available: contemporaneous; offering = 'any commonly manufactured item regarded in terms of its quality'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Inglish marches on. The quote, of course, refers to WW2:

2003 - 2012
http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=78   :  As
an aside, the Royal Air Force (RAF) was not wholly sold on the
P-61 in defense of the British mainland (they felt it too slow a system to
contend with the available German offerings).

Otherwise the article is stylistically proficient and evidently well
informed.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org