Refurbished Tornado

I was at the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection today, at the invitation of one of the managers, for the handing over of this Tornado GR1 after its refurbishment.  It had been a gate guardian at MOD Bicester for twenty years and was in a dire state, it seems.  

These two chaps had just been peering into the left engine intake, talking about the intake ramp.  This device, a sort of flap that would lower from the top of the intake, was intended to allow the engines to operate at speeds over Mach1.  However,  it was necessary only above Mach1.4, and the aircraft was not allowed above Mach 0.92 in its normal configuration so it was a rather pointless mechanism.  The wing sweep was pointless as well, since the speed ranges available in different sweeps made little difference to its operation; I could go on . . .

It wasn't my favourite aircraft to fly, heavy on the controls and limited aerodynamically, but it did the job for forty years, I suppose.  Grumble over .  . .

The Extra is of an ex-test pilot who flew the Tornado, reminiscing at length.

There are a few more of this occasion on my Flickr album, including of Jaguar and Hawk cockpits, with smells that brought a lot of memories back.