British Aviation Part 1: Better than the U.S.?

Man o man. When I read a few British aviation mags, they always make
their product out to be so superior--what's up with that?! It cannot be
so! It's almost as it you *the reader* should be stunned into amazement
that the friggin' thing actually ...flies!

The Brits enjoy trumping up every minor wiedo attribute of their strange
birds. And, they do have some very odd ducks flying about defending
their country (Island?)... Good thing Goerring wasn't around today,
he'd have an easy time picking them off--even with 109s and 262s...

FYI: I won't mention the Harrier or the Eurofighter at this time, we can
have much more fun with those at a later date.
So, without further delay, lets discuss some of Britains modern combat
aviation products:

The Panavia (British Designed) Tornado F.3? ("...the F-14 was
considered, but it was not up to the job... ...inferior radar..." I
love that one--Hardee har-har! Inferior indeed! Lets talk about the
development time for the Foxhunter radar).

How about the Electric Lightning F.6? ("Pioneered supercruise!" ...
sure; "better than an F-15" uh-huh, bear in mind F.6 did not have a
gun--just two short range and very ineffective missiles.
Although no longer in service, it's frequently brought up as a high
water mark of British aircraft engineering. Even among the Brits it had
a notorious reputation for being short ranged and almost impossible to
maintain.

Lastly, who can forget the beautiful Blackburn Buccaneer? ("Faster than
an F-16 or F-15 with a full load of armament..." OK... ****'s getting
deep.)
I'm not trying to belittle the Brits, but this aircraft is still in
front line service (Although I'm sure that point will be disputed).
What they don't say is that the Buccaneer can only achieve this by
flying at the lowest of levels-which due to the density of the air, does
create high drag on the F-16 and F-15. But it also penalizes the
Buccaneers own range. At moderate altitudes where a typical aircraft
would fly the bulk of the journey before descending to attack (have you
ever seen a tanker at lo-lo level--other than landing?), both F-16 and
F-15 have superior range and speed-even with a full bag of ordinance.
The Buccaneer, assuming it had refueled several times to reach the
attack point, would promptly be shot out of the sky upon the initiation
of an attack. Why, you ask? She would make a wonderful target: Her
obsolete tail pipes would be glowing red hot, or better yet, the
opposition would have an excellent heat lock due to the boundary layer
control system (engine bleed gases exiting the wing leading edge) used
to enhance lift.

Jeez. I love the Brits.

-Chuck