alternate history

Would the history of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union have been different if Grigory Vasilyevech Romanov had been elected as Secretary General of the CPSU on March 11, 1985 rather than Mikhail Gorbachev? Thoughts?

Just to complete the B-70 excursus. Ciao Giuseppe

Because I have the modelling skills of Homer Simpson I have to get models made for me. Recently I persuaded a friend who builds kits to build the Academy (I think) 1/72 Avro Arrow in two of my favourite Lightning squadrons. I already posted some years back pictures of an Arrow from the...

during the Falkland wars the RAF was barley manage to Bomb the Airstrip with four Avro Vulcans and eleven Victor tankers, who had to refuelling Victors and Vulcans over range of 14000 km See Operation Black Buck for more detail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck So what if the...

First of all apologies to all about my Mrs T thread. So here is (I hope) a less contentious way of approaching the subject. Ignoring the politicians who might or might not have been power in the period 1979 to 1990 I think it is interesting to examine the decisions made in this period on...

Did George Orwell invent the concept of the helicopter gunship in his novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' which he wrote in 1947? "April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war films. One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. Audience much amused...

I produced this scenario a while back, and am posting a link to it here for the ideas to be kicked around: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/Alternative%20RN.htm

Is there anyone who can ID this plane for me? Is this a fake Picture ?! Regards, AK

Let us consider the following. Suppose that CVA-01 and her two sisters are built as originally planned*, entering service in, say, '72, '75 and '78 respectively. The CAG would have been, iirc, 36 jets, 18 Phantoms and 18 Buccaneers on each ship. Given that the FAA replaced these aircraft with...

The F4 Phantom might have failed to materialise as the wonderful plane which the RAF and RN used to fill various gaps from the 60s onwards. In a Phantomless world would P1154 have been developed as planned in 1963 for both RAF and RN or would the Lightning have been developed in its swing wing...

Avro Excalibur R.1 "XP730" - 543 Squadron RAF - 1964 Scratchbuilt 1/72 scale Avro 730. This depicts the earlier 4 engine version that was submitted by Avro against Operational Requirement 330. The fuselage was built using a length of 1 inch conduit as a core, fitted with cross sections...

May 29, 1968 hit the News that Charles DeGaulle die in a Helicopter crash near Baden-Baden, Germany The unstable Political scene and struggle for his successor and let to a civil war. Between the right wing, conservative and Army against Left wing socialist, Communist, labor unions and students...

On another thread it was pointed out that an advantage of bombers over missiles is their ability to demonstrate resolve and then be pulled back at the last minute. Certainly the US has always preserved the bomber leg of the Triad even in the face of a massive Soviet Air Defence effort. Much...

Hello, For years I've periodically daydreamed about the ultimate convoy raider. I initially imagined moderately sized boats with a single battle-ship sized cannon for range. I then explored other insanities like mounting a dozen fixed azimuth recoilless rifles on the deck of a ship (to fire a...

If NBMR.3 had not called for the aircraft to be V/STOL, what, if any changes are you likely to see with the aircraft that actually entered service after the dust had settled?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin%27s_Missed_Chance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_offensive_plans_controversy I imagine that there wouldn't be much countries left that could form NATO after the (much earlier) end of WWII... USSR would have much more resources at its disposal after the...

We all know CVA-01 was scheduled to start building in 1966 and that F-4 Phantoms had been ordered as a stop gap replacement for the Sea Vixen following the cancellation of the Naval P1154. So if the fateful decision to cancel the CVA-01 and dispose of the fixed wing carrier fleet hadn't...

There are always tons of spacecraft in the world of science fiction but I am always especially looking out for ones that look plausible and could be built today or in the near future. First are some sketches and designs for various vehicles shown in the Japanese animated series "Gundam" (Set in...

First of all, this is my very first post on this forum and while I know that no topic will be entirely original (you guys have been at this some time!) I have done a search for RAF 1946 and didn't find anything, so... I get a bit riled at digital documentary channels and their obsession with...

Production design from the MGM motion picture 2010: The Year We Make Contact by Syd Mead. The film, written and directed by Peter Hyams, is based on the novel 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C Clarke.