Talk of many things.
Warmtoast,
Two lovely pictures of two lovely aeroplanes ! Although we Meteor drivers (at Driffield early '50s) derisively called them "kiddicars", I found the Vampire III and V to be a docile, easy to fly and altogether enjoyable little aircraft, and I'm sure the T.11 would be every bit as nice (although I never got to fly one).
Was there any truth in the old tale that the single-seater was designed so that the front half of a 'Mossie' would fit exactly after the front of the Vampire had been chopped off ?
I wouldn't go so far as to call the Meteor "nice", but we must remember that it was the 'Typhoon' of its day, and being "nice" to the occupant(s) was low on the designer's priorities. Again, I never got past the 4 and the T7.
(Your quote):
"Oddly when 41 had their Meteor 8s they had a Vampire T.11 as a trainer, but why? and why not a Meteor T.7? "
The Auxiliary Sqdns. all flew Vampires, but had a Meteor T7 trainer apiece. I was 'selected' (you, you and you) for the Meteor stream at Driffield, then posted to a Vampire Sqdn. It's the way the RAF does things. (In '42, they put me through an expensive Spitfire OTU, then sent me out to India where there were no Spitfires then - I never flew a 'Spit' again till '49 ).....D.
Blacksheep ...(Your quote):
"then there's the Airbus flight deck, with a handy pull out shelf below the instrument panel to perch one's laptop on".
I thought it was for the Captain's dinner (silver service, of course), and would the cupholder handle a champagne flute ? And (unrelated topic) how could you fly it with a left-hand sidestick ? It's impossible !.....D.
MPN11 ... Obviously, Bloggs thought he was driving down the A.1 !...D.
OffshoreSLF ...Thanks! - though I have mixed memories of the T7 ....D.
Regards to all, Danny.