By the mid-1960s, the economies of Western Europe had almost completely recovered from the devastating consequences of World War II. This fully affected the aircraft industry in Germany and Italy, where explosive growth began. In Italy, in the post-war period, very successful aircraft were created: the Aermacchi MB-326 trainer and the Aeritalia G.91 light fighter-bomber, which was produced jointly with the FRG. France advanced farthest in the military aircraft industry, where the construction of world-class combat aircraft was carried out at the enterprises of Dassault Aviation in the 60s: Etendard IV, Mirage III, Mirage 5, Mirage F1.
Fighter Mirage IIIE
At the same time, these countries demonstrated a desire to rid themselves of dependence on the United States in equipping their air forces. In Great Britain, where by the end of the war there were eminent aircraft building firms and significant production capacities, on the contrary, due to the reduction in military spending in the 60s, there was a decline in aircraft manufacturing.
British tactical bomber Buccaneer
The last successful British combat aircraft with export potential were the English Electric Lightning fighter-interceptor and the Blackburn Buccaneer tactical bomber, originally designed to be based on British aircraft carriers. The Hawker Siddeley Harrier vertical takeoff and landing aircraft was in many ways a unique, but specific machine, and was not widely used due to its excessive cost and complexity of operation.
Half a century ago, a global armed conflict between two ideologically opposing systems seemed inevitable. But the use of strategic nuclear weapons meant the mutual destruction of the parties. With a high degree of probability, the territory of Western Europe could become an arena for battles using tactical nuclear warheads. NATO troops were preparing to resist the Soviet tank wedges, rushing towards the English Channel.
In these conditions, a large role was assigned to bomber aviation, capable not only of striking directly at clusters of armored vehicles in the frontline zone and on the battlefield, but also operating on communications, destroying targets in the operational depth, several hundred kilometers behind the front line. In addition, the ability to operate from runways of limited length acquired great importance, since it was predicted that in the event of a "big war", the main part of the runways at permanent air bases would be disabled, and tactical aircraft would have to fly from highways and poorly prepared airfields …
In the second half of the 60s, the capabilities of not only the country's Air Defense Troops, but also the Army Air Defense, significantly increased in the USSR. The experience of military operations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East has demonstrated that modern air defense systems are capable of successfully repelling raids of supersonic aircraft flying at medium and high altitudes. In these conditions, specially created "air defense breakers" with variable wing geometry could successfully complete the combat mission.
In the United States, such an aircraft was the General Dynamics F-111 two-seater tactical bomber, which made its debut in Vietnam, and in the USSR, the Su-24 front-line bomber. However, in the USSR, aircraft designers did not escape the enthusiasm for a variable sweep wing when creating relatively light vehicles: MiG-23, MiG-27 and Su-17. At that time, it seemed that the increased takeoff and landing characteristics and the ability to change sweep depending on the profile and flight speed compensated for the increased cost, complexity and weight of the aircraft.
In the mid-60s, the Air Forces of Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands were concerned about the need to find a replacement for the F-104 Starfighter. It was at this time that the Americans were actively imposing the recently entered service F-4 Phantom II on the European allies. But once again to follow the lead of the United States meant to deprive their own aircraft manufacturing enterprises of orders and finally lose their own design school. It is clear that none of these countries could pull alone the program of creating a truly modern combat aircraft capable of competing with the Phantom.
In 1968, due to a budget deficit, the British abandoned the acquisition of the F-111K; before that, the TSR-2 program, an attack reconnaissance aircraft designed by the Bristol Airplane Company (BAC), was curtailed.
Airplane TSR-2
The first flight of the only built copy of the TSR-2 took place on September 27, 1964. The aircraft was originally designed for low-altitude high-speed flights. In many ways it was a very promising machine, but it was the victim of squabbles in the British Defense Department and budgetary constraints. Hopes for the joint British-French AFVG variable geometry aircraft project were dashed by the withdrawal of France.
In 1968 West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Canada formed a Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) working group to study the replacement of the F-104 Starfighter. The leadership of the air forces of all these countries wanted a universal combat aircraft that would be able to carry out missions to intercept, bomb, air reconnaissance and combat the enemy fleet. According to the technical experts of the countries participating in the working group, it was supposed to be a twin-engine aircraft with a variable sweep wing, capable of operating at low altitudes, with a take-off weight of 18-20 tons and a combat radius of more than 1000 km. The aircraft from the very beginning was supposed to be made two-seater, while the first crew member was busy piloting, the second had navigation systems, weapon control equipment and electronic warfare at the disposal of the second.
