DD_Arthur

I used to be able to strip and re-assemble an SLR in just under 4 hours and thirty seconds blindfolded. Thats thirty seconds to strip and re-assemble and four hours crawling around looking for the freaking gas plug!

It is now but see if you can find some history on the funding and funding as a percentage of government spending. Funding as a percentage of government spending counts for more in all EU decisions than straight cash. As usual we came late to the funding party as we had our own programme up until the seventies whereas the ESA and its predecessor organisations go back decades. As in all these things we were in at the beginning but were reluctant to trust those slippery europeans with our own wonga. Thats why the ESA is dominated by France. I don't have a clue as to the figures but I'm willing to bet Germany has been the biggest contributor for donkey's years. Its a pity the ESA is going down the astronaut route at the moment as on a science only basis unmanned missions offer much, much more scope for scientific research than trying to keep a human alive in orbit. However, I am now willing to concede the main point; the US won't let Brits fly as they obviously hate us! S!

Lol, Bongo! The ex-brits flew because they were very good at what they did. Look at Colin Foale's record. He is one of the most experienced astronauts in the world. All these other guys from Belgium, Mexico and Timbuktu flew once and they flew for reasons that were primarily political, not scientific. Its quite true that Britain abandoned its space programme in the early seventies on the basis of cost and in true British style we called a halt only after we'd spent vast amounts of money and produced a working launch vehicle! But in the UK theres only so much cake to go around and a space programme was abandoned in the face of other pressing demands. We are not contributing members of the ESA but I think we can all take pride in the fact that we are now spending a vastly bigger sum on two large floating boxes now taking shape in the Firth of Fourth. Sometime in the distant future we might even be able to afford some aeroplanes to put on.....one of them. .

The Mexicans and Belgians flew for much the same reasons the Saudi guy flew and in the future I've no doubt there will be Malaysian, Filipino and Vietnamese passengers astronauts flying NASA too. For most of these people, forget about the window-dressing of scientific research, its about being a pal of Uncle Sam. If they were US citizens they would not have flown.

The very nature of NASA and the size of its budget means its an enormous political football. What do I mean by hearts and minds? Look at the long list of countries you've given us. A Saudi astronaut? That's about waving to the cameras, wearing the flag and making sure the next big defence contract his uncle signs will be with a US company. The er... ex-Brits on the other hand, do indeed appear to be doing a meaningful job within NASA.

I wasn't aware he had many applications rejected on the grounds of nationality but he was joining the NASA astronaut programme as opposed to the NASA hearts and minds in space programme. I suspect that anyone of any nationality would find themselves under the same constraints if they applied to become an astronaut - as opposed to a publicity vehicle - at that time. The US does not recognize dual citizenship for its own citizens. Its not unique in that either. The Soviet Union did the same. Unlike the Soviet Union, the USA has a constitution that forbids government the right to invade their citizens property and confiscate passports issued by other nations without due cause. Neither does possession of a foreign passport give the US government the right to forbid residency to a US citizen. A friend of mine lives in Northern Ohio with his american wife and his american kids. The kids also have British passports. As far as he's concerned his kids are Brits. His wife is firmly of the opinion her kids are Americans.

The US does not recognise the concept of dual citizenship. As far as US law goes, if you have a US passport you are a US citizen. Period. Sellers and Patrick became naturalised US citizens before they went into orbit but they'd made they're lives in the 'states for many years beforehand. I must admit, I'm not sure who Greg H Jonson is. I might be wrong but wasn't the first non US citizen carried in a NASA spacecraft a Jeeeeerman? The nominee of the ESA.

Hmmm...not sure if thats quite true Bongo. Wasn't Colin Foale one of the most experienced astronauts in the shuttle programme? Even though he lives - I think - in Houston, he's a Brit but he has dual citizenship due to his mum being an American. Helen Sharman is 100% British but stayed on the Mir space station courtesy of a Soyuz so didn't have to go the NASA route and I'm not sure who the third one is unless you count the Anglo-South African multi-millionaire who's name escapes me. He bought his ticket for a ride on a Soyuz launch. Space and Astronauts? Always a good primary school project!

Good lord! He saw Hitler shake Jesse Owen's hand at the Berlin Olympics! How old is he now?

Thanks Snacko. Confusing why it works on your set up and not on others. I think it will have the same appeal and functionality as CLoD on release.

How are you getting on with it, Sid? Rain stopped play yesterday so I made this; My game says its now fifty per cent complete and the devs say my game is about to become beta as they've got most of the main content out and are now entering the "polishing" stage where I presume they do all the rest of the coding for stuff that dosen't exist in RoF, finish the campaign, sort out multiplayer and make everything work as it should do, etc. There is still an awful lot we don't know about how it'll all work on release in September which brings me to this; As I hope you can see from the vid - it looks fantastic and on my set up, runs very, very nicely. It is RoF in WW2 and nothing wrong with that either. The 'feel' of flight is unsurpassed by anything else available in my opinion. This is also a major part of the "substance" too but its certainly not all of it. We have the QMB from RoF which is basically a dogfight generator and nothing more. We are going to have some sort of dynamic single player campaign which might or might not have to be undertaken to access the "unlocks", yawn. We have multiplayer. Here it is It wasn't going to have any Full Mission Builder upon release until a big stink was made on the forum and they seem to be reconsidering. So, substance? Watch this space.

You are right, Swep but.......it was called the Transport Plan and it involved the dislocation of the railway system in north eastern France, Belgium and Holland. The allies bombed railway junctions, bridges, anywhere they could create a bottleneck to disrupt the rail system and prevent the Germans bringing in supplies, reinforcements or heavy units to face our armies in Normandy. It was successful but in the spring of '44 it cost the lives of several thousand civilians in these countries. Large unexploded bombs used to be fairly frequently uncovered in the UK but these discoveries have become much fewer in recent years. I believe large bombs are still being dug up in parts of Germany on a weekly basis. When I was a kid, anti-shipping mines were still being hauled up out of the coastal waters of the UK by local fishermen. If you've been for a walk along the seafront at Folkestone you might have passed one now being used as a letter box by our post office!

Luckily we don't have much like that over 'ere, FT. However, we do have plenty of nuclear waste stored in rather dodgy conditions in remote and unimportant parts of the country - or "Oop north" as we soft southerners would say - and we do have this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery I can't really see what they could possibly do to dispose of this thing now. The chemicals in the explosive will have broken down into some really nasty, volatile compounds. Moving anything is out of the question. If this really did detonate - well, I expect our men of Kent would certainly hear a bang!

Hello Swep! Hope you had a great holiday. I hate Facebook with a passion and have nothing to do with it so how about posting some pics of Spanish sunshine and pale, knobbly Swedish knees here?

Wow, look at the date the tree was planted. Montgomery has attracted a lot of flak these last sixty years, some of it well deserved - most not - but he really did make a balls up in Holland.

He was worried by 'planes flying about looking for stuff to drop great lumps of exploding ironmongery on? That would seem a fairly reasonable thing to worry about. It worked though; you exist FT!

Semper Fi

Hmmm......having taken part in a similar odyssey from Brize to HK in a Herc. about thirty years ago, I'm not too sure that would be money well spent! $40k to be frozen, deafened, a sore ass and vibration white finger? Mind you, I've always wanted to visit Iceland.

The perfect birthday!

Hope you and the missus have a great day and you enjoy your first birthday in Iowa!!

Whilst there have been big discussions about the landing characteristics of the PE-2 over on the BoS forums, I have discovered the most fun thing to do is landing on the PE-2. Give it a go but be quick; next week we get a propeller damage model

I don't blame him! Much too good to risk. Would love to see some more of your work Gary. Looks fantastic!

It does look alarmingly familiar.

Server updated? Fantastic! I have an urge......G50