CORGI AVIATION ARCHIVE

**ONLY ONE LEFT! THIS ITEM IS NO LONGER IN PRODUCTION**

The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine combat aircraft, which was jointly developed by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy. There are three primary versions of the Tornado; 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. In 2008 Air Forces Monthly labelled the aircraft "for more than a quarter of a century... the most important military aircraft in Western Europe." The Tornado was designed as a low-level supersonic ground attack bomber, capable of taking off and landing in short distances. This requires good high-speed and low-speed flying characteristics. In general, an aircraft which is designed to fly at high speeds usually has poor low-speed characteristics. In order to achieve the desired high-speed performance, an aircraft has a highly swept or ÌÎ_ÌÎÌàÌ´Ì_ÌÎÌÊÌÎ_ÌÎÌàÌÎ_ÌÎå±deltaÌÎ_ÌÎÌàÌ´Ì_ÌÎÌÊÌÎ_ÌÎÌàÌ´Ì_Ì´Ìà wing platform. However, these wing designs are very inefficient at low speeds where unswept wing planforms are required. In order for an aircraft to be operated efficiently at both high and low speeds, variable wing sweep is a desirable feature; this was incorporated into the Tornado design.

Info:     Tornado GR.4 ZA447 - No.31 Sqn RAF, Marham, Norfolk - 2006