The assessments made on the basis of the experience of the combat use of aviation in local wars of the 60s and 70s made it possible to conclude that in order to achieve the necessary combat effectiveness of a heavy fighter-bomber on board, it is necessary to divide labor between two pilots specializing in different tasks.
In 1968 the UK joined the MRCA. It was assumed that the air forces of Western European countries will purchase 1,500 aircraft. But in 1969, Canada withdrew from the program under pressure from the United States, and Belgium preferred to purchase the French Dassault Mirage 5 and subsequently established a licensed assembly of the F-16A / B. As a result, in May 1969, a memorandum on the joint creation of a promising combat aircraft was signed by representatives of Great Britain, Germany and Italy. The Netherlands withdrew from the program, citing too high costs and excessive complexity of the aircraft, and preferred to buy American F-16s.
When the agreement was reached, Great Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany took over 42.5% of the work, and the remaining 15% went to Italy. The joint venture Panavia Aircraft GmbH, headquartered in Hallbergmoos, Bavaria, included the British Aircraft Corporation, which developed the front fuselage section and engines, the German Messerschmitt Bolkow Blohm GmbH, which was responsible for the central part of the fuselage, and the Italian Aeritalia, which created the wings.
In June 1970, the transnational company Turbo-Union Limited was created for the production of engines. Its shares were divided among European manufacturers of aircraft engines: British Rolls-Royce (40%), West German MTU (40%) and Italian FIAT (20%). About 30 more contractor firms participated in the creation of avionics and weapons systems.
For consideration by the technical commission of the Panavia concern, 6 draft designs of a combat aircraft with a variable geometry wing were submitted. After the selection of the final version and the approval of the technical design in 1970, practical work began.
It was an aircraft of a normal design with a high-wing variable sweep and two engines in the rear fuselage. The ¾ airframe structure is made of aluminum-magnesium alloys. The all-metal semi-monocoque fuselage is assembled from three separate sections with technological connectors. In the front part, the cockpit was placed under a common canopy that opens upward, the compartments of the air conditioning and avionics units.
The middle section is with monolithic frames; in the middle there is a titanium beam with wing pivot hinges. The hydraulic system provides control of mechanization, wing rotation, retraction and landing gear. It consists of two redundant engine-driven subsystems. In the event of engine failure, an emergency electric pump powered by a battery is used for the functioning of the hydraulic system.
Side air intakes of bucket-type engines, their adjustment was carried out by a digital electronic system with external compression. The aft fuselage contains the bulk of the components of the booster control system, engines and auxiliary units. There are two air brakes on the top of the fuselage, and a brake hook is provided under the tail to reduce the length of the landing run.
That is, the scheme and layout of the new fighter-bomber did not contain anything fundamentally new and fit into the world canons of aircraft construction. The innovation was an analog fly-by-wire flight control system with subsystems for improving control and stability. At large sweep angles of the wing, roll control is provided by the differential deflection of the stabilizer consoles. At low sweep angles, spoilers are used, which are also used to damp lift during landing. The wing sweep angle can vary from 25 to 67 degrees, depending on the speed and flight profile.
TRDDF RB. 199
In 1973, specialists from the Turbo Union company tested an RB by-pass turbojet engine with an afterburner. 199-34R-01 - mounted under the fuselage of the British strategic bomber Vulcan. And in July 1974, the first test flight of the aircraft, named Tornado, took place. Already in the fourth test flight, the speed of sound was exceeded. In total, 10 prototypes and 5 pre-production machines were involved in the tests. It took 4 years to fine-tune the "Tornado", which had a fairly high coefficient of novelty. Contrary to expectations, the accident rate during the tests was small, much less than during the fine-tuning of the Jaguar. For technical reasons, only one prototype, built in the UK, crashed. Two more cars were lost due to piloting errors.
The first serial fighter-bombers took off in Germany and Great Britain in June 1979, and in Italy in September 1981. Simultaneously with testing and fine-tuning, the aircraft was actively promoted for export. So, back in 1977, one of the British prototypes was shown at the Le Bourget Aviation Show.
Experienced "Tornado" in the exposition of the aviation exhibition in Le Bourget
In 1980, the first "Tornado" entered service with combat squadrons of Germany and Great Britain. The Italian Air Force received new fighter-bombers in 1982. The aircraft was built in large series; in total, from 1979 to 1998, 992 aircraft were built, taking into account prototypes. And despite the fact that the "Tornado" was never a cheap plane, its cost with a set of equipment and weapons in the prices of the mid-90s reached $ 40 million. The Royal Air Force of Great Britain received 254 aircraft, the Luftwaffe - 211 aircraft, the Naval Aviation of the Federal Republic of Germany - 111 aircraft, the Italian Air Force - 99 aircraft, the Saudi Arabian Air Force - 45 aircraft.
