Panavia Tornado GR1B

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.

The aircraft at RAF London carries the name ‘Bob’ from the popular television comedy series ‘Black Adder’.

The Turbo-Union RB199 is a turbofan jet engine designed and built in the early 1970s by Turbo-Union, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce, MTU and Aeritalia. The only production application was the Panavia Tornado.

Modified to a GR1B in 1994 to carrying the Sea Eagle anti-shipping missile.  The Tornado GR1B was a specialised anti-shipping variant of the GR1, replacing the Blackburn Buccaneer. 26 aircraft were converted and were based at RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland. Each aircraft was equipped to carry up to four Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles.

Last served with No.2 (AC) Squadron. Delivered by road to RAF Museum London in July 2003.

A Panavia Tornado GR1 is on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

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