Aircraft Aweful and Awesome

The Euro Switchblade

By Dr. Marshall Michel
86th Airlift Wing Historian

***image1***Numerous fighter aircraft come into Ramstein, but most are various colors of NATO F-16 fighter jet, spiced by an occasional U.S. F-15. One of the few non-U.S. designed fighters that appear occasionally is the Panavia “Tornado,” a purely European fighter-bomber.

The Tornado is unique because of its variable geometry wing, or “swing wing,” a rarity today but a wing design that was all the rage in the 1960s and early 1970s.  The basic idea is simple —  for very high speed, the smaller the wing the faster the aircraft can fly, thus a preference for a highly swept or delta wing. However, aircraft also need to land, take off and maneuver, and for these flight envelopes the greater the wing area and more lift devices, such as flaps and slats that give greater lift at lower speeds, the better. To solve these seemingly impossibly contradictory demands, aircraft designers began to use the variable geometry “swing wing.” With the wing swung back, the aircraft could fly very fast, but with the wings forward it was very maneuverable and could land at slow speeds.

The first really useful swing wing aircraft was the F-111, followed by the U.S. Navy F-14 and the Soviet MiG-23. But there is not free lunch, and the problems with the swing wing are twofold — the mechanism for swinging the wing is very heavy, and it is very expensive.

Still, in 1968, when Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Canada formed a working group to develop a European Multi Role Combat Aircraft, the group settled on a swing wing aircraft. It quickly became clear the program was as much about helping the participating countries’ aerospace industries as about developing an effective combat aircraft, and Canada and Belgium pulled out in 1969 (Belgium bought the F-18, Canada the F-18). The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands formed Panavia Aircraft GmbH, but the Netherlands left in 1970 (and later bought F-16s).

The important part of the arrangement was how the costs would be split – UK and Germany 42.5 percent, 15 percent to Italy – and who would build what parts, even though the design had not been finalized.  The front fuselage and tail assembly was built in the UK, the center fuselage in Germany, and the wings in Italy. The engines were spilt the same way – 40 percent Rolls-Royce, 40 percent MTU, and 20 percent FIAT.

On the seemingly minor matter of what mission the aircraft should perform, the RAF wanted a two-seat aircraft for both an air defense fighter and, with the Italians, a ground attack aircraft, while the Germans wanted a single seat aircraft for ship attack/defense suppression aircraft. The design settled on a two seater, and the first Tornado flew in 1974. In June 1979 the first deliveries began to the air forces of all three countries.

While the Tornado was very expensive because of the deliberately convoluted production arrangements, it proved to be a fine low level ground attack aircraft, extremely fast – perhaps the fastest aircraft in the world –  at low level. Both Italian and British ground attack Tornados saw combat in Desert Storm, but they lacked the avionics to use precision munitions, which resulted in their being assigned to large area targets like airfield complexes. These missions proved very costly – six RAF Tornados and one Italian Tornado were shot down, the largest number of a single aircraft type lost in the war, but the defense suppression and reconnaissance versions performed well. Today Tornados soldier on with a steady stream of modifications, but in many roles it is being replaced by the new Eurofighter. 

(For questions and comments, e-mail marshall.michel@ramstein.af.mil)