Heads up. Tornado F3/GR4, third person RWR, Just spent the first 5 minutes of the match getting nothing but question marks on the RWR.
So far i’ve gotten:
F-16
Mirage F1
F-14
So i’ll keep investigating, figure out which is causing the ?
Probably chaff
Might be, was some later that was definetly chaff, but i’ve had the odd lock miles from anyone that lingered for quite a while
I feel that the radar on the tornado F3 at 12.0 and the tornado F3 at 13.0 is about the same. Sometimes, using the beyond-visual-range mode doesn’t allow me to lock on properly, even when the target is less than 5 km away.
Schizophrenia update
Are these F3 models by chance? Found them while doing my usual search for Danish Drakens and found some of these beauties were part of the operations training in 1993 in Karup
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Looks like ADVs
Any difference from the F3? Idk i don’t know much about tornados but figured id share them since they look amazing also have someone ID them lol
Also is the ash on the tail from reverse thrust usage?
ADV is just air defence variant. in 1993 those would be Tornado F.3 that airframe ZE887 is from 11 Squadron
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ADV is the Type. F3 is just the RAF designation.
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Oh appreciate the ID on the squad, yeah i found quite a few nations were here in Denmark for some operation training, the US, Tyskland, UK. Norge, it was just neat seeing so many nations aircraft all there, might have been another but i unfortunately don’t know every nations ID’s on their aircraft. Was hoping to find some M71 pods but nothing. Appreciate the ID though!!
Also if anyone has any pictures from the 1972 battle of Britain training event id love to see some
Technically the F.2 & F.3 are both ADVs, but the F.2 was not even in service long enough for a single squadron pilot to finish their training on it.
So yes in practice ADV usually refers to the F.3
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Yes they’re F.3s. If they were F.2s the fin root area below the rudder would angle towards the engine nozzles more acutely, like it does on the GR.1 and GR.4.
Photo above is an F.2, if you look at the angle above the red covers on the exhausts, you’ll see it sweeps further back
The F.3 has a longer engine with correspondingly longer jet pipes. So because the engine nozzles exit the fuselage further back, the angle of the fin root down to the engines is a more consistent line with the trailing edge of the whole rudder/fin.
You can also tell it’s longer from the relative position of the nozzles from where the elevators/horizontal-stabs are attached to the fuselage. On the F.2 photo above, there’s barely any gap spanning between the elevator joint, and the grey triangular section beside the engine nozzle, where the thrust reversers rotate.
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Yeah. but in-game you have the F3 and the ADV. I was just clarifying that there isnt any difference between the F3 and ADV
Were F.2’s converted to F.3 standard?
It was originally planned to upgrade the F.2s to F.2A standard, was which would have been similar to the F.3. Due to budget constraints though the F.2s ended up being put into storage, rather than upgraded immediately.
A civilian contractor then botched the maintenance on a number of Tornado F.3s and damaged the centre section of the fuselage beyond repair. As a result nearly all of the F.2s were broken up and their centre fuselage sections were used to replace the damaged fuselage sections on the F.3s. That permanently put and end to any plans for an F.2 upgrade (though it is debatable whether there would have ever been budget for it anyway). The few remaining F.2s, I think there were only three or four of them, were then used exclusively as trials platforms.
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ZD899 was used as a trials/development aircraft by BAE, and flew until ~2004 before meeting the same fate as other F.2s and being used for spare parts to repair F.3s
ZD902 was used at Boscombe Down as a research aircraft designated Tornado F.2A and codenamed TIARA.
ZD902 with the experimental GEC-Marconi Type 260 or “FIRSTSIGHT” Infra-Red Search and Track test unit on the nose, and likely NAVFLIR pods under the fuselage. It was also used for trialling things like helmet-mounted sight/cueing systems, replacing analogue instruments with “glass cockpit” displays, and wide-angle diffractive HUDs similar to the F-16C’s LANTIRN HUD.
ZD902 flew at Boscombe Down until 2011. It is now in private ownership in the USA being restored to an airworthy condition. The owner, Jared Isaacman used to post some pretty interesting clips of their progress, on instagram - the link above to the cockpit photos is from there
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If it “trialed” HMS and IRST, could those be reported I wonder?
It was a Tornado F.2A (specifically the TIARA), not an F.3. so no.
I did have a suggestion to add the TIARA as a separate aircraft though on the old forum.
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