Tornado GR4

The Tornado is the UK’s leading ground attack aircraft. It entered service in 1980 and has been incrementally developed since with new systems and weapons. It has been constantly deployed on operations in recent years and whilst its offensive capability remains second to none, the core platform is starting to show its age. The Ncompass™ has been used on 2 Tornado projects: an industry demonstration project and a fault investigation project.

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The nose-wheel steering system is susceptible to intermittent faults that are difficult to diagnose during flight line maintenance, which often leads to speculative replacement of other components. A 2009 pilot project was conducted which successfully demonstrated the ability of the Ncompass™ to detect hard and intermittent faults that conventional equipment were unable to detect. Unserviceable harnesses were confirmed to have intermittency and continuity faults; brand-new harnesses were confirmed as being both intermittency-free and continuity fault-free; and life-expired harnesses were found with intermittent faults even though they passed continuity testing.

In another example, one specific Tornado aircraft had suffered an intermittent fault within the secondary power system since 2006. Copernicus Technology Ltd were requested to assist in 2011. An analysis of the fault-maintenance history was conducted, along with an intermittent fault diagnosis of the system. As most of the system LRUs had already been replaced it was agreed that the condition of the wiring should be tested. The system’s wiring integrity was tested with an Ncompass™ and this found that 12% of the cables tested had intermittency/noise/continuity issues.

These cables were repaired by the RAF and then Copernicus Technology Ltd re-tested the system wiring, which confirmed that the system’s wiring integrity had been fully restored. Once the aircraft was rebuilt for flight testing it transpired that the intermittent fault’s symptoms were unchanged, enabling the RAF to now rule both the LRUs and the wiring out of the diagnosis. An external influence was suspected and this was traced to a faulty circuit-breaker (CB), which was outside the scope of the wiring tested by the Ncompass™. Since the CB was replaced, the fault has not recurred. Overall, the intermittent fault analysis and Ncompass™ testing conducted by Copernicus Technology Ltd vastly accelerated the timeframe for isolating the fault, hence a ‘No Fault Found ‘ which had persisted for years was ultimately resolved in a matter of weeks.

To find out more about the use of Ncompass™ on Tornado email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
or call us on +44(0)1343 842406.