Tall Tonka Tail Help Needed

I can’t help wonder, as I view this substantial piece of Panvia built metal, what it’s construction cost was.

Don’t be daft. AJS was a motorcycle manufacturer so it’s obviously a red herring:p

Anon.

Ok, lots of thanks for the replies, PM’s and emails this is the biggest post I have ever had! Thanks also for the fun diversion down the ‘Tonka’ route it is what I love about this forum!

SO! I can confirm that it is the fin from ZA411, today in high winds I removed the RWR cap on the front of the fin and found the letters AJS written inside. This was the tail code of ZA411 when in 617 colours.

So now the preparation starts for display boards etc for next year’s ‘Fin Fest’ :stupid:

“Tonka” was a range of toys…

IS!!! Tonka is a range of toys! http://www.funrise.com/tonka-micro-site/index.html Imagine they made a toy Tornado GR1/4 – the Tonka Tonka, anyone?

(My two year old daughter is overjoyed with her Tonka Fire Engine: it is made of plastic but, despite her having had it for over a month, it is still remarkably in one piece with no little bits broken off – in spite of her attempts to break doors and skirting boards with it!)

LINK- http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=51523

Simon,

NAM’s curator has been cataloguing a new collection of photographs from the late museum Vice-President, David Westacott and he has come across a photograph of ZA411; assuming that your bt email address is still live you should have an scan incoming later today sometime. 🙂

When we arrived at Marham in ’82 with 617 we occupied a hangar until the HAS site was finished and we could move across. The Victor boys used to refer to our jets as Tonka Toys, because of their relative lack of stature compared to HP’s finest. That is the earliest mention I know of.

Back to the photo, couple of things. 617 used to be the only Sqn who regularly had painted fin caps and they were ‘retained ‘ when the jets went in for servicing. Also the fin caps were known to delaminate very easily (even with the black flexane applied) and used to get robbed from jets going into ASF for servicing to fit onto the jet going out. Could this even be a U/S fin cap fitted for completeness? Sqns used to cosset their own aircraft but once they went to centralised fleet management you could often see ‘mixed dress’ as seen here:

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7244

To add a bit of a hunch to the conundrum, I wouldn’t put money on it, but the XV markings look like Laarbruch marks to me; based upon the lack of the TWCU sword and crown badge which was applied to a lot of ex-Laarbruch jets which moved across the North Sea and lack of Sqn Ident codes. TWCU used the digits from the Aircraft Serial Number and XV(R) used the prefix T. With so many jets on the flightline the tail letters were important especially when the TTTE drawdown meant we often had 20 plus on the line and some carried 3 letter codes.

I associate the 70s/80s green/grey camouflage with the Tornado GR.1. Where the tails replaced as part of the GR.4 conversion process I wonder? Or had the grey/green camouflage gone long before the GR.4 conversion update anyhow?

We have a GR4 trials aircraft at YAM; it’s in green/grey camo.

Because they were supposedly unbreakable. Which is more thn can be said for their avionics. We had them at Wildenrath whilst Laarbruch’s runway was resurfaced. Having seen what one did to our runway I’m surprised Laarbruch didn’t need it sooner. One came screaming across the airfield one so fast we thought he was going straight on. Instead it was a low overhead join where he made a constant turn through 270 degrees and dumped it on the deck. Everything was fine until he could no longer hold the nose up. Then as the nose lowere so the nose wheel disappeared back into the aircraft. She sat in our hangar for months looking very sad with the laser turret all but scraped away and the bottom of the nose cone showing lots of bare fibreglass. She eventually got roaded out to Warton. I have no idea as to her fate after that.

I’ve always heard of the name being “Tonka” ranker than “Tonker”. I assumed it referred in some way to the name of the toy brand.

I thought it was ‘Tonka’. I believe it started because, for squadrons that had recently operated the Vulcan, their new two-seaters were tough, rather well built ‘toys’, which fitted neatly with the Tonka Toy advertising of the time.

I think we may be getting off the subject :p, I have always used ‘Tonka’ and know it was a range of toys. Having received emails etc. from RAF personnel they use the ‘Tonka’ reference too!

Anyway to answer some of the questions, no it wasn’t that windy. A few of the early GR4 test beds kept the old green / grey scheme and then the fleet went to the all grey finish. That makes this tail a GR1 and the fact that the airframe at Warton still carries the old scheme it makes sense.

The original question stands, did anyone capture ZA411 with both markings on the tail?

I wonder if this is the derivation 😀

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tonker

Just a minor point: isn’t it spelled, “Tonker”?

“Tonka” was a range of toys, but not linked to the use of “Tonker” for Tonkers.

Anyone know the derivation?

As a thought on this subject.

I associate the 70s/80s green/grey camouflage with the Tornado GR.1. Where the tails replaced as part of the GR.4 conversion process I wonder? Or had the grey/green camouflage gone long before the GR.4 conversion update anyhow?

I think ‘alive’ is subjective for ZA411!!

http://www.demobbed.org.uk/image_view.php?a=25333&s=za411.jpg

https://www.flickr.com/photos/iangpics/4326215808/

Hope it wasn’t windy!