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  1. TL: UK Overseas Regions [Redux]

    Really enjoying this, the idea of what could have happened if Eden hadn’t been smacked off his head on Benzedrine is one I’ve been long interested in. Hopefully NI can avoid the worst of OTL’s Troubles

  2. British Leyland insanity options 1968-86

    Just to follow up on the story of the Marina, this is the story of the ADO77, the car that was being developed to replace it in 1977/78, but was killed when BL went bankrupt. https://www.aronline.co.uk/concepts-and-prototypes/morris-ado77/

  3. Challenger O-ring burns through 2 seconds after SRB separation

    Problem was they’d promised Congress they would be able to increase the number of launches per year. NASA’s original plans in the mid 70’s were that the Shuttle would do 500 missions by 1992, roughly a launch every 10 days in just about all sorts of weather. Congress was already unhappy at the...

  4. Challenger O-ring burns through 2 seconds after SRB separation

    I can remember reading some time ago that even if Challenger had flown a successful mission, the entire program would have ground to a halt anyway in 1986 because NASA wouldn’t have been able to maintain the launch schedule due to budget constraints. They would literally have run out of spare...

  5. Soviet Air Force cold war sanity options

    Never let the Tu-22 get remotely near a production line. Give the Tu-16 a proper probe and drogue refuelling system. Hundreds died because the Blinder was a deathtrap and wingtip to wingtip refuelling was so difficult to master.

  6. What would happen in the Commonwealth countries if the UK became a republic?

    Yes that scenario has been suggested before that the sheer complexity of changing Canada’s constitution could mean it remain a monarchy after Britain abolished it. In reality I think if the deposed monarch said publicly “Nah I’m done,” then even the Uber Royalist Alberta and Saskatchewan might...

  7. AHC: Export options for the B-58 Hustler

    Yep no arguments here, it was far too ambitious a project and was appallingly managed. The resources would have been far better spent to developing aircraft like the Hunter and Lightning to their full potential. I’ve no doubt that had the government been prepared to throw enough money at it then...

  8. AHC: Export options for the B-58 Hustler

    Yep, it was far too specialised and expensive. In Empire of the Clouds former Harrier test pilot John Farley was scathing about it, he claimed it would have been vulnerable to fighters as its wings meant it wouldn’t have been capable of the evasive manoeuvres necessary. Much of the mythology...

  9. Potential NATO buyers for the F15 ?

    I think the U.K. had it on a shortlist as a replacement for the Phantom but decided to develop the Tornado ADV instead.

  10. WI: A world without HIV?

    I read something years ago suggesting that HIV had jumped into humans regularly but those infected usually died from tropical diseases like malaria before they could develop it. Therefore the disease control measures implemented after WW2 perversely opened an opportunity for it by reducing the...

  11. If you could change One event post 1900..?

    Maybe also have Britain stick with the original target of independence on June 30th 1948, AIUI everyone in India was content with this date and there was little pressure to advance it. In the best case scenarios either Nehru and Jinnah agree on a new government or at least for a more amicable...

  12. If you could change One event post 1900..?

    This will sound grim but have Jimmy Carter turn a blind eye and allow the Shah to let SAVAK off the leash in early 1978 so the Revolution gets crushed. No Khomeini probably means no Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, no Iran-Iraq War, no Gulf War, no 9/11 and no subsequent wars. Yes Saddam remains...

  13. AHC: Kill (and save) Jaguar

    Have Leyland win the takeover battle with BMC in 1966 and then hope Donald Stokes says “No thank you” to Benn’s suggestion of merger with that firm.

  14. Any chance of European countries holding onto their colonies after WWII

    Malta held a referendum on joining the U.K., Britain could likely have held on to at least the smaller West Indies colonies if they’d been permitted to integrate fully like their French and Dutch neighbours, but British politicians weren’t prepared to offer that. The bigger, continental colonies...

  15. 40 years since the Stanislav Petrov incident - where were you on Sept. 25/26, 1983? Would you have survived if the nukes were launched?

    I had just turned 9, from what I’ve seen of the likely targets in Northern Ireland the nearest would have been the radar station at RAF Bishopscourt about 35 miles from where I lived. So assuming the warhead didn’t overshoot we’d likely have survived the opening exchange. After that….

  16. Argentina versus a minor European power for the Falklands War

    Yeah what people tend to overlook about the Sea Harrier was for its other shortcomings it was a new aircraft with a modern radar. The F-8 was a beautiful bird but even by 1982 it was obsolete. I remember reading a thread on a military forum many years ago about a “French Falklands” scenario...

  17. How could Patrice Lumumba survive?

    I don’t know enough to say, he probably could have but it would run the risk of all the Belgian officers leaving and decapitating the force. The best case scenario is for a relatively quick Africanisation perhaps with some outsiders being retained as advisors. However there was so much...

  18. How could Patrice Lumumba survive?

    Given the multitude of problems faced it’s difficult to see how Congo could have held together without violence of some level. From what I’ve read about Lumumba for all his undoubted charisma I doubt he would have had the ability to hold it all together, but it’s difficult to think of anyone who...

  19. America: The Country of Tomorrow, Never Today

    Wow this is fascinating! Keep It coming! 😎

  20. A Buccaneering Vixen in the Falklands

    I’m assuming that you’d need a completely new radar to be installed as part of the upgrade. Given the cost involved for a 1950’s design it would probably have been more cost effective to have a completely new aircraft. Hermes entered service in 1959 but it was soon apparent that her flight deck...
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