She's a big Bia-tch!

[Tidgy]

 

 

 

 

she's a big owd ****** ain't she :o

 

shame we have fook all to go on her lol

[Rizmo]

Make a good drifting track - provided you did not fall off the edge!

[Scooby Pete]

The Ark Royal look like a tug in the next slip lol

[Jay762]

Some tonnage that, the former submariner in me sees a bigger target tee hee :)

[Gambit]

Pretty awesome how they build them though. And agree does look like an easy target for Subs 

[Tidgy]

at the min i think its an easy target for anything tbh given its lack of planes lol.

[Gambit]

That's very true I actually can't think of any planes we have now that use aircraft carriers. probably building it to sell to the americans cheaper than we built it :( 

[Scooby Pete]

The way the MOD is being stripped to the bone your prob right however the JSF F-35b/c Lightning is planned to be used on the next gen Aircraft carriers, along with Chinooks, Apache, Lynx and Merlin Helicopters.

 

[Tidgy]

F35 is planned to be used but way behind, last i heard 2020 is current expected service date, first carrier is 2017, total cluster fook.

[Scooby Pete]

You'd have thought the Fleet Air arm would still have some Harriers in service as a temporary stop gap!!

 

Or borrow some F-18's from the yanks :D

[Tidgy]

You'd have thought the Fleet Air arm would still have some Harriers in service as a temporary stop gap!!

 

Or borrow some F-18's from the yanks :D

 

From what i can gather alot of the cost increase has been the gov changing from vert to catapult, to short take off. There was a program to make the eurofighter carrier usable but that got shelved a while ago.

 

All the eggs went on the F35 and its a !Removed!, jack of all trades master of none

[Scooby Pete]

Its all an exercise in trying to cut costs and make trying to make multiroll aircraft. Haven't they learnt the multirole concept doesn't work, it never has and never will.

 

That's the problem with civilian committees being put in charge of Defense planing and spending.

 

Any Sane person would leave it up to the Generals, Admirals and Air Marshals who actually do the !Removed! job day to day.

[Tidgy]

only ever made concept pictures but harrier did get thought of as being upgraded

 

 

 

should have done a carrier eurofighter

[Gambit]

the EuroFighter was also considered for being modded for use. It was the same for the F18's they was modified to work originally with Aircraft carriers. 

[Tidgy]

the EuroFighter was also considered for being modded for use. It was the same for the F18's they was modified to work originally with Aircraft carriers. 

 

yeah, apparently cancelled in late 80's

[Gambit]

I wonder with the size of the ship that it could be done but surely cost would be huge. I mean I'm no aerospace construction developer or anything. Hell I'm happy when an oil change on my car goes well. But yhe weight of possibly landing gear and the extra support for the hook to attach what ever plane's they might need would almost have to be rebuilt.

[Tidgy]

The space for the catapult and arrester gear is there, was design for it. Just the Gov changed there mind at the cost of 6 billion to the UK tax payer to got to vtol, think current spec is stol

[Gambit]

Didn't they have issues with the harrier though doing vertical take off's burning the deck of the ships 

[Scooby Pete]

the issue with VTOL for the Harrier was that fully loaded it would have had about 4 mins of fuel left after a VTOL take off lol.

Far too expensive to operate the VTOL they were originally intended for.

[Nevell]

I thought the Royal Navy or local sailing club where still using swordfishes lol lol

[Tidgy]

As above, wasn't heat the issue, was the fuel use to do it with a full armament

[Tidgy]

I thought the Royal Navy or local sailing club where still using swordfishes lol lol

 

now now biggles,,,,,

 

 

hahahaha