Makes sense, they're training flights not jollies.

Unfortunately it's not a rumour, it's absolutely true. I had it confirmed to me directly by a GR4 aircrew member on social media over the weekend, triggered by a minor flying incident just before Christmas.
The aircrew seem pretty upset about it from what he said.

...and it's also just another kick in the teeth for those who love the Tornado, after the MOD's appalling "send off" effort. What is even the point in the camo Tornado now? They'd just as well keep it in the hangar, nobody's going to care about it if it can't do what the Tonka is supposed to do - thunder through a valley!

I am bitter, I won't lie. I love the Tornado. :(

I can see the point of it, no point in taking any risks, especially as they seem to be working at higher levels anyway. What's it like on a Squadron at a time like this, when you know your aircraft fleet has 2-3 months to go?

I admire the sentiment, but please don't forget the often forgotten groundcrew - the men and women who spend thousands of hours of their lives modifying them, repairing them, servicing them, refuelling them, arming them and marshalling them. The RAF's public affairs personnel forgets them (I've never seen a groundcrew tribute on FB or Twitter - ever!), but nobody else should.

BVRAAM As someone who spend 18 years as you say "modifying them, repairing them, servicing them, refueling them, arming them and marshaling them." Sometime we were overlooked.

However those 18 years had there good and bad days. Days which I will look back at with fond memories. I do hope that some of the jets will find loving homes, and not the scrap mans axes. They deserve better!!

Here, here brother !! :D

There are lots of low level swept pics floating around the spotter groups at the moment in tribute to this fantastic beast. It would be a shame if it didn't go out with a bang (not literally of course) !! ;)

38 years. Not a bad run - January 1981 to January 2019. I had the pleasure of flying the BBC camera man for the airborne shots of the first 3 aircraft at TTTE which from my logbook was on January 21st . According to Wikipedia TTTE officially opened 8 days later. The irony was that my Hawk was newer than the 3 Tonkas!

Was it really 38 years ago that I was waiting to take-off leading a cine weave trip at Chivenor :{ when an odd-looking jet with a big fin and spindly undercarriage legs came in for a practice diversion?

Or 28 years ago that the 3-ship VC10K formation I was leading was trailing 8 x JP233-laden Tornados on night 1 of Gulf War 1?

Good jet - it's served us well!

To those wise soles who would wish to see the GR4 given a send-off befitting such a brilliant and iconic jet, I fully agree.

I had the privilege and pleasure of working on the RB199 engine during both development, production and in-service support.
I spent time working at Warton, TTTE, Marham, Honington, Bruggen, Laarbruch, Coningsby, Leeming, Leuchars, Lossiemouth and St Athan.

Of course the engine had a number of problems in service but it was an extremely challenging design requirement given the technology and materials of the time.

To all those who worked on and of course flew in her, you can be immensely proud of what was achieved.
First flight 1974. First production delivery 1979 and just short of 1000 produced.

Tornado was designed to take on the might of the Warsaw Pack forced. It had to be good and it was /is still very good.

It will be remembered as a fantastically capable and reliable front line fighter/ bomber and should be treated with hugh respect.

The RB199 certainly came a long way. I remember my first engine bay tour at Honnington in the late 80's when the mean time between removals was just 176 hours. The classic "VIB" caption followed by the boroscope inspection that confirmed that half of one of the HPT blades was missing. Still, after the introduction of single crystal HPT blades, the engines were doing 400 hours between removal. When I returned to the Tornado as a civvy in 2008, I was pleasantly surprised to find some engines were lasting 1000 hours. On the squadron, our biggest problem was during GW1 when the oil consumption for those long hot flights was marginal.

I do hope they manage to sort out a farewell flypast for the Tornado. Yes, I know the Lightning, Vulcan etc were iconic and who doesn't love them but I reckon that the Tonka has been our most utilised strike aircraft in combat situations since WW2

The initial equiax HPT blades were always going to be the weak spot. The turbine temperatures were way above the melting point of the material and the cooling holes so small. That was why the modular design was to give quick access to the HPT.

As you say the single crystal fixed that brilliantly. The very long flights pushed the oil system to its limits. It was a fantastic achievement to get engines installed for over 1000 hours.

It is still a surprisingly modern engine despite its age and it's thrust to weight ratio is still outstanding.

Tornado has been a terrific workhorse for nearly 40 years and arguably the most significant RAF fast jet having been in service for almost 40% of the life of the RAF.
Happy days eh.

What did the Harrier do for its final flight?

Could we describe the Tornado as the Mosquito of its day, I wonder?

There was a 16-ship flypast.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-farewell.html

Well, I have my own very personal memories of the Tornado.

As someone who grew up always dreaming of being a pilot, but sadly was born with defective eyesight which meant that flying (and many other careers) was a non-starter, being invited to visit Lossiemouth was absolutely wonderful. I had a great day, and attach a picture of myself in the "drivers seat" of a Tornado

There were a couple of aircraft going out on a night exercise, and would I like to go and see them take off. I thought we'd be some distance away, but we got into a landrover and drove to the end of the runway. The second picture shows how close we were when they started their takeoff run.

A great day, and memories I'll treasure for the rest of my days.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....018d91518c.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2f117a9480.jpg

I see nothing that can't be fixed with a couple of rolls of duck take and a shifter.

Military equipment is a bit like James Bond actors. The one that's big when you were a kid is the one that sticks in your memory.

I was a kid during the gulf war.

P

The Op DESERT STORM / Op GRANBY Air Campaign started 28 years ago tonight.

&

The GR.4 in the 'retro' grey/green camo has flown today, looks really good too!
(Link to images with the kind permission of Rob Yates via the Fightercontrol FB group)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1622...5784301726962/

-RP

And for those who don't do/refuse to do FB, here's the main pic from the link in my previous post...

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....14932aceb1.jpg
-RP

I see they managed to go the whole hog, including the black radome. The 'pink' Granby Tornado was spoiled somewhat by the modern grey radome. In my opinion, at least.

The Granby GR1's had the standard black radome.

Yes, but the 'special' Granby scheme recently rolled out did not.

Nice photo Rhino Power. It does look good back in those colours.

Oh sorry.... I don't recall seeing that.

Proper Colours !!! , Just Missing the XV . But I'm biased.

Proper fighting machine that excelled at the role it was designed for.

I remember people saying how disappointing it was at Air Shows (Role Demo changed that). But of course it was not designed to just impress the public.
It was designed to give the Warsaw Pact forces a really bad day...

You are right.... doesn't look so good.

I agree with you.... but I'm also biased :)

Rhino Power: Excellent pic, jet looks good. The only issue I have is with the dates on the fin. I was on the staff at TTTE at the beginning of 1981, with the aircraft very much in service (if not very much serviceable!). Seem to have lost yet another year of my life!

I think the dates refer to its operational squadron service.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c88bf4ca2e.jpg
RAF Marham Station Commander, Gp Capt Ian "Cab" Townsend standing with two other aircrew, wearing the three Tornado Farewell badges by Squadron Prints. Photo credit: Squadron Prints.

1982-2019?
 

I quite like the centre badge. Squadron Prints don't seem to have them on their website yet.

That retro paint job looks superb!

I remember in 1979 or 1980 when the first 'wraparound' painted Vulcan arrived at Scampton for six-seventeen squadron - it too looked very smart.

In 1982 there was actually a study to investigate whether the Tornado could be used in the South Atlantic War. Although Tornado documentation was rather secret squirrel, when an ODM was finally made available the planners dissolved into fits of giggles when they started some calculations....

Not a strategic asset, but excellent work in GW1.