History of Tornado F3 ZE728?

[Hank1980]

I'm trying to find out the history of a Tornado F3, serial number ZE728. Does anyone know about this plane or have any suggestions about where I could look?

[hunty]

The best place to find out the history of this Tornado wolud be Air Britain, or one of the many aircraft spotters web-sites. I do know this aircraft was wfu in June 2009 and is now part of the RTP at RAF Leeming.

Hope this helps

Hunty

[Hank1980]

Thanks Hunty, that's a great help!

[TEEEJ]

News article on the plans for ZE728.

'Former RAF fighter plane to be turned into a giant bell'

JournalLive - News - Today's News - Former RAF fighter plane to be turned into a giant bell (http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2010/05/24/former-raf-fighter-plane-to-be-turned-into-a-giant-bell-61634-26505507/)

TJ

[TEEEJ]

Some images that might be of use in tracking the history?

Photo Search Results | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=ZE728)

Air-Britain : ZE728 (http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=ZE728&u=reg)

Images of ZE728 in Australia during 1988

A Different View Of Sydney - Page 9 - Sydney Airport Message Board (http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=3644&page=9)

TJ

[Lima Juliet]

Hank

I flew ZE728 on the following occasions as an instructor on 56 Squadron:

6 Jun 2000 Flew it on a 2-ship versus Hawks on OCU.
13 Jun 2000 Flew it for Queen’s Birthday Flypast practise
4 Aug 2000 Flew it as 4-ship versus a formation of 4x Tornado GR1 and 4x Jaguars
7 Aug 2000 Flew it instructing basic intercepts on OCU

I needed to be careful as there is also a ZG728 that I flew on many more occasions!!!

Good luck with your project.

LJ

[Min Decent Ht]

ZE728 was a twin-sticker. So probably spent most of her time on the OCU. The last time I knew her intimately was in summer 08 when she was with 43(F) Sqn. If she's only just been scrapped she would have moved to 111.

[frodo_monkey]

It spent some time on XXV(F) Sqn evidently, as it appears in my logbook more than once...

10/8/05 Live air-to-air gunnery against a Hawk (well, a banner towed by one) in Akrotiri
24/3/06 Bandit for a mate's convex
30/3/06 4-ship vs 4x F3 and 2x GR4
31/3/06 Redair against 4x F3 in OTA E (Northumberland)
5/6/06 Singleton day into night and AAR
23/6/06 1v1 ACT
1/8/06 TOO in OTA G (Wales)
2/8/06 TOO in OTA G (Wales)
28/2/07 2v2 landing at Coningsby
18/7/07 3v2 EPM vs FRA/Cobham
9/10/07 2v2 Wales
11/02/08 3v3 +2 Hawks ACT North Sea
12/2/08 In-house 2v1 oversea

Used to hate being in the back of T-birds, melting it down is the best thing for it ;)

[Hank1980]

Thanks everyone for all this information! What would be the life-span for a plane like this?

[frodo_monkey]

From the answers above, about 20 years ;)

[SandLat650]

Can't find a record of flying 728, but did fly 729, 730, 731, 732 and 734 starting in late 87, so I suspect 728 was delivered at the same time.

[steve609]

Tornado F3 'ZE 728' newspaper article

Cold War fighter plane strikes at Seham school - Sunderland Echo (http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Cold-War-fighter-plane-strikes.6436616.jp)