Very few aircraft were planned to return to UK. In the days of the 1st Edn War SOP, up to 1964, we were instructed to ring the embassy or consulate or who ever, for further orders.
In early days that was not as daft as it seemed as the numbers of weapons was still relatively small.
As for Bobby Buffet, what he says is not exactly true but there is some truth in what he said although it was 10 minutes not 15 and related not to QRA but to certain missions from some place. OTOH I know some missions had thousands of pounds spare.
The normal peacetime landing limit was 8000lbs later increased to 10k. In wartime fuel was planned down to 4k. 4k guaged in 14 tanks could be not a lot. Although we could fly a long way on not a little fuel on a cruise descent, we were actually planned to recover to the recovery base at height. The descent glide would be used to get to a suitable runway.
One mission we had was about a 460 mile penetration to Kiev and almost 600 miles exit to Turkey.
On reflection I think it was 10 miles and not 10 minutes!
Last edited by Pontius Navigator; 26th June 2007 at 08:22.