(Image: Jon Wickenden; Phantom XV499 effectively stored at Hixon before scrapping)

Like most McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms formerly in RAF service, the story of XV499 didn’t have an especially happy ending. Pictured here in April 2014, stored in a dismantled state at Hixon, the abandoned Phantom FGR.2 was scrapped that same year after (it is understood) failing to reach its asking price at auction. On the plus side, it managed to hang on longer than most, and its empty cockpit section was saved from the wreckers and moved to Bruntingthorpe.

Thunder and Lightnings documents XV499’s career with an extensive number of UK fast jet squadrons from the time it entered service in the 1970s to its last flight in 1992. Over the years the warplane flew with Nos. 6, 19, 23, 29, 41 and 92 Squadrons. She also spent a brief spell with Phantom training squadron 228 OCU in 1984 and ended her flying days with No. 74 Squadron at RAF Wattisham – where so many spares-recovered F-4s met their fate.

(Image: Jon Wickenden)

Phantom XV499 made her final flight to RAF Leeming on October 5, 1992. There, the aircraft spent the following decade in use as a weapons loading trainer but was earmarked for scrapping in 2001. Towed to a quiet corner of the North Yorkshire base and left to the mercy of the elements, the defunct F-4 avoided the inevitable for several more years as the Yorkshire Aviation Museum reporedly toiled to secure the grounded warplane for preservation.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and in 2013 Phantom XV499 was moved to the old wartime airfield at Hixon in Staffordshire. Once there, the neglected jet was stored at the end of an abandoned runway in a de facto aircraft graveyard, amid a motley collection of gutted helicopters and the hulks of several C-130 Hercules transports.

(Image: Jon Wickenden)

Its new owner, a parts supplier for the UK Ministry of Defence, had reportedly planned to restore the Phantom as a gate guard at its premises. But at some point these plans clearly changed and Phantom XV499 was scrapped.

Though its cockpit section was saved, its a bitter sweet conclusion for those who worked hard over the years to prevent the airframe – which for decades defended UK skies from potential Russian intruders – from being destroyed. (Browse more in our Phantom archive here.)

Related – Specially Painted F-4 ‘Tiger’ Phantom Fighter Meets the Axe

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(Image: Alan Wilson; Eurofighter Typhoon development aircraft DA4 ZH590 at the Imperial War Museum)

If you want to get up close and personal with an active RAF Eurofighter Typhoon, chances are you’re going to have to wait for an air show, or use a pair of good binoculars from ‘outside the fence’. No operational Typhoons have yet made it to museums, and likely won’t for years to come. Even the gaunt, spares-recovered hulks of two British jets written-off in landing mishaps have been locked away behind closed doors.

But despair not, because two pre-production airframes have been placed on public display in the United Kingdom, affording aviation enthusiasts a close encounter with Europe’s most advanced combat jet. (Another Eurofighter development aircraft – known as DA1 – is also displayed at Munich, Germany.) These early machines may not boast the technology updates and refinements that have been continuously rolled out across the operational fleet, but there’s no doubt they look the part.

Seven development aircraft were produced for the UK, Germany and Italy during the early stages of the collaborative Eurofighter project. Two of them – single seater ZH588 and two-seat trainer ZH590 – were destined for the UK. These jets were followed by another seven instrumented production aircraft (IPA) before delivery of the operational Typhoon force began more than a decade ago. Fitted with telemetry instruments and used exclusively for flight testing and systems development, three IPA airframes remain in service with BAE Systems at its Warton facility in Lancashire, England. But as for those development aircraft (DA) on public display:

Eurofighter Development Aircraft 2, ZH588 (RAF Museum, Hendon)

(Image: Alan Wilson; Eurofighter Typhoon development aircraft DA2 ZH588 at the RAF Museum, Hendon)

Eurofighter DA2, which received the RAF serial number ZH588, first flew on April 6, 1994 to undertake envelope expansion and load trials, as well as a flight control assessment of the Typhoon’s innovative carefree handling. It became the first Typhoon to pass Mach 2 in 1997 and undertook refeuling trials the following year before a major upgrade programme saw the addition of new engines, ejector seat and avionics suite. In 2000 DA2 was fitted with almost 500 pressure sensors to measure the effects of external loads such as weapons and fuel tanks. The black pads on the sensors are said to have been the reason why the aircraft acquired its unique gloss black paint scheme, which it wears to this day. Typhoon ZH588 was used for Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) trials in 2002 before ending its service life as ground trainer, tucked away in the back of a hangar at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. DA2 is now on display at the RAF Museum at Hendon, London, where it’s suspended gracefully in the Milestones of Flight exhibition.

