Scale Aviation Modeller International — February 2018

B

y today’s exacting military standards, the

success of the Panavia Tornado is quite

achievement, and one that made its tri-national

programme one of the greatest feats of international

military and political co-operation of the 20th century.

Rather than being the proverbial ‘camel’ (otherwise

known as a horse put together by a committee), the

Tornado has proved itself to be a true thorough-bred,

able to deliver ‘as advertised’ in all weathers. The

latter has been the cornerstone of the Tornado’s

performance, when at its peak, it was one the NATO

that could function by night, by day, in fog, in rain

or snow, and mount realistic offensive operations.

Tornado was conferred with an excellent radar,

powerful engines, the ability to carry a large war-

load at both low-level and medium altitudes, had a

superb short field ability, which offered a compromise between traditional

runways and STOL performance. Many historians would doubtless say

that the famous De Havilland Mosquito was the original Multi-Role Combat

Aircraft, but the arrival of the jet age brought a plethora of

new aircraft into the skies. Many designers clung to the

‘traditional’ one-aircraft-one mission thinking, and therefore

air forces found themselves with numerous specialised

fighters, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. As budgets

became tighter, many promising projects began to be

discarded through financial or political pressures, and

several countries began to see the sense in committing to

bi-national or tri-national military projects, or alternatively

were persuaded to ‘buy American’. In Europe, the growing

Soviet threat post-War, led Britain, Germany and Italy to

agree to produce a single aircraft type, that could fly a wide

variety of combat missions, and yet still be tailored to meet

the needs of the individual user nations. So was born the

‘MRCA’ - later Tornado - and a management company,

Panavia Aviation, was created to oversee the project, which

was for a swing-wing, low- level ‘bomb truck’, capable of defence suppression,

stand-off laser designation, anti-shipping and reconnaissance tasks, with further

consideration for a dedicated interceptor variant. The programme was a triumph

of co-operation, which incredibly faced few hitches and produced perhaps the

greatest aircraft of its type. Proven in battle from the deserts of Iraq to the skies

of Europe, as well as in keeping the peace, the Panavia Tornado has a singular

history, and up-date programs has kept it flying onto the 21st Century. Now in

the last years of its service life, was perhaps a good time to look back on what

is, and remains a very fine aircraft, and this new Datafile from SAM Publications

brings the Tornado story to life!

TORNADO

THE PANAVIA

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

MDF 29

TORNADO

£19.99

+ P&P

By Andy Evans

Cover: Illustration Purposes Only

IDS, ECR and ADV Versions

29

M D F

TORNADO

ORDER HOTLINE: 44 (0)1234 211245

ORDER ONLINE: http://www.sampublications.com

SAM-MDF-29-Tornado-Ad.indd 1042-47-News-0218.indd 42 02/11/2017 12:4412/01/2018 11:57