It’s annoying to hear the Tornado referred to in the past tense: Tornadoes are still operational with the Luftwaffe, Royal Saudi Air Force and the Aeronautica Militare, and will be until at least 2030.
Even more annoying that the RAF isn't on your list! I mean, you're correct. Just annoying that that's the case. Tornado GR4 was meant to keep flying for the RAF until 2025, slowly being replaced by F-35s so that number don't dwindle. Bloody budget cuts!
Raf do have 100 being held in decommission so may not fly them anymore but still have battle ready in stock just like are navy right now are numbers top the US navy but we are only a small island with no need to run the world anymore so just decommission till its need 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm no student of aircraft, but the tornado and the Grumman Tomcat were tops for me as a child , being swept wing, twin engined and twin crewed, they were the true battle tools of the skies
@@SonyT250 they are still in service in Italy and Germany, and if sent to Ukraine they would sadly suffer the contested skies and strong russian ground AA. I wouldn't want to see them in such a scenario cause they deserve better!
@@zanzao-1ps318 what would make F16 better than Tomcat against Russian AA? IMO F18 and F14 are better platforms than F16 or most Russian planes. The real difference is made by the carried missiles.
On a slightly different note, the tripartite training school for the Tornado was about thirty miles south from where I worked. For some reason the aircraft used the buildings that I worked in as a navigation point. The problem for us was ,as engravers, every time a Tornado flew just above the building, everyone jumped and ruined their work. How much did the RAF owe the proprieters?.
I worked expanding capacity at a natural gas storage plant. They cooled the gas till liquid then stored it till needed. Then they would warm it back to gas. Since this place was the equivalent of a small nuke it was in the middle of nowhere and a easy to ID landmark. An air base was about an hour away. They would fly over at low altitude every day. Sometimes they seemed to be practicing dog fighting cause one would go over then another, but they weren’t flying formation. When is be on the highest part of the plant it would seem like I could touch them. I made a sign that said, “Y’all scared to fly any lower?” The rest of that week they would pass by me so close the air movement would try to pull me along. It was great. I didn’t tell anyone. I got a buddy of mine that is an Native American to come up with me. I made sure he had his back to them the first time they flew over. I looked behind him and said, “Oh f*ck!” And ducked down. My buddy was like wtf? And turned around to look right as the first plane came over. I had to grab his harness from the back cause he turned and saw it heading right for him and went to jump off! I thought to myself this is the kind of thing that is fun and games until someone gets hurt bad so I did the adult thing and quit having fun at work. Several years before I lived on this round road so I guess it was an easy nav point. One summer military helicopters started popping up and just kept coming. It started with those big two rotor chinooks. They flew southwest to northeast by twos. I counted 24 of them. That is a big percentage of the entire Chinook population. Idk where they came from either. No base is back that way for over 1000 miles. I’m pretty sure they was heading to Ft. Campbell or possibly Ft. Knox. After the parade of Chinooks blacked out apaches started popping up coming from and heading back towards Ft. Campbell. They didn’t have a single marking on them. They would fly low circles around the small circular road (driveway really). Sometimes they would get down real low like they was targeting one building or another. I took a rocket launcher size piece of PVC and painted it black. When they were down low I’d pop out aiming the pipe at them. They must of liked it and told the other pilots cause from then on they would always target my place. Once or twice they caught me out I in the yard, a couple other times I was able to get hid without them seeing. They would be facing my house and I’d be beside them with my fake RPG or stinger. They were close enough I could see them laugh when they noticed me close enough to hit them with a rock or when I’d be in my yard and turn around and be looking at a blacked out Apache that had snuck up behind me. If they have anything between them and you even a couple trees they hardly make a sound especially with that noise canceling stuff. Anyways that was a weird year cause of all the military activity that never was before or since. We had fun with each other. I even dressed up in some Iraqi style garb a few times. If it wouldn’t have bothered the neighbors I would of put a loudspeaker outside and played those call to prayer chants. If they flew in and heard the prayer call and had someone dressed up like a terrorist playing hide and seek with a fake RPG while ISIS flags fluttered in the wind I bet they would tell everyone about it. I bet I would of got out on their maps.
Grew up by Langley USAF Base and you could all most keep time with patrol they would send up. Hear one go up when it came back about 4 hrs have passed. Also during hurricane season if one was coming close 18+ hrs of almost nonstop takeoffs as the moved inland. Then after it passed another 18+ hrs of nonstop landings.
Was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014. Got the pleasure of being around these incredible aircraft. Also the misfortune of being 4 o'clock behind one on full after burner takeoff. Good times.
Some of the assembly work for the Tornado was done at the same factory as the Mosquito even, BAE Wharton near Blackpool in the North West of England. They build and work on Eurofighters there now I believe
I still remember the tornado's screaming down loch ness in scotland doing low level training in the 80's. A beautiful utilitarian design, kind of like a real life x-wing !
Seeing the Tornado fly directly overhead as it headed out to the bombing ranges on The Wash was quite a sight and sound that I wont forget as long as I live. When called upon to go into combat it proved itself time and again.
I know exactly what you mean. They were beautiful aircraft and flew over our house regularly too. We loved the free airshows, but now it is mainly the Eurofighters, F35s, plus F15s from Lakenheath practising dogfights overhead. We were lucky enough to see the GR4s of 11 Sqn (AC) at very close hand during a Marham open day.
I was stationed alongside the British military in the middle east during operation Southern Watch. They're top notch Airmen. I don't know how many times I watched aircraft take off fully loaded, and come back with little to no munitions. The Tornado was a fun aircraft to watch, and definitely one of my favorites. The Tornado, and the F-15 were my two favorite aircraft still in the inventory.
Remarkable platform that was able to make the transition from nuclear strike fighter to air superiority, recon, electronic warfare and ground attack. Hard to believe the design is almost 50 years old!
Its not that hard to believe, if we go by introduction dates it is only a few years older then the F18s, and the F15s and F16s are even older then the Tornado.
The F3 was an interceptor and not a fighter/air superiority king. Adequate at what is designed to do and an effective SEAD aircraft towards the end of its life.
@Back In The Day 2 Simply they didnt, the Jaguar was a ground attack platform as was the Harrier. The only fighter version we had of the Harrier was the FA2 operated by the Royal Navy. Struggling to think of any pure supersonic fighter aircraft the RAF have ever operated. The lightning was an interceptor as was the Navy operated Phantoms. The Typhoon has to be one of the only ones desgined from the outset as an air superiority fighter but that is now a multi role aircraft.
Oh boy, the Tornado was a beast. In my hometown in northwestern germany you saw and heard them a couple of days per week when they were doing their aerial target simulation. Phantoms, Tornadoes and now the Eurofighters. Always great watching them chasing the Learjets!
@@nathangoddard6082 I think they were and still are from Wittmundhafen (Luftwaffengeschwader 71) and sometimes from Nordholz (Marinefliegergeschwader) and maybe from Oldenburg (Jagdbombergeschwaders 43) untill the early nineties. My Grandpa worked at that Fliegerhorst, but I don't have clear memory about that, I was too young (5-6 years old).
I assume your location is near Schleswig Jagel where TG 51 "Immelmann" is located which still operates the Tornado? I am at Lübeck. Mostly I can hear am not see them because of bad weather 😂but awesome sound! They are not allowed to fly lower than 600m over a major city... warum schreib ich eigentlich in Englisch?? Keine Ahnung - Guten Rutsch!