Eurofighter Development Aircraft 4, ZH590 (Imperial War Museum, Duxford)

(Image: Alan Wilson; Typhoon DA4 at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford)

Wearing the more conventional grey camouflage similar to that of later production Typhoons, Eurofighter Development Aircraft 4, RAF military serial number ZH590, is a twin-seat variant of the black-painted DA2. The aircraft first flew in March 1997 and was used primarily for avionics development. After treating a handful of fortunate VIPs to a test ride in 1999, the turn of the millennium saw BAE test pilot Craig Penrice launch an air-to-air missile from the racks beneath the wings of DA4, making it the first Typhoon to fire the weapon. Like its single-seat wingman above, DA4 was used for ASRAAM trials in 2002 and was the first Eurofighter to complete a successful in-flight refueling from a tanker aircraft. After almost a decade’s dedicated service, development Typhoon ZH590 was retired from flying duties on December 13, 2006. Like ZH588, it was also used for ground training duties before taking its place at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

(Image: Alan Wilson; Eurofighter Typhoon ZH590 first flew in 1997 and was retired in 2006)

Related – Tail Fin of Crashed Eurofighter Typhoon ZJ943 on Display at RAF Coningsby

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(Image: Andy Purbrick; derelict Tornado airframes ZA322 (left) and ZA375)

Until fairly recently, it was normal for a visit to an RAF airfield to include a pilgrimage along the fence line to a neglected corner of the base where the forlorn hulks of defunct warplanes – often the same types as those still screaming off the active runways – had been towed to await their fate. Some were used for fire, battle damage repair (BDR) training and decoy duties, while others simply awaited scrapping, their airframe hours and fatigue lives thoroughly exhausted, and useful parts removed.

RAF Coningsby, then an active Tornado F3 station, was at various times home to the stripped out fuselage of an old Buccaneer, several Lightning F2As (one of which later became the strangely iconic ‘A1 Lightning‘) and a gaggle of tired Phantoms. Scampton’s long-serving fire dump resident was Vulcan XL384 and the line up of hollow, spares-recovered Lightnings made for an interesting feature on the west side of RAF Binbrook (a few of them survive today). Of course, that’s only scratching the surface of Lincolnshire.

(Image: Phil Adkin; spares recovered Tornados ZA361 (closest), ZA322 (TAC) and ZA375, coded AJ-W)

Nowadays, with certain exceptions, fire dump aircraft aren’t as visible as they once were, while the Cold War decoy line-ups and graveyards of fast jets awaiting the shredder are no longer the norm in the far corners of windswept airfields. Panavia Tornado GR4s reaching the end of their service lives, for instance, are being reduced to produce inside the hangars at RAF Leeming.

And unlike their less fortunate F2/F3 brethren, as well as early batch TTTE airframes and much of the Tornado GR1B anti-shipping fleet, their stripped-out carcasses have yet to be dumped outside as scrap (as far as I’m aware). The scenes at RAF Marham in Norfolk ten years ago, however, echoed days gone by.

(Images: Google Earth; abandoned Tornado GR1s and other assorted parts)

The above images, snapped at RAF Marham in 2005, may have been one of the last times such a scene was witnessed on a UK fast jet base. With the exception of military storage facilities like St Athan in Wales, we haven’t seen many redundant Tornado IDS variants abandoned on lonely dispersals. The planes seen on Google Earth include the former Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit and Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment (TTTE) airframes ZA322 (centre) and ZA361 (left). To the right is ex-617 Squadron Tornado GR1B ZA375 and behind them, a pile of wreckage that may once have comprised another Tornado.

