Obviously bloody not!!!

Wholi', this thread was shunted off 'Rumours and News' and moved here, presumably by the moderators.

No fault of 'flying brain'.

Although the two threads should clearly be merged, in my opinion.

Navaleye

Thank you. I was seeing Red when I typed it!

There is a little one liner in the report that gives the real reason. "The future basing of the Reds may have to be looked at".
So, after saving Scampton from the axe, shoving everything else in there to justify it's existence, the threat of DSA operations mean that the RAF will re-open Coltishall. The base will be the home of 10 aircraft and their maintainers. To justify keeping the base open, Neatishead will re-open and a new CRP will be built on the airfield at Colt.
It is anticipated that in 2009, the Reds will move to St Mawgan and then in 2012 to Lyneham.
:E :E
On a serious note....I thought the BBMF were funded by charitable contributions not the taxpayer. As I understand it, the only Taxpayer assets are: The Dead Sparrows, The Royal Horse Artillery and HMS Victory.

Why not get 'The Blades' in on the act. Top formation, now all ex-Reds and cheaper to run (apart from the green fees! ahem). No taxpayers money and just a teensy weeny bit of red paint to apply....:ok:

I would like to see the reds fly a faster jet such as Typhoon

Lets face it the Hawk is a good trainer but it has had it's day

Combination of team talent and state of the art Jet would be a great advertisement for RAF

Sod the money !

Navaleye

on behalf of Clockwork I believe the correct spelling is "now" ....:E :ok:

Wrath,

Spot on mate. Right spelling wrong word. :confused:

Aaaaah OK BEags ... didn't notice that. Maybe the person who moved it here should have noticed there were two and merged them when moving the one into here?
;)

The rumours about Scampton still continuie. Although it appears to be established that the runway is now going to be resurfaced (and the Reds operate their Hawks from Waddington while this happens) there's now a rumour going round that the BBMF may relocate to Scampton too. Whether there's any truth to it I don't know but I suppose it would make sense, as they're going to need all the (air and ground) space they can get at Coningsby.
But then there's another rumour (which I first heard last year) that maybe even the newly-restored Vulcan might move to Scampton, as there are no (cheap) hangarage facilities at Bruntingthorpe.
Who would have thought it - a Lancaster and a Vulcan at Scampton;)

Until Wholi intervened, I'd assumed that this thread was for the grubby NCO types, and the other for the commissioned types....

or vice versa?

Who seriously thinks we'd replace the Hawks with Typhoons?! We're trying to SAVE money, not pi$$ it away. The cost of running a Hawk per hour is a fraction of that required to run
the Typhoon.
The tornado will never replace the Hawk in the Reds for the same reason, and I have seen the amount of work required to get 9 tonkas airborne ONCE in a year, never mind 3 times a day.
Those who suggest that we could man a display team made up from jets (and pilots?) from different sqns have obviously never spent time on front line flying sqns. We're working hard enough to generate enough jets for our own operational needs as it is.

Spoilsport -------------

Done! I didn't move it here, though.

Scroggs

Who seriously thinks we'd replace the Hawks with Typhoons?! We're trying to SAVE money, not pi$$ it away. The cost of running a Hawk per hour is a fraction of that required to run
the Typhoon

Other countries manage to put their top class pilots into top class and exciting aircraft, flying displays are not about putting pennies into a piggy bank somewhere, they are about inspiring people and celebrating our best achievements, I think that we need to think bigger and tell the bean counters where to shove it

Of course, if the Typhoon was used as in place of the Hawk as aerobatic steed, at least the Typhoon would be flown as intended.

Not just practice, exercise, training.

What a sorry state we are in.

The new Typhoon PR video is based on a scenario out of the Cold War and has to use CGI to make it's point. :ugh:

People are arguing over the need, or otherwise, for a display team. :rolleyes:

In the meantime, soldiers are fighting two wars with minimal air support. Little or no CAS, a small number of SH and a clapped out AT fleet.

What was that phrase again? utterly, utterly.............

£5.6 million. Is that all? They should get rid of the Air Cadet Organisation. We cost over £21 million a year! :}

Following phrase springs to mind when thinking of budget custs and penny pinching


"They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing !"

Would that be the same Air Cadet Organisation that has rather more people in uniform than the RAF (c 50k), provides the only sight of a light-blue uniform in many (most?) parts of the UK and is run by about 200 full-time paid staff, plus of course shed-loads of enthusiastic volunteers........

...... thought so :ok: