envelope and general handling. Later in
the test programme P.01 took on other
roles including engine and thrust reverser
development.Gradually the Tornado
prototypes take to the air
In September, the MRCA was formally
named the Tornado and on 30 October
1974, P.02 registered XX946 made its
maiden flight from Warton. The flight
covered the flight envelope cleared by
the first prototype, including a short
supersonic run concluding with low level
swept wing passes and a full roll over the
airfield for the benefit of the watching
workforce. P.02 had an eventful life, tasked
with flight-refuelling trials, external stores
carriage, high incidence and spinning
trials. The clearance of Tornado for
airborne refuelling in July 1975 allowed
test flights to be prolonged with sorties of
nearly two hours rather than one hour.
XX947, the third Tornado prototype and
first with dual controls, made a supersonic
first flight on 5 August, from Warton.
The fourth Tornado P.04 registered
D-9592 (98+05) flew from Manching and
the fifth P.05 X-586 (MM586), the first
Italian machine, flew at Caselle in
December 1975. On only its fifth flight
P05 was badly damaged on landing and
was taken out of the flight test
programme for more than two years. Its
test roles of flutter and load measurement
were taken over by BAC’s P.02. The sixth
prototype XX948 was another British
machine and was the first to incorporate
a slimmer rear fuselage and the twin
Mauser cannon. (Tornados carried one or
two Mauser 27mm cannon, located on
the lower front fuselage.) P.06 tested
performance and drag, stores-handling,
rapid rolling and gun-firing. The seventh,
98+06 and eighth prototypes, XX950 flew
from Manching and Warton respectively
and engaged in weapons trials. The final
prototype P.09 X-587(MM587) flew from
Caselle on the same day, in February 1977
as P.11, the first dual-control German Two RAF Tornado
GR4s carrying
Brimstone missiles
under the fuselage,
Alarm missiles on
the wing pylons and
underwing tanks.
(BAE SYSTEMS) A dramatic shot
of Tornado F2
ZA254 taking off at
the Farnborough Air
Show in 1982. (BAE
SYSTEMS North West
Heritage)88 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017
aircraft and the first of six pre-production
machines. The pre-production aircraft
were typically employed at military test
centres undertaking trials as a prelude to
squadron service. Of these the last four
pre-series aircraft were later refurbished
and issued to the services.By February 1978 the unladen aircraft
had achieved over Mach 1.9 at altitude,
and Mach 1 plus at low level.
Acceleration was impressive; it could
reach 30,000ft in two minutes from a
standing start. Owing to continuing
engine problems it was not until March
1979 that P.02 achieved Mach 2.Production orders
Despite criticism of Tornado in each of the
producing countries, there was the
general acceptance that Tornado project
costs had been kept under control and no
other aircraft existed that could fulfill the
role. Accordingly in 1976 the first
production order was placed and further
batches followed until the completion of
production in 1999.
The final production contracts
including attrition replacements was UK
228 IDS (Interdictor/Strike) and173 ADV
(Air Defence Variant), Germany 357 IDS
and Italy 99 IDS. In addition, Saudi Arabia
received 96 IDS and 24 ADV Tornadoes, all
of which were assembled at Warton. Of
the 977 Tornadoes built, Warton
assembled 527.The Tornado in service
Trinational Tornado Training
On 1 July 1980, two Royal Air Force Tornado GR4
ZG750, celebrating
25 years of the type
on operations,
landing at the
Farnborough Air
Show on 14 July- (Author)