(Image: Manx Norton; tail fin of crashed Typhoon FGR4 ZJ943 at RAF Coningsby)
In April 2008, RAF Eurofighter Typhoon ZJ943 was written-off in a crash landing during a military exercise at NAWS China Lake, California. An undercarriage malfunction is understood to have caused the accident, which left the British fighter jet damaged beyond repair following a belly-landing on the airfield’s expansive runway.
Photographs taken in 2011 (see below) subsequently showed the damaged hulk of ZJ943 being moved around its home base – RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire – on the back of a low-loader. A Freedom of Information request dated July 2014 revealed that the aircraft was still in storage on base and may have donated some parts to the Bloodhound SSC supersonic land vehicle project.
But while its unfortunate fuselage remains locked away behind closed doors, the tail fin of the late Tranche 1 Block 5 Typhoon FRG4, which was only four months old when it came to grief, looks to have evaded the spares shelf. As the photograph (top) reveals, ZJ943’s tail, bearing its former 11 Squadron code ‘DK’, has turned up in what appears to be a recreation area within the squadron’s hardened aircraft shelter complex.
Seen in October 2014, the part may have been turned into a display piece by the squadron that once operated it, commemorating the RAF’s only totalled Typhoon. It wouldn’t be the first time that a tail fin had been saved for display.
Aeroventure in Doncaster is home to a couple of Tornado F3 fins (once belonging to airframes ZE155 and ZE294). The tail of F-4 Phantom ZE351, which ended its days on the Finningley fire dump, was saved and later turned up on eBay. The same happened to Lightning F3 XP748, which served as the Binbrook gate guard before perishing on the Pendine firing ranges.
(Image: UK Serials Resource Centre)
Above, Eurofighter Typhoon ZJ943 rests on the runway at NAWS China Lake, California, after crash landing there on April 23, 2008.
(Image: Steviejaws)
The spares-recovered hulk of Typhoon ZJ943 is moved from a hardened aircraft shelter at RAF Coningsby and presumably placed in storage in a hangar on the other side of the base.
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