Skeg Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 When a tornado is on the ground are the wings always fully forward or are they moved back at all or is the position variable. Sorry if it's a stupid question. Thanks Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james424 Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 Hey Stuart, 99% of the time when i've been around them while they're parked up the wings were extended. HOWEVER!!! I HAVE seen one in a hangar and a couple of them being moved around (by tractors, not under their own power), with their wings folded back. This may have been due to a technical issue or they may have been set like that to make them easier to move and park. As i say though, most of the time it's been wings out. Hope this is of some help bud. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Evil Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 I believe it's possible to park an F3 with it's wings fully swept, but as the GR1/4 is shorter and has the fin tank, it is possible for it to tip on it's tail if such things are attempted. As such I think the GR1/4 is always fully forward whilst I have seen pictures of F3 parked mid-sweep position. I'm sure some of the Tonka guys on here will know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 I have recently seen pictures of F3's parked and taxiing with the wings fully swept but my understanding is that the mud movers didn't do that for the reason given above by Dr Evil. Duncan B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatalbert Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 We had some F3's at work a few years ago,they were parked up overnight and i watched the ground crews sweep the wings back on all of them when they put them to bed over night......Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zipper Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 As mentioned above, the F.3 wings on the ground can be fully swept back, GR can swing back half way any further and it will sit on its bum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian G Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 I think I've mentioned this on Britmodeller before but, when the Tornado GR1 was Brand New, on our Squadron we tried an experiment, to see if we could sweep the wings on the ground - as the Air Publications (AP)'s prohibited you from doing this. Knowing we might have to 'ignore' the AP if we went Operational, we had to find out if we could do it. We used to practice Weapon Loading at the end of the flying day so, one day, with the Plumbers (Armourers) in the loop, we loaded the A/C with 1000lb bombs - it took 8 I believe, and removed pairs of bombs (from the rear) and swept the wings to see the result. We found, IIRC, that if you had 4 x 1000lbers on the front positions, you could safely sweep the wings. We never used this in reality, but we knew we could do it. This was never Official! As Dr. Evil said, you could sweep the F3's wings with impunity as it's CofG was in a much better position. Regards, Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeg Posted November 17, 2012 Author Share Posted November 17, 2012 Thanks for all the replies. Wings forward it will be then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 I believe that the RAF no longer uses the fin tank, so it is possible to park a GR4 with the wings swept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Evil Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 I think I've mentioned this on Britmodeller before but, when the Tornado GR1 was Brand New, on our Squadron we tried an experiment, to see if we could sweep the wings on the ground - as the Air Publications (AP)'s prohibited you from doing this. Knowing we might have to 'ignore' the AP if we went Operational, we had to find out if we could do it. We used to practice Weapon Loading at the end of the flying day so, one day, with the Plumbers (Armourers) in the loop, we loaded the A/C with 1000lb bombs - it took 8 I believe, and removed pairs of bombs (from the rear) and swept the wings to see the result. We found, IIRC, that if you had 4 x 1000lbers on the front positions, you could safely sweep the wings. We never used this in reality, but we knew we could do it. This was never Official! As Dr. Evil said, you could sweep the F3's wings with impunity as it's CofG was in a much better position. Regards, Brian Nice one! Would I be getting you in trouble to ask which Sqn? I'd love to keep that in the back of my mind to build someday.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian G Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 We were known to have hit some Dams sometime in WWII! Cheers, Brian 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Evil Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 Thankyou! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham121 Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Tagging on, another related question (and sorry if it has been answered before)... When a GR1/4 is parked - with the wings extended, is there any hard and fast rule regarding flaps/slats being extended (ala Hobbyboss) or retracted (ala Italeri) ?? Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 We were known to have hit some Dams sometime in WWII! Cheers, Brian Terribly careless! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasacop Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 (edited) Tagging on, another related question (and sorry if it has been answered before)... When a GR1/4 is parked - with the wings extended, is there any hard and fast rule regarding flaps/slats being extended (ala Hobbyboss) or retracted (ala Italeri) ?? Thanks in advance Mate, the flaps were set to the mid position with the slats fully extended whilst the jet was parked. Mid flap position was when the trailing edge was at the top of the serial number. They had to be deployed so we lineys could check the flap track rubbing strips on af's , bf's and tr's. Hope this helps. Hilly Edited November 18, 2012 by wasacop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murdo Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Terribly careless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 This one was parked (armed) with the flaps up. So was this one; Julien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeds Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 We used to leave the flaps and slats either mid or down for the reason already mentioned. However, if we were on detatchment, the flaps and slats were left up after the linies checked the flaps & slats before the aircraft shut down. The reason was to keep birds etc out of the flap/slat areas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 You rarely saw GR1s with flaps up before the 1st Gulf War, after that it became more cvommon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobski Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 I've never seen a Tornado parked up at work with the flaps and slats down... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigsty Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 So it seems Tornados have got out of the habit of leaving their dangly bits extended while parked. Could this be a by-product of the end of the Cold War? When you could be airborne at a moment's notice, even the time to extend the slats for take-off could be a second too many; now that we don't expect to need to dash over the horizon quite so urgently, they can be left shut so the rain doesn't get in. Possibly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian G Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 To answer Pigsty - the Tornado hydraulic system runs at such a high pressure that the time delay would not be noticeable if you did a full extension and retraction of the High Lift System, (Flaps and Slats to you), as the aircraft taxied out to the runway from its parking slot. Then, as the A/C lined up on the runway, the pilot would select his take-off configuration. The real reason the flaps/slats were selected out, was as stated by wasacop, so the 'rubbing strips' in each of the tracks could be inspected to make sure they were still attached. (the strips were only stuck on with, I believe something like Loctite). In my day, we used to do this check at the end of the days flying, as you were doing an After-Flight, (A/F), Inspection. IIRC, the plumbers always liked to have the flaps retracted (and the slats - as they operated together), so they could move their loads around the A/C without banging into things! Cheers, Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeds Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 The Tornado has forward and rear fuel tanks in the fuselage, when refuelling you had to make sure the forward group was filled first by flicking a switch on the refuelling panel and observing a dial in the cockpit. This was done to prevent a one sided conversation with the WO, not needing your hat and bringing a friend !!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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