Delivered in 1980, 1981 and 1982 respectively, these jets were used for ground instructional purposes at Marham after their withdrawal from flying duties. Any usable spare parts have been well and truly stripped, but their paint looks relatively fresh, suggesting the aircraft hadn’t been long out to pasture. Perhaps incredibly, given the fate of many such airframes, the least complete of them all, ZA361, has been slowly rebuilt in recent years. This Tornado GR1 (pictured below on a farm in New York, Lincolnshire) is now understood to have moved to a warmer retirement home in Spain. Unfortunately ZA322 and ZA375 didn’t fare so well. Both aircraft were scrapped in 2006.

(Image: Dave Collins; Panavia Tornado ZA361 in January 2014)

Meanwhile, a handful of Tornado GR1B maritime attack variants have survived as gate guards, museum pieces, private collectibles and ground instructional airframes. Two of them – ZA474 and twin-stick trainer ZA409 – are understood to reside somewhere in the back of one of RAF Lossiemouth’s expansive hangars. Examples of a rare breed, when – and if – they will next see the light of day is anyone’s guess, but we’re hoping preservation one day finds them.

Related – Tornado GR4 Prototype XZ631 in Striking New Paint Scheme at Elvington

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(Image: Richard E. Flagg/UK Airfields; Eurofighter Typhoon test rig JP098)

You won’t find many seemingly redundant Eurofighter Typhoon fuselages in outside storage. Even the defunct wreck of 11 Squadron Typhoon ZJ943/DK is tucked away quietly out of sight at RAF Shawbury (though its tail fin seems to have become something of a feature in 11 Sqn’s picnic area). The unfinished ‘aircraft’ shown above, however, is slightly different.

Identified by the serial number JP098, this Eurofighter Typhoon fuselage is actually a non-flying test rig. Despite being a real fuselage, JP098 was never intended for flight and instead served as a wing attachment trials article at EADS Munich in Germany.

The bare, unfinished shell was delivered to RAF St Athan in Wales during July 2002, where it was used by the Battle Damage Repair (BDR) School (see below) along with a number of other decommissioned jets, including a Tornado GR1 and F2, as well as grounded Harriers and Jaguars.

(Image: KeithM3; Typhoon JP098 seen at St Athan’s BDR school in 2002)

According to the South Wales Aviation Group website, JP098 was later transferred to St Athan’s Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) School. The article was last noted in open storage (top) in September 2014. Though its empty cockpit was latterly seen covered by a tarpaulin, the photograph above by KeithM3 suggests that JP098 may have been actively used for BDR training, ensuring engineers and technicians are skilled in the art of keeping damaged aircraft serviceable under wartime conditions.

For those interested in how battle damage repair works in practice, the video below shows a BDR exercise using an RAF Blackburn Buccaneer.

Related – A Different Kind of Aircraft Graveyard: Fatigue Test Airframes at Paine Field, Washington

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(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); abandoned Buran-class orbiter Baikal in Moscow)

Our recent article “10 Abandoned Space Shuttles, Orbiter Test Vehicles & Engineering Mockups” highlighted the often turbulent post-retirement careers of Soviet Russia’s reusable Buran orbiters and other space shuttle test articles. Among several pertinent examples is the unfinished Buran-class spacecraft known as Baikal, which spent a number of years disassembled amid the harsh Russian elements before being put back together again.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); Baikal (OK-2K1) was never completed)

Nicknamed after a vast Russian lake, Baikal was, like its sister ship Ptichka, never officially named. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 all but spelled the end of the Buran programme, which ground to a halt two years later amid the political chaos of post-Soviet Russia.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); abandoned at the factory, Baikal was dumped by the Moscow Canal in 2004)

Only one orbiter – carrying the programme’s official name Buran – had ever achieved space flight. A range of full scale engineering articles and several unfinished space-worthy shuttles, meanwhile, were simply abandoned where they stood, either on the factory floor or within the vast expanses of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); the corroding hulk lay there for seven years)

Like its older first series sister Ptichka, Baikal was something of an empty shell when Buran was finally cancelled. Having been scheduled for a flight test in 1994, Baikal – the first of the second series orbiters – was understood to be only around 30 to 50 percent complete when the programme was terminated.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); Baikal’s empty, unfinished skeleton of a cockpit)

Redundant, unneeded and taking up valuable space, the unfortunate craft was dumped in the open outside the Tushino factory in Moscow where it was constructed. It’s thought to have remained there for around a decade, until its dismantled hulk was moved to a car park alongside the Khimki Reservoir, off the wide Moscow Canal.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); the cargo bay, which never held a space payload)

