My interest in military aviationI've been interested in military aviation since the mid-1970s, although I remember going to an open day at RAF Upper Heyford in 1970, when the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing was still operating the F-101 Voodoo. In 1976 I went to the Greenham Common airshow, and Farnborough for the first time. In those days I was not in to collecting serials, only taking photographs and watching pilots bend their aircraft round the sky. That year I read a book called Attack Aircraft of the West by Bill Gunston. It was an eye-opener; I remember being amazed by the saga of the TSR.2, and how narrowly the Harrier had avoided the same fate. Another book, Project Cancelled by Derek Wood revealed that since the Second World War successive British governments had been making serious errors with aviation projects of all types. In the late 1970s and 1980s airshows at Upper Heyford, Brize Norton, Abingdon, Greenham Common, Mildenhall, Fairford and Farnborough all had things of interest. In the mid-1980s just taking pictures was getting a bit routine, so I started to collect military aircraft serials as well. My conversion to being a spotter was complete! I started this site to pull together information about military aircraft for my own purposes. A great deal of information was available, on the web and in traditional media, but nobody was pulling it all together. The mix of aircraft detailed here is a bit arcane, but I tried not to duplicate other people's work, and concentrate instead on aircraft I was particularly interested in. The TSR.2 would have been the finest low-level strike aircraft ever built if it had entered service. The Nimrod was the best ASW aircraft ever built, and despite recent problems with fuel leaks, and the extended delays to the MRA.4, it is still playing a vital role in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Jaguar was the most politically contrived aircraft ever built, but it was also a fine strike aircraft and did not deserve its untimely end in RAF service. The E-3 Sentry is one of those unsung aircraft which do vital work but are not flashy like fighters. The Sea Harrier is included because of its exploits in the South Atlantic in 1982, the B-1B because of its size and power, and the B-2 because of its revolutionary technology. The E-8 is another vital but usually un-reported type. The EH101 is probably the best mid-range helicopter around at the moment, and is of largely British design. The Typhoon is included because it is new and important. The V-22 Osprey employs more revolutionary technology, and is hopefully the solution to a problem which has been around for a long time. |
A selection of F-117s
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