The Tornado Story

The Tornado was designed to meet the needs of Britains Royal Air Force Germanys Luftwaffe and Marineflieger and Italys Aeronautica Militare Italiano No aircraft before or since has packed such striking power into such a compact package The initial production model was used by all the original customers and Saudi Arabia In late 1990 Tornados formed the spearhead of UN striking power in the Gulf ready to hack it for real at a moments notice Tornado IDS can hurtle down steepsided valleys carrying an 8000 lb bomb load without using any of the pylons on its pivoting swing wings It is the fastest aircraft in the world at treetop height at 800 knots and has been cleared to carry more types of stores than any other warplane The Tornado ECR electronic combat and recon version is packed with advanced avionics for finding and defeating hostile defence systems