Speaker meeting with Michael Hawkins, The History of the Tornado

The Tornado was one of the most successful post-war military aircraft.  The swing-wing, two-seat, twin-engined, multirole aircraft was flown by the armed forces of the UK, Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia.  It was built by a consortium of British, German & Italian companies with a headquarters in Munich.  Nearly 1,000 aircraft were produced in factories all over Western Europe.  It entered service at RAF Cottesmore in 1979 and finally retired almost forty years later at RAF Marham in 2019, having taken part in many conflicts, including both Gulf Wars, the Balkans and Libya.