Tornado Farewell

The RAF’s Tornado fleet will be officially retired from service at the end of March 2019. Nicknamed the "Tonka", the aircraft’s first use in live operations was during the Gulf War in 1991, when 60 Tornado GR1s were deployed from bases in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Two years later they were upgraded to the GR4 model, which has been used ever since over the skies of Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Over three days in February, Tornados based at Marham in Norfolk are making farewell flypasts over bases in the UK. I was at Marham on the first day to see the aircraft take off, along with a large band of other aviation enthusiasts.