A chara, - May I add my voice to Adrian English's views on our impotent Air Corps (April 27th)? Several years ago, in a book on Irish aviation, I wrote: "The Celtic Tiger is reckoned to be 'cash-rich', and surely some of this prosperity should allow the claws of the Black Panther on the crest of the old First Fighter Squadron - no longer on the inventory of the Corps - to be sharpened". My hopes have yet to be realised.
Mr English also points out that the Air Corps has been further emasculated by the transfer of search-and-rescue to private contractors, and the reduction of the corps to a taxi service for politicians. On the latter point, some years ago I was appalled to see one (of our two) large maritime patrol aircraft being used to ferry a senior politician to the opening of a friend's off-licence.
Surely it is time for the politicians who enjoy such perks to realise that the Air Corps is a highly professional unit which only lacks proper funding and equipment to carry out the multiple tasks of which it is quite capable. - Is mise,
DONAL M. MacCARRON, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England.