Fareastdriver,
"at that time about 4years/1000 hours". And here's the Tornado soldiering on still; they were coming into service before I left, and that's 41 years ago ! (I was
told that the Spitfire was designed for a service life of 6 months - don't know if it's true.)....D.
Pom Pax,
AFAIK, this was a Government to Government thing. Both we and the Americans were, no doubt, making a good thing out of this trade, as being the only people who could provide the advanced flying training that these nations needed to provide the pilots for the new FJs we hoped to sell them.
The Russians were doing the same for their protégés.
"Who else did we train ?" You may well ask. Basically anyone who was "on our side" in the Cold War, or whom we hoped to bring onside. Irony ? it was worse than you think. Sometimes we had contingents from two countries at the same time; Air Ministry had to be dissuaded on one occasion from taking on an Israeli batch and one from an Arab state together. (I particularly remember the Israelis; when they went home they sent Flying Wing a huge crate of oranges - I don't recall any of the others sending us anything).....D.
Cheers to you both, Danny.