Posted on 09/27/2010 7:48:12 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
These RAF Typhoons are worth their weight in gold
Con Coughlin was taken for an unforgettable ride in the £69 million defender of Britain’s skies.
Con Coughlin experiences the professionalism and skill of Typhoon pilots
The two young RAF fighter pilots are relaxing in a couple of dilapidated, brown velvet armchairs in the mess when the alert sounds to scramble their Typhoon interceptors. Air traffic controllers monitoring the crowded air space over the North Sea have identified a suspicious light aircraft heading in the direction of a nuclear power station on the east coast.
Within minutes the Typhoons have taxied from their bomb-proof concrete hangars to the runway. As the pilots apply the after-burners of the Rolls-Royce engines and move to full throttle, the planes scream into the skies over Lincolnshire like a pair of rockets to intercept their designated target. Equipped with short and medium range air-to-air rockets, the pilots are well aware that, as a last resort, they could be ordered to shoot down the approaching aircraft.
On this occasion it turns out to be a false alarm. But with senior intelligence officials warning that Britain faces a serious risk of a lethal terrorist attack, the RAF’s Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) crews provide a vital line of defence. At RAF Coningsby, home to the elite XI fighter squadron, pilots maintain a 24/7 readiness to tackle any airborne threat to the British Isles.
Usually these are nothing more troubling than Russian nuclear bombers testing the reaction times of Britain’s air defences. But after Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, last week warned that Islamist militants are planning low-intensity terror attacks, one major concern is that terrorists could use a light plane packed with explosives for a suicide attack against at
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
In 2004, the Democrats were saying that when George Bush was doing these runway alert scrambles he was AWOL and dodging the draft.
Was expecting one of these!
Same here!
Wonder if the pic of Con Coughlin is before or after flight. He looks sorta... ready to puke, and chief red in the face. No whiskey before scramble. Tango. Fox.
Britain’s terrorist problem is on his islamic streets paved with welfare state gold in hell holes like Birmingham, Londonistan, Nottingham, Leicester, Manchester, et al.
I think the old Typhoon may be more effective in dealing with the terrorist problem the UK faces. Ed Milliband is another POS.
Yea, me too. Best close air support craft the British had. Equal to our Thunderbolt.
Hey you Typhoon pilots...what’s that scorch at the center of the left wing root?
There is a vent there, used for engine redirect, I believe.
(I have never flown a typhoon)
The early models did have a problem with the tail coming off in high speed dives, though. One of the articles I read had a picture of a little comment painted on the side: "If I chance to fail, then Fate will not have watched my tail".
Not a Typhoon pilot, but that is the exhaust for the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU,) a small jet engine that provides emergency power for the aircraft if the engines go out for any reason, and provides ground power for engine starts.
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