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Old 5th Dec 2003, 19:39
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Norman Stanley Fletcher
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: 'An Airfield Somewhere in England'
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I used to be on Tornado GR1/4s (ground attack version) but have flown about 100 hours on the Tornado F3 which is almost certainly the variant involved here. I cannot remember the exact speeds (last flight 1995) but my memory of the GR1/4 was that the basic approach speed calculation began at about 145 knots and if I remember correctly the F3 was a little higher than that. You then have to make allowances for fuel, stores etc and we always made approaches around about 152 - 157 knots. 157 knots is just over 180 mph so if the F3 is a little faster then an approach speed of just under 200 mph is not far off the truth.

Now what I do remember is that if the wings were stuck fully back (63° or 67° depending on variant) instead of fully forward (25°) then it was possible to have an approach speed in excess of 200kts (230mph). Fortunately I do not know of any case where that scenario arose for real but it was practised regularly on approach without actually landing. Now that would have been an interesting landing!
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