Dick Dave, Yes indeed I have read all of the books on it (best I think is TSR2 Phoenix or Folly by Barnett-Jones) and got the video and drooled at the one at Duxford but those profiles of it in camo REALLY pulled at the heartstrings TSR2 was going to be the ultimate manned bomber. Can you imagine, Mach .95 at 100 feet at night in the weather with the autopilot taking its feeds from INS and terrain following radar, it would have been and probably still would be untouchable, even the Lightning would not have been able to get near it for practice PIs ....and the whole thing controlled by a computer with about the same power as a decent digital camera, frightening but at least if anything had gone wrong it would all have been over in a flash, quite literally !

Living in Australia I have heard a lot about the problems of keeping the F111 in service, I guess the test equipment problem is just another hurdle they will have to overcome but sooner or later they will throw in the towel. Anyway the Australian gov. has enough money to buy new aircraft, (but what) they have just bought four C17s for cash, even the RAF had to lease theirs !

Dick, really looking forward to ABB in july, many thanks.

Best regards,

David.

PS Any volunteers to do the landing gear say 1/6th scale @ fully rotating just like the fullsize but without the shimmy problem !