I remember many years ago I was out hillwalking with a group of friends in Scotland. The hills we were walking at that time were pretty small, maybe 300 feet max. So we are following the path along the top of one hill that was at best 250 feet high. We were talking pics, admiring the view etc, then suddenly we heard this amazing sound. Our group leader pointed down, and we saw SIX Tornados zipping through the valley below us at least 150 feet lower than we were. These guys were not hanging around either, the valley was about two miles long, and the planes were gone in seconds. They were gone so fast we never even got a chance to take a photo. Incredible aircraft.
Common sight in the Highlands, back in the day. Another trick they employed was single aircraft following the contours of higher hills, 2000ft+, but sticking to the hanging valleys running through and off them, remaining out of sight till they were right on top of the target. A bunch of us watched an exercise attack on Crianlarich, using the tactic. 3 or 4 Tornadoes, approaching from different directions, crossing over precisely the same point with only a couple of seconds separation, at high speed. Incredible to watch.
I miss seeing these thundering around the Lake District in the 90s. I remember chatting to a Tornado pilot and asking him about the computer. It had 8k of memory if I recall, but he said it was very fast and worked perfectly.
my father worked as an avionics guy on the Tornado IDS in the german airforce. My family went to visit a base in north germany where they still operate the Tornadoes. Was pretty cool seeing the jets up close and having my dad tell stories from different kinds of maintenance he would preform like, replacing the IFF antenna after mid-air refueling training. the antenna is so close to the probe that the droge would knock off the antenna when they missed. When we got to see the weapons storage on the base my dad started asking if that had those and those weapons in. thier usuall response was "no, 10 years ago they decided that they were either to inhumane or would actully be committing warcrimes if used. The Tornado is the most badass fighterjet of its time. Sadly i start seeing them in museums allready:(. Its comming to DCS soon though ive heard so thats nice
That first British Tornado is from 9 Squadron 'Bats,' RAF Bruggen in Germany! I spent the best years of my life there. When I was in school, I did work experience with 9 Sqn, a fantastic time! I was delighted to see this footage!
Tornado was conceived much earlier than you state! I worked on it in the mid/late 60's... and it was in its late development stages then... about to go into full production. At the time, it was called MRCA (Multi Role Combat Aircraft) Love your vids!
Team Tornado is a fantastic book about a Tornado flight crew who were shot down and taken prisoner during the Gulf War. It was released in 1995 so may be hard to find but is definitely worth reading.
she was a beautiful airframe, I live close to Leuchars and had been woken by a few QRA launches from there. Was driving under the end of the main runway one night and a pair of Tornados taken off on QRA over the top of me, scared the living daylights out of me as there was no noise until the sky torn above me. If you are in Scotland they have a F3 in the montrose air station, which is well worth the visit
I grew up across the river from Wharton where they tested Tornados all through the early 80s. They often came thundering across our village at low level and every child would cheer them on
I lived not far from Tain where they have/had a practice range from dropping bombs, so i seen these almost every other day all throughout my childhood.
Going to Montrose for my covid booster tomorrow, so that's perfect info timing as their website says tomorrow's the last day until February! In the 80s I remember learning every detail I could about Tornado and Harrier for a Flying Scholarship interview and I've had a love for the aircraft ever since. As a kid in the 70s I had a similar experience to your Leuchars QRF except it was Vulcan in the Hebrides coming over a dune - stayed with me forever!
Great video and the film footage of the Tornado at work brings back many memories!! The international cooperation that brought about this aircraft is probably the best part of the story - I've often wondered what Battle of Britain pilots must have thought about the RAF and Luftwaffe using the same aircraft - hopefully they were relieved that finally both were on the same side!!
My wife and I were travelling through Wales on a trip (a honeymoon two year after we were married) and we were driving down a single-lane country road deep in the Welsh countryside … suddenly there was a deafening howl and a glimpse of a very tall, single tail …. we had just been subjected to the Tornado! Had always been a plane guy … but now I had a fave!
I used to work outside near Warton in the UK in the 80's. These things used to fly over our site cabin all the time. You could also watch them doing acrobatics which was awesome. We got a real treat one day when a Tornado and a lightning did a really low pass over our cabin, nearly shook it to bits.
@7:57. The F-111 (at least) had synchronized inner hardpoints that pivoted inversely with the wing sweep so that the pilons were always parallel to the roll axis. Just an FYI or correction.
@@antimedic4441 Ok, I guess I Missed that part of the dialogue. Thanks. Yep 4 hard points under each wing. outer 2 don't pivot. Sorry about that and thanks for clearing that up. :) (no, not sarcasm - lol).
The controls were fly by wire but all the inputs were hydraulic. This made the valve bodies engineering works of art. We made the air intake control and it was a real technical feat. Lucas aerospace made one that was ever bigger and more complicated.
Was posted for 5 years in Goose Bay, Canada, which was the low level flight training center for German, British and Dutch airforces. The tornadoes would land and park on the tarmac where ground crews would check flight surfaces for parts of trees that were picked up along the way. Beautiful aircraft.
Yea that’s something modern jets can’t do anymore haha we once had a Eurofighter wich scratched a tree haven’t seen that aircraft for 2 months… remember our tornados regularly cutting trees just get the green stuff away note the scratch and fly again… Although nowadays losleget flying is not need that bad anymore.
My memory of the Tornado is dominated by one instance when I was at Newhaven beach in front of the chalk cliffs that now house the Newhaven Museum in about 1980. It was a clear, hot sunny day and I was up to my waist in the sea when all of a sudden from nowhere, 3 Tornados flew low level and very fast over the cliffs and out to sea banking towards Beachy head (east) and disappeared in the open sky almost as quickly as they burst upon the shocked beach. They were incredible loud and startled everyone who looked up to watch the quick aerial display. They seemed the very image of muscular powerful air defence at it’s best. The burst of sound is something I’ve never forgotten and never repeated again from an aircraft.
I used to live at Menwith Hill just outside Harrogate, England. The Tornadoes and Jaguars would use the base to practice bombing/strafing runs…the sound was crazy when those things would scream overhead at a fairly low level.
All the way from England,as a frequent visitor to Snowdonia ( North Wales) during the 70's and 80's, it was common to be deafened by Tornado pilots practicing low level incursions at just 50 feet AGL.A common joust between RAF and USAF pilots would be that the RAF got airsick above 500 feet and USAF pilots deployed the undercarriage below 500 feet.
On my way to an RAF airshow. I saw three low-flying Tornados silently heading toward my car and whizzing past with a thunderous sound. Never been so excited and terrified at the same time. Love that jet. It's a shame they took it out of the latest Ace Combat game.
Undoubtedly my favourite fast jet to date. I remember as an air cadet in 2006 they had an F3 and GR4 in close formation at the Waddington air show. Both cruised side by side at low level over the length of the runway, split off, did it again but this time lit the afterburners and let them go full bore. At the far end of the runway, straight into a vertical climb. The sound was utterly unreal and rattled my rib cage. I may be a train driver now, but how I wish I was able to fly one of these things.
After Desert Storm some USAF fighter pilots told of their sheer disbelief at the low level flying of the British Tornado pilots. Below tree top height (had there been any) literally 10-15m off the ground at high speeds and while maneuvering. The Brits took some heavy losses among the Tornado crews but they hammered their targets relentlessly and with great effect.
I'm glad this point has been confirmed, no one believes you when you tell them you were buzzed at 20/30ft altitude. Incredibly stable platform due to high wing load. Perfect for low level bombing. Some of the tactics you read about makes you realise the reality of War.
100% believable. One has to ask WHY they flew so low so fast. It comes down to the inherent practicality you see in the British. They are now, and always have been incredibly hard fighting people when call to do so. But whereas here in the United States, we tend to solve all of our martial dilemmas with very expensive technology, the Brits (and many others) don’t have the luxury of bottomless defense budgets. So it only stands to reason that they address the problem of enemy radar not by ECM or other cutting edge tech. They simply fly below the radar. A simple (?), practical, and immediate solution to the problem. Reminds me of the story of how the Soviet Union solved the problem of pens that wouldn’t write in zero gravity: They used pencils instead. Apocryphal, I’m sure, but it illustrates the point well.
I enjoyed working on these during my RAF days, from being a crew chief and Liney on the fighters F3 version, to deep strip maintenance of the GR1 and 4
One of these crashed in Labrador, Canada during a training exercise in 2000. I was at the airport where they recovered the wreckage and I still have the cassette reader as shown in the video at around 8:36 that was given to me by one of the crew recovering the wreckage.
Was in Goose Bay from 93-98. We lost quite a few Tornadoes while there, two which crashed into each other and one that burned on the ground after techs somehow got one off the ground on high speed taxi, clipped the wing on the ground and caught fire. Took 3 hours to extinguish then they rolled the burnt shell into our hanger for the investigation.
My older brother uses to be ground crew on Tornadoes at RAF Leuchars seeing this brings back memories as I always used to go to the airshows. He used to do QRF with the F3's and went out to desert storm back in the 90's, brought back shrapnel from a scud that got fired at their base.
in 2022, it is clear that the concept of a fast and low bomber was perfect for interdiction of defended airspace. The Ukrainian Air Force exclusively fly this way. Russian air defences are very potent, but less effective against low altitude targets. Had Tornado faced off against the Soviet Union, I’m sure it would have caused the Red Army a lot of problems
Interdiction is the best way to employ combat jets in modern conventional warfare. Had they had acess to something similar to the Tornado and effects on russian ground forces would be devasting. Fulcrums are dogfighters not suited for this task.
As a little kid I loved playing the tornado simulator by Digital integration. It was very hard but I still played through and read through the manuals to be able to understand the controls. The most new thing to me was that almost everything was automated to every minute and synchronised with other planes from the group when running a carpet bombing assault on the airfields. Also that simulator shown a rare load out variant with non guided antitank missiles as you can see for example on the hind choppers or some versions of early f16s. I heard that such load out allowed it also to be used as a10 replacement which seems doubtful because tornado was far more expensive plane to be used with full wingspan as a storm plane
What a fantastic aircraft. I loved hearing a story of a Tomcat pilot who did a ...tour? swap? I dunno the terminology but he was with the RAF flying Tornados for a while. Really interesting hearing about the comparison between the two jets. Gotta love the swing wing!
Growing up near RAF Leeming in the 80s/90s the sound of the Tornado was a daily background growl. Today the sound of a military plane still evokes the thought - Tornado!
I think another video of this aircraft is needed especially with regards to the RAF's history of employment! Really a series would be nice regarding each nations history of the platform.
Used to see it fly over sometimes as a kid, but the best sight was when it flew *below* me. Was hiking the Welsh hills as part of a school trip when a pair shot through the Valleys below :) Surprisingly a Hercules flew the same route not long later, never really thought they'd be up for such low altitude flight as well.
The F-111 had the two inner pylons pivot as well on each wing. ! The outer two did not pivot but we never used them. We had to be careful with the BRU-33 rack that carried 6 bombs because they could be loaded on these pivot pylons and the bombs could hit if required a fully swept wing. Great bid. Spent 13 years on Tornado great aircraft. :)
I love this jet, nothing makes the ground shake like its engines. The noise from this beast I can say is my favourite bar none. Full afterburner roar cracking the sky wide open. I love that sound it stirs something inside me that ony 1 other engine does that I've heard for myself live. That is the newest engine the Russians have put in their SU 57. It has the most evil sounding howl type noise. I've heard nothing like it.
Should have heard the racket at RAF Leuchars down Tornado Alley, when they had to beat up the engines for a minute before take-off. They introduced Triple glazing in those houses, but still it was loud, and everything vibrated in the area. You missed on the engines if ungoverned would run to destruction to get them out of enemy airspace.
In the early 90's two Tornados in the UK low flying system using TFR, collided at 250ft. The aircraft were on an intersecting course where the cockpit frames meant the pilots could not see each other. The TFR set at 250 feet was so accurate as to be mentioned as a causal factor in the incident report.
I stay locally to leuchars and picked up a limited edition signed Tornado f3 111 squadron ZE965 'HA' drawing at an airshow. The 111 squadrons nickname was the "Tremblers", can vouch for the name being appropriate. The print I have is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the battle of Britain,the certificate was flown on onboard during a flyfast before the queen on September 15th 1990. Interestingly one of the pilots involved was with USMC
@@Marin3r101 Hope you live somewhere remote, our old Minutemen IV and ABM systems will not be doing nearly the damage to them they will to us. That's where they put the bulk of their screw you taxpayer money, not nuclear carriers and boomerang stealth bombers.
Many years ago was having a picnic on Lytham Green when this black monster with full Luftwaffe markings complete with full ordnance came down the River Ribble and as it passed it put full afterburner and went straight up into the sky. Everything vibrated, the picnic dishes and even the grass held its ears.
i spent much of my childhood watching these fly a circuit that took them directly over my house up here in the highlands of scotland, sometimes you could see them dropping practice munitions at night. Love this aircraft, the Tornado was a bonnie flyer.
Me too had them fly over our house... We had a very big oak tree in the garden and it was the only big tree for some distance... I often wondered if they used the tree as a waypoint, as a couple of times a month they would fly low level straight over us. I never saw the plane coming, just a earth shattering sudden roar / boom that use to make the whole house shake.... It was very exciting when I was a young boy.
I live in Ghedi, were the 6° stormo of the Aeronautica Militare has his base. Here Tornado that are landing or taking off are a daily view. They are starting to get replaced by the F35 (the first 2 enter service this summer) but they will be in service until at least 2025
I remember a couple buzzed my primary school in the mid-80s. Full afterburner at about 600 knots. 300 kids stood silently in awe for about 30 seconds afterwards.
There was shadow as well. Russian spy affair at MBB germany, britains stopped support to develop the air intakes to germany. The germans didn't understand the tech that was from the Concorde and needed pushes here and there. Otherwise the plane would have been supercruising at M1.4 and hit M2.5 top speed. One top feature missed.
Completely off topic: Sad that Project Aces’ license for this plane expired. Would have loved to see this plane in Ace Combat 7. Hopefully the later titles will have it again.
@@bikes02 When politics gets involved.......... The TSR2 project had no real design spec and so redesigns were constantly being called for. The cost of that was astronomical. Australia learned nothing from that debacle. We have a litany of overpriced, delayed and under performing military projects as a result. I spent 3-1/2 years on a floating example of that.
@@peterinns5136 thats an interesting comment Peter . Do you mean that no specification existed before prototypes were built ? Its demise is often blamed on the UK having a labour goverment at the time who were not fully commited to defence spending , I wonder if this is true.
@@starbarrothschild6597 The UK Labour government at the time were determined to spend money on US weapons rather than develop our own. This left a hole and it took the UK aerospace industry some time to climb out of it.
The rotating hardpoints are what I walk away impressed by the _most..._ heh Not because it's technologically advanced, in fact it's positively primitive in its operation. Nay, it's the simple fact that they incorporated such a novel thing! _(presumably others didn't simply due to the added weight)_ Granted, I'm by no means knowledgeable on the vast amount of military aircraft designs, so admittedly this might have been done on another swing-wing bird and I just didn't know about it. Still, once he mentioned the wings could move, my brain *immediately* said _"hooolllldup... or has wrong hardpoints, so how does it address their changing orientation?!"_ 😊 I was a good boy, and remained patient in order to see if that gets explained, which it did. 🤘 Also, being so used to seeing twin tail designs, the size of the Tornado's single tail caught my eye pretty much every time a full side view showed up... lol
@@AirwayZombie Oh? Nice! I already thought the Aardvark was a cool plane (with one of the more/most unflattering names heh), so this just gives it another justification 😁 Thanks
@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE : The strange thing about F111,s hard points, is that it's only the inner pylons that stayed relative to the airflow. The outer 1s didn't, for some reason.
@@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM My immediate thoughts are that perhaps the room needed for the mechanism took up to much space in the wing, causing the internal fuel tanks to be significantly smaller. Our that the added weight would've caused more stress than they desired and/or resulted in oscillation ("wing wobble") at high speeds. Or... but probably not the case... they only fit drop tanks on the outer hardpoints and would've needed to be discarded _anyways_ before sweeping the wings into their "go fast" positions... 🤷♂️🤷♂️ But, I still like to speculate... lol
I remember my Uni days(late 80's) riding my old GS1000 through Snowdonia and looking down into the bottom of a valley and seeing a Tornado below me - crazy guys from RAF Valley probably on the way to or from the Mach Loop :-)
they also took off from RAF Marham in 2011 during Libya NFZ, i remember it well, they would leave at night fully loaded, was interesting to see them come back with some ordinance or none at all. a great aircraft that i miss a lot, on VIP day at RAF Marham they'd do a simulated low attack run on the air field, you don't see or hear them at all until the last second. gave me goose bumps every time, beautiful.
It's best to describe Tornado as an aircraft designed for a nuclear with the Warsaw Pact rather than Russia because its range is too short to reach the present day borders of Russia.
It wasn’t designed for any kind of nuclear role. The British nuclear role was missiles launched from Royal Navy submarines years before the introduction of the Tornado
I remember when i was at middle school 8 to 13 years old for an exam i had to do a talk and being that i was nuts about avation i choose this aircraft. I gave such a detailed talk that i was praised for it. I have seen this aircraft quite a few times there is one acting as a gate guard at RAF Sealand. Panavia Tornado GR4 - Royal Air Force - ZA607 EB-X. If your in the UK and you love this aircraft i recommend that you go take a look.
They didn't call it the Tornado because it sounded cool. Tornadoes were the loudest f*cking plane when they flew overhead. Was in Tucson while the Torries were in town sitting at a cafe having a coffee downtown. All of a sudden, the ground starts to rumble and a few forever seconds later, a wing of those damned things flew overhead knocking anything on the table clean off. My ears rang for days.
For me, its still one of the most beautiful fighter / IDS aircraft to ever grace the skies. I say one of, the Harrier Fmk2 is still vying for 1st place!
Growing up, visits to my Gran on the east coast were a real treat. Every day at around 1Pm a loose pair would fly right over her garden at around 300ft. Straight out over the North sea.
Selling Brimstone a little short there: the tandem charge is designed to defeat modern MBTs. While we’re discussing Brimstone, it also has an autonomous mode, meaning a salvo can be fired into a kill box and the missiles will select their own targets and engage appropriately, self destructing if no targets are found. With up to a dozen Brimstone per Tornado (18 on a Typhoon), Brimstone gives the RAF the firepower to destroy a WarPac style tank company without the need to have anyone designating targets.
@@thelmaviaduct supposedly yes: a full salvo in autonomous mode was launched by a Tornado (12 weapons) in Libya early during Operation Ellamy (the British contribution to the NATO intervention in the Libyan civil war in 2011). The RAF reported that the salvo struck and destroyed 12 vehicles - including MBTs. That said, the autonomous mode guided by the mmW radar seeker has rarely been used, most launches have been of dual mode Brimstone relying on the laser seeker (so a designated target).
It’s annoying to hear the Tornado referred to in the past tense: Tornadoes are still operational with the Luftwaffe, Royal Saudi Air Force and the Aeronautica Militare, and will be until at least 2030.
Even more annoying that the RAF isn't on your list!
I mean, you're correct. Just annoying that that's the case. Tornado GR4 was meant to keep flying for the RAF until 2025, slowly being replaced by F-35s so that number don't dwindle.
Bloody budget cuts!
Can’t imagine they’ll be happy with servicing them, they’re all getting old now😂
Cause they suck
@@alastairross9169 Are you sayimg those air forces suck, or the Tornado sucks?
Raf do have 100 being held in decommission so may not fly them anymore but still have battle ready in stock just like are navy right now are numbers top the US navy but we are only a small island with no need to run the world anymore so just decommission till its need 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm no student of aircraft, but the tornado and the Grumman Tomcat were tops for me as a child , being swept wing, twin engined and twin crewed, they were the true battle tools of the skies
Same for me aswell during my childhood, but also add on the Su-37 and the MiG-29 :)
Now when Tomcat is already retired and Tornado will follow quite soon, I'd donate them to Ukraine. And send Tom C to train new pilots ;-)
@@SonyT250 they are still in service in Italy and Germany, and if sent to Ukraine they would sadly suffer the contested skies and strong russian ground AA. I wouldn't want to see them in such a scenario cause they deserve better!
@@zanzao-1ps318 what would make F16 better than Tomcat against Russian AA? IMO F18 and F14 are better platforms than F16 or most Russian planes. The real difference is made by the carried missiles.
@@SonyT250 I'm talking about the Tornado TBH
On a slightly different note, the tripartite training school for the Tornado was about thirty miles south from where I worked. For some reason the aircraft used the buildings that I worked in as a navigation point. The problem for us was ,as engravers, every time a Tornado flew just above the building, everyone jumped and ruined their work. How much did the RAF owe the proprieters?.
$1M compensation would barely even scratch the surface.
THAT is a GREAT story ! My sympathies to the talented and hard working engravers.
@@DeePaignall "Scratch the surface" I see what you did there. 😄
I worked expanding capacity at a natural gas storage plant. They cooled the gas till liquid then stored it till needed. Then they would warm it back to gas. Since this place was the equivalent of a small nuke it was in the middle of nowhere and a easy to ID landmark. An air base was about an hour away. They would fly over at low altitude every day. Sometimes they seemed to be practicing dog fighting cause one would go over then another, but they weren’t flying formation. When is be on the highest part of the plant it would seem like I could touch them. I made a sign that said, “Y’all scared to fly any lower?” The rest of that week they would pass by me so close the air movement would try to pull me along. It was great. I didn’t tell anyone. I got a buddy of mine that is an Native American to come up with me. I made sure he had his back to them the first time they flew over. I looked behind him and said, “Oh f*ck!” And ducked down. My buddy was like wtf? And turned around to look right as the first plane came over. I had to grab his harness from the back cause he turned and saw it heading right for him and went to jump off! I thought to myself this is the kind of thing that is fun and games until someone gets hurt bad so I did the adult thing and quit having fun at work.
Several years before I lived on this round road so I guess it was an easy nav point. One summer military helicopters started popping up and just kept coming. It started with those big two rotor chinooks. They flew southwest to northeast by twos. I counted 24 of them. That is a big percentage of the entire Chinook population. Idk where they came from either. No base is back that way for over 1000 miles. I’m pretty sure they was heading to Ft. Campbell or possibly Ft. Knox. After the parade of Chinooks blacked out apaches started popping up coming from and heading back towards Ft. Campbell. They didn’t have a single marking on them. They would fly low circles around the small circular road (driveway really). Sometimes they would get down real low like they was targeting one building or another. I took a rocket launcher size piece of PVC and painted it black. When they were down low I’d pop out aiming the pipe at them. They must of liked it and told the other pilots cause from then on they would always target my place. Once or twice they caught me out I in the yard, a couple other times I was able to get hid without them seeing. They would be facing my house and I’d be beside them with my fake RPG or stinger. They were close enough I could see them laugh when they noticed me close enough to hit them with a rock or when I’d be in my yard and turn around and be looking at a blacked out Apache that had snuck up behind me. If they have anything between them and you even a couple trees they hardly make a sound especially with that noise canceling stuff. Anyways that was a weird year cause of all the military activity that never was before or since. We had fun with each other. I even dressed up in some Iraqi style garb a few times. If it wouldn’t have bothered the neighbors I would of put a loudspeaker outside and played those call to prayer chants. If they flew in and heard the prayer call and had someone dressed up like a terrorist playing hide and seek with a fake RPG while ISIS flags fluttered in the wind I bet they would tell everyone about it. I bet I would of got out on their maps.
Grew up by Langley USAF Base and you could all most keep time with patrol they would send up. Hear one go up when it came back about 4 hrs have passed.
Also during hurricane season if one was coming close 18+ hrs of almost nonstop takeoffs as the moved inland. Then after it passed another 18+ hrs of nonstop landings.
Was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014. Got the pleasure of being around these incredible aircraft. Also the misfortune of being 4 o'clock behind one on full after burner takeoff. Good times.
Did you only lose your hearing or the need to shave for a few days too?
@@qunt2742 that, and a new pair of underpants lol
One of the VERY few planes ever built that could genuinely fulfill all its different combat roles. Reminds me of the Mosquito from WW2.
Equally “underrated” as well.
Great examples of British aircraft. Although the tornado was a team effort
In service procurement left alot to be desired, especially engine development.
Some of the assembly work for the Tornado was done at the same factory as the Mosquito even, BAE Wharton near Blackpool in the North West of England. They build and work on Eurofighters there now I believe
Hu? The air defense version could not, because it wasn't designed to.
I still remember the tornado's screaming down loch ness in scotland doing low level training in the 80's. A beautiful utilitarian design, kind of like a real life x-wing !
Seeing the Tornado fly directly overhead as it headed out to the bombing ranges on The Wash was quite a sight and sound that I wont forget as long as I live. When called upon to go into combat it proved itself time and again.
Like the Harrier!
I know exactly what you mean. They were beautiful aircraft and flew over our house regularly too. We loved the free airshows, but now it is mainly the Eurofighters, F35s, plus F15s from Lakenheath practising dogfights overhead.
We were lucky enough to see the GR4s of 11 Sqn (AC) at very close hand during a Marham open day.
I was stationed alongside the British military in the middle east during operation Southern Watch. They're top notch Airmen. I don't know how many times I watched aircraft take off fully loaded, and come back with little to no munitions. The Tornado was a fun aircraft to watch, and definitely one of my favorites. The Tornado, and the F-15 were my two favorite aircraft still in the inventory.
Where about were you at, wait Fleet?
PSAB Saudi Arabia
Remarkable platform that was able to make the transition from nuclear strike fighter to air superiority, recon, electronic warfare and ground attack. Hard to believe the design is almost 50 years old!
I used to drive semi for a food service company everytime I drove down hwy 21 in Wi the f16 would use my truck as target! Lol
Its not that hard to believe, if we go by introduction dates it is only a few years older then the F18s, and the F15s and F16s are even older then the Tornado.
It's beautiful 😍
The F3 was an interceptor and not a fighter/air superiority king. Adequate at what is designed to do and an effective SEAD aircraft towards the end of its life.
@Back In The Day 2 Simply they didnt, the Jaguar was a ground attack platform as was the Harrier. The only fighter version we had of the Harrier was the FA2 operated by the Royal Navy. Struggling to think of any pure supersonic fighter aircraft the RAF have ever operated. The lightning was an interceptor as was the Navy operated Phantoms. The Typhoon has to be one of the only ones desgined from the outset as an air superiority fighter but that is now a multi role aircraft.
Oh boy, the Tornado was a beast. In my hometown in northwestern germany you saw and heard them a couple of days per week when they were doing their aerial target simulation. Phantoms, Tornadoes and now the Eurofighters. Always great watching them chasing the Learjets!
Was that bruggen?
@@nathangoddard6082 I think they were and still are from Wittmundhafen (Luftwaffengeschwader 71) and sometimes from Nordholz (Marinefliegergeschwader) and maybe from Oldenburg (Jagdbombergeschwaders 43) untill the early nineties. My Grandpa worked at that Fliegerhorst, but I don't have clear memory about that, I was too young (5-6 years old).
@@nathangoddard6082 not necessarily.
Learjets? When was this? We used Hawks and previously Canberras for Tooms and Tonkas.
I assume your location is near Schleswig Jagel where TG 51 "Immelmann" is located which still operates the Tornado? I am at Lübeck. Mostly I can hear am not see them because of bad weather 😂but awesome sound! They are not allowed to fly lower than 600m over a major city... warum schreib ich eigentlich in Englisch?? Keine Ahnung - Guten Rutsch!
Super video! Some planes are sleek, some are useful. The Tornado is just brutal, a fierce warrior in every role.
@@InForTheLonghaul
👍
I remember many years ago I was out hillwalking with a group of friends in Scotland. The hills we were walking at that time were pretty small, maybe 300 feet max. So we are following the path along the top of one hill that was at best 250 feet high. We were talking pics, admiring the view etc, then suddenly we heard this amazing sound. Our group leader pointed down, and we saw SIX Tornados zipping through the valley below us at least 150 feet lower than we were. These guys were not hanging around either, the valley was about two miles long, and the planes were gone in seconds. They were gone so fast we never even got a chance to take a photo. Incredible aircraft.
Common sight in the Highlands, back in the day. Another trick they employed was single aircraft following the contours of higher hills, 2000ft+, but sticking to the hanging valleys running through and off them, remaining out of sight till they were right on top of the target. A bunch of us watched an exercise attack on Crianlarich, using the tactic. 3 or 4 Tornadoes, approaching from different directions, crossing over precisely the same point with only a couple of seconds separation, at high speed. Incredible to watch.
I had the same experience in the scouts while hiking in the welsh valleys - amazing
I miss seeing these thundering around the Lake District in the 90s. I remember chatting to a Tornado pilot and asking him about the computer. It had 8k of memory if I recall, but he said it was very fast and worked perfectly.
Used to live by Lake Windermere in England. Watching these things flying through the valleys was sensational
And then some👍🏻👍🏻
We still live in the area, I’ve seen the Tornado flash bye lower than I was while I was standing on solid ground😳😳
@@MC-nb6jx I remember seeing a Lockheed Starfighter below me in Wales in the 1970s
Had it crashed? Starfighters usually did.
my father worked as an avionics guy on the Tornado IDS in the german airforce. My family went to visit a base in north germany where they still operate the Tornadoes. Was pretty cool seeing the jets up close and having my dad tell stories from different kinds of maintenance he would preform like, replacing the IFF antenna after mid-air refueling training. the antenna is so close to the probe that the droge would knock off the antenna when they missed. When we got to see the weapons storage on the base my dad started asking if that had those and those weapons in. thier usuall response was "no, 10 years ago they decided that they were either to inhumane or would actully be committing warcrimes if used. The Tornado is the most badass fighterjet of its time. Sadly i start seeing them in museums allready:(. Its comming to DCS soon though ive heard so thats nice
That first British Tornado is from 9 Squadron 'Bats,' RAF Bruggen in Germany! I spent the best years of my life there. When I was in school, I did work experience with 9 Sqn, a fantastic time! I was delighted to see this footage!
Tornado was conceived much earlier than you state!
I worked on it in the mid/late 60's... and it was in its late development stages then... about to go into full production.
At the time, it was called MRCA (Multi Role Combat Aircraft)
Love your vids!
It's not a Dark Skies vid unless he gets at least one major fact wrong.
Thanks fir your added info on it.
BAE?
@@krystianziolkowski3609 BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) at Warton, Lancashire... had a great time!
@@JonBvideostuff oh wow I never knew about this company that's interesting. I'm hoping to find a career at BAE myself
Team Tornado is a fantastic book about a Tornado flight crew who were shot down and taken prisoner during the Gulf War. It was released in 1995 so may be hard to find but is definitely worth reading.
By the Americans? 😒
@@WildReefer 😬
she was a beautiful airframe, I live close to Leuchars and had been woken by a few QRA launches from there. Was driving under the end of the main runway one night and a pair of Tornados taken off on QRA over the top of me, scared the living daylights out of me as there was no noise until the sky torn above me. If you are in Scotland they have a F3 in the montrose air station, which is well worth the visit
I grew up across the river from Wharton where they tested Tornados all through the early 80s. They often came thundering across our village at low level and every child would cheer them on
I lived not far from Tain where they have/had a practice range from dropping bombs, so i seen these almost every other day all throughout my childhood.
Going to Montrose for my covid booster tomorrow, so that's perfect info timing as their website says tomorrow's the last day until February! In the 80s I remember learning every detail I could about Tornado and Harrier for a Flying Scholarship interview and I've had a love for the aircraft ever since. As a kid in the 70s I had a similar experience to your Leuchars QRF except it was Vulcan in the Hebrides coming over a dune - stayed with me forever!
Living near the lakes it wasn't unusual to be driving down. The road and look down to see a tornado in the valley below ypu.
I worked QRA many times, and was on 43SQN.
These majestic old girls will be sorely missed
Great video and the film footage of the Tornado at work brings back many memories!! The international cooperation that brought about this aircraft is probably the best part of the story - I've often wondered what Battle of Britain pilots must have thought about the RAF and Luftwaffe using the same aircraft - hopefully they were relieved that finally both were on the same side!!
Some Germans behind the wall were still considered as enemies.
Absolutly loved the Tornado. Strong, fast and fully multi role cable with an immense low level capability...
My wife and I were travelling through Wales on a trip (a honeymoon two year after we were married) and we were driving down a single-lane country road deep in the Welsh countryside … suddenly there was a deafening howl and a glimpse of a very tall, single tail …. we had just been subjected to the Tornado! Had always been a plane guy … but now I had a fave!
I used to work outside near Warton in the UK in the 80's. These things used to fly over our site cabin all the time. You could also watch them doing acrobatics which was awesome. We got a real treat one day when a Tornado and a lightning did a really low pass over our cabin, nearly shook it to bits.
@7:57. The F-111 (at least) had synchronized inner hardpoints that pivoted inversely with the wing sweep so that the pilons were always parallel to the roll axis. Just an FYI or correction.
I think they were referencing the outer hard points that could not rotate on the 111 but could on the tornado
@@antimedic4441 Ok, I guess I Missed that part of the dialogue. Thanks. Yep 4 hard points under each wing. outer 2 don't pivot. Sorry about that and thanks for clearing that up. :) (no, not sarcasm - lol).
The controls were fly by wire but all the inputs were hydraulic. This made the valve bodies engineering works of art. We made the air intake control and it was a real technical feat. Lucas aerospace made one that was ever bigger and more complicated.
The finest looking aircraft ever conceived.
Was posted for 5 years in Goose Bay, Canada, which was the low level flight training center for German, British and Dutch airforces. The tornadoes would land and park on the tarmac where ground crews would check flight surfaces for parts of trees that were picked up along the way. Beautiful aircraft.
Yea that’s something modern jets can’t do anymore haha we once had a Eurofighter wich scratched a tree haven’t seen that aircraft for 2 months… remember our tornados regularly cutting trees just get the green stuff away note the scratch and fly again…
Although nowadays losleget flying is not need that bad anymore.
My memory of the Tornado is dominated by one instance when I was at Newhaven beach in front of the chalk cliffs that now house the Newhaven Museum in about 1980.
It was a clear, hot sunny day and I was up to my waist in the sea when all of a sudden from nowhere, 3 Tornados flew low level and very fast over the cliffs and out to sea banking towards Beachy head (east) and disappeared in the open sky almost as quickly as they burst upon the shocked beach. They were incredible loud and startled everyone who looked up to watch the quick aerial display. They seemed the very image of muscular powerful air defence at it’s best. The burst of sound is something I’ve never forgotten and never repeated again from an aircraft.
I used to live at Menwith Hill just outside Harrogate, England. The Tornadoes and Jaguars would use the base to practice bombing/strafing runs…the sound was crazy when those things would scream overhead at a fairly low level.
All the way from England,as a frequent visitor to Snowdonia ( North Wales) during the 70's and 80's, it was common to be deafened by Tornado pilots practicing low level incursions at just 50 feet AGL.A common joust between RAF and USAF pilots would be that the RAF got airsick above 500 feet and USAF pilots deployed the undercarriage below 500 feet.
On my way to an RAF airshow. I saw three low-flying Tornados silently heading toward my car and whizzing past with a thunderous sound. Never been so excited and terrified at the same time. Love that jet. It's a shame they took it out of the latest Ace Combat game.
The most underrated and best looking aircraft ever created. Truly beautiful machine.
Undoubtedly my favourite fast jet to date. I remember as an air cadet in 2006 they had an F3 and GR4 in close formation at the Waddington air show. Both cruised side by side at low level over the length of the runway, split off, did it again but this time lit the afterburners and let them go full bore. At the far end of the runway, straight into a vertical climb. The sound was utterly unreal and rattled my rib cage. I may be a train driver now, but how I wish I was able to fly one of these things.
Best years of my life as Tornado ground crew in the RAF. amazing aircraft!!
After Desert Storm some USAF fighter pilots told of their sheer disbelief at the low level flying of the British Tornado pilots.
Below tree top height (had there been any) literally 10-15m off the ground at high speeds and while maneuvering.
The Brits took some heavy losses among the Tornado crews but they hammered their targets relentlessly and with great effect.
I'm glad this point has been confirmed, no one believes you when you tell them you were buzzed at 20/30ft altitude. Incredibly stable platform due to high wing load. Perfect for low level bombing. Some of the tactics you read about makes you realise the reality of War.
100% believable.
One has to ask WHY they flew so low so fast. It comes down to the inherent practicality you see in the British. They are now, and always have been incredibly hard fighting people when call to do so. But whereas here in the United States, we tend to solve all of our martial dilemmas with very expensive technology, the Brits (and many others) don’t have the luxury of bottomless defense budgets.
So it only stands to reason that they address the problem of enemy radar not by ECM or other cutting edge tech. They simply fly below the radar. A simple (?), practical, and immediate solution to the problem. Reminds me of the story of how the Soviet Union solved the problem of pens that wouldn’t write in zero gravity: They used pencils instead. Apocryphal, I’m sure, but it illustrates the point well.
In Desert Storm, weren't they flying low to cluster bomb runways? It was an extremely dangerous even foolish operation that no one else wanted to do.
I enjoyed working on these during my RAF days, from being a crew chief and Liney on the fighters F3 version, to deep strip maintenance of the GR1 and 4
One of these crashed in Labrador, Canada during a training exercise in 2000. I was at the airport where they recovered the wreckage and I still have the cassette reader as shown in the video at around 8:36 that was given to me by one of the crew recovering the wreckage.
Was in Goose Bay from 93-98. We lost quite a few Tornadoes while there, two which crashed into each other and one that burned on the ground after techs somehow got one off the ground on high speed taxi, clipped the wing on the ground and caught fire. Took 3 hours to extinguish then they rolled the burnt shell into our hanger for the investigation.
