One thing that puzzles me about most modern combat aircraft is the way they rely, as a matter of routine, on external carriage of weapons and a lot of their fuel tankage. The penalties of this practice are obvious, in terms of a considerable increase in aerodynamic drag and radar reflectivity, plus expensive missiles taking a battering from the elements. The one obvious exception is the F-35 family, designed to operate clean in order to preserve their stealth characteristics.
A fuselage increased in size to accommodate the normal load of fuel and weapons internally would of course be heavier, but the much reduced drag would surely make this a desirable trade-off, particularly for aircraft intended to operate at long range. I recall reading that a substantial part of the fuel in the external tanks is used up just in overcoming the drag caused by those tanks.
So I started mentally doodling with the idea of stretching the design of the Tornado, starting in around 2000. Widen the fuselage to create a bay between the engines; the top part for fuel, the lower part for weapons. Lengthen the nose with a fuselage plug behind the cockpit (for yet more fuel), then balance this forward CG shift with LERX (wing root extensions, which could also house sensors and illuminators). Once the layout and aerodynamics were sorted, then go over the design to convert as much as possible of the structure from metal to synthetic materials to bring the weight back down to the original.
While the plane could of course still carry external loads if required, the idea would be to routinely operate it in a clean condition. Compared with the original Tornado, the same fuel load carried internally (as opposed to internal+external) should boost the range considerably due to the reduced drag. Given the date, it would of course be given a multifunction sensor suite.
Given that Canada and Australia both experienced some trouble in choosing a new combat aircraft (both of course have huge areas to cover, so long range is very welcome), such a plane might well have suited their needs, as well as the RAF's. The cost of the project would probably be a lot less than the money paid for the F-35.
Incidentally, in my alternative world this stretched Tornado would complement the other new aircraft in the RAF - the Hawker P.1216 STOVL fighter which I would have built instead of the Typhoon. Performance estimates seem similar to the F-35B, except of course for the lack of stealth characteristics. If development had continued, It could have been in service by the end of the last century. The USMC would probably have adopted it, meaning that the F-35B would never have been built.
A fuselage increased in size to accommodate the normal load of fuel and weapons internally would of course be heavier, but the much reduced drag would surely make this a desirable trade-off, particularly for aircraft intended to operate at long range. I recall reading that a substantial part of the fuel in the external tanks is used up just in overcoming the drag caused by those tanks.
So I started mentally doodling with the idea of stretching the design of the Tornado, starting in around 2000. Widen the fuselage to create a bay between the engines; the top part for fuel, the lower part for weapons. Lengthen the nose with a fuselage plug behind the cockpit (for yet more fuel), then balance this forward CG shift with LERX (wing root extensions, which could also house sensors and illuminators). Once the layout and aerodynamics were sorted, then go over the design to convert as much as possible of the structure from metal to synthetic materials to bring the weight back down to the original.
While the plane could of course still carry external loads if required, the idea would be to routinely operate it in a clean condition. Compared with the original Tornado, the same fuel load carried internally (as opposed to internal+external) should boost the range considerably due to the reduced drag. Given the date, it would of course be given a multifunction sensor suite.
Given that Canada and Australia both experienced some trouble in choosing a new combat aircraft (both of course have huge areas to cover, so long range is very welcome), such a plane might well have suited their needs, as well as the RAF's. The cost of the project would probably be a lot less than the money paid for the F-35.
Incidentally, in my alternative world this stretched Tornado would complement the other new aircraft in the RAF - the Hawker P.1216 STOVL fighter which I would have built instead of the Typhoon. Performance estimates seem similar to the F-35B, except of course for the lack of stealth characteristics. If development had continued, It could have been in service by the end of the last century. The USMC would probably have adopted it, meaning that the F-35B would never have been built.