Flying the Buccaneer & Tornado | Jon Parker (Part 1 In- Person) 

I was at Mildenhall Air Day in 1986. I went out the day before to recce the back roads and skipped the 14 mile queue to get in. As I was arriving two Buccaneers took off and just departed. Like everyone else I was just eager to get to the static display and expected plenty of warning when the flight display started. "Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to Mildenhall...", the usual blather. Then "And to open the air display, in the center of the main runway (what? there's nothing ON the runway) The Buccaneers!" WHAM! 10,000 heads snapped left as the noise hit. Just in time to see two banana bombers at a height of about ten feet with vapor flashing on and off over the wings. And they were gone as fast as they had arrived. It was an amazing way to open the show, and I have never seen anything like it before or since.

Cheers David

My thoughts exactly

Thanks Andrew.

Thank you.

I wonder where they're all at now,Damien D'Lima,Rich Summers Cox,Ned Cullen ,Tommy Mackle to name a few,great bunch of guys

Cheers mate.

The galling thing is that such a Beast existed. The Tonka's avionics and nav-attack system were developed in a Buccaneer airframe (XT272). Unfortunately, the results were such that this platform was an embarrassment for the Tornado programme for the reasons outlined in the interview. Consequently, the trials airframe was scrapped (very low hrs on it) with undue haste once the programme was complete.

Cheers Paul.

Cheers

Thanks Matt.

Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah I have heard that also.

Well a Hawk *should* fly rings around an F15, 'knife fight in a phonebox' style dogfighting ain't an F15's job The interesting question would be the comparisons across Hawks, Alpha Jets, F18s & F16s. Hell, chuck in a Eurofighter Typhoon too. And maybe a Rafael

@@Farweasel Gnat enters the room !

@@sichere 🙄 To be fair, they worked out well in India

@@Farweasel They most certainly did - The Folland "Sabre Slayer" Gnat was a terrific little plane.

No Sea Eagle was not nuclear capable. The Buccaneer maritime nuclear strike was done by toss-bombing. So you pull up sharply from low level about 5 or 6 miles out from the target and “loft” the nuclear bomb onto a ballistic path towards the target, then do a sharp 180 and get out of Dodge City as fast as you can!

I've got two thoughts: 1) The conformal tanks add to the wing's rigidity, 2) This is a bit of backward thinking - we often think the wings hang on the fuselage, which is true when the aircraft is parked on the hard stand. But when it is flying, the fuselage hangs on the wing. The centre of lift of the individual wings would be the pivot point for the whole lever system each side of the fuselage, and if your center of lift is inboard of the fuel tank, then the weight of the fuselage would be slightly lessened by the weight of the tank on the opposite side of the see-saw teeter totter pivot point. How's that for two theories?

It was filmed at Newark Air Museum. Well worth a visit.

@@Aircrewinterview Many thanks. I've not been to Newark Air Museum for many a year (1996 probably). It was good then but looks like a lot's happened since. I'll certainly have to plan a visit 👍

Because you work for the BBC and this is far better than a lecture on why we should all be crossderessing?

@@Farweasel you’ve lost me on that one .

@@pauljones8149 At least *try* and keep up at the back. The BBC's stock in trade these days is glorification or the woke & limp-wristed. Which is deadly dull despite the occasional unintended humur of farce. This is appealing to a predominantly male audience and consequently will take viewers away from their politically correct indoctrination. So they ain't gonna like it.

@@Farweasel I will do my utmost to keep up 👍

@@Farweasel 😂😂😂😂😂 priceless and so very true !!

He flew the harrier too. Watch Pt. 2

If he stood *behind* the Harrier we wouldn't have been able to see him. Duh.

@@Farweasel haha

Your judgment is right off. JP is a top man.

Don’t be such a twat.