Tornado reheat (and fuel dumping)

If you look for pictures of Italian Tornados taken few seconds after take off you’ll find a few showing what appears to be a fuel leakage (similar to the one posted below) that many describes as “fuel dumping”.
Actually, that has nothing to do with the fuel dump, as the Tornado’s jettison outlet is located at the top rear of the fin. Instead, it is reheat drain: when reheat is cancelled, there’s a temporary overpressure caused by unburnt fuel (accumulated in the jet pipe, upstream of the nozzles, after being injested by the fuel injectors when the Afterburner ignitor is no longer functioning) that is automatically relieved by venting some 30 Kg (66 Lbs) of fuel through valves located underneath the jet pipe.

About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.