Yebbut you didn't manage to fly the one in the photo (GR1) ;)

On a more serious note, I wonder how many 22 year olds did fly it. I would imagine that you would have to be an 18 year old entrant on O or A levels to manage that. I think that even back in the 80's, most fast jet starters were university graduates joining up as 22 year olds so by the time they had done basic and advanced training, they would be about 24/25 before they got near a Tornado cockpit. I wonder when the last "5 O level" pilot/nav was recruited from new?

Do you believe Mrs May?
 

........well no!

But then we are in an awfull situation with our politics at the moment.
An inbred culture of lying & deceit has taken over, probably brought about by all the hangers on, spin docters etc constantly trying to make everything look good and bury bad news.
Everything that is said or written is carefully crafted to look like one thing, but mean something else.

Shades of the Emperors New Clothes?

One of the last truthful statements was: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

Thank goodness for that! The RS version was so much better than the Popular Plus...:E

PS. On reflection it looks like Prototype (P08) :8

I'm surprised you didn't ditch the nav in the RS model and put a big subwoofer in his place :E

That would be the PA100, a single seater, that was eventually dropped for the 2 seat PA200...
http://www.afwing.com/upload/2016-07...ids/pa-100.jpg

Ref political parties: "Always keep a hold of nurse; for fear of finding something worse" (Belloc)

Indeed.

The days of service personnel being default Tory supporters are long gone, given that they have repeatedly proved (through their reckless attacks on the budget of the Armed Forces) that their claim of being the party of 'security' is nothing but talk.

Some may consider the prospect of Left-leaning government distasteful, due to their less war-mongering rhetoric, but at least the Left are likely to do as they say, not BS about being "strong on defence" whilst hacking the services to pieces.

I did my GCE O Levels in 1984/5, A-Levels in 1987. The Tornado must have only been in service a couple years when I did my O Levels, and from past papers we did at the time, I am sure they must have been the same from at least 1980 onwards - ie graded A-E and U.

Maybe the requirement for A Levels came in with the move to Cranwell-only training for offrs.

Nope. I joined in 1981 and the minimum requirement then was 5x O Levels at C Grade (or equivalent) including Maths, English, and a Physical based Science.

Still 5x O Levels by 1989 as per above. However, they were allegedly a bit harder than the GCSE - certainly fewer A/A*s floating about.

When I joined in 1975 it was min 5 O levels for officer aircrew and 3 O levels for NCO air eng, loadmaster etc. However at seventeen and a half, with 6 O Levels, I enquired about NCO air eng but was "persuaded" by the CIO to go for propulsion tech with a view to remustering to air eng later on. It was probably the right decision as I wasn't mature enough as a 17.5 year old and I'm sure I would have flunked the course.

I've always found the idea of voting out of self-interest quite distasteful, whether it's the rich voting Tory for lower taxes or public sector workers voting Labour for more money. There is so much more at stake in an election than that. Instead of focusing on special interest areas, voters should be looking at a party's entire offer and its core philosophy, because that is what will drive Government decision-making as unexpected events unfold during the subsequent Parliament. Rant over.

Doesnt matter which party is in office - they all talk big and then cut.......

Roadster, the clue in my post was Henlow. In 61 Cranwell was exclusively aircrew and mostly pilot at that. Cranwell was essential if you expected promotion to sqn ldr and beyond. It was possible to be promoted to sqn ldr whilst on the Supplementary List with the bonus that passing the C was not required. However for promotion to flt lt it was essential that one passed the B. It was noit unusual to find fg off with 12 years seniority in rank. They enjoyed the almost total lack of power or authority.

PN

And then it all changed around 8/9 years later. Sailed past many a Cranwellian!!

1969, with the introduction of the Military Salary, and the combining of the lists. I was 22 and married. No entitlement to married quarters, and a VERY reduced marriage allowance. Suddenly an increase in pay, and a quarter. Oh, and a third of a batwoman to help my wife out (that didn't last long, though).

Having tried, not too hard, to pass an exam the point of which, as, before joining, an engineer, I really didn't get, it was hilarious to become an instant Flt Lt which pissed off many, much to our amusement.

(Was that punctuation correct?) :}

There is one Mrs May I do believe, but the politician? No bloody way.

If there is a 'y' in the day, or their lips are moving, they're lying.

I prescribe to the talk is cheap theory for politicians and therefore tend not to believe any politician's protestations of support for whoever they claim to back. As a PC I see the Tories cutting police budgets whilst increasing the penalties for a range of offences and telling everyone how tough they are on x y and z. The trouble is an increase in penalties is cheap but the real cost comes with having enough people to enforce the laws no matter how tough the penalty. In the meantime the government gets lots of column inches about how tough they are at no cost. The same principle applies to May and her fine words about the armed forces. She talks about how much she values them but she isn't prepared to back up those fine words with an inflation matching or inflation plus pay rise for example. The veterans card is a fine gesture but it won't cost the government a penny as the people giving the discounts linked to it are all private organisations, but again HMG gets the good publicity but at no cost to them.