raf circa 1974 documentary

[williamp]

found this after a thread on pprune.

a documentray from 1974 showing the raf in its glory, filmed partly live and nsrrated by Raymond baxter, lovely stuff! Called "skywatch"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VflzHApZ28

[Eric Mc]

Fantastic - watched that on TV back then.

[Dr Jekyll]

An interesting comment about the pilots hoping they would never have to use their weapons for real. Now no military aircrew could realistically expect to complete their career without action.

[steve j]

williamp said:

found this after a thread on pprune.

a documentray from 1974 showing the raf in its glory, filmed partly live and nsrrated by Raymond baxter, lovely stuff! Called "skywatch"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VflzHApZ28

Very good, brings back memories as I`m a former armourer. The Vulcan is awesome !!! Britains bloody paralyser

[anonymous-user]

Dr Jekyll said:

An interesting comment about the pilots hoping they would never have to use their weapons for real. Now no military aircrew could realistically expect to complete their career without action.

It's amazing how the world has changed, back then crews were training to evade the worlds most sophisticated air defence networks and then drop buckets of sunshine on Moscow or try and slow the advance of the red army through Germany, the next conflict was WW3.

Now we have crews based in stone age countries for months on end participating in regional conflicts where the pilots can bomb/shoot/patrol from a position of almost total air superiority with much less risk from air defences.

[steve j]

el stovey said:

It's amazing how the world has changed, back then crews were training to evade the worlds most sophisticated air defence networks and then drop buckets of sunshine on Moscow or try and slow the advance of the red army through Germany, the next conflict was WW3.

Now we have crews based in stone age countries for months on end participating in regional conflicts where the pilots can bomb/shoot/patrol from a position of almost total air superiority with much less risk from air defences.

We seem to find enemies with consumate ease and the way things are going we will have a very small fighting force capable of next to nothing, of course we could drop buckets of sunshine.

[Simpo Two]

steve j said:

We seem to find enemies with consumate ease

Indeed; anyone who disagrees with the Western view of 'how to run a country' seems to cop it eventually. Unless they have a military that can inlict serious damage of course, in which case they get a memo instead.

[steve j]

Simpo Two said:

Indeed; anyone who disagrees with the Western view of 'how to run a country' seems to cop it eventually. Unless they have a military that can inlict serious damage of course, in which case they get a memo instead.

Hmm Iran and China spring to mind Russia too.

[Hooli]

steve j said:

Simpo Two said:

Indeed; anyone who disagrees with the Western view of 'how to run a country' seems to cop it eventually. Unless they have a military that can inlict serious damage of course, in which case they get a memo instead.

Hmm Iran and China spring to mind Russia too.

They've just got memos so far, I'd agree with Simpo.

[eccles]

el stovey said:

It's amazing how the world has changed, back then crews were training to evade the worlds most sophisticated air defence networks and then drop buckets of sunshine on Moscow or try and slow the advance of the red army through Germany, the next conflict was WW3.

A lot of people do seem to forget the political climate at the time and the background of fear of the red menace. I joined up in the early 80's and left in the 90's, and all of our training was aimed at the ultimate act of going to nuclear war with the likelihood of chemical weapons. We practised our TTW drill on a regular basis and despite the fun we had at the time, were quite prepared to do our job if needed.