Inside The Cockpit - Panavia Tornado

throughout the last 50 odd years countries try to band together to design military hardware many tried many failed two divergent very ideas two inflexible standpoints but today's example is different but not just two but three nations overcoming the inherent problems of multi-nation development producing one of the most recognizable and beloved jets in modern history the panavia [Music] tornado [Music] [Music] hello everyone and welcome back to military aviation history today we are in berlin gato in the military historical museum of the bundeswehr today's feature is on the panavia tornado ids an aircraft of a very unique success story and an aircraft also that remains in service in germany italy saudi arabia and it was only just phased out of the royal air force as a staple of air power and these respective nations let us explore the history of this machine before jumping inside by the end of the 1950s and into the 60s several european nations were starting to look at aircraft and new aircraft to replace their aging fleets throughout this time there were talks where whispers were alike to start developing an aircraft among the various main european countries point in case for example was the french and the british development of the afvg the anglo-french variable geometry aircraft which ended in failure the joint development of concord also was difficult and the introduction of the jaguar had not been an easy one however afvg bore no fruits in the short run the british aircraft cooperation tried to push forward with the tsr-2 only to be re-botted by their own government we would prefer to acquire the american f-111 which it didn't buy in the end com 67 this suddenly left britain out in the cold it had halted its main domestic developments had no incoming import procurement and still needed to find a replacement to vulcan canberra and the buccaneer aircraft development takes time but with no immediate progress there was the danger of well falling behind thus with france going its own way riding on the success of desso a new partner was needed and this is where we insert west germany germany was of course divided into east and west and this was where the front lines of the cold war were drawn the west german luftwaffe had been established in the mid-1950s and had initially been equipped with western hand-me-downs built up to strength it needed a replacement for the f-104g starfighter and the fiat gf-91 this job was given to the a-v-air consortium which had been made up of what remained of the companies like heinkel and messerschmitt so with no other option but to deal with the germans a bac decided to be pragmatic and just get cracking there was some resistance at first the germans were working with the americans at this time specifically northrop of course on the advanced vertical strike aircraft or avs yet at this point the trend was of course going away from aircraft purpose build for one specific role be that interception or bombing or strike to a multi-purpose platform that could do all three in one package thus in 1968 belgium italy the netherlands and canada joined the germans in the mra 75 program meant to provide a multi-role aircraft buy in 1975. effectively this also torpedoed the collaboration with the united states the brits however were in luck as the germans who led the program had similar goals and time frames belgium and canada however dropped out and the remaining nations joined into a joint company to tackle this project panavia one third of the total shares went to the brits and the germans respectively while the last thread was divided between the dutch and the italians the only problem here was that the brits were designing a twin seat twin engine aircraft project named panavia 200. while the germans perhaps inspired by the fiat g91 were going around the route of a lighter single-seat single-engine design panavia 100. a compromise was found in a scaled-down version of the british design incorporating parts of the germans such as the outboard wing pivots and the wing glove design which eventually actually gave the final aircraft that distinctive look the multi-role combat aircraft or mrca was shaping up the british experience and jet aircraft development over the germans at this time began to show throughout this process with the latter agreeing to follow the advice of the former in various matters related to this design most notably of course the power plant arrangement and the fuselage design from their side the italians actually had influence for example over the variable intakes there remained however differences between the countries as you would expect this is just the nature of things for example german aircraft designs had been heavily influenced by the air experience with american planes thus they preferred american avionics radar and control inputs which went counter to the british preferences going into the 1970s the dutch dropped out but progress had been made right about this time the mrca also got its final name playing around with the designation panther the countries finally agreed and settled for what would become an iconic name tornado by 73 the first of nine prototypes was ready for flight testing but troubles with the engine prevented an immediate integration it was only by august 74 that prototype 01 took off in germany with a british pilot and a german backseater the first flights weren't according to plan with no major failures in the aircraft but subsequent design changes meant that it was mainly used as an engine testbed po2 and po3 were flown in britain around the same time a landing accident in the latter actually prompted the implementation of a stronger gear po4 was the first to fly with a full of radar navigations and weapon suite engaging in weapon trials in the closing years of the 70s on p05 the italian tornado was used in flutter and loading trials and was damaged in 76 during a hard landing po6 was used to tackle the issue of directional instability and transonic speeds and was also armed with the new 27 millimeter mauser cannon the final three prototypes were already very mature designs meant to test the operational aspects of the now near-completed design all in all tornado could have a very clean and straightforward testing process but it was already also one that was on the receiving end of tragedy first the british po8 crashed during a 1979 simulated bombing incident killing both crew members and then in 1980 the older german po4 aircraft crash during an airshow practice also resulting the less of the four crew while this testing was ongoing tornado had already been slotted for a pre-production run of six aircraft followed in 1977 by the first production orders of 40 aircraft at this point it serves to give a little introduction into tornado designation since one of the three main countries chose to go down their own route nominally called the tornado ids germany and italy used the original designation translating to interdictor strike the raf however called it the gr1 for ground attack reconnaissance the gr-1a was the reconversion the gr1b was used for under shipping and the gr4 designated the aircraft after following the mid-life upgrade in 1984. after that it gets a little bit more complicated while initially meant to be a multi-role aircraft there was talk to build some tornadoes with a stronger emphasis placed on interception unlike the interceptors of old where it was take off shoot down land rinse and repeat the tornado was meant to have a longer staying power and longer range to provide a more flexible platform against soviet bombers the tornado adv air defense variant was just devised following the initiative of the royal air force which had to find a replacement for the lightning and the phantom 2. although the tornado was somewhat inferior to more fighter orientated designs out there for example the american f-14 f-15816 the french mirage 2000 none of these fit emission parameters all were deemed unfeasible at this time thus adv was pushed forward and introduced into the raf as the f model eventually also seeing service in italy the early development wasn't seamless with problems accompanying the new radar system and the introduction of beyond visual range missiles bvr but it got there in the end interestingly they were actually later retrofitted once again to have some air-to-ground capabilities with seed eventually the eurofighter phased out the advs and the luftwaffe adopted the tornado ids itself and the ecr the latter stands for electronic combat and reconnaissance germany initially envisioned to buy 700 tornadoes hoping to re-equip its whole fleet with them this was later redevised to a more modest 322 airframes and eventually less than 300s were actually introduced operating the aircraft from the late 1970s up to this very day for many the tornado has essentially become to a representation of the luftwaffe a feeling i presume is shared by many brits when they looked at their own raf models throughout its life service in germany it served with the navy's marine flieger and of course the luftwaffe and naturally needed to be continuously upgraded when it came out it was a fine representation of the technology of the time but with the years the numerous jumps in technology and equipment required the tornado to receive substantial upgrade packages as it grew older so now it is slotted to actually operate beyond 2025 with panavia itself for seeing a use until 2035 and in all reality it actually will be in service until the bundeswear and germany finds a new replacement for this machine which could happen relatively soon or take a long long time for germany the tornado was at the forefront of the changing dynamics following the cold war in the 1990s the tornado was also the cause for controversy surrounding germany's first deployment abroad following the second world war which had been quite some time ago to provide both assistance to allies and to find a domestic compromise it was used in bosnia for example mainly in a recon raw but by the 1999 kosovo war tornado ids aircraft were used for reconnaissance but also for electronic warfare and bombing which did cause quite some debate at home in 2007 a detachment of tornadoes was also sent to afghanistan for a period of three years again stirring up a debate at home tornado is a twin c twin-engine supersonic all-weather multi-role jet aircraft the aircraft is 16.7 meter in length and its variable wing span varies between 8.6 to 13.9 meters and it stands at 6 meters true turbo union rb 199 turbojets provided a respective continuous thrust of 10 000 pounds with a maximum rating of 17 300 pounds on afterburner this allows for a maximum speed of 2200 kph now the aircraft has an anti-weight of 14 000 kilograms with a maximum loaded wave with everything on board of 27 000 kilograms it is armed with either a single or two 27 millimeter bk27 mauser revolver cannons holding 180 rounds each the tornado can furthermore be equipped and armed with a plethora of weaponry and mishmash really of missiles from am9 sidewinders through agm-65 mavericks to the seat alarm missile and so on other options of course include laser-guided bombs up to 2000 pounds cluster munitions or tactical nuclear payloads drop tanks and recon ports are also available should you require them one of the main features of the tornado are the variable sweep wings that can be swept at any angle between 25 to 67 to ensure good performance at low and high speeds at low speeds the wings could be swept forward at higher speeds that be swept aft this was done manually uh by the pilot however in the adv variants there was an automatic control built in now you might now of course wonder what happens to the payload once the wings sweep backwards easy the pylons on which they are mounted and are pivoting and this ensures that the relevant device that is attached to the wing is actually looking continuously in the direction of travel and doesn't damage the the aircraft as it as the wings swing backwards or doesn't cause any unnecessary drag now variable sweep wings are not exactly ideal from a maintenance standpoint and also they increase significantly the complexity of the design now there are many planes of course that use them there is the f-14 tomcat there is of course also the aardvark or the mig-23 vlogger however the design itself when you look at the grand total of aircraft that have such a variable suite and compared to those that don't you will see that there is a tendency to really omit this sort of design and just go with a conventional wing design whether it be a delta wing a straight leading edge and so on but enough talk let's go back inside as i jump into tornado i just want to say a big thank you once again to the military historical museum valiant gutter for allowing access to this machine and for this fantastic support by the team on site depending on where you live at the moment you might see some local museums opening up and as you know museums and other places as well have suffered quite heavily during the corona crisis so if it is safe for you to go to a local museum if they're opening up again think about doing so and as you're going there maybe if you will fancy it also pass by the gift shop you might find something that you like and at the same time you will also be supporting a place that keeps history alive and i also want to give a special thank you to sally maclone for our help with this episode i also want to give a quick shout out to my patrons and channel members who make inside the cockpit this series possible without their support it would not be possible to travel to these museums and film this sort of content so if you enjoy it consider supporting the channel either via patreon or channel memberships now as you can see i jumped in the front seat here so this is where the pilot would be sitting and we are starting on the left console as usual the prominent yellow black handle here is the crash panel and when pulled it reveals four different buttons one for the fire extinguisher one to shut off the battery and two to shut off each engine to the left of this panel is also the oxygen connection and supply panel moving along the upper side of the console the radio control panel for vhf and uhf and csas that's command stability augmentation system this is an analog system connected to the autopilot and flight director system that's afds together they make up the fly-by-wire system of the aircraft in a nutshell csas allows the plane to retain stability across speeds and altitude moving along the console still on the upper side here we find afds that's of course autopilot and flight erection system i just mentioned moving to the lower left console we have the bomb release safety lock for both sides as well as ccs that's the communication control system then we come to the hand controller for the pilot to use in conjunction with his forward mounted displays the forward ball control indicated now gives slew and vertical control in x and y axis and the larger switch is the cancel visual offset button whereas on the underside of the controller you find the insert trigger allowing for example marker position information to be sent to the main computing system on the very outside of these panels you find the emergency canopy release the emergency air brake release as well as the flap lever which is linked to the throttle quadrant speaking about the photo quadrant we hear we have the throttle controls the throttle is a simple push and pull with each lever operating the respective port and starboard engine not in a few here are the range control air to air override and radar reject button which are on the far side of the throttle controls integrated on the throttle is the air brake and maneuvering flap switch backwards and forwards moves the air brake up and down moves the maneuvering flaps on the leading end trailing edge of the wings and in the back of the switch we have the relight push buttons the catches below prevent an accidental shutoff of the fuel supply when moving the throttles to idle and on the left is of course the already indicated flap selector whereas on the right we have the variable sweep lever you can see the respective angle indicated right next to it beyond the quadrant we then have the engine starter panel