Military aircraft classics

[struth]

Amraams yup. Great weapon.

[Lawrence001]

Just looked it up, it was the Skyflash when I was younger, the Amraam replaced it later. For those interested in such matters!

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[Haselsh1]

It was like the world was coming to an end.

The thing I remember about the Lightnings at RAF Binbrook is that they would take off in pairs with reheat unlike the Typhoons at RAF Coningsby today. The noise from the Lightnings impressed the most because of the way it would thunder into my chest making me feel everso slightly sick.

[Haselsh1]

Talking of the Tornado, does anyone remember the early F2 variant with the concrete in the nose to balance the damn thing..? In the early days the electronics didn't work so it was stuffed full of concrete to balance out the weight lost from no avionics or so the story goes.

[struth]

Talking of the Tornado, does anyone remember the early F2 variant with the concrete in the nose to balance the damn thing..? In the early days the electronics didn't work so it was stuffed full of concrete to balance out the weight lost from no avionics or so the story goes.

yes they decided to try and make an interceptor out of a ground attack vehicle and at same time put an untested new radar in it. radar never got working and wasnt installed, so it got dubbed the blue circle radar

Mind you it wasnt as bad as the Scimitar. One of the worst planes we made, and probably the most prone to crash.....oh and they put a nuclear bomb in too

[Haselsh1]

I never knew about the Scimitar, slightly before my time

In fact the only Scimitar I remember was a V6 powered jobbie by Reliant. Anyhow, another story and another classic.

I like the 'Blue Circle' tag for the F2 though, very appropriate. I did get a damn fine photograph of a very early F2 climbing out of RAF Waddington on full reheat. It still had the little black triangles on it for whatever purpose, I'm guessing photography. It was back around 1981 as I took it using a 500mm mirror lens on my then Pentax ME. Always loved the fire in its arse, those RB199's giving the ground a good shaking.

Lovely looking aircraft I always thought but I preferred the 'other' version.

[struth]

The Scimitar was designed to be able to make an unaccelerated carrier take-off, not that it ever did... well i think they did it once just to prove it could, but with no weight in. It thus had thick wings and was downright dangerous, and most of them crashed. Much like the Sea Vixen, a death trap

[Haselsh1]

The Scimitar was designed to be able to make an unaccelerated carrier take-off, not that it ever did... well i think they did it once just to prove it could, but with no weight in. It thus had thick wings and was downright dangerous, and most of them crashed. Much like the Sea Vixen, a death trap

Was the Sea Vixen the aircraft that broke into pieces at an airshow killing quite a few people..?

[struth]

Was the Sea Vixen the aircraft that broke into pieces at an airshow killing quite a few people..?

one crashed at farnborough(early 50's) ...it was so screwed up it never really flew much in anger and was retired in early 70's.. it killed fifty one RN aircrew.

[walpurgis]

Was the Sea Vixen the aircraft that broke into pieces at an airshow killing quite a few people..?

It was the DH110 development prototype. I knew somebody who'd been there and saw the whole thing happen right in front of him.