Usaf Tornado

[Martin H]

ref other posible European Tonka users. Air International (september 1982 issue) had a snippet about Greece and Turkey looking at the Tonka with upto a hundred airframes each (what one has , the other must also have...keeps the balance of power between them at an equal level)

[Mossie]

An Hellenic Tonka would look very nice in that three tone blue-grey of theirs.  Greece is unusual in going it's own way with camo, most Viper & Bug customers have just taken the standard deivery scheme.  Had they taken the Tonka, it's likely that they would have got a more custom scheme, all the partner nations have had different schemes & Saudi Arabia's is a big departure from the others.  I wonder what the Turkish Tonkas would have looked like, or Dutch, Canadian, Swiss, Pakistan or whoever?

[viper29_ca]

Yes before we decided on the CF-18s, there was a possibility of purchasing Iranian F-14s for pennies on the dollar. The military saw this as a major coup, problem was, the Canadian gov't were helping smuggle US citizens out of Iran on Canadian Passports. When Iran found out about this, the F-14s were pulled, and Iran still has alot of them flying....with their powerful radar, they use them as armed AWACS birds, controlling many other aicraft around them.

[jcf]

Here is something I forgot I had, from the March 1979 issue of 'Aviation & Marine International'.



I need to comb through my old magazine library more often.  

Cheers, Jon

[Mossie]

Great find John!  This build still hasn't gone away for me, nice to see it visualised & a serious publication get in on the whiff game!

[Shasper]

Looks like an F-3ish bird to me!

Shas B)

[elmayerle]

Looks like basic F.3 structure aft of the cockpit but with a new nose to house the new radar et al.  It makes for a quite attractive look, say in Euro 1?

[Archibald]

The Tornado looks increasingly cooler with a longer nose! I love this one!    

[Hobbes]

It'd look a bit odd with a nose cone that's wider than the front fuselage.

[GTX]

So am I right in thinking that the Wild Weasel version was to be based on the short nosed GR-4 or was it to use the F-3 same as the fighter bomber version???

I always understood that it was to use the IDS/GR.3 as the basis.

Regards,

Greg

[Shasper]

A GR.3 Fin, You dont say?

Shas B)

[Iranian F-14A]

Interesting that they made mention of strapping SRAMs onto it.Although,as a European based theatre bomber....sounds like a pretty good idea.

[nev]

So am I right in thinking that the Wild Weasel version was to be based on the short nosed GR-4 or was it to use the F-3 same as the fighter bomber version???

I always understood that it was to use the IDS/GR.3 as the basis.

Regards,

Greg

I always thought it would use the F.3 airframe (more fuel)

[Jennings]

Just seeing this thread for the first time.  The Tornado was never a serious contender, and was never assigned a USAF MDS (F-x).  It was floated as a scare tactic to the people who control the purse strings.

J

[Radish]

I bought an Italeri ECR kit to hack about a bit....1/72nd....I'll basically extend the nose, and facy either a scheme as in the picture or a wraparound SEAsia one. I'll probably "go" for the light grey underbelly.....although anything is possible!