PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Is the Tornado GR4 still supersonic?
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Old 25th Oct 2006, 21:57
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ukmil
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
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ok, my point of view on this, being a tornado engineer. The GR4 can no longer go supersonic. in fact, i was carrying out the AICs inhibit mod at St Athan on the Gr1 in 1994. The Ramp actuators were removed and replaced with steel rods. The actual electrical system remained intact, and the CB's tripped.

However, there was a problem some years after, where the steel rods were causing cracks in the intake frames, so some gr's had actutors put back in, but the system is still inhibited. A GR is only capable of greater than 1.3M, with outboard stores removed, and as they never fly in that config, it is not required

You might even see some F3's with the outboard pylons, as part of the trial sead mod, these were also lim'd to subsonic, as the extra stress caused by the loads on the ends of the wing were too great.
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