[BITList] duped

[Colin t]

yo bill

looked like it, didn't it? well spotted.

some one sent me a similar one - reportedly the first flight near Dallas of 
the aircraft which is going to replace the aging BAe harrier. it was 
supposed to be piloted on it's first test flight by "one of the good guys", 
a certain col. skip somebody, (why are all these "good guys" called chuck, 
or skip, or clint, or bo, or tex? - none of them are named Algernon or Nigel 
or Adrian or tarquin) of the US marine corps, a veteran of many dog fights 
with migs over Vietnam!

the way the aircraft flew and the supposed pilot sounded odd to me - how 
come a guy, now in his 70's, is a test pilot for this new project from 
McDonnell/BAe?

I found a fairly recent newspaper article from the dallas morning star 
newspaper about the actual first test flight near dallas, with a photo of 
the plane, etc.

turns out the pilot is ex-RAF, half the age of "col. skip", it was a very 
short flight (no dramatic maneuvering and acceleration as per the video sent 
to me) and the actual paint job was nothing like the aircraft in the video. 
not only that - the aircraft is powered by 2 rolls-royce engines and the new 
vectored thrust system was designed by RR/BAe.

the aircraft is a joint venture and will go into service with the raf, royal 
navy, us marines and the italian navy. the aircraft in the video was 
actually a virtual harrier courtesy of Microsoft flight simulator!

I sent this info to the guy who sent it to me ( a proponent of the, "USA is 
the biggest and the best" bullshit") - he was quite put 
out.............................................

colin t

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Bill and Diana" <billanddiana at bigpond.com>
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 4:29 AM
To: <bitlist at lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com>
Subject: Re: [BITList] interesting bit of flying

> Hi Colin,
>
> Sad to say, we may all have been duped again.  It's surprising what can
> be done with model aircraft and digital videos these days.
>
> Regards..................
>
>
>