Motley

It was rare to see them (i never saw them fitted) but i know they did use them a few times, always a preplaned target for them. Most bombs were fitted at some point, for example i also saw loadouts of Paveways 2 and 3 plus full load outs of just Brimstones

The antenna under the engines was the CAGNET radio, pain in the bottom and stabbed myself on it many times. For Op Shader the load out was pretty much the same as above, but the jets flew with the bigger 2250Ltr tanks fitted, 2 Paveway IVs on the right side with a Litening Pod front left and a Brimestone Launcher with 2 missiles back right (very rarely flew with 3 missiles fitted). Fitting ASRAAMs was very very rare in Shader (had the Typhoons for A2A if needed), can only think of a handful of times they were fitted. Of course there was different load outs depending on what missions were to be carried out, for example the first night the jets flew into Syria they had a Litening fitted with just Paveways IV believe it was 4 that night, so there is a wide range of different loads. Spent almost a year in Cyprus on Shader so if you have any questions ask away.

As others have already said what a stunning model you have made. I noticed you said its part of a plan to build 28 Sqn aircraft, what others have you managed to finish so far? Im currently serving on 28 Sqn as an aircraft engineer so interested to see what you've done or what you have planned

Find it weird seeing an aircraft i worked on in a museum, doesnt seem that long ago i was writing stuff in the soot on the tail not long after it was painted 😂

Rumours ive heard is as early as March next year or December next year, due to then being back from Afghan now not much point keeping them going much longer

As a current Chinook engineer, as much as i good idea as it seems, the biggest limiting factor to increasing how much the cabs can lift etc is the drive train between the engines and the blades. Can have all the power you want but if you cant transfer it, whats the point of having it. The transmissions seem to be one of the few parts that havent been upgraded as much as other areas such as the engines over the years. Saying that the current 714 engines which are used have plenty of power for what the Chinooks are used for

The pilots rifles are strapped to the sides of their seats and the crewmen in the back have their rifles strapped up on the side walls above the top of the seats just cant remember where in the cab though

The handles were for flares but werent standard fit to the jets, if i remember correct i dont remember seeing them all that often to, same goes the mount in the front, cant remember what that was for sorry

Still sat at Cambridge for testing if anyone wants to see it before it goes stateside

Although most sqn markings were removed some jet still managed to carry them for quite a long time. We had Tonkas out in Cyprus on Op Shader that still had sqn markings, just seemed that a few managed to miss the bland greyness.

The sqns don't take jets with them when on ops like Shader, the jets stay out there and the sqns rotate. I was told the reason the sqn marks were removed was its easier with the jet moving between sqns and ops, as aircraft are pooled alot more now to help with availability and such, just look at the Tornado fleet to see how it worked.

The problem with squadron markings and the such is now that the RAF is so small all the aircraft and pooled between the squadrons so they move around a lot. But to go with the pride and esprit de corps you mention, i can't speak for officers, but as a aircraft tech currently serving, most junior ranks couldn't care less what is painted on the side of the aircraft. Most people on squadrons now just want to do the bare minimum time in get their qualifications and leave to get better paid jobs in civvie street. It seems like a lot of squadron pride and the such is forgotten about by them, for most now its just a job for a few years and move on and i don't think its going to change. Even specially painted aircraft like anniversary schemes most people aren't to bothered about. Sorry for the thread drift all, it is nice to see a F35 with some colour on it for once, lets hope for more in the future

Having spend the best part of 3 years coming and going to Cyprus to look after Tornados, i can only remember the gun being used over Iraq once (which missed so they used Brimstone anyway) it may have been used more but it was very rare for them to use it. Most the fighting that has happened in Iraq and Syria seems be fought by the jets at medium to high levels, the gun doesn't seem that necessary for air to ground now days, especially when you can drop a Brimstone and hit a target in the same building as friendly troops and not have any risk to them.

If you need any pictures or any info for the insides or out, just ask im sat in one of these types of hangars as i type this at Benson. Looking really good so far, and i thought your HAS was mad enough

Everywhere ive seen this brought up the true identity of the flypast is for the Russian Victory parade tomorrow. Believe the jets are frogfoots and flankers. Theres another video of the formation about and you get a better view of the jets and they do look like russian jets

You can have the ground battery on with out them open as nothing really motors up till you apply ground power. In the cockpit on a servicing the ECS switch would be left on auto so when power was a applied these would open automatically. Also the aerial is the CAGNET aerial, who ever put it there really didnt think of ground crew much, stabbed myself many times on it

Still called them GR.4As when i worked on them for 3 years, needed to know what they were, as some else has said they still had all the reconnaissance equipment inside which meant they couldn't do certain things. One thing they never did was go to Cyprus on Op shader, having no gun was one reason for that. RAPTOR pods were designed specially for Tornado, hence the name. RAPTOR stands for Reconnaissane Airborne Pod Tornado. Remember hearing a year or 2 ago that they were or were at some point designing a Typhoon version of RAPTOR.

Having spent 3 years working on Tonkas and going down the intakes alot, i can confirm there is alot of panels, rows of rivets and fasteners all the way down to engine blades. Plenty of room down there too, just not nice to be down there cleaning dead bird out during the summer. Also theres a big dip in the intake right at the front of the engine, water use to pool there along with a dip in the bottom near the aux air doors ( you can actually see water in the intake in the photo on the right hand side of the intake)

You are correct with the 2 cables, week of late nights has not helped my head 😂 the thin cable you can see going into the hook near the red circle is the manual release cable and the thinker cable you can just see behind the hook is the electrical cable connecting the hook to the cab. Also that picture is really confusing, rear wheel at 90 degrees to the cab and what looks like a blade touching the floor

The countermeasures you out the white cable on are a pair of flair packs and also the cables on the hooks, there should be just one electrical cable per hook. Only the centre hook has hyds to operate it. Got to say its looking really good soo far, alot cleaner and better painted than the real thing tbh 😂😂

Really would be a real shame if this is true, use to love waking up and seeing her out of my window every morning. I do remember a few year ago the SWO at the time was asking all sections on station for volunteers to help clean and look after all 3 jets at Marham, and there was some work that did happen, think it was just cleaning before i left

Looking really good so far, recently bought the same kit as i work on these beasts, actually working on 712 at the moment on sqn. If you didnt know the circle you painted on is a static port

Having worked on GR4s for a few years the trainers didnt look like that in the back. Mostly the same but they did not have the circle screen in the middle, they had one big rectangle screen then instead. Believe the circle screen is a GR1 thing. I did manage to work on Za492 for abit at Marham before it went off to RTP

Its for the onboard cooling system, ECS, for the crew and all the electronics on board. Theres a fan under it which turns on when power is applied to the jet. Theres 2 more of the doors, the one above the flir as mentioned above and then a smaller one on the right hand side under the refuel probe, usually in the middle of a roundel

No Mk 7 just yet but there has been 7 mks due to the Mk6 and the Mk6a. Although if the RAF do go ahead with their plan to order some new Chinooks we could end up with a Mk7