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Rushton tow target for the Canberra planes.

A forum for the discussion of Military aviation and RAF Station heritage
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gduk
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Rushton tow target for the Canberra planes.

Post by gduk » Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:08 pm

Hi, I have a Rushton tow target as towed by the Canberra, does anyone have any old stories or history behind it, I have some idea but just wondered if anyone else could fill some blanks, it is on the sale section at the moment, sorry, not sure if this should be posted here, G

slogen51
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Re: Rushton tow target for the Canberra planes.

Post by slogen51 » Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:53 pm

G-FRAS at Coningsby today was using a Rushton call sign. I had not previously made the connection, I presume it is because the Falcons act as targets.

nickowen
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Re: Rushton tow target for the Canberra planes.

Post by nickowen » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:31 am

RUSHTON is Cobham's principal callsign, and has been since the company (then known as Flight Refuelling Ltd) was based at Tarrant Rushton, where they designed, developed and manufactured (among many other projects) the Rushton Towed Target.

YellowBelly
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Re: Rushton tow target for the Canberra planes.

Post by YellowBelly » Tue Aug 09, 2016 12:10 am

i have a second hand story from RAF Akrotiri back in the late 80s. According to lore, the last Lightning and the first Tornado F3 (maybe an F2???) had a bit of a competition. A couple of 100 Sqn Canberras went up with the banners and the competition was obviously to see who hit their respective targets the best. The Tornado target returned with the odd hole, however, when the Lightning target came back it was literally in tatters, when asked why the older jet beat the newer jet the Tornado pilot said it was due to the concrete radar in the Tornados nose (as the Marconi? radars werent ready yet). I saw a concrete block in the nose of a Tornado around 89 so i know that bit was likely true.

maybe a myth but cool story all the same lol, i would even be surprised if both these aircraft types even ended up in Cyprus at the same time, i guess it could have happened during Sqn (Armament Practice Camp (APC) changeovers.

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garyscott
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Re: Rushton tow target for the Canberra planes.

Post by garyscott » Tue Aug 09, 2016 6:54 am

YellowBelly wrote: . . due to the concrete radar in the Tornados nose (as the Marconi? radars werent ready yet). I saw a concrete block in the nose of a Tornado around 89 so i know that bit was likely true.maybe a myth . .
The "Blue Circle" radar set. Initial Tornadoes did indeed fly with concrete ballast.

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