Same for me aswell during my childhood, but also add on the Su-37 and the MiG-29 :)

Now when Tomcat is already retired and Tornado will follow quite soon, I'd donate them to Ukraine. And send Tom C to train new pilots ;-)

@@SonyT250 they are still in service in Italy and Germany, and if sent to Ukraine they would sadly suffer the contested skies and strong russian ground AA. I wouldn't want to see them in such a scenario cause they deserve better!

@@zanzao-1ps318 what would make F16 better than Tomcat against Russian AA? IMO F18 and F14 are better platforms than F16 or most Russian planes. The real difference is made by the carried missiles.

@@SonyT250 I'm talking about the Tornado TBH

Even more annoying that the RAF isn't on your list! I mean, you're correct. Just annoying that that's the case. Tornado GR4 was meant to keep flying for the RAF until 2025, slowly being replaced by F-35s so that number don't dwindle. Bloody budget cuts!

Can’t imagine they’ll be happy with servicing them, they’re all getting old now😂

Cause they suck

@@alastairross9169 Are you sayimg those air forces suck, or the Tornado sucks?

Raf do have 100 being held in decommission so may not fly them anymore but still have battle ready in stock just like are navy right now are numbers top the US navy but we are only a small island with no need to run the world anymore so just decommission till its need 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Did you only lose your hearing or the need to shave for a few days too?

@@qunt2742 that, and a new pair of underpants lol

how's your kidneys doing?

Equally “underrated” as well.

Great examples of British aircraft. Although the tornado was a team effort

In service procurement left alot to be desired, especially engine development.

Some of the assembly work for the Tornado was done at the same factory as the Mosquito even, BAE Wharton near Blackpool in the North West of England. They build and work on Eurofighters there now I believe

Hu? The air defense version could not, because it wasn't designed to.

$1M compensation would barely even scratch the surface.

THAT is a GREAT story ! My sympathies to the talented and hard working engravers.

@@DeePaignall "Scratch the surface" I see what you did there. 😄

I worked expanding capacity at a natural gas storage plant. They cooled the gas till liquid then stored it till needed. Then they would warm it back to gas. Since this place was the equivalent of a small nuke it was in the middle of nowhere and a easy to ID landmark. An air base was about an hour away. They would fly over at low altitude every day. Sometimes they seemed to be practicing dog fighting cause one would go over then another, but they weren’t flying formation. When is be on the highest part of the plant it would seem like I could touch them. I made a sign that said, “Y’all scared to fly any lower?” The rest of that week they would pass by me so close the air movement would try to pull me along. It was great. I didn’t tell anyone. I got a buddy of mine that is an Native American to come up with me. I made sure he had his back to them the first time they flew over. I looked behind him and said, “Oh f*ck!” And ducked down. My buddy was like wtf? And turned around to look right as the first plane came over. I had to grab his harness from the back cause he turned and saw it heading right for him and went to jump off! I thought to myself this is the kind of thing that is fun and games until someone gets hurt bad so I did the adult thing and quit having fun at work. Several years before I lived on this round road so I guess it was an easy nav point. One summer military helicopters started popping up and just kept coming. It started with those big two rotor chinooks. They flew southwest to northeast by twos. I counted 24 of them. That is a big percentage of the entire Chinook population. Idk where they came from either. No base is back that way for over 1000 miles. I’m pretty sure they was heading to Ft. Campbell or possibly Ft. Knox. After the parade of Chinooks blacked out apaches started popping up coming from and heading back towards Ft. Campbell. They didn’t have a single marking on them. They would fly low circles around the small circular road (driveway really). Sometimes they would get down real low like they was targeting one building or another. I took a rocket launcher size piece of PVC and painted it black. When they were down low I’d pop out aiming the pipe at them. They must of liked it and told the other pilots cause from then on they would always target my place. Once or twice they caught me out I in the yard, a couple other times I was able to get hid without them seeing. They would be facing my house and I’d be beside them with my fake RPG or stinger. They were close enough I could see them laugh when they noticed me close enough to hit them with a rock or when I’d be in my yard and turn around and be looking at a blacked out Apache that had snuck up behind me. If they have anything between them and you even a couple trees they hardly make a sound especially with that noise canceling stuff. Anyways that was a weird year cause of all the military activity that never was before or since. We had fun with each other. I even dressed up in some Iraqi style garb a few times. If it wouldn’t have bothered the neighbors I would of put a loudspeaker outside and played those call to prayer chants. If they flew in and heard the prayer call and had someone dressed up like a terrorist playing hide and seek with a fake RPG while ISIS flags fluttered in the wind I bet they would tell everyone about it. I bet I would of got out on their maps.

Grew up by Langley USAF Base and you could all most keep time with patrol they would send up. Hear one go up when it came back about 4 hrs have passed. Also during hurricane season if one was coming close 18+ hrs of almost nonstop takeoffs as the moved inland. Then after it passed another 18+ hrs of nonstop landings.

I used to drive semi for a food service company everytime I drove down hwy 21 in Wi the f16 would use my truck as target! Lol

Its not that hard to believe, if we go by introduction dates it is only a few years older then the F18s, and the F15s and F16s are even older then the Tornado.

It's beautiful 😍

The F3 was an interceptor and not a fighter/air superiority king. Adequate at what is designed to do and an effective SEAD aircraft towards the end of its life.

@Back In The Day 2 Simply they didnt, the Jaguar was a ground attack platform as was the Harrier. The only fighter version we had of the Harrier was the FA2 operated by the Royal Navy. Struggling to think of any pure supersonic fighter aircraft the RAF have ever operated. The lightning was an interceptor as was the Navy operated Phantoms. The Typhoon has to be one of the only ones desgined from the outset as an air superiority fighter but that is now a multi role aircraft.

Was that bruggen?

​@@nathangoddard6082 I think they were and still are from Wittmundhafen (Luftwaffen­geschwader 71) and sometimes from Nordholz (Marinefliegergeschwader) and maybe from Oldenburg (Jagdbombergeschwaders 43) untill the early nineties. My Grandpa worked at that Fliegerhorst, but I don't have clear memory about that, I was too young (5-6 years old).

@@nathangoddard6082 not necessarily.

Learjets? When was this? We used Hawks and previously Canberras for Tooms and Tonkas.

I assume your location is near Schleswig Jagel where TG 51 "Immelmann" is located which still operates the Tornado? I am at Lübeck. Mostly I can hear am not see them because of bad weather 😂but awesome sound! They are not allowed to fly lower than 600m over a major city... warum schreib ich eigentlich in Englisch?? Keine Ahnung - Guten Rutsch!

Like the Harrier!

I know exactly what you mean. They were beautiful aircraft and flew over our house regularly too. We loved the free airshows, but now it is mainly the Eurofighters, F35s, plus F15s from Lakenheath practising dogfights overhead. We were lucky enough to see the GR4s of 11 Sqn (AC) at very close hand during a Marham open day.

I was stationed alongside the British military in the middle east during operation Southern Watch. They're top notch Airmen. I don't know how many times I watched aircraft take off fully loaded, and come back with little to no munitions. The Tornado was a fun aircraft to watch, and definitely one of my favorites. The Tornado, and the F-15 were my two favorite aircraft still in the inventory.

Where about were you at, wait Fleet?

PSAB Saudi Arabia

@@InForTheLonghaul 👍

And then some👍🏻👍🏻 We still live in the area, I’ve seen the Tornado flash bye lower than I was while I was standing on solid ground😳😳

@@MC-nb6jx I remember seeing a Lockheed Starfighter below me in Wales in the 1970s

Had it crashed? Starfighters usually did.

Common sight in the Highlands, back in the day. Another trick they employed was single aircraft following the contours of higher hills, 2000ft+, but sticking to the hanging valleys running through and off them, remaining out of sight till they were right on top of the target. A bunch of us watched an exercise attack on Crianlarich, using the tactic. 3 or 4 Tornadoes, approaching from different directions, crossing over precisely the same point with only a couple of seconds separation, at high speed. Incredible to watch.

I had the same experience in the scouts while hiking in the welsh valleys - amazing

I think they were referencing the outer hard points that could not rotate on the 111 but could on the tornado

@@antimedic4441 Ok, I guess I Missed that part of the dialogue. Thanks. Yep 4 hard points under each wing. outer 2 don't pivot. Sorry about that and thanks for clearing that up. :) (no, not sarcasm - lol).

I grew up across the river from Wharton where they tested Tornados all through the early 80s. They often came thundering across our village at low level and every child would cheer them on

I lived not far from Tain where they have/had a practice range from dropping bombs, so i seen these almost every other day all throughout my childhood.

Going to Montrose for my covid booster tomorrow, so that's perfect info timing as their website says tomorrow's the last day until February! In the 80s I remember learning every detail I could about Tornado and Harrier for a Flying Scholarship interview and I've had a love for the aircraft ever since. As a kid in the 70s I had a similar experience to your Leuchars QRF except it was Vulcan in the Hebrides coming over a dune - stayed with me forever!

Living near the lakes it wasn't unusual to be driving down. The road and look down to see a tornado in the valley below ypu.

I worked QRA many times, and was on 43SQN. These majestic old girls will be sorely missed

It's not a Dark Skies vid unless he gets at least one major fact wrong.

Thanks fir your added info on it.

BAE?

@@krystianziolkowski3609 BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) at Warton, Lancashire... had a great time!

@@JonBvideostuff oh wow I never knew about this company that's interesting. I'm hoping to find a career at BAE myself

By the Americans? 😒

@@WildReefer 😬

Some Germans behind the wall were still considered as enemies.

Was in Goose Bay from 93-98. We lost quite a few Tornadoes while there, two which crashed into each other and one that burned on the ground after techs somehow got one off the ground on high speed taxi, clipped the wing on the ground and caught fire. Took 3 hours to extinguish then they rolled the burnt shell into our hanger for the investigation.

I think it was a German Tornado?

I'm glad this point has been confirmed, no one believes you when you tell them you were buzzed at 20/30ft altitude. Incredibly stable platform due to high wing load. Perfect for low level bombing. Some of the tactics you read about makes you realise the reality of War.

100% believable. One has to ask WHY they flew so low so fast. It comes down to the inherent practicality you see in the British. They are now, and always have been incredibly hard fighting people when call to do so. But whereas here in the United States, we tend to solve all of our martial dilemmas with very expensive technology, the Brits (and many others) don’t have the luxury of bottomless defense budgets. So it only stands to reason that they address the problem of enemy radar not by ECM or other cutting edge tech. They simply fly below the radar. A simple (?), practical, and immediate solution to the problem. Reminds me of the story of how the Soviet Union solved the problem of pens that wouldn’t write in zero gravity: They used pencils instead. Apocryphal, I’m sure, but it illustrates the point well.

In Desert Storm, weren't they flying low to cluster bomb runways? It was an extremely dangerous even foolish operation that no one else wanted to do.

Yea that’s something modern jets can’t do anymore haha we once had a Eurofighter wich scratched a tree haven’t seen that aircraft for 2 months… remember our tornados regularly cutting trees just get the green stuff away note the scratch and fly again… Although nowadays losleget flying is not need that bad anymore.

You were a barber that worked on an Air Base?

@@Marin3r101 haha naaah

Yeah, ive had a few QRA buzz me in Fife, a pair got me going through the road at the end of the runway, scared the daylights out of me.

I think you'd find the mighty Vulcan bomber was number one for making the ground shake 😉

Me too had them fly over our house... We had a very big oak tree in the garden and it was the only big tree for some distance... I often wondered if they used the tree as a waypoint, as a couple of times a month they would fly low level straight over us. I never saw the plane coming, just a earth shattering sudden roar / boom that use to make the whole house shake.... It was very exciting when I was a young boy.

Yes. Yes. And a thank you for good measure. Bye 🇺🇦 👋

@@Marin3r101 Hope you live somewhere remote, our old Minutemen IV and ABM systems will not be doing nearly the damage to them they will to us. That's where they put the bulk of their screw you taxpayer money, not nuclear carriers and boomerang stealth bombers.

And definately do not go to war for another eastern european country, last time you lost your Empire, economy & people.

...where he could then look down and get a closer view of the Buccaneers!

@@robair67?😂

@@fslolo6622 you have to know about Buccaneer pilots to get that!

There was shadow as well. Russian spy affair at MBB germany, britains stopped support to develop the air intakes to germany. The germans didn't understand the tech that was from the Concorde and needed pushes here and there. Otherwise the plane would have been supercruising at M1.4 and hit M2.5 top speed. One top feature missed.

Interdiction is the best way to employ combat jets in modern conventional warfare. Had they had acess to something similar to the Tornado and effects on russian ground forces would be devasting. Fulcrums are dogfighters not suited for this task.

Was this the best low level plane in desert storm ?

@@Rob-The-Redes it was. In terms of loslegen flying it still is one of the best

Buccaneer the Mad Lad of the RAF, Buccaneer "i don't need no terrain following radar", i fly manual at 20ft with Nukes scoffs at the whippersnapper Tornado (Tornado still great)

It's coming to DCS, next year possibly, but it's the German version, not the RAF version (GR.1)

@@Aeronaut1975 ah well, better than nothing.

@Gillie-Monger Spot on, how sad that we caved in

@@bikes02 When politics gets involved.......... The TSR2 project had no real design spec and so redesigns were constantly being called for. The cost of that was astronomical. Australia learned nothing from that debacle. We have a litany of overpriced, delayed and under performing military projects as a result. I spent 3-1/2 years on a floating example of that.

@@peterinns5136 thats an interesting comment Peter . Do you mean that no specification existed before prototypes were built ? Its demise is often blamed on the UK having a labour goverment at the time who were not fully commited to defence spending , I wonder if this is true.

@@starbarrothschild6597 The UK Labour government at the time were determined to spend money on US weapons rather than develop our own. This left a hole and it took the UK aerospace industry some time to climb out of it.

It looked like a Russian asshole my friend

F-111 had it.

@@AirwayZombie Oh? Nice! I already thought the Aardvark was a cool plane (with one of the more/most unflattering names heh), so this just gives it another justification 😁 Thanks

@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE : The strange thing about F111,s hard points, is that it's only the inner pylons that stayed relative to the airflow. The outer 1s didn't, for some reason.

@@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM My immediate thoughts are that perhaps the room needed for the mechanism took up to much space in the wing, causing the internal fuel tanks to be significantly smaller. Our that the added weight would've caused more stress than they desired and/or resulted in oscillation ("wing wobble") at high speeds. Or... but probably not the case... they only fit drop tanks on the outer hardpoints and would've needed to be discarded _anyways_ before sweeping the wings into their "go fast" positions... 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ But, I still like to speculate... lol

@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE : That actually sounds quite plausible. 🤔

I wonder if it works as advertised???

@@thelmaviaduct supposedly yes: a full salvo in autonomous mode was launched by a Tornado (12 weapons) in Libya early during Operation Ellamy (the British contribution to the NATO intervention in the Libyan civil war in 2011). The RAF reported that the salvo struck and destroyed 12 vehicles - including MBTs. That said, the autonomous mode guided by the mmW radar seeker has rarely been used, most launches have been of dual mode Brimstone relying on the laser seeker (so a designated target).

@@richardnicklin654 I used to work for mbda, was always skeptical about the mmw claims. Be great if it does work as advertised.

@@thelmaviaduct well, one (reported) success does not a reliable system make - but it’s the only data point I’ve found on the open web.

@@richardnicklin654 i suppose Ukraine is a good proving ground for weapons tech, must be loads of analysts over there reporting back.

For a nuclear with warsaw? Wth did Poland do?

@@Marin3r101 - in case you're not joking, the "Warsaw Pact" was essentially "communist NATO".

@@steve1978ger No, it was a direct response to NATO.

It wasn’t designed for any kind of nuclear role. The British nuclear role was missiles launched from Royal Navy submarines years before the introduction of the Tornado

@@steve1978ger nope, it was as Randy said. It was set up as a direct response to the western countries forming the NATO alliance

Honestly I think a barrage of UAV can achieve the same these days in case of interdiction; and we are not far of these drones learning aerial combat.

Good platform to fend off the Soviet bombers and do interdiction strike and SEAD

@@CaptVirtual Hasn't been properly compared, and aerial combat has yet to be learned by drones. WW3 has given us plenty of surprises

They seemed to turn quite well at airshows, 33,000 Ib of thrust with afterburner was pretty good at the time, and the F3 was a marked improvement all round over the Phantoms and Lightnings that they replaced.

It's a fighter bomber specialized for low level flying. It offers a very calm ride at high speed near to the ground. Due to the high wing loading it has a bad turn rate and is not really good for air defense however

Who cares about facist germany.

Agreed!

U should ask for a refund

Fill out the proper complaint forms lmfao

"akshually" Mental midget.

Want to shout a bit more there mate? I don't think the people at the back can hear you.

Italy is weak. Germany is facist.... no one cares about them.

Why you screaming bro

@@Rob.N771 I’m just really annoyed with the fact that UK is considered a better nation than the others. This is nationalism, and it lead to WW1

Have a Snickers