It was there that photographer Ilya Varlamov documented the abandoned spacecraft in this impressive series of pictures. The sorry looking Baikal, which also bore the number OK-2K1 (or 2.01), was destined to lie corroding by the water’s edge for some seven years, until the massive wreck was finally moved to Moscow Oblast’s Ramenskoye–Zhukovsky Airport in time for the MAKS 2011 airshow.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); the abandoned spacecraft was surrounded by other junk)

Cosmetically restored and reassembled for the first time since the Buran production line was abandoned almost 20 years earlier, it’s understood that Baikal is now poised to become an outdoor aviation museum.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); a pair of giant wings separated from the unfinished fuselage)

Google Earth, however, shows the once abandoned space shuttle orbiter parked in a neglected corner of the airfield some distance from the technical site.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); space shuttle Baikal’s empty crew compartment)

Like its decaying Buran-class sister orbiter Ptichka – which is stored inside a derelict assembly building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome with full scale engineering mockup OK-MT – Baikal’s future remains uncertain, its preservation yet to be seen.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal); after years lying abandoned, neglected orbiter OK-2K1 was finally reassembled)

Related – 8 Abandoned Launch Pads, Missile Silos and Decommissioned Space Centres

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(Image: Miles Winterburn; an abandoned army base and training camp in the UK)

One of the many notable aspects of the 20th century was the proliferation of army bases across the Europe, the United States and the former Soviet Union. As fascism reared its ugly head in the 1920s, paving the way for World War Two and then the Cold War, nations across the world fell to high-speed militarization to keep up with their enemies.

With the theatre of war now shifting to areas like the Middle East, many of those once-high security army bases are no longer needed. The Berlin Wall has fallen, the Soviet Union has disintegrated and the days of fascism in Europe seem to be happily over. Yet many of these abandoned army barracks, bases and training camps remain, overgrown and neglected, yet stark reminders of our turbulent recent past.

Savanna Army Depot (Illinois, USA)

(Images: Phil Roeder; USGS; abandoned army depot and storage bunkers at Savanna, Illinois)

A desolate wasteland on the banks of the Mississippi River, the Savanna Army Depot sprawled out over an incredible 52.86 km² in its heyday – roughly the same area as the island of Bermuda. Opened as a training in ground in 1917, it upgraded to a weapons depot in 1921 then stayed that way right up until its untimely closure in 2000.

In the years after the depot closed, the abandoned army base became a strangely gloomy place. Although tracts of it were converted into a wildlife refuge, the presence of derelict and decaying buildings didn’t exactly bestow upon it the atmosphere of a natural Shangri-La. Chain link fences still stretch across roads, while heavy duty vehicles turn to rust on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. The abandoned military buildings are all tattered and have been tagged with graffiti, their windows long ago knocked out by bored teenagers. Seeing nature slowly reclaim this slice of America’s military history, it’s not hard to imagine that you’re standing there at the end of the world.

Proteus Training Camp (Nottinghamshire, England)

(Images: Miles Winterburn; the abandoned army training camp Proteus)

An important site for Allied forces in the 1940s, Proteus Camp in Nottinghamshire has run the gauntlet of military uses. Utilized by the British and US armies, repurposed as a TA facility and finally converted into a Cadet training camp, its life was certainly eventful. Spread over a staggering 21 hectares, Proteus was active right up until 2004, at which point the MoD deemed it surplus to requirements.

In the years that followed, the abandoned army training camp fell to ruin. The buildings were gutted, the grounds overgrown and the assault courses left to rust. Yet it still retained the traces of the thousands upon thousands of men who had passed through here serving their country. As late as 2009 you could still access the squat, derelict chapel and see the broken barracks where soldiers once lived.

Fortress Rochonvillers (Lorraine, France)

(Images: Morten Jensen; abandoned French Army fortress on the Maginot Line)

As part of the Maginot Line, Fortress Rochonvillers in northern France has an unfortunate whiff of failure about it. A series of impregnable defenses that were constructed along the Eastern French border, the Maginot Line was supposed to ensure France could never again experience the invasion that scarred it during World War One. Unfortunately, when the time finally came for the Germans to enact their attack plans, they simply drove round it. France fell without places like Rochonvillers managing to do any actual defending.

