rear sphere removal - help

Linegeist · Post by **Linegeist** » Mon May 09, 2011 2:13 pm

Then again, you could believe the military version of events, which is that the Russians were deliberately fed some dodgy figures when they went to filch the Concorde's design specs.

BX Meteor · Post by **BX Meteor** » Mon May 09, 2011 2:23 pm

I was just reading about it in Wikipedia, there are 3 hypotheses for the crash, the one I said, the one you've said, and another that the ground crew did some mods to make it climb faster than Concorde, but it was too fast and that's why the engines stalled.

Also reading some more in Wikipedia, seems it was a really dodgy plane anyway, body panels rushed into production, engines rushed into production, control systems rushed into production.

Linegeist · Post by **Linegeist** » Mon May 09, 2011 2:39 pm

Which was the same set of circumstances that afflicted the Alfas. I felt sorry for the poor blokes who had to sail the things, not to mention the dodgy armoured vehicles that were prone to catching fire if someone sneezed too close and the ships with watertight bulkhead doors that wouldn't close.

When the Soviet system imploded, I got to see a lot of Soviet military hardware up close, and an awful lot of the stuff we'd been so worried about for all those years, while sitting in our tank laagers in BAOR, was actually pretty crappy. Think Lada-with-a-turret here and you'll get the idea.

I don't know many Russians, but the ones I do know are very much like us. It's their system that's rotten, not them - but they seem to pay a heavy price for the shortcomings of it.

BX Meteor · Post by **BX Meteor** » Mon May 09, 2011 2:47 pm

I never saw any of their hardware, but I remember the media used to say that it would be a battle between western superior technology and russian inferior technology but them having superiority in numbers.

Now when you look what happened in the second gulf war it would seem that our technology would win hands down, but of course the Iraqis were not as dedicated or competent as the russians.

Its a good job it never happened anyway, Germany was supposed to be the slaughter ground

rayfenwick · Post by **rayfenwick** » Mon May 09, 2011 3:18 pm

Linegeist wrote:I don't know many Russians, but the ones I do know are very much like us. It's their system that's rotten, not them - but they seem to pay a heavy price for the shortcomings of it.

I've know a fair few, and married one. They are quite like "us", except they don't expect a free ride from life, they value education much more - understanding that it is up to them to get a job and pay for their life - they won't get dole and a free house from the government.

Family and kids are much more important than they are here. They're more honest, with no false niceties (no "have a nice day" crap), and quite secretive from strangers, but very giving and welcoming to friends and family. They've more respect for each other, and are generally more kind-hearted than we are, but in a quiet way.

Of course there's good and bad everywhere, but my experiences of Russians have been generally good ones.