My other ride is a jet fighter
QUESTION If you had enough money, could you buy a disarmed military jet fighter and use it as a private jet to tour the world?
WHILE the US bans sales of nearly all its fighter jets – even ones that are more than 50 years old – to civilians, other nations have a more relaxed approach.
Most military jet fighters out of service for over a decade or so surface on the market and can be bought legally.
Several airworthy British Tornados and Harriers are on the market, as are French Mirages.
While all armaments have been removed, interesting military technology is left installed more often than you might think.
For example, a Tornado F2 for sale (price undisclosed) has a prototype holographic Head-Up Display (HUD). Russian MiGs are a popular choice for civilian pilots due to their availability and ease of sourcing spare parts. Technology magnates Paul Allen of Microsoft and Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp have owned and flown MiGs.
MiG-21 variants are regularly for sale from £50,000 (€56,000) upwards. Expect to spend £3million (€3.4million) or more for a MiG-29.
Running costs are £3,000 (€3,400) per hour for fuel and you should budget for maintenance costs of £10,000 (€11,000) a year.
The maximum range of most fighter jets is around 1,600km. That means at least 23 fuel stops if you were flying around the world at the Equator (not to mention the problem of mid-ocean refuelling). Some airports will not accept former fighter aircraft and there can be restrictions on flying over populated areas. Flying within a few hundred miles of a war zone is to be avoided.
David Haigh Jr, London.
QUESTION Shakespeare set many plays in foreign countries. Is there evidence that he travelled abroad?
SHAKESPEARE is not known to have travelled outside England. No records exist of his travelling abroad, no companion ever mentioned travelling with him and no foreigner ever noticed him.
Despite this, more than threequarters of Shakespeare’s plays are set outside England, from Denmark to Libya and Spain to Syria.
It has been presumed he did this so as not to offend the monarch. At that time, such sedition could have dire consequences. What better way to criticise the elite than by setting the action in a foreign country or the distant past?
Glaring errors in his works suggest Shakespeare never visited the settings.
Fellow playwright Ben Jonson ridiculed the presence in The Winter’s Tale of a coast and desert in Bohemia, since the kingdom (which corresponds to the modernday Czech Republic) had neither.
In his first play, The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, the heroes make a sea voyage from Verona to Milan, both of which are inland.
Shakespeare also makes a topographical error in Hamlet when he describes Elsinore’s cliffs.
The name of the city, called Helsingor in Danish, is derived from the word hals meaning ‘neck’ or ‘narrow strait’. And it doesn’t have any cliffs. All this is, of course, churlish. As Charlton Ogburn writes in The Mysterious William Shakespeare: The Myth And The Reality: ‘Those who make an issue of such discrepancies seem unaware that in Shakespeare’s day accuracy in details like these was still a fetish of the future.’
Peter Smith, Durham.
QUESTION How many chemicals are there in human blood?
IT was once thought blood was made up of a few hundred chemicals, but it is now known to contain more than 4,000.
Blood is a fluid that moves through the vessels of a circulatory system. In humans, it is made up of 55% plasma (the liquid portion) and 45% blood cells (99% red blood cells, with white blood cells and platelets making up the remainder). Plasma consists mostly of water, with proteins, ions, nutrients and wastes. Metabolomics pioneer David Wishart and his team at the University of Alberta have identified 4,651 chemicals in human blood. David Wellman, Colchester, Essex.
QUESTION In cricket, I often see players throw the ball into the air instantly after making a catch. How long does the ball have to be held for it to be deemed a catch?
THERE is no time limit. The taking of a catch is at the discretion of the umpire or, where the decision is uncertain, the third umpire. From the official discussion of Law 33 (Caught): ‘The act of making a catch shall start from the time when the ball first comes into contact with a fielder’s person and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control over both the ball and his/her own movement.’
This code was introduced in 2000. It was a change from the 1980 code, where the law stated: ‘The act of making the catch shall start from the time when the fieldsman first handles the ball and shall end when he both retains complete control over the further disposal of the ball and remains within the field of play.’
This latter ruling was particularly relevant in an incident during the 1999 World Cup between South Africa and Australia. Steve Waugh was batting on 56 when he hit a loose shot straight to Herschelle Gibbs at mid-wicket, who took the catch and attempted to throw the ball in the air in celebration, but lost control of it. Under the 1980 ruling, it was called a drop.
Waugh is supposed to have said to him: ‘How does it feel to drop the World Cup?’ Gibbs had scored 101 in that game, but that was overshadowed by Waugh’s matchwinning innings of 120.
The result of this match came back to haunt South Africa as their semi-final ended in a tie and Australia qualified for the final.
Under the 2000 rule, Gibbs might have been awarded the catch.
In a similar episode in 2016, Joe Root was caught and bowled by Umesh Yadav for 124. The Indian seamer grabbed the ball at thigh height before tossing it in the air in such a manner to raise doubt as to whether he had control of the ball. Under the 2000 law, he was awarded the catch; under the 1980 rule, he might not have been. J Patel, Redditch, Worcestershire.
QUESTION Was classical music played at a much faster tempo than it is today?
THE earlier answer, which explained the technical reasons why music is played at varying tempos, reminded me of a story about Sir Thomas Beecham.
Following a performance of a Mozart symphony, the great conductor was asked why the final movement was played at such a high tempo.
He replied that the orchestra had been rehearsing all day before the evening’s performance and were getting tired.
Before starting the final movement, he had looked at his watch and realised the pubs would be closing in 40 minutes and his lads deserved a drink, so he whipped up the tempo so the orchestra would get to the pub in time.