1984-2019 -  Serving The Aviation Enthusiast for 35 Years

NEWSLETTER (Issue No 224)

January 2019

Editor Simon Eccleston

Email: as supplied 

Welcome to the January 2019 newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all and your families a very happy New Year. I hope you all had a great time over Christmas (seems a very long time ago now).  In this issue we have a review of the November meeting very kindly supplied by Carol.

Please note that the start time of the meetings is 7.30pm. 

As per usual, I reiterate my plea for articles to put in the newsletter, so if you have any then let me know. It can be anything aviation related. I am sure you have something to tell the club, for example your work experience, or a book review or maybe an Airshow review.

 NEXT MEETING

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. 

Our thanks to Dave for an informative and well researched presentation. 

Thanks to Carol for this summary of  Dave’s presentation. 

FUTURE PROGRAMME

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"

28^th 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"

28^th March- Aldon Ferguson will be telling us about "Covert Operations in the Cold War"

25^th 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