AVSIM Commercial Aircraft Review Lago Panavia Tornado

The Panavia Tornado was a joint venture of the German, Italian and British military in the late 1960s to develop a multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA). The requirement called for an aircraft capable of all weather deep strike with the ability to fly low to the ground. This version became known as the IDS or Interdiction Strike model. With its large moving tail and wing surfaces at low level there is no equal. Production and development was divided between the three countries to lower overall cost. The countries produced each component as follows: Britain: Front fuselage and the tail Assembly. Germany: Center fuselage and Italy was given the wings. The Tornado project was controlled by a central company, Panavia GmbH based in Munich, Germany.

The first prototype aircraft, called PO1 at the time, rolled out of the Manching, Germany plant on 8 April 1974. Then on 14 Aug 1974 with Paul Millett and Nils Meister at the controls history was made with the first flight of the Tornado. During Desert Storm some of the most hazardous ground attack missions were carried out by British Tornados using runway denial weapons. They suffered the highest loss ratio of any aircraft during the conflict. But the results of these missions more than made up for these losses. In fact there was no other air asset available to carry out this type of mission. The Tornado was the right weapon at the right time.

Lago, a trusted name in flight sim products, has put together a wonderful, well-constructed Panavia Tornado for use with FS2002 and CFS3. It is rich in great features and wonderful liveries. So let’s examination this fine product.

The Lago Tornado comes with the following features (as listed by Lago):

Animations

• Animated cockpit canopy (including locking lever inside cockpit)
• Animated pilots (move head in direction of flight and remove masks when canopy is opened)
• Animated control surfaces airbrakes, flaps, spoilers, rudders, and ailerons
• Animated thrust reverser, intake suction relief doors, refueling probe and wing sweep, afterburner, vortices
• Animated wheels (rotate, front wheel steers, taxi light follows wheel).

Installation was very easy with an exe file that had me up and running in no time. System requirements are very reasonable with a minimum of a 750 MHz, Pentium III with 128 MB RAM. The test system used for this was my 2.4 GHz. P4 with 512 MB of RD RAM and a GF4 TI4600 video card. Needless to say I had no frame rate issues. Those with slower systems though will find on external views it may tax your system somewhat. It comes with a 33 page printable manual that is chock full of information. It has everything from speed reference tables, to pictures of the cockpit gauges and what they are. A very informative piece of work and I highly recommended you read it.

Test System P4 2.4GHz Windows XP 512 MB RDRAM 16x/40x DVD-ROM GeForce4 Ti4600 (128 MB) Creative Audio PCI Sound MS Precision Pro 2 Joystick 17" Monitor Flying Time: 8 hours over 6 days German Marine (IDS Ground attack) German Tiger Meet (Recce) Italian Air Force (IDS ground attack) Italian Tiger Meet livery (IDS ground attack) Saudi standard camouflage (IDS Ground attack) Here's something different—a fanciful Avsim livery (IDS Ground Attack) Three views using Terrain Following Radar... ... on attack ... and leaving the target

The Cockpit

If there is a starting place anywhere then the cockpit is it. When you first jump it you get the feeling you are flying something designed in the 1950s. Many analog gauges, no multi function CRTs. But do not let that fool you. All the gauges are very readable and the cockpit is very functional. The HUD, for instance, can be dimmed or brightened. You can switch from radar altimeter to barometric altitude. You can switch the compass form True to Magnetic. So the HUD is a valuable asset when flying this aircraft.

One gripe I have about the cockpit is the radio; it takes precision hand and mouse work to get it to change frequency to where you want it. There are Terrain Following Radar controls on the autopilot panel. The TFR works well; however, there are some limitations placed on it by FS2002. You can go over hills, into valleys and terrain without too much difficulty. You will not be able to go through the high mountains using the TFR. But going across England and Northern France at 700 kts, 400 ft above the ground is still a thrilling ride to be sure.

