"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Tornado F-3 's scrambled from Leuchars to intercept the Rssian Bears



Would somebody identify all that smoky black discolouration on the base of the rudder of the Tornado - or is it just showing it's age ?

UPDATE 16/9/07

Anon tells us that an engineer is required to clean aircraft - Extraordinary, aren't mops and buckets of soapy water all that is required and little vigorous application ?

Assumed thedesignation is correctly F3 and corrected.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

the discolouration is from reverse thrusters used to slow down when touching down on landing. all the heat and muck is sprayed forward across the tail.

ziz said...

Thanks Matt. Don't they ever wash them ? I have never seen this sort of muckiness on any other planes . esp USAF.

Pride in the job.

Plus these are antique planes haven't they improved the thruster designs (deflectors) to prevent it and any damage from runway rubble ?

Anonymous said...

The Jet pictured is a Tornado F3. The other comment is right, those marks are made by the thrust reverse. And to be honest, the engineers are busy enough without having to constantly clean the jets, especially as they will get dirty again every time they land!!

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish