Tornado GR4 replacement.

[TOM tranche1]

Last week i wrote an email to the Conservative party regarding the defence budget, partly out of interest and partly out of college based tasks. I was lead to believe from teachers etc that this party would cut the defence budget by a further £1.5 billion so i decided to email them and ask what was going on. In the reply letter, after thanks for contacting them they began to explain that under Blair's Labour party, our armed forces have been stretched more than ever before, and are being sent onmore deployments with less equipment. They also said that they felt it an outrage that there are more attack aircraft in the RAF museum than in the whole RAF fleet!?

I am going on memory as i deleted the email, buti have a printed copy somewhere i will find it and post their exact responce.

TOM

 

[I Look Like Kevin Costner]

I do (no I wasn't one), but in fairness most were 27 DT_Xtremez_15: ,
though most of the ones on the Vulcan Fleet were of the fairy version of super tech. There were some good lads but equally there were some right c0cks too. However, many of the better fairy ones I knew went on to make outstanding GE's/Crew Chiefs.

Hu

There was one guy on jags. Met him first time when 18 up at lossie. Bumped into him again at Colt in the early Nineties. he had been a C/T forever. Favoured tool for removing bits off a jag that were tight was a sledgehammer!!DT_Xtremez_31:

 

[Hu Jardon]

There was one guy on jags. Met him first time when 18 up at lossie. Bumped into him again at Colt in the early Nineties. he had been a C/T forever. Favoured tool for removing bits off a jag that were tight was a sledgehammer!!DT_Xtremez_31:

Yes I know how you feel I had one in charge of me when I was a Jelly Tot - he had a face like a smacked @rse when we bumped into each other many years later and he found out I was his new FS

 

[denthemen]

There are still a few of us still about and btw very few got to CT by 26 - Im fact I dont know of any personally but no doubt there were.

Had one as my chief back in the early 80's on 19 at Wilders. he had come to us via Buccaneers and Pembrokes so there weren't that many exciting jobs to be had once TSR2 got coffin'd. He was a nice bloke tho - better than some I've had over the years.

 

[Captain Slog]

There are still a few of us still about and btw very few got to CT by 26 - Im fact I dont know of any personally but no doubt there were.

There was a Super Tech at Waddo when I was there who got his Chief when he was 25, Gen honest, I would tell you his name but 2 things stop me: 1. E-Goat rules and 2. Unfortunately, I heard through the grapevine he was killed many years ago while working on Canberras.

Another guy got his at 26, a real high flyer and smashing bloke. Saw him 20 years later, still a Chief but now a right miserable bas***d. We had another one who was absolutely useless with his hands and dangerous too, so they made him remuster to single trade. Fortunately he picked a trade that didn’t do much aircraft work – he became a Leckie!

 

[Tin basher]

Tsr 2

Tsr 2

I have a personal interest in the TSR 2 my father worked as production controller on the project and I worked for English Electric prior to joining up. As a young apprentice in the factory there were enough older guys around to remind me of the double dealing and underhand practice of the then Labour Government. Some similarities with today perhaps. MOD's this is not allegedly it is from research and personal memories. The TSR 2 could do all the below and more.
TSR-2 The sad, sorry saga of the destruction of what could have become one of the great aircraft of the 1970s and 1980s The specification was very demanding and called for an aircraft capable of delivering a 6-ton sunshine package over a combat radius of 1500 miles at low level and at high subsonic speed. The RAF specification made it even more demanding by calling for an over the target speed of 1.3M together with the need for a inertial navigation / attack system to ensure pinpoint weapons delivery. F****** were developing the terrain following radar and navigation/attack system, E** was developing the sideways looking radar BAC provided some estimated performance figures and even today they make impressive reading. They included a cruising speed of 0.9M / 1.1M at sea level and 2.05M at altitude. Combat radius with external fuel would be 1500nms or 1000nms with a 2000lb internal bomb load on internal fuel only. Initial rate of climb would be around 50,000 feet per minute with a service ceiling of 60,000ft. In addition, the aircraft was designed to operate from semi-prepared or low-grade surfaces only 3000ft in length, The reconnaissance pack included the EMI Q-Band SLAR, a moving target indicator and active optical line scan radar, which could also transmit the picture in near real-time to a ground station, together with three FX126 cameras. One forward and two sideways looking F95 cameras were permanently fitted in the aircraft's nose. The SLAR could provide continuous coverage up to 10mn either side of track. Whilst development continued much skulduggery took place behind the scenes and by now the Labour opposition were making it clear they would cancel the project if they were elected. The end came on 6 Apr 65 when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Callaghan, announced during his budget speech that the project would be cancelled immediately. Not content with that, no trace of TSR-2 was supposed to survive orders were given for the two completed prototypes to be destroyed, together with all the remaining aircraft on the assembly line, even down to the jigs and tools - ensuring that the project could never be resurrected. The decision to cancel TSR-2 was probably one of the most ill advised ever made by a British Government and nearly crippled the British aircraft industry.

All that capability in the 50's FFS a tragic shame it was never built.

 

[Tin basher]

And another thing

And another thing

Just three weeks before the election the Labour candidate in a speech at the factory gates assured the workforce their jobs were safe under Labour DT_Xtremez_25: (lying tw@ts)
Just imagine being an engineer working in the factory building up the aircraft from the ground up overcoming design problems etc. Then going home at the end of your shift only to discover that the cancellor has just scrapped the project in his budget then returning to work next day with no job at all. Remember this was the 50's with few TV's no radios at work and no internet most of your information came from the papers. Once back at work next morning being informed all your hardwork building airframes is to be destroyed. Oh and after you have destroyed the frames you built please get the welding gear out and cut up all the jigs and tooling so that no future government can re-start the program. AArgh the whole thing still gets me annoyed even so many years later a lot of good engineers lost jobs cheers LabourDT_Xtremez_25: