2025
February 2026
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!
January 2026
Cancelled due to adverse weather conditions
March 2026
Tonights talk was presented by Charles Howard-Vyse on the subject of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and it relevance in the modern world. Charles was a RAF Navigator and spent most of his flying career on the Panavia Tornado, indeed he reckons he has ‘Tornado’ imprinted through him like a stick of rock. He made certain to empathises that he was aircrew on the mud moving version (Strike/Attack) and not what I gathered from his tone the the not overly impressive, in his view, ’Fighter’ version. Other viewpoints are available!
In order to continue his career progression he opted to move over to NATO in 2012 and served at various locations throughout Europe. He made clear that NATO is a political organisation, not a military one and as such suffers from all the issues that politics suffer from in various countries, including a bloated bureaucracy, the ability to boot significant issues so far down the road they disappear into the long grass or just talk around a problem in language so pretentious and elongated that the meaning is lost aka the BBC comedy ‘Yes Minister'*
He was also pretty scathing about the ability of MoD to mess up our defence procurement, and that fact the young inexperienced advisors are asking either the wrong questions, or massaging their questions in such a way they get the answer they want. Worrying but very relevant in light of recent events especially as it seems to take over a fortnight to dispatch a destroyer to the Mediterranean, when in 1982 we put together a complete Task Force inside a week, and they were worried about cutbacks then. I reckon they’d be spinning in their graves now!
Notwithstanding all of the issues Charles reckoned that NATO was a worthwhile organisation and despite everything it does actually work, indeed at the moment it is the only viable show in town. Discuss?
Next month we have guest speaker Simon Gladas from the Bentwaters Aviation Society please feel free to join us on Tuesday 07 April 2026 at Mundford Bowls Club, Doors Open 1915 for 1930 start. Further details www.westnorfolkaviationsociety.com. Please note from April there will be an Entrance charge to non members of £5pp for guest speakers and £2pp if its a club speaker. Price includes a light Buffet Supper.
* Available on BBC Iplayer and Highly Recommended by your scribe!
Mark Burch
WNAS Scribe