RAF Northolt & Typhoon

[GeeRam]

Rhino,

That does not look like Northolt to me. There should be either a petrol station to the right of the picture with relatively low land beyond or the A40!

Shots taken are looking straight down the runway from West End Rd end, looking SW. You can see the low height street lights of the A40 in the bottom left hand side of the shot with the horiz anti-view banner along the peri fencing with cars on the A40 behind.

[Ringway Flyer]

So NO on the gasholder meant 'YES' if you wanted Northolt, and NO if you wanted Heathrow....

[Skips]

Northolt

It is Northolt. I have similar shots. Anyway, 3 Typhoons have just left. Should be back in an hour or so. ROAD BLOCK!!!

RAF Northolt - a set on Flickr

[Widger]

Okay...I accept defeat. It was the foreshortening of the ground beyond that caused me to doubt as the land in the climbout is relatively low. That must be Hillingdon court in the background then?


Frosties are soggy!

[HTB]

Yeah, that telephoto foreshortening thing can be deceptive; it gives the impression that the aeroplane is airborne between the first and second intersecting taxiways - which means a take-off run of between approximately 200-400 metres (without the trhreshold markings for reference it's hard to tell).

Is this an optical illusion, or is the performance really that good?

Mister B

[Courtney Mil]

Mr B,

Without a load of bombs and such, yes it really is.

Courtney

[HTB]

Thanks CM

Perhaps they should put in an extra seat for a navigator to slow it down a bit...

You know I'm one of your great fans (but not as great as the one in the billiards rom at Akrotiri)...

Mister B

[TEEEJ]

HTB wrote

Is this an optical illusion, or is the performance really that good?

300 metres from a 2008 EADS release

EADS Global Website - Luftwaffe Eurofighters

The takeoff distance prescribed for aircraft in the air policing configuration is a mere 300 metres. Eurofighter's powerful engines can take the aircraft to an altitude of roughly 39,000 feet – and thus above civil flight levels – in just 90 seconds.

In cockpit footage taken at RAF Waddington.

[Fakawi]

@ Natstrackalpha

how brainwashed you military fans are...

Well go on, let the yellow press do your thinking.

[stumpey]

I know. All these fast boy toys and firework sticks aren't for keeping any bad guys out. No no no. There to keep the Athletes IN and performing so the ticket holders think its been value for money. "Got to put on a bit of a show eh"?

[JT Eagle]

This is how much runway they need for take off and landing (with allowances for foreshortening). The RHAG engagement was a planned event.

[AGS Man]

JT Eagle
Did it damage the Typhoon?

[JT Eagle]

Damaged before the engagement - no. It was a test of the cable and the emergency response. You can see the jet was going relatively slowly by the time it took the wire. Afterwards? Don't know, but it sat there for what seemed a fairly long time waiting for fire rescue to show up and unhook it. At some point it shut down and it was eventually towed back by a tug.

JT

PS - sorry about the double video window thing. Why does it do that?

[AGS Man]

JT
Thanks for that. If you watch the event at 0:54 you can see the Pendant rise sharply. It quite possibly hit the afterburner petals hence the shutdown. I would guess he was only doing 30-40 knots on engaging hence the very short run out. As I said in an earlier post it was probably a MAAS rather than a RHAG which has a much higher energy absorbing capacity though obviously not needed in this case, but for an approach end engagement thats a different matter.

[Skips]

Sad to see them go. Back soon though!

Afterburners.
Its getting hot in here. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Typhoon over the fence.
Typhoon-Landing 6m? | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Typhoon over the bush
Typhoon-on-Final | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[LateArmLive]

I have no experience of flying the Typhoon, do you?

Can you distinguish between conjecture and a fact? I'm merely postulating that a fully fuelled and armed high performance QRA Typhoon might find the shortish runway challenging, especially on a hot day in July/August.

Your facetious comment singles you out as a minor prat, unless of course you care to contribute a positive input regarding short field performance for the above configured aeroplane based on your intimate knowledge.

Apologies if I offended you.

I do have experience of flying the Typhoon, and can assure you that we did check the performance many, many months before we deployed. I'm sure the spotters' videos on this thread have been able to put your mind at rest in the meantime.
I would like to confirm that I can distinguish between conjecture and fact, and have been doing so for some time now. I would only share my intimate knowledge of the short-field performance of my jet with you on an open forum if I was a major prat.

[phil9560]

What a monumentally cool answer Latearm

[HTB]

Late Arm

No apology required - it's like a crewrom and we can speak our minds (well, most of the time). My notion of short obviously does not match the clean aircraft short field performance of the Typhoon (TEEEJ seems to have found an open source - confirmed by the videos). Airing of intimate knowledge of performance not required; a gentle confirmation, such as Courtney's, with a hint of credentials (as you have now shown) would have put me comfortably back in my box...and saved a grumpy observation

My turn to make the coffee...?

Mister b

[usquamlad70]

Complaints

Only off the Pub Landlords when the Poles got back from a sortie.

[usquamlad70]

Gasometers

There were 2 gasometers one near Heathrow with LH on it and one near Northolt with NH on iteasy mistake to make I was led to believe it was a Boeing 707 and it happened just before i was posted there