! When left to our own devices, we come up with the goods. Mosquito, lightning, as previously mentioned, and the greatest of em all, the spitfire.

You forgot the Harrier

Concorde, Tornado, Typhoon are/were mainly British lead as well

[Lizzie_Zoom]

if aerospace engineering was left to engineers and not pen-pushers, penny pinchers and indecisive politicians, we would still lead the way in technology. The teeser 2 was the real start of the rot, fancy cancelling an aircraft that was 30 years ahead of anything else in the world and then play catch-up ever since??!! mad !!! When left to our own devices, we come up with the goods. Mosquito, lightning, as previously mentioned, and the greatest of em all, the spitfire.

You forgot the Harrier

Concorde, Tornado, Typhoon are/were mainly British lead as well

............and the Lancaster, Vulcan..........VC10, Comet, Vanguard, Viscount, Trident..................... 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

[oatcakekev]

and as for the Vulcan, well thats just one amazing machine. The man who was initially responsible for that design was Roy Chadwick. Father of the lancaster.

[markrl]

if aerospace engineering was left to engineers and not pen-pushers, penny pinchers and indecisive politicians, we would still lead the way in technology. The teeser 2 was the real start of the rot, fancy cancelling an aircraft that was 30 years ahead of anything else in the world and then play catch-up ever since??!! mad !!! When left to our own devices, we come up with the goods. Mosquito, lightning, as previously mentioned, and the greatest of em all, the spitfire.

You forgot the Harrier

Concorde, Tornado, Typhoon are/were mainly British lead as well

You also forgot to mention that other great flying British Turkey the Nimrod. Surely this must be British Wasteofspace's finest financial achievement they sucessfully scammed the UK taypayer twice with two versions of of an ancient De Haviland Comet kitted out first as an airbourne early warning aircraft (that didn't work) then as a flying death trap of a maritime patrol aircraft (that also didn't work) 

The directors of BAe must be pissing themselves with laughter sitting in their large stockbroker belt mansions and marvelling at how they managed to milk the UK Government of over 7 billion pound in ongoing development costs in return nothing more then a few dozen skips filled with scrap aluminium.   

No wonder the Americans referred to RAF Kinloss as the worlds most expensive vintage flying club. 

[Lizzie_Zoom]

if aerospace engineering was left to engineers and not pen-pushers, penny pinchers and indecisive politicians, we would still lead the way in technology. The teeser 2 was the real start of the rot, fancy cancelling an aircraft that was 30 years ahead of anything else in the world and then play catch-up ever since??!! mad !!! When left to our own devices, we come up with the goods. Mosquito, lightning, as previously mentioned, and the greatest of em all, the spitfire.

You forgot the Harrier

Concorde, Tornado, Typhoon are/were mainly British lead as well

You also forgot to mention that other great flying British Turkey the Nimrod. Surely this must be British Wasteofspace's finest financial achievement they sucessfully scammed the UK taypayer twice with two versions of of an ancient De Haviland Comet kitted out first as an airbourne early warning aircraft (that didn't work) then as a flying death trap of a maritime patrol aircraft (that also didn't work) 

The directors of BAe must be pissing themselves with laughter sitting in their large stockbroker belt mansions and marvelling at how they managed to milk the UK Government of over 7 billion pound in ongoing development costs in return nothing more then a few dozen skips filled with scrap aluminium.   

No wonder the Americans referred to RAF Kinloss as the worlds most expensive vintage flying club. 

Indeed, and that plus the fact that the MRA4 was £789 million over-budget and over nine years late, having never flown, and apparently would not have done for some considerable time to come even if it had not been cancelled, has been forgotten by a lot of the public who are just mourning the loss of another "great British aerospace project!

It was a huge waste of money, as you said based on an airframe first designed in the 1950s!!  Very good money after very bad money!

