BEagle
I do know the difference between IAS, TAS, CAS and Mach No. I used the mph figures as these were what dear old Wikipedia used which were in common to all four types.
I wouldn't for one minute compare a Belfast with an A400 without refererring to the HUGE disparity in engines. Just imagine what the difference would be if the Belfast had nearly double the thrust, 5,730 shp versus 11,000 from the A400's state of the art jobbies.
All I wanted to say was that in 50 years of ac and eng/prop design the additional performance gains are really not that significant.....
Call it nostalgia if you like but I can remember seeing the likes of Belfasts, Argosies, Andovers, Britannias, VC10's and even Hastings (115 Sqn?) wearing roundels, when the RAF still has a "full set of clubs" to play with. With more than 100 airframes available meant proper flexibility and allowed the movers to do more than one thing at a time, ie allow "tactical" ops and "strategic" ops simultaneously AND allow training to continue on the OCU's. Personnell also could be rotated between home and away postings.
MB