1984-2019 -
Serving
The Aviation
Enthusiast for 35 Years
NEWSLETTER (Issue No 224)
January 2019
Email: as supplied
Next
meeting will be held in the Lightning Club, Warton, on 31st January 2019 commencing at 7:30pm
Peter
Cunliffe will talk about "The Hawker Hunter and the genius of Sydney
Camm"
NOVEMBER
MEETING
“The Early Years of the
MRCA/Tornado Programme”. Dave Ward
We
were pleased to welcome Dave Ward to the
meeting on Thursday 29th November to give his presentation about Multi Role
Combat Aircraft/Tornado, the early days.
Following
the cancellation of the TSR2 in 1965 a replacement aircraft was needed to
replace the Vulcan and Canberra in RAF service. After consultation involving a
number of European countries, a Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) project was
initiated in 1968, which eventually involved three European countries, Germany.
Italy and the UK. The aircraft was a twin
engined variable geometric wing aircraft. The programme was managed by Panavia,
a company formed by a consortium of the aircraft companies of the three
countries, namely: BAC (now BAE Systems) of the UK; MBB of West Germany; and Fiat
of Italy. Each country has its own final assembly line. Anticipated demand was
324 aircraft for Germany, 100 aircraft for Italy, and the UK 385 aircraft. Studies
existed for both single and twin seat aircraft (Panavia 100 and 200) The RAF
preferred the twin seater Panavia 200 and this was accepted by the other two
countries. The aircraft was to be powered by the RB 199 engine, which was a new
engine, developed by the engine companies of the three nations..
Nine
flying prototype aircraft were built plus one static. A fly by wire system with
manual back up and an advance radar system was developed. The first flight took
place in West Germany on 14th August 1974. The aircraft was named Tornado. Flight
testing was divided between the three partner nations, with the UK element
being based at Warton. UK flight testing involved flying over the North Sea, and
low flying in the Lake District and North
Wales. Roll out of the first production aircraft took place at Warton on 5th
June 1979, fitted with RB199 MK101 engines.
Carol has been working hard and the programme
for the next few meetings is as follows (thanks Carol for an excellent job):-
31st January 2019- Peter Cunliffe who will talk about
"The Hawker Hunter and the genius of Sydney Camm"
28th February- Martin Powell from
Rossendale Aviation Society makes a welcome return to talk about: "West
and North from San Francisco to Seattle, 6 Aviation Museums, Reno Air Races and
Boeing at Paine Field"
28th March- Aldon Ferguson will be telling us about
"Covert Operations in the Cold War"
25th April- Don McLoughlin returns to talk about
Hickham Field, Pearl Harbor and the Pacific Aviation Museum.
Simon Eccleston
Newsletter
Editor
Email: as
supplied
Web Site: www.avrolancashire.co.uk
January 2019