I think it was a German Tornado?
My older brother uses to be ground crew on Tornadoes at RAF Leuchars seeing this brings back memories as I always used to go to the airshows.
He used to do QRF with the F3's and went out to desert storm back in the 90's, brought back shrapnel from a scud that got fired at their base.
in 2022, it is clear that the concept of a fast and low bomber was perfect for interdiction of defended airspace. The Ukrainian Air Force exclusively fly this way. Russian air defences are very potent, but less effective against low altitude targets. Had Tornado faced off against the Soviet Union, I’m sure it would have caused the Red Army a lot of problems
Interdiction is the best way to employ combat jets in modern conventional warfare. Had they had acess to something similar to the Tornado and effects on russian ground forces would be devasting. Fulcrums are dogfighters not suited for this task.
As a little kid I loved playing the tornado simulator by Digital integration. It was very hard but I still played through and read through the manuals to be able to understand the controls. The most new thing to me was that almost everything was automated to every minute and synchronised with other planes from the group when running a carpet bombing assault on the airfields. Also that simulator shown a rare load out variant with non guided antitank missiles as you can see for example on the hind choppers or some versions of early f16s. I heard that such load out allowed it also to be used as a10 replacement which seems doubtful because tornado was far more expensive plane to be used with full wingspan as a storm plane
What a fantastic aircraft. I loved hearing a story of a Tomcat pilot who did a ...tour? swap? I dunno the terminology but he was with the RAF flying Tornados for a while. Really interesting hearing about the comparison between the two jets. Gotta love the swing wing!
Growing up near RAF Leeming in the 80s/90s the sound of the Tornado was a daily background growl. Today the sound of a military plane still evokes the thought - Tornado!
Beautiful Fighter bomber! One of the most capable low flight navigation airplane and looks bad ass
I think another video of this aircraft is needed especially with regards to the RAF's history of employment! Really a series would be nice regarding each nations history of the platform.
@8:41 I bet that sweet mixed tape has "Highway to the Danger Zone" and "Ride of the Valkyries"...
Used to see it fly over sometimes as a kid, but the best sight was when it flew *below* me.
Was hiking the Welsh hills as part of a school trip when a pair shot through the Valleys below :)
Surprisingly a Hercules flew the same route not long later, never really thought they'd be up for such low altitude flight as well.
Probably the coolest and most bad ass looking plane.
The F-111 had the two inner pylons pivot as well on each wing. ! The outer two did not pivot but we never used them. We had to be careful with the BRU-33 rack that carried 6 bombs because they could be loaded on these pivot pylons and the bombs could hit if required a fully swept wing. Great bid. Spent 13 years on Tornado great aircraft. :)
This was always my favourite jet aircraft. Early home computer sims, Tornado (1993) was a dream come true.
used to work in raf leuchars for years and would see these taking off daily and buzz the tower aswell with wings fully swept it was quite a sight
You were a barber that worked on an Air Base?
@@Marin3r101 haha naaah
Yeah, ive had a few QRA buzz me in Fife, a pair got me going through the road at the end of the runway, scared the daylights out of me.
Always Loved the Panavia Tornado. Like the Sepecat Jaguar, it was a favourite with the flyboys. Great footage.
was the backseat still using cassette tapes to load data until the type retired or was a more modern system installed at some point?
Great video. Always been a fan of your content, and it keeps getting better. Keep up the great work!
I love this jet, nothing makes the ground shake like its engines. The noise from this beast I can say is my favourite bar none. Full afterburner roar cracking the sky wide open. I love that sound it stirs something inside me that ony 1 other engine does that I've heard for myself live. That is the newest engine the Russians have put in their SU 57. It has the most evil sounding howl type noise. I've heard nothing like it.
I think you'd find the mighty Vulcan bomber was number one for making the ground shake 😉
A frequent sight in the Wensum Valley where I grew-up were Tornados practicing low-level runs. Sometimes they be so low the pilots would wave to you.
Should have heard the racket at RAF Leuchars down Tornado Alley, when they had to beat up the engines for a minute before take-off.
They introduced Triple glazing in those houses, but still it was loud, and everything vibrated in the area.
You missed on the engines if ungoverned would run to destruction to get them out of enemy airspace.
In the early 90's two Tornados in the UK low flying system using TFR, collided at 250ft. The aircraft were on an intersecting course where the cockpit frames meant the pilots could not see each other. The TFR set at 250 feet was so accurate as to be mentioned as a causal factor in the incident report.
Your content is excellent. Thank you for the effort you put into these videos; the research and commentary is tremendous.
I stay locally to leuchars and picked up a limited edition signed Tornado f3 111 squadron ZE965 'HA' drawing at an airshow. The 111 squadrons nickname was the "Tremblers", can vouch for the name being appropriate. The print I have is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the battle of Britain,the certificate was flown on onboard during a flyfast before the queen on September 15th 1990.
Interestingly one of the pilots involved was with USMC
My favorite Jet fighter/bomber
Here's my plan for a Nuclear War with anyone:
1. no
2. no
3. nope for good measure.
Yes. Yes. And a thank you for good measure. Bye 🇺🇦 👋
@@Marin3r101 Hope you live somewhere remote, our old Minutemen IV and ABM systems will not be doing nearly the damage to them they will to us. That's where they put the bulk of their screw you taxpayer money, not nuclear carriers and boomerang stealth bombers.
And definately do not go to war for another eastern european country, last time you lost your Empire, economy & people.
Many years ago was having a picnic on Lytham Green when this black monster with full Luftwaffe markings complete with full ordnance came down the River Ribble and as it passed it put full afterburner and went straight up into the sky. Everything vibrated, the picnic dishes and even the grass held its ears.
The most noteworthy characteristic was the terrain-following system (at least for 2ATAF/4ATAF operations)
The F111’s inboard wing hardpoints articulated with the wing sweep.
i spent much of my childhood watching these fly a circuit that took them directly over my house up here in the highlands of scotland, sometimes you could see them dropping practice munitions at night. Love this aircraft, the Tornado was a bonnie flyer.
Me too had them fly over our house... We had a very big oak tree in the garden and it was the only big tree for some distance... I often wondered if they used the tree as a waypoint, as a couple of times a month they would fly low level straight over us. I never saw the plane coming, just a earth shattering sudden roar / boom that use to make the whole house shake.... It was very exciting when I was a young boy.
Oh it's the voice-over guy. Every statement is phrased like a question with that weird inflection he has and have a glass of water next time too.
I live in Ghedi, were the 6° stormo of the Aeronautica Militare has his base. Here Tornado that are landing or taking off are a daily view. They are starting to get replaced by the F35 (the first 2 enter service this summer) but they will be in service until at least 2025
Fantastic documentary. Thank you for producing it.
Second in sexy, only to the F-14. There's just something about cold war, variable sweep fighters.
Man really said "Just like the Simulations"
The Tornado is still the only aircraft capable of Mach 1 at 50 feet. German and British ingenuity.
I had a little toy tornado as a kid, and to this day it is still my favorite jet from an aesthetics perspective
Once the landing gear were up the pilot could descend to his ideal operational altitude.
...where he could then look down and get a closer view of the Buccaneers!
@@robair67?😂
@@fslolo6622 you have to know about Buccaneer pilots to get that!
Brilliant overview of the Panavia Tornado. Great team you are.
The low level effectiveness of this plane was truly impressive. I was on the receiving end of one in an exercise. We lost.
Was this the best low level plane in desert storm ?
@@Rob-The-Redes it was. In terms of loslegen flying it still is one of the best
I remember a couple buzzed my primary school in the mid-80s. Full afterburner at about 600 knots. 300 kids stood silently in awe for about 30 seconds afterwards.