This strange history happily didn’t repeat itself during the Cold War, when Rochonvillers was used by NATO to potentially ward off Russian attacks. After the Soviet Empire evaporated, the fortress was finally put forward for deactivation. These days, the site is an atmospheric obstacle course of hidden tunnels and forbidden entrances, watched over by the looming concrete towers. Nonetheless, the abandoned army base remains French military property and is officially off-limits.

Abandoned Army Barracks (Germany)

(Images: Klaus Pagel; Cold War abandoned army barracks in Germany)

Somewhere in the wilds of Germany sits this haunting, abandoned army barracks, a three storey building that seems to have been lifted straight from a classic horror movie. The grounds are overgrown with weeds, the windows smashed and the corridors empty. Seen at night, you’d be forgiven for thinking a zombie might come looming out of the darkness, hungry for human flesh.

The exact circumstances of the closures here aren’t certain, but there are several possibilities. One of the most likely is that this may have been a base that was used during the Cold War, a tense conflict that Germany spent fifty-odd years on the very front lines of. In all honesty, the explanation doesn’t really matter. The haunting, rubble-filled rooms and endless corridors have an atmosphere that invites speculation. We may not know how the ruins of this abandoned army barracks came to be, but there’s no doubt that they are an arresting sight.

Abandoned Tank Range at Midhope and Langsett (South Yorkshire, England)

(Images: Ian Sutton (1,2); John Fielding (1,2,3); tarboat; abandoned tank range & wash facilities)

Though it might seem odd to modern-day northerners embittered by the great Steel City’s postwar industrial decline, back in the 1940s one of the cities the government was most-concerned about was Sheffield. As one of the major centres of British industry, a Coventry-style blitz on the city could have crippled the war effort. As a potential method for distracting the German bombers, a mock village and ‘steelworks’ was built up on the moors. It sadly proved ineffective. In early December 1940, two German raids hit Sheffield, damaging its steelworks and killing around 660 people.

That’s not to say the moors village wasn’t put to good use. In the aftermath of the war, the whole area was turned into a tank range. Dummy buildings were levelled with tank fire as shells battered the landscape. Today, the ruins of this abandoned army training range still look as desolate and terrifying as ever. There’s also the added problem of unexploded shells. A few that didn’t explode – including various ‘experimental shells’ that no-one has much idea about the content of – still litter the landscape, scaring the occasional dog walker witless.

Fort Ord (California, USA)

(Images: Peter Thoeny (qualityhdr.com); abandoned army barracks at Fort Ord, CA)

In its heyday, Fort Ord was considered one of cushiest postings in the US army. Built alongside an attractive beach in sunny California, going there seemed less like ‘service’ and more like a vacation. First used as a military training ground in 1917, it was built up into a proper army base in the 1940s, before finally closing its doors for good in 1994.

Today, much of the abandoned Fort Ord remains intact, thanks in large part to the creation of the Fort Ord National Monument. While many just go to wander the trails and soak up the sunshine, it’s possible to still get a look at the surviving buildings themselves. Lined with wooden slats, their windows long-since smashed in and their walls covered with graffiti, the abandoned army barracks today looks like a genuine ghost world. A long-dead place turning to dust beneath the blazing Californian sun.

Abandoned Army Installation (Switzerland)

(Images: Kecko; a concealed army base in the Swiss mountains)

In a remote, rural corner of the small mountain nation of Switzerland sits this old army base. Thanks to the seriousness with which the Swiss take their national security, its exact location is may still be classified, but photographing it – strangely – isn’t. The base therefore is something of an enigma, both easily accessible to the public and curiously off-limits.

Of the installation itself, very little remains. Just a few slabs of concrete and a squat old hut that has seen better days. Supposedly built in the 1960s, it looks like it hasn’t seen action in many years. It’s understood that the seemingly-abandoned army base may still be ostensibly on the Swiss military’s books, hence the secrecy, though its original purpose seems long-since forgotten. Perhaps one of its most interesting features is the hidden underground railway station, complete with a heavy, locked gate obstructing a tunnel into the mountain.

