the ultimate French picture?

[Paddy_NL]

Two weeks after Le Mans '05 I had to move my sister to France, less than an hour drive from the Magny Cours circuit, which hosted the Formula One that weekend. So I went and saw the race.
Took my camera too, and took some shots. Last night I was going through the map and found this picture...

[Perdu]

Oh Paddy. I wouldn't have thought the "Patrouille" were THAT bad!

 


bill

[Ferrari Spider]

Paddy, for ease i've put it here.

[Gilles]

It looks like colors of the Red Arrows !!!! 

[Ferrari Spider]

National teams are a bit like that.  Tho' they are Alpha jets, so can't be the Red's.

[Lorry]

It does remind me of the 2012 win, when the Red Arrows suddenly appeared over Tower Bridge and flew down the Thames.  We weren't sure who'd won, as the colours are the same.

[Perdu]

The Reds don't even have the same colour scheme as the Patrouille De France. Alpha Jets have two motors too!

Two ace teams though. I always enjoy the displays from both outfits.

[Ferrari Spider]

Bill,

The Frecce Tricolori are pretty good too.  I remember watching them one year in the late 70's at RAF Mildenhall when they flew Fiat G 91's, they had finished the display and were reforming behind the crowd ready for a stream landing, for no apparent reason one of the aircraft just blew-up.  No sound, as they were some distance away, one second nine aircraft, then a flash and smoke, then there were eight.  Very odd.

[Perdu]

Seems that Fiat aircraft are no more reliable than the cars then...

I hope the driver got out OK, I vaguely remember hearing about that but cannot remember details.

And you had to look at it, no nice that!

Pretty plane the G91 though. Italian "Chic"on the lines of an F86 I thought. I don't think the Alpha Jet is half as pretty.

They are damned good too, the Frecce, as you say.
Aeroplanes, just the thing to light my fire on a chilly morning.

[Paddy_NL]

funny to see how everybody goes on about the fighterplanes, while I meant the bottle of wine

[Ferrari Spider]

Unfortunately, no Bill, if I remember only the head remained intact, well known for modern day jets with the bone dome.  The Americans brought in a C9 Nightingale in case but it wasn't needed!!!  Very sad.

You're right about the F86 and G91; the Fiat was more stylish I suppose you could call it a Ferrari now?  Well, the Ferrari's are called Fiat's so it must work the other way.

Over that weekend there were a number of incidents, one, was with a RAF Phantom doing low-level high-speed runs.  The pilot overcooked it, far to fast, huge compression cloud, only the forward of the intakes was visible, chopped the throttles, the engines surged and disintegrated along the runway, excellent deadstick circuit, which I thought was impossible to do from 250ft.

They were the days!!!

[Perdu]

funny to see how everybody goes on about the fighterplanes, while I meant the bottle of wine

I see he is keping the label hidden Paddy, is he drinking German wine I wonder?

Anyway. on with the important stuff. Was it a Spey Phantom FS or an Amurrican motored one?

[Ferrari Spider]

Bill, it was one of our Spey engineed monsters.

Do you remember when we ordered the F4K, prior to letting it loose on Ark Royal our Fleet Air Arm guys had a couple of practise goes on an American flat top!!

Picture the scene,

Kite is manoeuvred onto the steam catapult (British invention) deflector plate is raised, nose oleo leg raised, pilot powers up through reheat and onto max combat power, ready for launch, oh bugger, cut engines, the deflector plate is being torn apart!!

Good ole' Rolls Royce

[Lorry]

............... oh bugger, cut engines, as the deflector plate is being torn apart!!

Good ole' Rolls Royce

No change there then,    and they bought the Harrier to stop this happening

[Ferrari Spider]

Credit, where credit is due, Lorry.  The USMC flyboys did give us VIFFing and if it wasn't for them the Harrier would not have been developed into the big wing variant.