Yes, that’s what I thought….

But no, it’s true. The USS Forrester was the shp chosen and two US Navy Carrier pilots did a series of ‘rollers’ or touch and go practise approaches before a series of full stop landings, each time increasing the payload on the C130. It makes interesting viewing….

Just thought I’d share this great video by Lockheed Martin showing the F35B undergoing ‘suitability testing’ on board USS Wasp. One of the items on my ‘bucket list’ is to experience a carrier takeoff first hand. But judging by the remarkable footage it’s looking like catapult takeoffs are once more an endangered activity. Particularly impressed with the way that the clamshell doors slide open like a giant insect’s wings as it slows to the hover. The proud Brits will doubtless comment on how we got there first decades ago with the Harrier. Sadly, like may British innovations, we leave it for others to improve and perfect.

Don’t just watch the embedded movie, click it full screen and watch the HD footage, it’s impressive…

Apologies for yet another aviation video post, but after being given the heads up on this amazing flying, it cannot pass without comment. As the narration says at the start, where has this type of entertainment gone? Sadly Mr Health and Safety and the hi-res-jacket brigade have managed to control our lives and there’s no way I can envisage this happening today. It’s basically an air display by a Jetranger and accompany stunt man inside a football stadium. And not an empty stadium, but a capacity crowd. If you’re in the risk assessment business and love filling out those forms, you might want to look away now…

I’m not normally a fan of this type of contest, but because it includes an Extra 300, I’m making an exception. What the video, click the link and try winning a trip in Spain in an Extra 300……….

Watching the IOM TT this year, I was inspired by Mark Higgin’s drive in the Subaru to break Tony Pond’s long standing record of a 100mph average speed lap. Watch his ‘moment’ here

Of course, IOM is all about motorcycle racing at it’s best but I have to say, why not keep the roads closed one more day for a four wheeled challenge? On most race circuits, cars generally lap quicker than bikes by the nature of the amount of rubber they have on the track giving more lateral grip. So wouldn’t it be a great contest to have a car sprint event around the entire TT course, all 37 miles of it? Sure, it will take some setting up and there will certainly be problems, but here’s my thoughts:

Higgins was in a ‘standard’ Impreza with minimal modifications, as Subaru USA wanted to show how quick a standard car could be. I can think of several cars better suited. Porsche 911 GT3RS springs to mind, Lexus LFA another that would be spectacular and that’s just street cars. What about a GT racer like Aston’s DBR, BMW’s M3 GT, McLaren’s new GT3 car or even a WRC car with the right gearing? Don’t forget, of course, that the circuit layout will require a combination of several things. Big horsepower to hit the high speeds, probably up over 180mph. A car with a very adjustable ride height, as it’s not a race track, neither is it a rally stage. Plenty of underbody protection and the ability for the car to ‘fly’ as there are several ‘yump’ points that must be taken all four wheels off to maintain a good average.The driver could be either race or rally, so a co-driver would be optional at the team’s discretion.

From a logistical viewpoint, the problems are mainly accident related. A superbike crash will be bad news for the rider. A high speed car ‘off’ would undoubtedly be very bad for the surrounding buildings and scenery……

Yes, I know we have the Manx rally, but come on, you’d love to see it, wouldn’t you? Dreaming for a moment, it could be the IOM version of Pikes Peak. Ask any car manufacturer with balls big enough to have a go. “bring your car, choose your driver, set a time..” The average speed on a motorcycle is currently over 130mph. That’s going to be one spectacular lap in a car.

So the question is, what would you like to see lapping the TT course and which driver would you like to see behind the wheel? My money would be on Sebastien Loeb in a Porsche 911 GT3R, what about you?

