Having flown the Tornado GR1/4 for a number of years I am now fully committed
to the idea that variable geometry was useful only before they had decent
fly-by-wire platforms. It is now a waste of weight, space and money. Indeed,
I have long advocated that they fix the Tornado’s wings at 45 degrees, allow
the flaps and slats to operate fully at that sweep angle and remove the hinges
and extra power gizmos, thus saving weight. Any other wing sweep angle is
superfluous, although the 63/67 sweep looks good for flypasts; it feels rubbish
to fly the aircraft in that configuration.
Concorde might have been the first effective wing form which did not need
variable geometry.
Chris
> On 17 Sep 2016, at 18:36, Bill Pearce <billcpearce@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> New, radical designs are always a risky venture. The Soviets built the
> Tu144 and crashed one at Orly while demonstrating low speed capabilities
> against Concorde. Boeing never made a prototype of their swing-wing design.
--
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