These offensive missions are designed to penetrate U.S. northern air defenses in a manner reminiscent of the most provocative of Kremlin behavior during the Cold War.
No wonder Mr Trimble so often seemed an embattled figure... and yet to those of us who have followed him in recent years one of his personal trademarks was the perverse manner in which moments of deep crisis in Northern Ireland's never-ending political negotiating process sometimes seemed to inspire him to a kind of jaunty calm.
But the news, far from reassuring anyone, sparked a run on Northern Rock, Britain's first bank run since the 1860s, and caused all manner of wild worries about the whole British banking system.