Abandoned Red Army Training Camp (Ukraine)

(Images: Ivan Bandura; an abandoned Soviet army training camp near Kiev)

Not far from the bustling capital of Kiev, this abandoned army base of the former Soviet Union slowly rots away, all but forgotten by the city’s busy residents. At the end of the Cold War, independent Ukraine suddenly found itself in possession of a huge array of Soviet military equipment – including nuclear weapons. As is the case with this abandoned army training base, most of it was more-or-less immediately deserted.

This particular outpost was used for IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) training. Today, its size remains one of the most impressive things about it. IFVs can be monstrous things, and the collapsed old building where they once were stored still stands as a silent testimony to their power. You can almost picture them rolling across the bleak Ukrainian landscape, waiting for a potential Allied invasion that never came.

Fort Totten (Queens, New York City)

(Images: Bluesguy from NY; Jim Henderson; abandoned army base Fort Totten)

Fort Totten may well be the oldest base on our list. A New York City site begun way back in 1862, the abandoned army base remained in use right up until the late 20th century.

It wasn’t always just a standard army facility, however. In the 1960s, Fort Totten became an administrative centre for the city’s Nike missile air defence system. It was also rumoured to be a safe house used in the 1970s for wanted ex-mafia members – a local story that probably doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny, but shows just how deeply the base penetrated NYC lore. Even today, the Army Reserve maintains a small presence onsite, although Fort Totten is now owned by city itself.

Like the abandoned Fort Tilden, also in Queens, much of the former base has been transformed into a public park, often toured by visitors. Parts of the historic facility remain in ruins, while other areas have been refurbished. There’s even a Neo-Gothic mock ‘castle’ on the grounds, which looks suitably bizarre in the middle of New York City.

Greenlands Camp on Salisbury Plain (Wiltshire, England)

(Images: Chris Talbot via Geograph; abandoned Greenlands Camp on Salisbury Plain)

On sprawling Salisbury plain sits a curious, abandoned army camp known as Greenlands. Dating back to World War One, it housed Australian and New Zealand troops who had traveled thousands of miles to fight for their distant monarch. Known as Anzac troops, hundreds of thousands of them would die in the carnage of the Great War.

Today, Greenlands Camp still stands as a kind of half-forgotten memorial to their bravery. Its interiors are broken and empty, its windows knocked out and its walls crumbling. The grounds themselves are overgrown and the whole thing has a lifeless air that seems equal parts spooky and mournful. One of the few concrete traces of bases used by Australian troops left in Britain, Greenlands is at once moving, profound and strangely melancholy.

Related – 10 Abandoned Gun Emplacements, Artillery Batteries & Flak Towers

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(Image: Shaun Connor; Panavia Tornado prototype XX947 (P.03) getting airborne with a full weapons load)

After the controversial cancellation of the mighty TSR-2 in the 1960s, and the shelving of a plan to buy a derivative of the US-built F-111 medium bomber, the United Kingdom desperately needed of an aircraft that could replace its ageing Avro Vulcans and Blackburn Buccaneers. The solution came in the form of the Multi-Role Combat Aircraft programme (MRCA), whereby the UK teamed up with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands to form Panavia Aircraft GmbH, a multinational company set to design and build a versatile interdictor/strike (IDS) aircraft that would see each nation’s air forces through into the early decades of the 21st century.

Though the Netherlands dropped out, the remaining partners settled on an innovative swing-wing design that would ultimately become the Panavia Tornado. Today, the Tornado is still in service with four nations and, despite its ageing airframe, has evolved into arguably the most capable strike jet of its kind in the world. In the UK, the RAF’s Tornado GR4 remains a potent force, having been heavily upgraded from its early GR1 incarnation and adapted to a range of combat theatres that have kept it at the sharp end for more than 30 years to date.

But like its now-defunct F3 cousin, this respected and feared aircraft wouldn’t be what it is today without a small fleet of Tornado prototypes and pre-production airframes that – along with their highly skilled crews – proved the cutting-edge design and often innovative technologies in a bid to develop Europe’s most successful and respected interdictor/strike jet of the Cold War era and beyond. This article takes a closer look at those Panavia Tornado prototypes and pre-production airframes (focusing on those assigned to the Royal Air Force. For those of the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force.

