Everyone is white! The days when Englishmen were proud and allowed to to volunteer to fly for their country. How times have changed. Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be allowed any more.
I did my AAITC, (Airman Aircrew Initial Training Course), and Air Loadmaster training here in 1983. Some interesting memories as I came from No. 2 Squadron RAF Regiment.
Seeing it’s open bomb bay at RAF Cosford where one could walk underneath the aeroplane I was struck with it’s size. Magnificent but unfortunately most British planes today are collaborations with international partners after the mismanagement of successive post-war Governments of all political hues.
There is never a time to get slack in defence spending, if you don't want be cleaning wee putin,'s lavvy. Should have looked forward in time, russia is still here.
Things have got even worse now this was around the time I came out of the RAF and I was told due to the fact warfare had changed and Russia was now not a threat and there will never be another in Europe oh how things have changed
An incomparable aeroplane much better than anything that the Yanks had. Unfortunately they and the Europeans have succeeded in ensuring the demise of purely British military planes as was their intention. Under F.D.R. there was such a plan drawn up.
plenty of money .. they just dont want to spend it on something they believe is low return investment. They only want to invest on things that they believe make a quick buck. Thats also why we lost our innovation. Innovation needs investment .. long term. So I understand it, they even tried to scrap super sonic air liner concord.. but luckily france threatened to sue them.. hence it went ahead.
Just let us hope we are never in a real combat role, and in today’s world that could happen almost overnight, aircrew training takes a lot longer and is much more complex than the Spitfire era.
Does she really have to go back outside?? Absolute national treasure, needs to be preserved indoors really. Thanks for doing such a fantastic job and sharing it with us.
I had the privilege of talking to a former airman only yesterday, he said the official reason for closure was the fact the runway was susceptible to subsidence due to a former coal mine! REALLY? It' s now an international airport so that was a load of B******S , and now one of the richest companies in the world, Peel Holdings are looking to close it. No doubt will be houses on there then. 😡
Wow. Spent 5 yrs on 100 Sqn and 2 yrs or so at RAF Finningley. Such a great place. We were gutted. They replaced us with civilians who in the end cost more and were not as flexible. And just a few months ago the Sqn disbanded for good. Very sad.
Confession time. In 1991 when I was 11 years old, my parents took me to RAF Finningley airshow. There was a static Tornado GR1 pained in sand colour (obviously had been to the Gulf war). I asked the Navigator if I could sit in it and he kindly said yes. Unfortunately, whilst climbing in I stood on something I shouldnt have and broke it. (Pitot tube?) I bet I was the last kid he let sit in his aircraft.......
Pitot tubes were never placed anywhere close to where personnel or worse (aircrew) could stomp on them. Worry not, that aircraft's probably a frying pan now anyway ;o)
It was rumoured that Harriers were going to be stationed there upon their return from Germany but that didn't happen. I remember the Lancaster landing there in September 1995 or '96 to act as centrepiece to a dance that was being held in one of the hangars. I remember it being a Vulcan base, Lindholm was the training base until 1969 when the V bombers redeployed elsewhere
The more things stay the same, the more they change. It seems to me that the RAF more than most is plagued by politics, at least there is still an airforce, not the airshow queen that SAAF has become
These sort of discussions were held when Dr .Beeching did his work and reduced the railways ability. You are just now learning the REAL Cost of such a move. Using Civilians with no field knowledge to make decisions. The same is said of this Move by the RAF .The COST will be in closing the wrong war which in the end will chose you. The people responsibe for the recomendations will have moved on with a healthy bonus. The same can be said of the move to take all Police on the beat, neighbourhood security, off the beat.The cost will be in increased Insurance costs as break ins increase. All this thought out by boffins and Politicans. God save us all he is the only one that can.
At least you still have an Air Force, we have half a dozen each of Hercules, Orion and NH90's, and a couple of Boeing 757's. The irony is we have the most modern trainer aircraft the RNZAF has ever had, Texan II's Not a lot of Defence there.
15:11 Increasing "efficiency" by managing the same workload with fewer workers is indeed commendable, but this is rarely the real goal of cost-cutting exercises. Instead, fewer workers are needed because there's less work to do, because of defense cuts... Not to mention that those workers are a valuable labor resource which shouldn't be wasted. Service personnel can be transferred elsewhere, but commercial personnel will lose their jobs and be forced to work elsewhere.
Only they are not managing the same workload. Service personnel have secondary duties, training and a myriad of other things taking them away from their primary duty. Take all that away and I'm sure they could do the same job as the civies with the same manpower.
Great find. I was at Finningley in 94 doing an Airborne Forward Air Controllers course (Pongo, Lynx pilot) just prior to deployment to Bosnia. An excellent few weeks and the station was already starting to draw down. The Mess was trying to get rid of as much money as possible so there were Mess do's pretty much most nights :-D Clothing stores and the stationary were ditching kit left right and centre and as a pongo, I took full advantage of the 'disposal'. I still have a million lumo-colours, Strike rulers and Wilkie survival knives I use to this day! :-D Great times and a great bunch of people we worked with.
Looking back at this and seeing the utter disaster that is modern RAF training (7.5 years to the frontline and a major shortage), it's clear that this decision was one of many mistakes made for money.
A greater threat to the Uk is Covid -19- that long term has the potential to destroy the UK economically- Saving 230 million is pittance to what was spent trying to control health issues- reality - is un manned missiles and a nuclear war 😱
