Fast Jets and Other Beasts by Ian Hall

Author:Ian Hall [Hall, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, General, Military, Aviation
ISBN: 9781910690420
Google: V-TinAAACAAJ
Publisher: Grub Street
Published: 2017-07-28T00:34:54+00:00

CHAPTER 16

TORNADO TIMES

The first time I saw a Tornado was in Norway. The year, I would guess, was 1982, and I watched from Rygge air base as this exciting new machine did a low approach and then disappeared to from whence it had come – presumably its squadron was on exercise elsewhere in Norway. My overwhelming first thought was how ugly it was – it appeared to be so short, and the impression left by the massive fin was overwhelming. The nickname given by the Americans to the A-7 Corsair came immediately to mind – the SLUF – ‘short little ugly fella’ (fella being the most polite form).

Other similarly proportioned aircraft had proved successful in the past, though, most notably the early Soviet MiG-15 Fagot and MiG-17 Fresco. The simple fact is that directional stability is dependent on the moment provided by the fin, and the shorter the rear fuselage the larger must be the fin area. Sometimes, (as with F-15 and F-18) the solution has been to fit more than one fin.

Another aspect of the Tornado’s geometry was that, for reasons of centre of gravity, it wasn’t permitted to sweep the wings on the ground. That didn’t apply to the F3, which had a longer nose to balance it, but it was a pity in the case of the GR1/GR4 that we couldn’t store them in pairs in hardened shelters, à la Jaguar.

Of course C of G problems on the ground weren’t confined to fighter types. Much later, I remember seeing ground crew sitting on turboprop nose wheels in an effort to avert disaster when too much baggage had been stowed in the rear hold before sufficient passengers had boarded to balance things up. And I also recall an RAF VC10 settling onto its tail while being defuelled prior to servicing. As I remember it, the team had emptied the wing tanks while the fin tank was still full, which proved an expensive mistake; the damage was either unrepairable or, at the very least, not economically repairable.

Later I flew the Tornado GR1, and one of my most memorable trips was when my squadron was tasked to escort four MiG-21s of the Hungarian air force across Europe. They were en route to the international air tattoo at Fairford, and their refuelling stop at Brüggen would be the first visit of former Warsaw Pact aircraft to an RAF Germany station. They had, we were told, very limited radio coverage, and in any case they couldn’t speak english. so our briefing for the rendezvous was through a third party interpreter – and anything could happen.

The author with 31 Squadron, 1992. (Crown Copyright)

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