Tornado, The Mach 2.2 Combat Aircraft by Panavia

The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (interdictor/strike) fighter-bomber, the suppression of enemy air defences Tornado ECR (electronic combat/reconnaissance) and the Tornado ADV (air defence variant) interceptor aircraft.

The Tornado was developed and built by Panavia Aircraft GmbH, a tri-national consortium consisting of British Aerospace (previously British Aircraft Corporation), MBB of West Germany, and Aeritalia of Italy. It first flew on 14 August 1974 and was introduced into service in 1979–1980. Due to its multirole design, it was able to replace several different fleets of aircraft in the adopting air forces. The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) became the only export operator of the Tornado in addition to the three original partner nations. A tri-nation training and evaluation unit operating from RAF Cottesmore, the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment, maintained a level of international co-operation beyond the production stage.

The Tornado was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), Italian Air Force, and RSAF during the Gulf War of 1991, in which the Tornado conducted many low-altitude penetrating strike missions. The Tornados of various services were also used in the Bosnian War, Kosovo War, Iraq War, in Libya during the 2011 Libyan civil war, as well as smaller roles in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria. Including all variants, 990 aircraft were built.

During the 1960s, aeronautical designers looked to variable-geometry wing designs to gain the manoeuvrability and efficient cruise of straight wings with the speed of swept wing designs. The United Kingdom had cancelled the procurement of the TSR-2 and subsequent F-111K aircraft, and was still looking for a replacement for its Avro Vulcan and Blackburn Buccaneer strike aircraft.Britain and France had initiated the BAC/Dassault AFVG (Anglo French Variable Geometry) project in 1965, but this had ended with French withdrawal in 1967. Britain continued to develop a variable-geometry aircraft similar to the proposed AFVG, and sought new partners to achieve this. West German EWR with Boeing then with Fairchild-Hiller and Republic Aviation had been developing design studies of the swing-wing EWR-Fairchild-Hiller A400 AVS Advanced Vertical Strike (which has a similar configuration to the Tornado) from 1964 to 1968

General characteristics

Crew: 2
Length: 16.72 m (54 ft 10 in)
Wingspan: 13.91 m (45 ft 8 in) at 25° sweep
Swept wingspan: 8.60 m (28 ft 3 in) swept at 67° sweep
Height: 5.95 m (19 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 26.6 m2 (286 sq ft)
Empty weight: 13,890 kg (30,622 lb)
Gross weight: 20,240 kg (44,622 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Turbo-Union RB199-34R Mk 103 afterburning 3-spool turbofan, 43.8 kN (9,800 lbf) thrust each dry, 76.8 kN (17,300 lbf) with afterburner
Performance

Maximum speed: 2,400 km/h (1,500 mph, 1,300 kn) at 9,000 m (30,000 ft)
1,482 km/h (921 mph; 800 kn) IAS near sea level
Maximum speed: Mach 2.2
Range: 1,390 km (860 mi, 750 nmi)
Ferry range: 3,890 km (2,420 mi, 2,100 nmi)
Service ceiling: 15,240 m (50,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 77 m/s (15,100 ft/min)
Wing loading: 767 kg/m2 (157 lb/sq ft)
Thrust/weight: 0.77
Armament
Guns: 1 × 27 mm (1.06 in) Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon internally mounted under starboard side of fuselage with 180 rounds
Hardpoints: 3 × under-fuselage and 4 × under-wing pylon stations with a capacity of 9,000 kg (19,800 lb), with provisions to carry combinations of:
Missiles: *** 2 x AIM-132 ASRAAM air-to-air missiles for self-defence
12 × Brimstone missile; or
2 × Storm Shadow
9 × ALARM anti-radiation missile
Bombs: *** 5 × 500 lb (230 kg) Paveway IV; or
3 × 1,000 lb (450 kg) (UK Mk 20) Paveway II/Enhanced Paveway II; or
2 × 2,000 lb (910 kg) Paveway III (GBU-24)/Enhanced Paveway III (EGBU-24); or
BL755 cluster bombs; or
Up to 2 × JP233 or MW-1 munitions dispensers (for runway cratering operations)
Up to 4 × B61 or WE.177 tactical nuclear weapons
Other: Up to 4 × drop tanks for ferry flight/extended range/flight time
Avionics
RAPTOR aerial reconnaissance pod
Rafael LITENING targeting pod; or
TIALD laser designator pod
GEC Sky Shadow electronic countermeasure pod

[littlebritain]

Tornado has such a special design.
And the Vulcan is both beautiful and scary!
Here in Tuscany, during the Falkland/Malvinas war, a Vulcan with no paint and signs flew upon my house VERY LOW going to North. An astonishing, terrific experience!