moving forward to the left upper console we have the trim angle indicator the undercarriage lever and the emergency external stores jettison to the left the emergency undercarriage lever and above this we have the position indicator for the air brakes slots and wings now we move on to the main instrument board to the left the undercarriage position indicator and the standby radar altimeter below this the vertical speed indicator in feet per minute as well as the speedometer with an integrated mac counter below this you will find the altimeter moving on to the center to the top we have the e-scope a radar display displaying the terrain profile in front of the aircraft the x-axis shows the distance whereas the y-axis the angle of view on the terrain this scope can also be set to rptr repeater at which point the ground mapping radar view is presented below the scope we have the gyro attitude direction indicator currently showing a very aggressive flight direction the empty socket here would usually house the hsi that's the horizontal situation indicator then moving to the very center of the instrument board the main scope here is the repeater map display between the pilot's legs in the central console you'll find weapons control panel too the main panel however remains with the weapon system officer in the back seat below this you find the rapid takeoff panel now we move on to the right hand side of the instrument board on the top the two buttons marked f well that's your engine fire extinguisher for the respective engines below this you'll find your brown alert indicator it's a radar warning indicator showing the bearing of radar emissions which might be targeting your aircraft below this the dials for your engines from the top left we start with the engine rpm and fuel flow indicator then the center left engine temperatures and fuel tank capacity and on the bottom we have your nozzle area indicators to the right of the fuel flow indicator you have your oxygen flow indicator and below it the hydraulic pressure gauges set above the emergency power switch and below this you'll find a warning lights panel to the far right of this the triple brake pressure gauge as well as the brake selector lever now we move our attention to the right hand console we start on the inner side with your attack and control panel you can see a few empty spaces here where usually you would find more panels this is most likely because tornadoes are still in service with germany two things missing here for example is the iff system and the mls landing system however this provides me with a perfect opportunity to show you how these panels are actually mounted in the first place in the cockpit as you can see although they are assigned spaces the panels fit into the slots like tetris really they have a standardized width and are screwed into place with fasteners set into a pre-cut holes a bit further along the inner side we have the terrain following radar and the engine control panel and behind this we have the lighting controls on the upper side of the right hand console the fuel control panel as well as the emergency uhf all the way in the back we have the engine test panel fuel temperature gauges and the lamps test panel now that was a lot of stuff to go through but don't worry there's more if we look up starting again on the left now we find the low pressure next to the thrust reverse override and the arrester hook push button this also acts as an indicator as it can light up the switch i am pointing to that's the master arm safety switch the remaining set is part of the heads-up autopilot and flight direction system obviously in the middle you will find your heads-up display to its left the angle of attack indicator to the right the accelerometer below this you have the hud's control panel then to the right on the heads-up console you will find my favorite piece in every aircraft you know it it's the clock it is set here above the backup compass before we head to the stick here is a cockpit view of the deployed edenflight refueling probe which deploys out of a streamline position next to the pilot final piece in the puzzle the flight stick the tornado has a fly by wire system meaning that there is no direct link between this deck and the control services although with the caveat that this is not exactly true as there is a mechanical reversion control for the tailor runs in case of a malfunction in such a case the pilot would still have pitch and roll control however your control would be locked the stick features a trim switch in the central position and to its left the autopilot engage and radio switch to its right the weapon release flap in the safe position and the trigger also in a safe position the trigger activates a camera switch when it's pulled on the bottom left the nose wheel steering selector and out of view the autopilot quick disconnect that's a wrap on the front seat but of course the tornado is a two-seater with the pilot up front and the weapon system officer in the back here the landscape changes completely so what is niger up to in short the weapon system officer or wizzo ensures that the aircraft's equipment operates correctly he monitors the aircraft's position and navigates keeps situational awareness assists in the operation of weapon systems uses the plane's defensive systems and advises the pilot throughout the flight in short he is not just along for the ride but an integral part in