Originally Posted by
MMHendrie1
I heard one of the ‘Diamond 9’ was ZD848 (BC). She would have been 34-years old.
That had me dusting off my logbook to reveal 41 sorties between Aug 85 and Aug 88 which read like a history of RAFG operations at the height of the Cold War:
SSPs (remember them?); laydown and dive at Nordhorn, Vliehors and Siegenburg; ‘bounce’ sorties on the North German plain; multiple low-level attack formations; MALLET BLOW; air combat training (including one memorable sortie when the SPILS failed and the aircraft departed; we were within a second or two of ejection); WPC at Capo de Frasca; ACMI at Deci; dissimilar air combat (2 + 1 v 3); OLF at Goose Bay; and the highlight, RED FLAG.
Some amazing memories.
But mostly very precious memories of a fine bunch of people not all of whom saw their children grow up. How many I wonder? We should remember them all.
Maybe we need another thread as a tribute to those who gave their lives during the 40 years of Tornado.
Excellent idea. Tornado was and by the way still is a massive programme with FlightGlobal saying that around 250 remain in service.
However, for the UK all the skills and knowledge and memories will rapidly fade away and soon be forgotten.
I worked on the engines during the development, production and in service working very closely with the RAF and I have many friends who did the same.
It would be a great shame for these memories not to be recorded somewhere.