WIX Archives

Re: Maybe I should have chosen my words differently...

Posted by Elliott on Thu Jan 10, 2002 09:33:52 AM

In reply top Maybe I should have chosen my words differently... posted by Mike Henniger on Thu Jan 10, 2002 07:58:56 AM

Don't worry Mike - I don't think anyone thought you were in favour of destroying warbirds. It's one of those dilemas that needs intelligent thought and should be left out of the hands of politicians who tend to overeact and do it out of proportioon - living in a democracy can be a pain in the arse sometimes...

I went to a yard in the UK last year and enquired about the possibility of picking up a Phantom they were about to recieve. Unfortunately they were under explicit instructions to destroy it under the terms of the SALT treaty - they are still considered a potent weapon - these days it's avionics which seem to rule the day with most air-air combat taking place beyond the visual horizon - an older airframe can still be potent if it is upgradable as a weapons platform. As someone said earlier - you can drop bombs from anything - Just yesterday I heard of a Stirling being used by the Egyptians to bombs the Isrealis in the 40s - they cut holes in the floor and dropped bombs through it! Very low tech solution and at the other end of the scale our government sold Hawks as trainers to a foreign power which configured them to drop bombs on the rebellious ethnic population - this caused an uproar in Britain, but there is no solution save a ban on exports.

There seems to be no answer to this debate short of making all ex-service warbirds non-airworthy and making sure they end up in responsible hands, although this is a bit of a joke - there's a yard in Russia that will sell you a Foxbat, and there's always some chancer on Barnstormers trying to flog a MiG 21....!

It's a miracle we aren't extinct yet.....

: Some interesting points have been made here. Just in case
: I have been misinterpreted I am not in favour of any warb
: irds being destroyed. Understanding and experiencing our
: history and heritage is important and the warbirds play a
: major roll in that.
:
: I guess what I was getting at was the question of... When
: do governments get in the way of preserving warbirds. I g
: uess the recent bill in the U.S. could be used as an examp
: le. I think I read someplace that an A-6 Intruder is bein
: g restored to flying condition from components of many dif
: ferent airframes. As there been any resistance to the com
: pletion of this project? Are there nervous bureucrats out
: there that don't like to see something like that?
:
: Maybe this means nothing at all since there are MiG 21s on
: the civil register in the U.S. and the MiG 21 is still a
: front line fighter for some countries.
:
: Just curious.
:
: Mike

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