Originally Posted by
Dan Winterland
Dummies of a proposed low drag bomb designed for the MRCA. Never put into production.
Or perhaps just using the familiar design of one of the contracted threshold weapons (Mk82/83 family) that would be routinely used by almost all Tornado customers?
It seems highly unlikely that a competent test team would grab a random or immature aerodynamic shape, mount them to the TSCs and then fly them on a display aircraft. Stores carriage tends to be a bit more serious and demanding than that.
I don't subscribe to the the theory that these 'display' stores were so light that they could be carried by an individual in the manner described either - pretty hard to get an arm around the bulk of a Mk82 let alone an 83 and the weight would reflect the strength required to survive the demanding aerodynamics of under-fuselage / TSC carriage. MACE lugs also have a minimum carriage mass in order for the geometry to turn into an actual retention mechanism.
So why not display with the UK-only 1000lbs bomb? Well, even in an ideal world there is little motive in displaying an aircraft to potential customers with a weapon that they would not use. Moreover, obtaining the original clearance for TSC use was not quick or easy due to the additional girth of the UK bombs. Even with the final design the TSCs flexed and the bombs clanked against each other in flight... an interesting phenomena for a weapon(!).
Still, the UK bombs did give the aircraft a somewhat more aggressive look:
