alternate history

As we end the first year of remembering the start of the First World War and begin to think about the end of the Second World War and the world Britain found itself in, many experts have given us their thoughts on TV and elsewhere about Britain's role in both wars and their impact on Britain's...

If Eurcopter had built the Heavy Transport Helicopter, is it likely that Eurocopter would have named the helicopter for a big cat continuing the naming convention of Sud Aviation/Aerospatiale? Or do you believe that it would have been named for another animal? Any guesses on the EC model number?

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?

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...

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

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...

Here's an anime concept showing underbody conformal tanks/bays for an F-16, to answer the complaint about dorsal missile carriage. Couple that with the diverterless inlet and F-16XL style large wing, and you would have something interesting to work with.

In mid of 1951, in the region of Kazajstan; Wolfgang Ziese -component of the program " COMBINAT OKB-2 from the old team of the german SIEBEL-, exceed Mach 1 with his plane DFS 346. Although this plane was under the belly of Tu-4 (from captured B-29), that would have been interesting it was...

Well, don't forget Iran... it's a well-known fact that some upgraded Arrows found their way to Iran in 1972. The Shah was exasperated by Soviet Mig-25RB overflying its country... Phantoms were not powerfull enough, F-14 and F-15 were prototypes five years from export... Iranian Arrows scared...

Saturn INT-20 was a S-IC with S-IVB as second stage. The S-IVB being 360 tons lighter than S-II, acceleration was terrific. Boeing suggested to remove a F1; even with four engine, payload matched that of Saturn INT-21. http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/satint20.htm In 1971...

you know Luft '46 http://www.luft46.com/ over proposed aircraft project during WW2 but is there a similar webpage over proposed project during WW1 ? thanks in advance...

Many years ago in the 70s I bought a boardgame called Red Star White Star about a hypothetical mid-70s war between US/West German units and Russian forces. The counters had neat silhouettes of M60s and Sheridans for the US and Leopards for the Germans. Seeing the thread on MBT 70 reminded me...