[tigers_gonads]

one of the bigest problems with the mra4 was bae trying to match up the new wings that was made using cad engineering with a fuselage that was made with a hack saw, rivit gun and a tape measure 

and they could'nt understand why the things never fitted 

for me, the bigest problem we have is the loss of skills that the crews have 
the sound of a sub under water is'nt something you can teach in a classroom with a computer.  it take years or even decades to develop these 

as for british aircraft, lets not forget the canberra 
so good in its day, we even sold it to the yanks 

[oatcakekev]

Yup, best air crews in the world, backed by the biggest bunch of self important, pocket lining !£^^^"""**s. Working with a bigger bunch of clueless, gilt lined pension assured chinless paper pushing, committee sitting @@@***£"",s
 But hey, its only our money.  :exclamation 

[henryd]

I see that the nimrod gained a reprieve today,they were going to the scrapper at the end of this month,now delayed untill at least june due to policing the Libya no fly zone that is being planned

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/11/nimrod-spy-planes-scrapping-delayed

[markrl]

one of the bigest problems with the mra4 was bae trying to match up the new wings that was made using cad engineering with a fuselage that was made with a hack saw, rivit gun and a tape measure 

and they could'nt understand why the things never fitted 

for me, the bigest problem we have is the loss of skills that the crews have 
the sound of a sub under water is'nt something you can teach in a classroom with a computer.  it take years or even decades to develop these 

as for british aircraft, lets not forget the canberra 
so good in its day, we even sold it to the yanks 

It wasn't just the new wings (apparently made by Airbus) that didn't fit, every other part on the fusalage that had to be replaced also had to be individually custom made for each airframe  Given the airframes were originally from left over unsold Comet Mk 4's that had already been in service for for over 30 years in a maritime patrol role a heck of a lot had to be replaced due to corrosion. Not surprisingly costs went through the roof. At this point any sensible organisation would have abandoned the project and simply bought a new A300 or Boeing 737 airframe to put the kit in. Not Britishwasteofspace systems with the taxpayer picking up the tab they knew they were on a financial winner even if the product was an obsolete pile of junk. So they just plodded on regardless banking the foolish MOD's cheques as they merrily went along. Even if they had managed to get the things flying and into service the running cost of keeping the worlds last remaining 9 De Haviland comits flying for another 20 years would have been horrendous and would have financially crippled the RAF. Pretty much every required spare part would have had to be custom made  This has to have been one of the most stupid ill conceived military development project ever embarked upon and a truely grotesque waste of money. 

I quite agree about the Canberra on the quiet its probably about the best and most sucessful military aircraft Britain ever made and was in service for years. Long after it retired from frontline duties many were still flying in support roles a truely fantastic success. 

[Nickbat]

The RAF is currently having to cannibalise aircraft for spare parts in order to keep the maximum number of Typhoons in the air on any given day.
 
The committee said the Ministry of Defence had warned the problems were likely to continue until 2015 when it expects the supply of spares finally to have reached a "steady state".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/spares-shortage-keeps-typhoon-jets-grounded-2268301.html

   

[Varche]

I'd have to say Raptor.

The Typhoon maybe a first class plane but we only have EIGHT pilots trained on ground attack. Of those:

Two are on annual leave
One on paternity leave
Two on a team talk
One phoned in sick

That leaves two to fly the missions BUT European working time directive means that they have already flown their allowance this month so our bombing raids can't recommence till May1st. Lets hope we have enough spare parts then. 

[tigers_gonads]

A good friend of mine from Coningsby told me a story about when we sent 4 typhoons to the good old US of A to play with the Raptors.

After various games of 1 v 1, 2v2 ect, the yanks took there ball home and refused to play anymore 

It would seem that unless the raptors paint is in perfect condition, our lads was getting a radar lock and spoiling there day 
Also when they popped open there weapons bay doors, you can get a good reflections off the internals of the bay 
Also, in a 1 v 1 dogfight, the typhoon can more than hold its own