I can just about remember those beasties. They were silver all over and looked like missiles. They were equally mad looking as "Star Fighters".
Quite a few of my formative years were spent in West Germany in the 70s/80s (BAOR - Army brat).
The sound of a pair of flights of Phantoms all firing up their ABs at low level and going up rather quickly is quite impressive. Over built up areas (times and regs were different then). I recall seeing five Harriers (why five?) at an air day (RAF Wildenrath) farting around - spinning on the spot at 10 feet, nodding, bobbing and bouncing and all sorts of daft things. Jaguars, Buccaneers, Star Fighters and later on Tornadoes.
On the ground I saw a Chieftain tank (60 tonne MBT) race a car from a traffic light near Hohne. The tank has rather a lot of traction but huge inertia. The car was a Mk 1 Ford Fiesta (driven by a squaddie - obviously). Cars are much lighter and only have a bit of rubber on the road. The roads around there were concrete cast slab with tar to fill in the gaps for obvious reasons, given the sorts of vehicles on the roads. Same around Soltau too.
Both vehicles were revving their engines (the car started it) When the lights changed, both vehicles floored it. The tank belched huge amounts of diesel fumes and with a mighty roar launched off the blocks. The car made a rather sad whine and made a desultory hop into the race and carreened down the road. The tank led for a while until the car eventually overtook it.
The MK1 Chieftain was woefully underpowered - you should see what a modern MBT can do these days!
Back in the air, for rotary wing we originally had Siouxs (bubble n fan), then Gazelles and Lynx, Chinooks and more. I now, 40 odd years later, live in Yeovil and used to work in the local chopper factory, 20 years ago.