You might want to grab a coffee or something for this one, it’s 23 minutes long. Normally, YouTube videos of that length just don’t cut it – everyone knows that after two minutes your average visitor has itchy feet. But this is something else. A superb display of concentration and team work by Petter Solberg and his co-driver Chris Patterson. What this and you’ll see why they’re not called navigators any more. Watching WRC and seeing the stage times split by tenths of a second you fail to appreciate just how long some of the stages are. To maintain concentration like that, constantly listening to the commands takes a special skill over that distance. The next time the old arguement of who is better, race or rally driver, comes around, send them here. If you can drive, you can drive, but both have their own unique talents. Like this one…

In the tradition of 1930′s barnstorming pilots, this is a superb piece of flying. Hang on to the end, his dismount is simply superb…

The Turbine Toucan

“The performance mission of this aircraft is to create an aerobatic biplane capable of sustaining +8/-6 G’s, a greater then 300º per/sec roll rate, while creating a better-than-one-to-one power-to-weight ratio. Target air show weight will be less than 2000lbs with thrust targeted at 3300lbs. This will be close to a 1.65:1 ratio, unheard of in any general aviation (GA) aircraft. To put it in perspective, the F/A-18 Hornet (at fighter mission weight) is 36,700lbs@32,000lbs of thrust. This is about .87:1 thrust to weight ratio performance at a cost of $39.5 million dollars.”

I haven’t seen any video of this machine yet, but company head David Kervinen plans on creating some HD footage very soon. Meanwhile, here’s a short sequence of it starting up

Just a shame it’s only a single seater and on the western side of the Atlantic ocean, as it would have a queue right down to the airfield perimeter for passenger rides here in the UK. The single seat issue is due to the compact installation and is optimised for performance. Plus, the turbine likes to drink it’s Jet A1, so no room for passengers. So meanwhile, I need to get my PPL done, add a turbine rating and make these guys my best friends…. As soon as I have more info, I’ll be sure to post it here, meanwhile, find The Turbine Toucan website here.

I see there’s a bit more news on the Tesla vs Top Gear story today, with this website reporting that the issue seems to be that Top Gear planned the dead electric car stunt before the Tesla was even delivered. It’s claimed that Tesla’s UK representative saw the script and was unhappy about certain representations and despite being assured that they would be removed, it’s claimed that Top Gear went ahead and filmed it anyway. In the best Fleet Street tradition, Tesla claim that Top Gear ‘Never Let The Truth Get In The Way Of a Good Story.” However, in rare break with standard BBC procedures, Top Gear producer Andy Wilman puts forth their own version of events which is a perfectly reasonable explanation. With regard to the court case, it’s going to be interesting to see the outcome, I guess.

Top Gear is a great entertainment show and has made the creators very wealthy, rightly so and hopefully will continue for some time to come. But personally, I think the whole Top Gear Bloke Routine thing is running on empty right now and in the quest for next next big blokey laugh or big ‘wow’ moment they’re in danger of losing the audience. While no-one really believes the road trip stories, just like a Jason Bourne stunt, they like to kind of be told it was real, that’s all. You know what I mean….

We all know that there’s a support crew of Landcruisers with you – there has to be, it’s obvious. So either decide to show a bit more (perhaps a BTS reel online) or drop the whole idea of you being in the middle of Syria about to die stuff. But it was still very funny when James May banged his head (sorry James).

Fact is, they don’t need to be quite so blokey to continue their success with the whole car genre, Jay Leno has proved how you can be very successful with a car prog and not have to be so dismissive of non-petrol technology, or as deliberately argumentative about obvious sensitive stuff. Just like that red neck comedian who screams abusive nursery rythmes, people laugh out loud, but inwardly cringe. Don’t be like that. Be like Peter Kay – make the joke a really funny one.

I love Top Gear, it’s one of the few car programmes my wife actually laughs at, but I think that Clarkson is a far far better broadcaster when he’s NOT talking about cars. His documentaries about Brunel, the St Naziare raids in WW2 and his amazing Victoria Cross programme were worthy of awards.

I don’t want to see Top Gear going back to the William Woollard era, just wind your neck in a bit.. And Mr Clarkson, please go and make some more of those Proud To Be British Documentaries, they were great and God knows we need them right now.

Loving this new viral advert from Toblerone. I love the taste of it, but I can never understand why they make eating chocolate so painful. Every time I buy some, I need a sledgehammer to avoid it drilling into my gums as I try and bit it. Looks like they’ve realised this, as the viral ad asks you how you eat yours: