Ned - The MD902 tailboom photo was especially notable since it was on the back of a business card.
Jacko - One of the downsides to the industry's magazines opening themselves up to a wider [i.e. youth] audience seems to have been that the standards of reporting and analysis have fallen dramatically when compared to the 1960s, '70s and '80s. This is perhaps not so much the case w.r.t. the publications to which you principally contribute (which retain a more 'serious' mil target audience), but most of the 'newsagent' mags seem willing to print whatever
PR departments give them, without checking the facts or researching the backstory. I don't know whether this is due to publications not wishing to upset potential advertisers or whether it's due to the average experience levels of journos falling, but it's been very noticeable, even in 'reputable' mags such as
Flight. As a result we see baseless claims being made about program schedules/costs, product technologies and company forecasts (and I'm
not just thinking about MDHI here), contributing to the 'accepted' norm of most program targets being missed, with any editor brave enough to question what they're told being burned at the stake (q.v. JTM). This is not meant as a slam on journos on general - I have many good friends in the field (even including that whingeing antipodean Ned
) - but I miss the journalistic standards of old.
I/C