All-Electric Tornadoes Now A Reality
April 1, 2020
By Paul Homewood
The RAF have been secretly developing all-electric Tornadoes for the last two years. The big problem, as with electric cars, has been the limited range, but this has now seemingly been overcome.
An eagle eyed observer has taken this picture of a KFC135 loaded with 3,756 Tesla Powerwall batteries over RAF Marham carrying out the first In-the-Air recharge mission via specially-designed USB cables.
Announcing the successful trial, Air Commodore A M P Watt reported only one problem. Sometimes the Tornadoes had to fly upside down to plug the USBs in.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
These are mirages and it looks like the Indian Airforce
Brilliant way of lightening (!) the mood at a dark time…
There is more good news here: https://streetu3a.org which scientists have been reporting.
That comment deserves a pregnant pause!
Beware, the image was supplied by RAF Luton, and it’s Observation Post is manned only by 1st-year trainees, so don’t be surprised if they’re not as up to scratch with their Friend-or-Foe identification as some of your readers may be.
However, credit must be given to RAF Marham’s camouflage team for so successfully disguising the Tornadoes to fool prospective enemy spies.
You didn’t spot the F35B Lightning stealth aircraft in the formation?
I see this is dated April 1. Saves further comments.
Remind me, what day is it.
I thought they had banned April Fool’s jokes this year. Nice one though.
Bad man😈
I’m so glad that they have managed to get this concept off the ground, well done the RAF. Just one thing Paul, a USB won’t be able to take the current load, (not even the new USB-3) so it will have to be a standard heavy cable. If they have to recharge from from a US or continental aircraft will we have to use their plugs or will they use ours? I may give them a call.
Send it to the Guardian. They’ll believe anything.
So they must be plug-in hybrids then!
Thanks for cheering us up a bit, Paul.
Stat safe all.
LOL
Excellent..I am missing the BMW advert in the DT usually in on April 1st..well done !!
You baaad man!
Nice one, Paul – a good chuckle amongst the doom and gloom.
Brilliant. We all need a laugh in these uncertain times.
Shocking!
Love it! The IPCC, Met Office, Horriblebin/BBC and UEA will also probably buy into it………..
“KFC135” I like that!!!
Finger lickin’ good!
I’ve looked very closely and just can’t see the electric lead for the refueling plane KFC135. Perhaps you could supply a more detailed photo. Was it designed in Kentucky? Here in Australia we are building submarines in our wind power state South Australia. They are French design which was originally nuclear and here nuclear is a very bad word. So they are being redesigned to run on wind.
Don’t be silly, Mike. The streamed cables can be plugged into the KFC135 itself and it can re-charge itself. 🙂
Mike; surely the new Aussie subs should be designed to run on wavepower instead? There is not much wind underwater.
LOL really!
Well done. Had me going!
Sent from Alfred’ new iPhone
You had me for a moment!
hahahahhhaha
And a very Happy April Fools Day to you, Paul. Brook Acklom Castlemaine VIC Australia
I know this is an April fool, but these are French Mirages plugged into a French tanker. And Tornado’s have been retired 🙂
Actually, it’s an image of an IAF Ilyushin Il-78MKI providing mid-air refuelling to two IAF Mirage 2000’s.
Nothing new under the sun, the English Electric Lightning first flew in the 1950s, the only all UK Mach 2 fighter!
EDF sent me an April Fool letter today………
…..about the virus crisis, but seemed more like an advert for their green credentials.
Apparently though, 700 smart meter engineers have been redeployed, so that particular joke of a scheme descends into even more expense and delay.
The Lightening was an interesting plane, vertical staggered engine configuration. It had exceptional speed and climb rate but was a fuel-critical aircraft as a result.
9 minutes on full bore apparently!
very droll
For a very briefest of moments, I feared for your sanity 😉
Brilliant; gave me a much needed laugh.
Electric planes can be difficult to handle sometimes…
Careful, water and electrics don’t mix.
Norwegian top-secret new technology; world’s first combined aircraft and submarine.
An April fool’s joke is an ideal counterpoint to all the current ‘Crisis’ hysteria. Thank you 🙂
Capt OHM Ranger commented that the the other pilot V Cable had difficulties maintaining charge on the Line. Ben Wattage commented that the Penny had already dropped and the Wall was being re-Billed
Surely they would have developed wireless charging by now? 🙂
The trouble is that these days you could almost believe this was real.
More good news. WikiP (at least the UK version) has this entry on its front page:
Referring to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_Million_Fuck_Offs
It’s 1st April, isn’t it. Wasn’t there an aeroplane maker called English Electric in the old days though?
Yes, indeed there was. Producers of the Lightning aircraft.
Wake up at the back!
Still one of the fastest fighter aircraft ever made.
Do you remember Mercedes AA Class, the first battery powered car?
That is brilliant as from the start it sounds like a serious car advert.
Looking back, April 1st would have been a good date to implement the 2008 Climate Change Act on the populace, only difference, those clowns in Parliament weren’t joking but did it for real.
Thanks for the April Fool. Everyone else was seemingly too po-faced.
That is an Ilyushin Il76 and they appear to be Mirage 5’s.
Before the invention of ultra-long USB cables, batteries had to be changed manually by qualified electricians ….
Nice one, Paul. Thank heavens someone is left who has a sense of humour.
Incidentally, I was in the RAF at Marham in 1956/7 – working on Valiants before the Tornadoes arrived. If I remember correctly, Air Commodore Watt was later charged with (assault and) battery?
Co-incidence! I was there 10 years later working on the Victor tankers. Beautiful aircraft!
It’s funny how you never know who you’re travelling this journey (pilgrimage?) with, as a rule, Harry.
Two memories stand out for me of my time there: One was of the feeling of terror when I felt I was going to expire, or explode, when the engine fitter decided to run an engine test while I was in the back (with the hatch door swinging open) and the full roar hitting me as it bounced off the door into where I was, a few feet away, working on the radar gear. You were probably issued with ear defenders by the time you were there – we weren’t and I don’t think my hearing ever recovered.
The other stand-out memory was flying with my squadron to Malta during the Suez Crisis and feeling like an oven door had been opened in front of me when we disembarked – from a windswept, very bleak, cold winter in Marham. I also remember some of the lads being detailed to paint the grass when the Queen visited, lol.
As a result of this leap in technology, the RAF will be renamed REF (Royal Electric Force).
It’s just a Mirage.
Plugging into the basket I had to overcome the first rule in aviation: Don’t touch/hit nuthin’!