Originally Posted by
ASRAAMTOO
Once upon a time we retained some aircraft whilst a new one was introduced. The Vulcan wound down as the GR 1 wound up. Lightning’s and Phantoms overlapped the F3.
As a result newly introduced aircraft had time to reach full operational capability. The arb scrapping of the Harrier combined with the premature demise of the GR 4 means the F35 is forced to run before walking.
its little surprise they do not have the resources to generate a display aircraft. I for one would rather the display pilot that is eventually selected has a decent number of hours on type and completes the work up program as outlined by previous posters.
I have no no idea what gate heights would be used on an F35 but suspect they may be different to a Typhoon, Jaguar or GR4.
I think you've made a very good point, an excellent point Sir. Unfortunately, the peace dividend mooted in 1989/90 , albeit fair enough, was then regarded by successive Governments as an opportunity to act in a Gratuitous fashion over Defence spending. Hence the comparisons you make, the GR4 and Harrier should never have gone so early on and nor should the F3 and the Jaguar but the thinking has been purely financial, and certainly political. But wasting money elsewhere with nothing to show has continued through high minded incompetence. Interesting that the Italian Government, committed to buying 90 F-35As and F-35Bs, respectively for their Air Force and Navy also still operate the Tornado and Harrier, alongside their Typhoons and M346s, and, presumably, will carry on the Tornado and Harrier until the F-35s can fully pick the Baton and run! I think they were about the largest contributor to RIAT this weekend, in terms of individual service commitment. A word about air shows in particular, the RAF once upon a time, made a very heavy contribution, the largest of all, to such extra-curricular activities. Today, taking all into account, it is probably the lightest. Air shows yet, have always, and I know for certain, been the last consideration, even in the 80s and earlier, participation, anywhere with anything, had to carry a degree of worthwhile value. But that they could with a wide range of high performance types and could because they actually owned and controlled all they had rather than renting anything, was on its own, a sincere indication of just how robust and flexible the RAF was then.