IT'S about time that Walt Meadows (Letters, October 7) looked at the true picture. It is evident he does not work at British Aerospace and never has.

I don't know where he gets his facts from on these issues, but he is totally wrong.

British Aerospace is a private industry and has been very profitable for a very long time.

Mr Meadows and anybody else who can afford the shares can own them. That's the whole concept of being a Tory, isn't it? As for unwanted warplanes, Tornadoes and Air Defence Variations all contributed to the unwanted Gulf War.

As for the Eurofighter, only part is being built in Britain, with various parts of the aircraft being built throughout Europe.

Some 12,000 jobs have been lost to streamline the industry to make it more profitable - so that people with money can make money through higher share prices.

As for the TSR 2, Mr Meadows, it never made the runway - it was scrapped at the prototype stage.

MICHAEL H READ, Haslingden Road, Guide, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.