The fighter-bomber received the international index Tornado IDS, but in the Luftwaffe it was referred to as the Tornado GS, and in the Royal Air Force of Great Britain - Tornado GR1. Combat training modifications were designated by the additional letter "T".
On the basis of the fighter-bomber for the RAF, the Tornado GR1A tactical all-weather reconnaissance plane and the Tornado GR1B naval fighter-bomber were created. At the end of the 80s in Germany, specialists from Messerschmitt Bolkow Blohm GmbH developed a version of the Tornado ECR reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft. This version of the "Tornado" lost its onboard guns and received a more advanced PNRK, electronic reconnaissance equipment, two infrared stations, equipment for collecting, processing and transmitting intelligence over the radio channel. On the external sling of the Tornado ECR, it is possible to place reconnaissance containers, electronic warfare stations, automatic dipole reflectors and IR traps.
Panavia's advertising brochures say that with a capacity of more than 5 tons of internal fuel tanks and the use of suspended drop tanks, the Tornado's radius of action is 1390 km. Obviously, in this case we are talking about a reconnaissance mission.
The real combat range of a fighter-bomber when performing strike missions with a bomb load of 2500 kg is estimated at 800-900 km. Ferry range - 3900 km. The maximum take-off weight of the aircraft can reach 27,200 kg, normal - 20,400 kg. Aircraft of the first series were equipped with RB turbofan engines. 199-34MK. 101, and since 1983 - TRDDF RB. 199-34 Mk. 103 (thrust of one engine 4380 kgf, afterburner - 7675 kgf). Climb rate - 77 m / sec. At high altitude, the maximum permissible speed without external suspension is 2340 km / h (2.2 M). At low altitude with suspensions - 1112 km / h (0.9 M). Maximum operational overload no more than +7, 5 g.
West German "Tornado" with a wing set to the maximum sweep angle
"Tornado" was equipped with very advanced avionics and powerful weapons. Perhaps, in terms of electronic systems, all the Western European achievements of the late 70s and early 80s were implemented on the two-seat fighter-bomber. In addition to the obligatory VHF and HF dispatch and "closed" communication systems, state recognition equipment, traditional electromechanical instruments with round scales, a number of original developments have been introduced on the aircraft.
Cockpit Tornado GR.1
In the center of the pilot's dashboard there is a navigation indicator with a moving map. The multi-mode forward-looking cartographic radar, created by BAE Systems in conjunction with the American company Texas Instruments, provides automatic tracking of the terrain during flights at low altitudes, mapping, detection of ground and surface targets. The "Tornado" is equipped with a PNRK based on the Spirit 3 digital computer; it processes information from the FIN-1010 digital inertial navigation system and TACAN equipment. Depending on the flight conditions and the equipment used, the navigation error can range from 1.8 to 9 km per hour of flight.
The Ferranti laser rangefinder-designator is stabilized along three axes. It is capable of operating in the external target designation mode, searching for a ground target illuminated by a laser from the ground or another aircraft. The coordinates of the highlighted target are displayed on the HUD. The computerized weapon control system allows for bombing, launching of various types of missiles, as well as firing cannons. During the 1982 RAF exercises at the Honington training ground, the Tornado aircraft crews, who dropped more than 500 high-explosive free-fall bombs, managed to achieve an average bombing accuracy of less than 60 meters, which significantly surpassed the performance of other NATO combat aircraft.
To protect against anti-aircraft guided missiles and gun targeting stations, the Tornado is equipped with the Sky Shadow electronic warfare system, the BOZ 107 dipole reflector and thermal trap dropping system. In the cockpit of the pilot and navigator-operator, indicators of the warning system for radar exposure are installed.
Aviation cannon Mauser BK-27
The built-in armament initially consisted of two 27-mm with a rate of fire up to 1700 rds / min each, but later, to accommodate additional optoelectronic systems and equipment for refueling in the air, one cannon with 180 rounds of ammunition was left on board the modernized aircraft. A combat load weighing up to 9000 kg (bombs - 8000 kg) can be suspended on seven nodes. Including: free-fall, guided bombs and cluster bombs, air-to-surface missiles AGM-65 Maverick, AS-37 Martel, AS-30L, AS.34 Kormoran anti-ship missiles, ALARM and HARM anti-radar missiles and napalm tanks. To combat air targets, the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile defense could be used.
