Why We Lost The Vietnam War

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
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"Spiv" wrote in message
...

More arms were needed than what we could make. Duh!


Yes, the UK could not arm or feed itself during WWII.

It could feed itself, but it took until 1943 until UK industry outperformed
Germany. Today, with modern farming techniques, the UK can easily feed
itself, and others. At one point it produced more food than Canada, and
more than Australia. We pay farmers not to produce now.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
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"Spiv" wrote in message
...

Failed. Not so.


It depends on one's point of view. The UK is a bit smaller than the state
of
Oregon, and there are eight US states larger than Oregon. From a US
perspective, the UK is small.

My God, where do they come from? By Dutch standards it is big. The UK is
nor small.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
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"Spiv" wrote in message
...

1948 -Vickers Nene Viking (World's first pure jet transport) made first
flight in April, followed in July by prototype Viscount 630 (world's
first
turboprop airliner). It carried pasengers, but nmot fare paying.


The Nene Viking was not a jet transport.

It was.

It was a propeller transport that
served briefly as a jet engine testbed.

No. It was plane with jet engines and seats for people inside.

It never served as an airliner.

It did. It never took paying passengers.

"Spiv" wrote in message
...

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
hlink.net...

"Spiv" wrote in message
...

More arms were needed than what we could make. Duh!


Yes, the UK could not arm or feed itself during WWII.

It could feed itself, but it took until 1943 until UK industry
outperformed
Germany. Today, with modern farming techniques, the UK can easily feed
itself, and others. At one point it produced more food than Canada, and
more than Australia. We pay farmers not to produce now.

Britain produced only 30% of its food going into the war. It never remotely
approached 100% and badly damaged its soil fertility for decades to come in
the efforts to increase the food production.

"Dave Holford" wrote in message
...


Spiv wrote:

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
link.net...

"ANDREW ROBERT BREEN" wrote in message
...

Having looked at Russia (from flights out to Japan) the USA is small
and the UK very small..


Yes, as I said, it depends on one's point of view.

Depends on its ability to support people and feed them from the land.
The
UK can do that with no problems - 60 million of them.


With all the 'Land Army', 'Victory Gardens' etc. why were we so short of
food with just a fraction of that population during WWII?

Pre-WWI taxation policies discouraged much of the agricultural developments
being realized elsewhere in the world. During the two world wars, the amount
of land changed from pastoral usage to cultivation practically doubled by
WWII. Beginning in WWII, the government began encouraging the heavy usage of
fertilizers to increase crop yields. In the post-war food shortages, Britain
worked steadily to increase production with fertilization, larger farms,
improved animal husbandry, and ever larger crop yeilds from genetically
improved crop varieties and animal herds. This resulted in 75%
self-sufficiency by 1972 and near 100% self-sufficiency by the 1990s.
Unfortunately, the price for these increases in food production has resulted
in steadily decreasing soil feritlity, increasing soil contamination and
water pollution with ecologically destructive organo-phosphate salts from
the fertilizers, and the possible over-reliance in factory farms and disease
risk monoculture crops.


I used to think the U.K. was big when I thought a 100mile drive required
pre-planning. Then I came to North America and got on a train - three
days later I was still on the train and a long, long way from the far
side. Incidentally I'm expecting to drive about 120miles tomorrow to do
a little shopping; if I did that in the U.K. I'd probably fall off the
edge.

Dave

"Spiv" wrote in message
...

It could feed itself, but it took until 1943 until UK industry
outperformed
Germany.


The UK imported food and arms during WWII.

"Spiv" wrote in message
...

My God, where do they come from? By Dutch standards it is big.
The UK is nor small.


It depends on one's point of view. By US standards the UK is small.

"Spiv" wrote in message
...

It was.


The Nene Viking was an engine test bed.



No. It was plane with jet engines and seats for people inside.


Airplanes without seats are called UAVs.



It did. It never took paying passengers.


That's how you can tell it was not an airliner. Airliners carry paying
passengers.

"Spiv" wrote in message
...

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
link.net...

"Spiv" wrote in message
...

Failed. Not so.


It depends on one's point of view. The UK is a bit smaller than the
state
of
Oregon, and there are eight US states larger than Oregon. From a US
perspective, the UK is small.

My God, where do they come from? By Dutch standards it is big. The UK is
nor small.

Not only is the UK small, it is tiny. It is only 1.4% the size of Russia.

In article .net,
Steven P. McNicoll wrote:

"ANDREW ROBERT BREEN" wrote in message
...

Strictly speaking, it wasn't: that honour goes to the Vickers
Nene Viking. Comet I was, however, the first into commercial
service (the Nene Viking being more in the nature of a trial run).

Did the Nene Viking ever carry a passenger? As I recall, the Viking served

Honestly not sure - never carried fare-paying passengers, f'sure.

as a Nene engine testbed only and reverted to piston engines after it had
served that purpose. That doesn't sound like a jet airliner to me.

shrugs OK, first airliner to be powered by jet engines, if
you prefer. The Viking was certainly an airliner and the Nenes
were certainly jets, so whether or not the resulting combination
was intended for service as passenger-carrier or as a testbed
for the engine there's a touch of "airliner+jet" about it,
whichever way you re-arrange the words. The Avro Tudor V
probably falls into the same box (though, unusually for a Tudor,
not very hard).

Comet was the first one to fly commercially, though. Tu-104
probably the second (don't think Canadair C-102 ever carried
fare-paying passengers).

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Who dies with the most toys wins" (Gary Barnes)