Non-motoring > Not all that Comic really Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Armel Coussine Replies: 12
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 15:55 
 Not all that Comic really - Armel Coussine
I've been grinding my teeth over my favourite comic for many decades, but the current dispensation is really beyond a joke. Two gross solecisms on p4 of yesterday's: one in the caption to a photo of Barack Obama at Stonehenge, describing the monument as 'the tourist attraction' as if it were a giant plastic statue of Bugs Bunny. The second was in the headline to the Sketch: 'Statesmen talk war in distant rooms, while the media feeds on scraps'.

If these subs (and even these hacks) are British, they must have been taught at school by ignorant morons themselves taught by idiot ideologues who wanted us all to be ignorant morons. But I like to think they are foreign teenagers working for nothing in the hope of currying favour with the comic's owners and sinister management. Some hope.

Oh yes: there was a little piece about that ingenious swing-wing twin rotor helicopter cum aeroplane thingy in which the Prez had presumably arrived from Wales. I wonder what helicopter thinks of it? Looks frightening to me, just as helicopters do.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 7 Sep 14 at 15:59
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 17:49 
 Not all that Comic really - R.P.
Saw one buzzing around here a couple of months ago - The Osprey. It was at one point very accident prone. Maybe they've been fixed now. According to Wiki quite a few countries are evaluating them including Israel. Maybe a sales thing.
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 18:16 
 Not all that Comic really - Haywain
Osprey - discussed briefly in this thread from 3/12/13

www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=15778&v=f

We see them on almost a daily basis round here; I never fail to be fascinated.
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 19:24 
 Not all that Comic really - sooty123

>>
>> We see them on almost a daily basis round here; I never fail to be
>> fascinated.
>>
>>

I take it you live in Suffolk? They stationed here full time?
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 21:04 
 Not all that Comic really - Haywain
"I take it you live in Suffolk?"

Bury St Edmunds.

Earlier this year, it was reported that there were some 15 Ospreys stationed up at Mildenhall, but I guess the number varies depending on operations.
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 18:56 
 Not all that Comic really - Old Navy
>> It was at one point very accident prone. Maybe they've been fixed now.
>>

A bit like the early days of the Harrier, apparently a small error and it can bite back big time.
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 18:57 
 Not all that Comic really - R.P.
I read it up on Wiki after posting - seems they were early glitches and there have been some serious re-vamps !
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 19:04 
 Not all that Comic really - Zero

>> A bit like the early days of the Harrier, apparently a small error and it
>> can bite back big time.

Bit BAE's chief test pilot.
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 19:11 
 Not all that Comic really - Armel Coussine
Early experiments in non-helicopter VTOL were quite hairy. The original ancestor of the Harrier was a thing called by the press the Flying Bedstead: a spidery tubular frame with a huge downward-pointing jet engine in the middle, four small adjustable balancing jets (powered I know not how) at the corners and the intrepid pilot perched somewhere in a commanding position...

It looked very hard to drive, slid about all the time threatening to shoot off violently in some random direction. Usually flown tethered to the ground by big cables to keep that within bounds.
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 19:14 
 Not all that Comic really - Focusless
>> a thing called by the press the Flying Bedstead

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8W2SI4c93s
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 19:22 
 Not all that Comic really - Armel Coussine
Ah... two jet engines with downturned nozzles, all right, I misremembered (perhaps I remember an earlier version, because that one didn't seem to be tethered). It's 60 years though. I was 15. That's my excuse.

Still didn't look the sort of thing you'd try to drive without lessons.
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 19:41 
 Not all that Comic really - Armel Coussine
I do wish helicopter would say something in this thread, especially about the Osprey.

I don't mean to sound importunate. There are many reasons for being tight-lipped about matters close to one's life. So no need to respond helico.
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New Sun 7 Sep 14 20:54 
 Not all that Comic really - Manatee
>>Early experiments in non-helicopter VTOL were quite hairy.

You might like this AC -

www.harrier.org.uk/history/history_farley.htm
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