Beautiful Beast! What a coalition UK, Germany and Italy hit a homerun.
There was shadow as well. Russian spy affair at MBB germany, britains stopped support to develop the air intakes to germany. The germans didn't understand the tech that was from the
Concorde and needed pushes here and there. Otherwise the plane would have been supercruising at M1.4 and hit M2.5 top speed. One top feature missed.
This has always been one of my top 5 favorite planes.
The Tornado will always be so fucking cool
During the Gulf War I remember seeing the Tornado fly low level at 80 feet, what a sight.
One of the best fighter jets ever made...👍🙂👍🏴🇬🇧🏴🇬🇧
Rocks .. heather .. rocks .. heather .. rocks .. heather .. Purple Haze all around .. don't know if I'm going up or down .. rocks .. heather .. rocks .. heather ..
Completely off topic: Sad that Project Aces’ license for this plane expired. Would have loved to see this plane in Ace Combat 7. Hopefully the later titles will have it again.
It's coming to DCS, next year possibly, but it's the German version, not the RAF version (GR.1)
@@Aeronaut1975 ah well, better than nothing.
I remember building an Airfix model of the Tornado as a kid in the 80’s. Thought it was the coolest looking plane I’d ever seen.
If a f14 and a f15 had a baby it would be the tornado
Tornado is insignificant when compared to F-15E Strike Eagle.
That Tsr 2 was beautiful .
@Gillie-Monger Spot on, how sad that we caved in
@@bikes02 When politics gets involved.......... The TSR2 project had no real design spec and so redesigns were constantly being called for. The cost of that was astronomical. Australia learned nothing from that debacle. We have a litany of overpriced, delayed and under performing military projects as a result. I spent 3-1/2 years on a floating example of that.
@@peterinns5136 thats an interesting comment Peter . Do you mean that no specification existed before prototypes were built ? Its demise is often blamed on the UK having a labour goverment at the time who were not fully commited to defence spending , I wonder if this is true.
@@starbarrothschild6597 The UK Labour government at the time were determined to spend money on US weapons rather than develop our own. This left a hole and it took the UK aerospace industry some time to climb out of it.
It looked like a Russian asshole my friend
I’d LOVE to have some Panavia Tornadoes in my Air Force inventory!
The rotating hardpoints are what I walk away impressed by the _most..._ heh
Not because it's technologically advanced, in fact it's positively primitive in its operation. Nay, it's the simple fact that they incorporated such a novel thing! _(presumably others didn't simply due to the added weight)_
Granted, I'm by no means knowledgeable on the vast amount of military aircraft designs, so admittedly this might have been done on another swing-wing bird and I just didn't know about it. Still, once he mentioned the wings could move, my brain *immediately* said _"hooolllldup... or has wrong hardpoints, so how does it address their changing orientation?!"_ 😊
I was a good boy, and remained patient in order to see if that gets explained, which it did. 🤘
Also, being so used to seeing twin tail designs, the size of the Tornado's single tail caught my eye pretty much every time a full side view showed up... lol
F-111 had it.
@@AirwayZombie Oh? Nice!
I already thought the Aardvark was a cool plane (with one of the more/most unflattering names heh), so this just gives it another justification 😁
Thanks
@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE : The strange thing about F111,s hard points, is that it's only the inner pylons that stayed relative to the airflow. The outer 1s didn't, for some reason.
@@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM My immediate thoughts are that perhaps the room needed for the mechanism took up to much space in the wing, causing the internal fuel tanks to be significantly smaller. Our that the added weight would've caused more stress than they desired and/or resulted in oscillation ("wing wobble") at high speeds.
Or... but probably not the case... they only fit drop tanks on the outer hardpoints and would've needed to be discarded _anyways_ before sweeping the wings into their "go fast" positions...
🤷♂️🤷♂️ But, I still like to speculate... lol
@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE : That actually sounds quite plausible. 🤔
I remember my Uni days(late 80's) riding my old GS1000 through Snowdonia and looking down into the bottom of a valley and seeing a Tornado below me - crazy guys from RAF Valley probably on the way to or from the Mach Loop :-)
Imagine having your maps going FUBAR and needing to find a pencil in the back seat to sort them out. 😉
When I saw those cassettes I immediately thought of the old ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 computers that took forever to load games!
they also took off from RAF Marham in 2011 during Libya NFZ, i remember it well, they would leave at night fully loaded, was interesting to see them come back with some ordinance or none at all. a great aircraft that i miss a lot, on VIP day at RAF Marham they'd do a simulated low attack run on the air field, you don't see or hear them at all until the last second. gave me goose bumps every time, beautiful.
It's best to describe Tornado as an aircraft designed for a nuclear with the Warsaw Pact rather than Russia because its range is too short to reach the present day borders of Russia.
For a nuclear with warsaw? Wth did Poland do?
@@Marin3r101 - in case you're not joking, the "Warsaw Pact" was essentially "communist NATO".
@@steve1978ger
No, it was a direct response to NATO.
It wasn’t designed for any kind of nuclear role. The British nuclear role was missiles launched from Royal Navy submarines years before the introduction of the Tornado
@@steve1978ger nope, it was as Randy said. It was set up as a direct response to the western countries forming the NATO alliance
I remember when i was at middle school 8 to 13 years old for an exam i had to do a talk and being that i was nuts about avation i choose this aircraft. I gave such a detailed talk that i was praised for it. I have seen this aircraft quite a few times there is one acting as a gate guard at RAF Sealand. Panavia Tornado GR4 - Royal Air Force - ZA607 EB-X. If your in the UK and you love this aircraft i recommend that you go take a look.
They didn't call it the Tornado because it sounded cool. Tornadoes were the loudest f*cking plane when they flew overhead. Was in Tucson while the Torries were in town sitting at a cafe having a coffee downtown. All of a sudden, the ground starts to rumble and a few forever seconds later, a wing of those damned things flew overhead knocking anything on the table clean off. My ears rang for days.
I love this plane! Cant wait for the DCS module..
For me, its still one of the most beautiful fighter / IDS aircraft to ever grace the skies. I say one of, the Harrier Fmk2 is still vying for 1st place!
Growing up, visits to my Gran on the east coast were a real treat. Every day at around 1Pm a loose pair would fly right over her garden at around 300ft. Straight out over the North sea.
Selling Brimstone a little short there: the tandem charge is designed to defeat modern MBTs.
While we’re discussing Brimstone, it also has an autonomous mode, meaning a salvo can be fired into a kill box and the missiles will select their own targets and engage appropriately, self destructing if no targets are found. With up to a dozen Brimstone per Tornado (18 on a Typhoon), Brimstone gives the RAF the firepower to destroy a WarPac style tank company without the need to have anyone designating targets.
I wonder if it works as advertised???
@@thelmaviaduct supposedly yes: a full salvo in autonomous mode was launched by a Tornado (12 weapons) in Libya early during Operation Ellamy (the British contribution to the NATO intervention in the Libyan civil war in 2011). The RAF reported that the salvo struck and destroyed 12 vehicles - including MBTs.
That said, the autonomous mode guided by the mmW radar seeker has rarely been used, most launches have been of dual mode Brimstone relying on the laser seeker (so a designated target).
@@richardnicklin654 I used to work for mbda, was always skeptical about the mmw claims. Be great if it does work as advertised.
@@thelmaviaduct well, one (reported) success does not a reliable system make - but it’s the only data point I’ve found on the open web.
@@richardnicklin654 i suppose Ukraine is a good proving ground for weapons tech, must be loads of analysts over there reporting back.
Hearing these things screaming overhead when i was a wee guy camping , doing low level training was fecking mental lol
My favourite aircraft 😍