The Panavia Tornado is a jet engine fighter-bomber jointly developed by Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom. It first flew on August 14th, 1974.
There are two main variants of the aircraft in service with the Royal Air Force, the air defence and strike variants. The former is known as the Tornado F3, and the latter as the Tornado GR4[?] in RAF service. A minor variant of the GR4 is the GR4A[?], which replaces one of the GR4's 27mm cannons with a reconnaisance pod. Recently, some RAF F3's were modified to be able to fire the ALARM[?] anti-radiation missile, and thus be able to take on the mission of suppression of enemy air defences[?] or SEAD. There are also rumoured plans to equip the F3's with TIALD[?] pods, giving them the abilty to drop laser guided bombs, making them true multirole aircraft.
Click here for a picture of a Tornado GR-4 and here for the image description.
Specifications
- Crew: 2
- Wing Span: (Variable geometry)
- At 250 deg. wing position : 13.91 m;
- At 670 deg. wing position: 8.60 m
- Length: 16.72 m
- Height: 5.95 m
- Weight empty: 14,091 Kg.
- Weight Max. Load: 27,951 Kg.
- Engines:
- Two Turbo-Union R.B.199-34R Mk 101 turbofans. with each 37.7 kN thrust without, and 66.10 kN with afterburner.
- Newer types: Turbo-Union R.B199-34R Mk 103 turbofans. with each 38.48 kN thrust without, and 71.50 kN with afterburner.
- Max. Speed: Clean: 2,338 Kph.
- Max. Height: 15,240 m
- Max. Range: 3,890 km with 4 disposable fueltanks
- Operational radius: 1,390 km.
- Weapons: Max. 9000 Kg. on 4 brackets under the wings and 3 under the fuselage.