making a tornado work on the inner left console we find the ground mapping radar panel and the heads down display recorder on the outside the reconnaissance control panel now usually there would be even more panels installed like the special weapons paddle but since the tornado is still part of germany's contribution to nato's nuclear sharing policy i assume this has been removed in this exhibit moving forward we find the main weapons control panel to the left we also have the gear position indicator and an oxygen content gauge you can also find the jettison selectors allowing you to jettison anything from the left outer to the right outer external pylon a few flight instruments are also here similar to the ones in the front seat in the central position behind the hand controller you will find the weapon aiming mode selector right below the navigational panel the same radar warning receiver as upfront but this time with a control panel notice how somebody has marked in quick reference numbers for the heading with 2 4 8 and 10 o'clock but i don't know if this was done during the operational use of the plane further to the right we have the ecm controls as well as your defensive systems of flare and shaft a warning lights panel rounds up this part of the cockpit then we go to the right hand console and all i can say is buttons on the inner side all the way in front is the old cassette player this was initially used for mission data but could also be used to play music or record voice later on with the sneaking use of a cassette adapter the crew could also use an ipod or a similar device to play music through this on the inner side you will find your inertial navigation control system and your sar the secondary altitude and heading reference control panel behind that your lights on the outer side however your communication control system ccs as in the front seat and this is followed by the vhf uhf and hf control panel and you also have odin which allows air-to-air and air-to-ground data transfer the black yellow lever on the outside is the command ejection selector set next to the seat and lamp control the mission data entry system mde is located here as well and allows data transfer between the aircraft and a portable memory device just like in the front seat so that he doesn't feel out the wizard also has a stick however this one works slightly different instead of steering the aircraft it is used in conjunction with the displays and gives a more direct control for navigation and targeting it can be moved in x and y resulting in corresponding movements of markers cursors or the map depending on the selected system in the hot displays the red button is the main insert push button allowing you for example to insert map data positions into the main computer based on the marker's position on the display the button that holds the traditional trigger is a spring-loaded three-position control switch operating the azimuth of the ground mapping radar or operating the targeting pod the larger switch on the side toggles you between cursor and markers on the central scope up is marker control down as cursor control somewhat hard to see here the intermittent radar trigger allowing you to update radar information this was often used to limit the radar signal on the tornado on your way to the target the radar would not transmit until this trigger was pressed which could be done in short bursts to update relevant information on the way in and as such was also a way to limit the chance of detection then let's move on to the heads-up display and scope you'll find a tv screen on either side of the central scope the systems officer to display information usually focusing on navigation and weapons the scope in the middle is the combined radar and map projector featuring controls to either side and below and then also you have an aoa indicator and angle of attack indicator to the top left tornado is still in service with several nations but it is starting to age after receiving substantial upgrade packages the first to say goodbye to the aircraft was of course the united kingdom and the royal air force after a 40-year long service the aircraft was retired on the 1st of april 2019. previously it had conducted various farewell flybys across the country and this gives you sort of an idea of its popularity and iconic status at least in britain unlike britain however who have the f-35 coming up germany have no real replacement so far the aircraft remains in service although well there is more and more talk about fielding something that can actually fulfill the role that tornado currently holds but again the choice and the corresponding costs remain a very difficult subject for now tornado ain't going anywhere and heck maybe it was likely to celebrate even its 50th anniversary i hope you enjoyed today's episode and if you did please consider supporting us on patreon to help fund more content just like this one i want to thank the military historical museum here in gato for allowing us to get very close with this magnificent machine if you want to visit this museum all the information is in the description below remember to like share and subscribe and as always have a great day good hunting and see you in the sky

Channel: Military Aviation History

Views: 396,424

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Id: ceN_b-XFQYI

Length: 30min 19sec (1819 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021