2D cockpit with HUD	A view of the Virtual Cockpit
The Virtual Cockpit looking to the left	Another view of the Virtual Cockpit, looking to the right

In comparison to the actual Tornado cockpit, Lago did a great job of recreating it—very life like to its real-world counterpart. The 3D cockpit is another work of art. When switching from 2D to 3D you almost can’t tell a difference. On the side panels you can see the throttle and various switches. They look so good you can almost touch them. The cockpit systems which feature a GPWS and an automatic swing wing system that moves the wings based on the Tornado's speed. One thing Lago could have done was model the back seater position. Yeah it would have not been practical to fly in but would have given it that little something extra. An example is the Capt Sim 727 modeling a working flight engineer station. That added to the over realism of the aircraft.

What Moves On It?

The Lago Tornado has a large amount of moving parts. The main and most vivid feature is the variable geometry wings. I call them swings wings, because I sucked at geometry ;-) They help make the plane more aerodynamic in high speed flight. The more your wings are back, the less drag you have, and the faster you go. The thing that struck me the most was the fact the underwing stores will rotate to stay forward when the wings move. Lago paid attention to this little detail and you will see that when you use the flap keys to move the wings that the stores remain positioned just as they should be.

Swing wing fully extended for takeoff

Here the wing is swept back for maximum speed (image courtesy Lago)

Other great animation features are the pilot figures that take off their oxygen masks when the canopy is open and they turn their heads in the direction you are turning in flight. The thrust reverses are one of my favorite animations. The Tornado's unique way of slowing down again put it in a class be itself. Holding the F2 key down activates the thrust reversers. Two engine nacelle covers then extend and form a barrier behind the engine causing the thrust to be diverted in the opposite direction, thus slowing the plane down. A very ingenious design. Then there is the refueling probe. Using the Shift “W” key it extends the probe which can be seen from inside the cockpit. One animation complaint I have is the after burner thrust. It looks like a cross between a disco light and a neon sign. It looks down right cheesy. It needs to be long blue flame.

Just about everything moves on these planes

The thrust reversers in action

How Does She Fly?

I have never flown a Tornado but I will tell you this: she is extremely stable in flight. I needed very little trim to keep her where I wanted her. It turned well as a fighter should and it is fast as all get out. I mean it is just short of actually being a rocket. I lit the burners and away she went. I mean I was gone. Before I knew it I was at FL 250 and still going upstairs like a bat out of hell.

In TFR is where the fun really begin though. It seems to float over terrain and I can’t even imagine how much of a thrill it is for the pilot of this thing.

Lining up with the tanker

Here's the tanker approach in spot view

One of the best additional features of this Lago product is the advanced in flight refueling module. When you activate it gives you an intercept path to the tanker. Once there you will get audio cues and text messages guiding you into the tanker. All this is based on actual NATO procedures. The process itself though is not a simple one. I sat at my computer for 4 hours one day and was not able to get close enough to do it; I would over shoot and run into the tanker. The tanker used is a KC-10 Extender with an F-16 in formation. Even those look pretty good instead of just being scenery after thoughts. On the Lago site is a great tutorial on aerial refueling, but even after reading it I still had no luck. I give it to those pilots; they really know there stuff and have nerves of steel.

Sound

The sound I found was not really an overall strong point. The engines sounded fine. The additional voice over for the in-flight refueling made for a nice touch. Nothing really major to report there.

How Does it Look?

Here is another one of the of aircraft's strong points. The amount of work and detail in the paint schemes is incredible. My favorite is the German Tiger Meet scheme. Then there is the Italian Tiger Meet scheme, which is equally stunning and a lot of work was put into both Tiger Meet skins. The Saudi Air Force scheme looked so real it was as if you were standing next to it in the desert. In fact all them look so good you could have a hard time telling if it was a flight sim or a real picture.

Here's a series of take-off images: Sequence #1	Sequence #2	Sequence #3
Sequence #4	Sequence #5	Sequence #6

Conclusion

For 25 Euros or 25 dollars this plane does give you your bang for your buck. It looks good it, flies well. The attention to detail is evident. You will get tons of enjoyment trying to hook up to the tanker or just flying at 700 kts at 450 ft. A fine product and a must for a simmer's aircraft library.

You can get Lago Tornado by heading over to their website here.