Tornado To Be Axed

Author
Discussion

Tony1963

4,759 posts

162 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Kccv23highliftcam said:
"Tornado is on its last legs"

Having spent the last 4 yrs updating and maintaining them at depth, I do not agree.
Ok, so what is the maximum allowed fatigue life for the RAF's Tornados, and how much of that does the remaining fleet have?

Rodintee

75 posts

103 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Ignoring all the political and capability issues the stand out thing is the Tornado itself. To my mind the best servant the RAF has had since the end of the second world war. Putting aside cold war nuclear alerts, nothing else comes close to seeing as many actual combat sorties and I suspect it will be sorely missed.

ecsrobin

17,118 posts

165 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Kccv23highliftcam said:
ecsrobin said:
Like the F35 with its bad press now. Give it 30 years and there will be stories of how great it was by end of life.
I hate to break it to you Dude, but like it's 25 years since inception......
I meant from now.

I’m aware the time it takes from design to operational. The year I was born my Nan was given a pin badge by the EAP test pilot. She wore that badge at my RAF pass out parade when typhoon was still in its infancy and I got to experience many of its teething problems on my first tour. Now it’s a world class aircraft that like others have said with brimstone coming and storm shadow it can only get better.

Kccv23highliftcam

1,783 posts

75 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Tony1963 said:
But the gaps in capability really don't matter. We never operate on our own now, so others can make up the requirements.
https://www.politico.eu/article/theresa-may-uk-military-britain-pulls-out-of-eu-defense-force/

Kccv23highliftcam

1,783 posts

75 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
ecsrobin said:
Kccv23highliftcam said:
ecsrobin said:
Like the F35 with its bad press now. Give it 30 years and there will be stories of how great it was by end of life.
I hate to break it to you Dude, but like it's 25 years since inception......
I meant from now.

I’m aware the time it takes from design to operational. The year I was born my Nan was given a pin badge by the EAP test pilot. She wore that badge at my RAF pass out parade when typhoon was still in its infancy and I got to experience many of its teething problems on my first tour. Now it’s a world class aircraft that like others have said with brimstone coming and storm shadow it can only get better.
Perhaps some better fuel gauges?

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-new...

Fast jets went past "here" @ 0137 this morning: yes they woke me up!

"here" being 5 miles west of Dundee...

Kccv23highliftcam

1,783 posts

75 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Tony1963 said:
Kccv23highliftcam said:
"Tornado is on its last legs"

Having spent the last 4 yrs updating and maintaining them at depth, I do not agree.
Ok, so what is the maximum allowed fatigue life for the RAF's Tornados, and how much of that does the remaining fleet have?
You don't "run out of " fi you manage and extend it by maintenance activities.
Well you DID.
As the RAF were told, once it's ( the maintenance facilities) gone, it's gone.
And it has.

aeropilot

34,576 posts

227 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Kccv23highliftcam said:
You don't "run out of " fi you manage and extend it by maintenance activities.
Well you DID.
As the RAF were told, once it's ( the maintenance facilities) gone, it's gone.
And it has.
Indeed.

Lots of things now gone........including pretty much most of the flying training structure that was once considered the best. Very sad.


Kccv23highliftcam

1,783 posts

75 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
aeropilot said:
Kccv23highliftcam said:
You don't "run out of " fi you manage and extend it by maintenance activities.
Well you DID.
As the RAF were told, once it's ( the maintenance facilities) gone, it's gone.
And it has.
Indeed.

Lots of things now gone........including pretty much most of the flying training structure that was once considered the best. Very sad.
Pfft. F35b will fix EVERYTHING.







Well apart from itself.


whistle

aeropilot

34,576 posts

227 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Kccv23highliftcam said:
aeropilot said:
Kccv23highliftcam said:
You don't "run out of " fi you manage and extend it by maintenance activities.
Well you DID.
As the RAF were told, once it's ( the maintenance facilities) gone, it's gone.
And it has.
Indeed.

Lots of things now gone........including pretty much most of the flying training structure that was once considered the best. Very sad.
Pfft. F35b will fix EVERYTHING.







Well apart from itself.


whistle
laugh


IanH755

1,861 posts

120 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
frodo_monkey said:
apart from RapTOR replacement; no contract let for a Typhoon version as far as I know. Albeit I don’t work in Typhoon so there could well be something in the pipeline.
There was a discussion 2-3 years ago as to moving the pod internals (too large for Typhoon centreline) into a new slimline pod with a smaller "lens" setup to match but from my understanding there was/is a minor "airframe harmonics/vibration vs image quality required" issue with the Typhoon which would need addressing before any further work would have started so I'm not expecting anything to happen for a while yet as they've still got Litening III in the mean time (not ideal but a workable solution).

ecsrobin

17,118 posts

165 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Kccv23highliftcam said:
ecsrobin said:
Kccv23highliftcam said:
ecsrobin said:
Like the F35 with its bad press now. Give it 30 years and there will be stories of how great it was by end of life.
I hate to break it to you Dude, but like it's 25 years since inception......
I meant from now.

I’m aware the time it takes from design to operational. The year I was born my Nan was given a pin badge by the EAP test pilot. She wore that badge at my RAF pass out parade when typhoon was still in its infancy and I got to experience many of its teething problems on my first tour. Now it’s a world class aircraft that like others have said with brimstone coming and storm shadow it can only get better.
Perhaps some better fuel gauges?

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-new...

Fast jets went past "here" @ 0137 this morning: yes they woke me up!

"here" being 5 miles west of Dundee...
Better fuel gauges are not required as it was a planned sortie: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-new...

Tony1963

4,759 posts

162 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all

Tony1963

4,759 posts

162 months

Wednesday 4th April 2018
quotequote all
Kccv23highliftcam said:
You don't "run out of " fi you manage and extend it by maintenance activities.
Well you DID.
As the RAF were told, once it's ( the maintenance facilities) gone, it's gone.
And it has.
There will surely be a maximum fatigue life that can't be exceeded? This may now be limited by there being no airframe on a stress rig leading the way, I don't know.

Anyway, we are not at war, so just as we've managed to survive the disaster of not having Jaguar, Harrier, Nimrod aircraft carrier etc, we will survive until Typhoon and F-35 are fully up to speed.

Let's face it, the RAF hasn't faced a serious threat in the air for a long time now. It just seems to be about dropping smart weapons more accurately?

(yeah yeah, I know, simplistic, but the UK doesn't have much spare cash at the mo)

kurt535

3,559 posts

117 months

Thursday 5th April 2018
quotequote all
I feel any manned combat aeroplane is on its last legs with the advent of drones and computing power......

Tony1963

4,759 posts

162 months

Thursday 5th April 2018
quotequote all
kurt535 said:
I feel any manned combat aeroplane is on its last legs with the advent of drones and computing power......
Yeah, just as driverless cars have taken the world by storm. It'll be a few decades yet.

Kccv23highliftcam

1,783 posts

75 months

Thursday 5th April 2018
quotequote all
Tony1963 said:
POTATO

NOT ABLE TO ORGANISE

2 SUGER AND MILK

........

Tony1963

4,759 posts

162 months

Thursday 5th April 2018
quotequote all
Oh dear.

Are you drunk?

Unbusy

934 posts

97 months

Friday 6th April 2018
quotequote all
NATO standard tea. 2 sugars and milk. thumbup

Kccv23highliftcam

1,783 posts

75 months

Friday 6th April 2018
quotequote all
Tony1963 said:
Oh dear.

Are you drunk?
That's not very nice, not very nice at all.

At least someone seems to have been around in that era...

Tony1963

4,759 posts

162 months

Friday 6th April 2018
quotequote all
I left the RAF in 1990! And I was never into that RAF chat stuff. Makes me shudder even now.