Welcome to the first report from WNAS and Happy New Year for 2026 as the January meeting was cancelled due to adverse weather. Firstly and most importantly the answer to my question from December. sic “In western Europe the F104 Starfighter was a very popular combat aircraft in the 70’s and 80’s, by popular myth what was the easiest way to obtain an example?” Answer: “Buy a field and wait” To those younger readers this references the truly appalling crash statistics of the F104 which was designed as a high altitude interceptor and wasn’t really suited to low level ground attack role it found itself in for the majority of its service. Between 1961 and 1989 the West German Air Force lost 292 out of 916 F104 aircraft delivered (nearly 33% of the fleet).

Enough of this gloom this weeks offering was a DVD on Concorde which was to say the least, diverse, in that there were large sections referencing the B747, Nimrod and bizarrely a long portion on the joys of Las Vegas and how it can be a very cheap holiday IF you can resist the other offerings at the casino’s! After the usual delicious sandwiches and cake a short discussion ensued re the relative merits of Concorde. Most interesting from my point of view was the reasoning behind the extra ‘e’ at the end of Concorde thus spelling it the ‘French’ way. As it was an Anglo French endeavour I always assumed it was a sop to the French but apparently if you leave the ‘e’ out the meaning in French is Con Conk ( poor translation I’m sure), which bearing in mind the droop snoot on the machine seems vaguely appropriate!