The magazine Private Eye focused attention in its last issue on the state of the RAF's Tristars and even more ancient VC10s flying around our skies.

"According to insiders," it reported, the entire RAF air transport (AT) fleet is barely able to get off the tarmac, even though most of it remains in constant service. Most AT fleet aircraft, including the nine second-hand Tristars given up for dead by British Airways decades ago and now relied on as troop transporters or refuellers, are more than 30 years old. Some of the VC10s based at Brize Norton and doing similar work are even older. So far, thanksfully, there have been no fatalities - just an endless catalogue of incidents."

I read these words with some concern, not least because my home - and indeed office - are directly beneath the flightpath into Brize. I wondered what we might have reported on the subject. I found this (not reassuring) statement from Wg Cdr Robert Daft, of the 216 squadron, based at Brize Norton.

He said in November last year: "The aircraft are maintained to the same exacting standards of civilian aircraft. We use cutting-edge technology to defend our aircraft and ensure the safety of our armed forces. Occasionally technology fails, but it could equally fail on a brand new plane. The Tristars and the VC10s are 35 years old. Sometimes bits break and become unserviceable, and they are more difficult to replace because the planes are no longer in production. The aircraft and personnel are stretched to their limits, but not beyond. Brize Norton staff are doing an outstanding job with the resources they have to support worldwide operations."

Bits break! This is not, frankly, the sort of thing I like to be told about aircraft. Do you?