Introduction
Tornado Tribute
AFM’s regular columnist, Air Power Association President, Air Marshal (Ret’d) Greg Bagwell CB, CBE, introduces our special coverage of the Royal Air Force’s Tornado GR Force, as it prepares to call time on an unmatched combat record.
I first strapped into a Tornado GR1 at the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment (TTTE) at RAF Cottesmore, Rutland in 1984 as a 22-year-old flying officer. I didn’t really have much of a reference, as I had come straight through flying training and the most complex aircraft I had flown was a Hawk T1, whose sole navigation aid was a compass that seemed to be permanently toppled.
The Tornado appeared to offer a bewildering array of technology, from fly-by-wire to terrain-following radar, an inertial navigation system, glass displays and – wait for it – a 64KB main computer (yes, 64KB). Some of the older members of the course had a different perspective borne from their previous experiences on Jaguars, Buccaneers, Lightnings and Vulcans – just about every combat aircraft type in the RAF inventory was making way for the huge expansion plans of the Tornado fleet – but each one of us knew that we were seeing something quite unlike what had gone before.