[redrooster]

I remember as a kid in Britain you'd see them screaming past overhead and my Grandad would get all excited shouting ''look, it's a Tornado!!''. I was still trying to get my hearing back.

[diesel]

A few losses is not a high price to pay. Not at all. Keeping their heads down and keeping the idea of a low level threat on the map was a huge, huge contribution. This type of mission will always be necessary. Always. This is an excellent plane even today. Like the A-10, it fills a niche that will always be needed especially in environments where the enemy air support has already be annihilated

[b.thomas]

Like the A-10 I think this machine is one of the perfect examples of cold war warriors. It's a fantastic machine.

Total respect.

[jammiedodger]

The British defence industry needs to be rebuilt.

[EannaButler]

Same vid you uploaded a couple of weeks ago?
It was an excellent vid! But inevitably, it was <10 mins of Tornado, and the rest an exceptional vid about the TSR-2

[pilot]

I don't quite understand how my all time favorite interceptor is the F-104, YET the Tornado appeals to me so much. I just love it. And I'm a pilot with 2 ratings.

[Duvstep]

3:50 when you said Hawker-Siddley; my brain immediately switched to seeing the TSR-2 as just a Harrier but kinda weird looking lol

[landerviguera]

5:13 "In fact, it became obvious that no European nation could produce a major avioation project by itself"...

France and Dassault: Of my baguette...

[robertphillips]

This video is mis-titled. It does discuss the Tornado, but only for 25 minutes. It is more properly about the TSR-2, which begins at the 25 minute mark, for the remainder of the 1 hour and 21 minute video.

[peterluxus]

The real interesting aspect is still kept secret, the development of the electronic systems of the Tornado.

[baronvonklik]

A freind of mine was pilot instructor on tornado, and flew the type for a total of twelve years. I asked him if he had ever actually used the headlined maximum airspeed during his career. The answer was no. Never.

[anglonig]

Tornada used the Muaser cannon, not the Aden.

[AndieBlack]

The eventual fate of the TSR-2 closely parallels the fate of the UK car industry as a whole. Bloated management, redundant "committees", OCD behaviours amongst said management....It seems there was and is, a malevolent push to make sure the UK does not create anything remotely resembling a "heavy industry". A country cannot thrive on past glories, and these so-called "service industries"....a country needs to crate, fabricate things of greatness.

[Dominikmj]

Funny enough: when I was in highschool I wanted to become pilot and visited the Luftwaffe in my region (open door day).
The pilots were really hating the Tornado. Not that it was not efficient. But they said, that it was massively underpowered, and that they even had to calculate the angles when flying more aggressively, because of stalls and a lack of thrust. They just were envying American jets like the F-15, F-16 or even F/A-18 for their performance.

[mkyhou]

The gulf war basically ended low level bombing (which Tornado / F111 were optimized for). It’s too easy to put up a wall of flak / shoot down low level jets. High / mid level stealth and electronic jamming have completely taken over since then.

[mauricegans]

Nothing tops the F22 & the F35 Raptor.... America has the best air force...

[canamwing]

I watched this thing fly at an airshow in Canada circa 1990. It flew around like a tired old fart.

[KowBoySpace]

When i was a kid i had a Tornado canopy i got from my neighbour. It was rejected for having some tiny misty bit somewhere on it that i could never find. I used to throw rocks at it smash it with hammers use it like a see saw it was basically industructible. Those kind of materials are just not something you experience in every day life it felt like alien technology!

[iancouzens]

The only reason the UK has gone from Great Britain to just Britain is our politicians and our successive self serving governments.