QRA Types

[Squirrel 41]

Well, after last week's fun and games, we can now add Typhoon F2 to the group of types starring in "look at me intercepting a Bear/Blackjack/Backfire etc etc" photos.

I wonderred how big this club is?

- Tornado F3 (F2 as well?)
- Phantom FGR1/FGR 2 (F-4J(UK) - or whatever the service designation was: BEagle?)
- Lightning F1/F2/F3/F6
- Hunter (Mks?)
- Javelin (Mks?)

S41

[Indicating Full]

VC10 - not seen the photos though.

[Regie Mental]

For the record, Phantom FG.1, not FGR.1. Did SHARs ever intercept?

[Flarkey]

VC10 - not seen the photos though.

[Northern Circuit]

I seem to recall SHARS getting in behind during the old JMC's back in the 80's

[ORAC]

Add Javelin: Tales of the Cold War.

[Squirrel 41]

Many thanks for all of these - presentation will be more historically accurate!

Anyone know the marks of Hunter / Javelin to pre-empt the question from pedant at the back?

Cheers,

S41

[ZH875]

And of course:

[Set Me Free]

Did the Victor?

[cornish-stormrider]

I could all but see the pilot of that delta hanging out ths side with a gat in his hand having a go at the red peril

[ORAC]

Did the Victor?

Hundreds. The normal formation was a Tanker + Q2 (Q1 did the first intercept at the edge and headed for home, Q2 was scrambled to replace him and, hopefully, the tanker from BZ had got airborne in waaaaay less than 3 hours and escorted him north.

Bears invariably flew in pairs. Q2 would do an intercept on the lead aircraft and leave the tanker to shadow it when he went off after the second aircraft. When they were Bear Fs at low level finding the second aircraft could be tricky, but at least the tanker could keep track of the other one.

It usually meant using HF, and then long quiet periods when the fighter was plugged in.

So Victors, VC-10s and Tristars all got intercepts. Even if they got their knucles rapped when they went under a Bear to get the door numbers and the Russian embassy filed a complaint....

Not sure if the Shack ever got an intercept. I mean, he was stuck at about 5-7k ft and 140kts, but I suppose a Bear F might have got curious and gone to have a look at him...

[Sempre 206]

Don't forget to add the Mighty Hunter (Nimrod - in all flavours) to the list.
And yes, you could hear the props.

[normally right blank]

Other nations chipped in too:
http://www.f-16.net/news_article2434.html

[Wensleydale]

The Shackleton did indeed see a good few Bears - usually as they flew past at great speed. There are one or two photos taken from the Shack in existance but I have not seen any with the grey lady and the red peril in the same picture. Perhaps the camera shutter speed was not fast enough to catch both in the same airspace.

ISTR that the 140kts of the Shack was for a lindholm gear drop and that usual cruise was 160Kts. Friday night cruise was 180Kts with a following wind. On transits from Neatishead back to Lossie into a headwind I remember seeing intercity 125s on the East Coast Line overtaking us. Mind you, we could do 13 hours on a full load of petrol (3284 Gallons?).

Forgive the thread steal - an old man's memories come trickling back.

[Squirrel 41]

Many thanks for all the helpful replies - and pictures of intercepts pre-Lightning (and not just BEAR) would be gratefully rec'd.

Wensleydale: thanks for that - wonderful vision of Shack losing to the train!

Cheers

S41

[Shackman]

Wensleydale obviously forgot the 400 gal overload tank for the bomb bay, which gave us 16+ hours (the longest I did in a Mk 2 was 16:35 but I don't think we had much left on landing - the Mk 3 could do 24 hours in the early days). However, whilst cruise was indeed 160kts, it was possible to get over 300kts straight and level with everything at max chat; add water meth (for 5 mins) and we got to 325kts in a trial with an AEW at Boscombe - didn't half surprise the Harvard who thought he had a nice easy target - although the noise level inside was impressive. Apparently as we went over BD at approx 300ft it was quite impressive outside as well judging from the spectators coming out of the woodwork!

Oh - and yes a Bear did easily overtake us when we were in cruise/AEW mode. I think in our case there were one or two photos taken privately, and of course those by the other crew!

PS - Vno was 300kts, but the boffin on board just kept saying go faster - so we did!

[Green Flash]

If I might air my Vulcan ignorance for a moment? In ZH's pic of the Vulc shadowing the Bear, the black & white, rectilinear colour scheme looks a one off and what is that box under the tail? First guess is some AAR thang but can some knowledgable type confirm or whatever please? Ta.

[Wensleydale]

We didn't have the bomb bay tank in the AEW 2 (at least when I was there in the early 80s). The bomb bay had been shortened to fit in the extra radar kit for the APS 20 leaving just 9 bomb bay stations. All we had in the bay were the extra luggage paniers if required and the flares, marker marines and lindolm kits. ISTR that we had to run 2 of the engines at a non efficient 2175 RPM to drive the radar because the generators did not have a constant speed unit, and even by throttling back the other 2 to cruise we only got 13 hours out of it. We could get a bit more by throttling back on 3 engines and using the back-up inverter (No 9?) for the radar, but that broke the radar if one of the generators decided not to play. The noise from the desynchronised engines was appauling! The longest shack sortie in my log book is 12hrs 55mins.

[kevrockjockuk01]

You are correct.
The Vulcan is one of the AAR fitted Vulcans of 50 sqn.
Kev

[ORAC]

Its the Vulcan B2K HDU mod. A Heath Robinson affair (sorry if that sounds insulting) added under the tail. So, in the photo, it's yet another tanker escorting the second Bear with the Q taking the photo.