Tankless Tornados

[Lossie]

Seems in the last few days that all the photos of GR4s flying training sorties show them without drop tanks. Anyone know why, perhaps less stress on the wings to save fatigue life?

[liamkillington]

All flyers had tanks when I was there last week? Occasionally Marham send up a Tarnish on a test flight without tanks but other than that I can't help you...

[Lossie]

Am aware of BAE Systems tankless test flights but these are sqn training flights. Seems to have been a change this week.

[Neil D]

ZA372 had no tanks Monday but had them Tuesday.

Neil

[voodoo31]

More than likely to do ACMI part of the squadrons currency.

Matt

[markranger]

All had tanks Yesterday apart from the 2 RAFAIRS that done a Gas and Go on their way back to Lossie, 081,074

[PA200]

The jets with no underwings, did they have outboard stores fitted? i.e Boz/Sky Shadow.

If they did then its very likely they were carrying out ACM. If they were they wouldn't have been up for long either, 40mins or less depending how much turning and burning they do

[DavidT]

On this subject the below were noted at Marham on Mon 4 Oct 16.
(*) Denotes flying without wing tanks but with normal pods on outboard pylons:

ZA370/004 (*)
ZA372/006 (*)
ZA543/036
ZA553/045 (*)
ZA554/046
ZA557/048
ZG750/128 (*) Op Granby scheme
ZG771/133 (*) Marham special fin

Of perhaps greater significance is that the following are now without fin codes:
ZA370
ZA372 (since at least early Aug 16)
ZA543

Is this a the start of a policy to make the fleet ever-more anonymous ? (ouch)

[Dan214sqn]

I noticed that ref: ZA370 - was 004 and now blank

[Lossie]

The jets in question did have externals stores except drop tanks.

[Motley]

004 doesnt have its fin number at the moment as it had a fin cap change last week. The new fin caps come with no numbers on, but i expect it will get its number at some point.

One of the reasons they may not of been flying with tanks is that they may have been off gunning or doing flare practice. Ive seen them fly tankless to do these before so may be the reason

[DavidT]

Thanks Motley - very useful info on the fin caps.

[blackhandgang17]

The Underwing tanks will be removed for ACMI as it increases the G limits on the aircraft but the BOZ and ECM pods will be left on as it lowers the bending moment on the wings and thus consumes less of the fatigue life of the wings.That is why towards the end of there lives some of the F3'S outboard pylons were reinstated when ex GR1 wings were fitted as they are the same apart from the ex TTTE aircraft that had all the linkages removed from the wings to reduce weight and reduce maintenance requirements

Paul

[Lossie]

Thanks for the info.

[fone0six]

I thought it a bit strange that most of the Tornados that were at Coningsby last month left their tanks behind.
There were a pile of tanks on Sierra dispersal on 2nd October.

Pat

[PA200]

blackhandgang17 wrote:

The Underwing tanks will be removed for ACMI as it increases the G limits on the aircraft but the BOZ and ECM pods will be left on as it lowers the bending moment on the wings and thus consumes less of the fatigue life of the wings.That is why towards the end of there lives some of the F3'S outboard pylons were reinstated when ex GR1 wings were fitted as they are the same apart from the ex TTTE aircraft that had all the linkages removed from the wings to reduce weight and reduce maintenance requirements

Certainly fatigue is one of the reasons the outboards stay on for ACM, the main one though is if Tornado got into a real fight the first thing the crew would do is jettison the underwings. The outboards can't be jettisoned anymore though, that facility being removed quite a few years ago.

As far as I'm aware F3 and GR1/4 wings aren't interchangeable different part numbers for one thing and GR wings have different wiring for the SMS and outboard stores.

I certainly don't remember the linkages being removed on jets when I served at TTTE and the jets we received at Marham from Cottesmore definitely had them fitted as we fitted a full set of pylons to all of them.

Regards

[toom317]

On this subject the below were noted at Marham on Mon 4 Oct 16.
(*) Denotes flying without wing tanks but with normal pods on outboard pylons:

ZA370/004 (*)
ZA372/006 (*)
ZA543/036
ZA553/045 (*)
ZA554/046
ZA557/048
ZG750/128 (*) Op Granby scheme
ZG771/133 (*) Marham special fin

Of perhaps greater significance is that the following are now without fin codes:
ZA370
ZA372 (since at least early Aug 16)
ZA543

Is this a the start of a policy to make the fleet ever-more anonymous ? (ouch)

Hope this isn't a new policy. Had a GR4A through S-M today with no code and assumed it was ZA372, as I thought it was the only one with no code, but on seeing the only part of the reg I could see, was its last digit, 0, I guess it must have been ZA370