Prototype Tornado XX946/P.02

(Image: brian.chewter1 – website; Panavia Tornado prototype XX946/P.02 at RAF Cosford in 2014)

Issued the RAF serial number XX946, P.02 was the second Tornado prototype to be built (after Germany’s D9591) and the first British aircraft in the series. The multirole combat jet first took to the sky on October 30, 1974 with Paul Millett and Pietro Trevisan at the controls, and was used in a range of tests from weapons release and in-flight refueling to spin and stall trials, and flutter testing. Delivered in the red and white paint scheme of its manufacturer Panavia, XX946 was later repainted in the Cold War grey and green camouflage worn by production Tornado GR1s. Unlike the earlier Luftwaffe prototype, Tornado XX946 was fitted with variable engine intake ramps. P.02, which was equipped with less powerful pre-production engines than those fitted on the operational fleet, was retired to ground instructional duties in 1986 before being transferred to the RAF Museum in 1994. Now at RAF Cosford, it’s understood the historic aircraft will ultimately be restored to its original red and white glory (seen here).

Prototype Tornado XX947/P.03

(Image: Shaun Connor; Tornado prototype XX947 fitted with an array of weapons)

The UK’s second Tornado prototype, serial number XX947, first flew on August 5, 1975 with David Eagles and Tim Ferguson at the controls, under the Panavia prototype designation P.03. Unlike its German and British predecessors, P.03 – the first Tornado fitted with dual controls – was delivered in a grey/green camouflage paint scheme closer to that later worn by production Tornado GR1s entering service in the early 1980s, albeit with light grey undersides and high-visibility roundels and fin flashes. Fitted with a production standard radome (unlike P.02), Tornado XX947 was used for spinning, stalling and weight performance trials. The aircraft aquaplaned off the runway at Warton in October 1976 and, as a result, underwent design changes to the main undercarriage attachment points and thrust reverse system to prevent wandering due to the uneven distribution of reversed airflow on landing. Fitted with an anti-spin parachute in 1978, the aircraft was eventually retired to ground instructional duties at RAF Cosford, adopting the maintenance serial 8797M. When prototype Tornado XX947 was put up for disposal, the decommissioned jet was sold to Everett Aero and placed on display at Shoreham in 2003. As of July 2014 P.03 was understood to have returned to Everett’s facility at the former RAF Bentwaters, Suffolk.

Prototype Tornado XX948/P.06

(Image: Shaun Connor; prototype Tornado P.06 at Warton in Lancashire)

Just four months after XX947 first blasted off the runway of Warton Aerodrome near Preston, Lancashire, the third RAF Tornado prototype took to the sky with David Eagles once again in the front seat. Airframe XX948 (P.06) made her maiden flight immediately before Christmas, on December 19, 1975, and was used primarily for weapons clearance trials. As such, Tornado XX948 became the first example of Panavia’s successful strike jet to be fitted with the powerful 27mm Mauser cannon, which would ultimately enter service on the production Tornado GR1 fleet and those machines later selected for the GR4 upgrade. In addition, prototype P.06 boasted a plethora of other features not fitted to its older cousins. As the excellent Tornado-data.com states: “P.06 incorporated numerous modifications including a revised rear fuselage profile that was slimmer than its predecessors and included a fillet at the base of the fin between the engines to adjust the aerodynamic properties of the airframe. Vortex generators were also fitted on the fin.” Like XX947, Tornado XX948 later became a ground instructional airframe at Cosford (as 8879M) before disposal to Everett Aero. The aircraft is now on display at Hermeskeil in Germany.

Prototype Tornado XX950/P.08

(Image: Shaun Connor; Tornado prototype P.08 was lost during trials work in 1979)

Like P.03, Panavia Tornado prototype P.08 was fitted with dual controls in its front and rear cockpits and also suffered an accident during flight testing. But unlike its older counterpart, the aircraft – serial number XX950 – was destroyed in the incident, which sadly claimed the lives of its two crew. First flown on July 17, 1976 by Paul Millett and Ray Woolett, Tornado P.08 appeared in the static park at the Farnborough airshow that same year surrounded by a forceful array of weaponary, as seen in the photograph above. But three years later on June 12, 1979 during weapons release trials, XX950 tragically crashed into the Irish Sea, killing pilot Russ Pengelly and navigator Sqn Ldr J. S. Gray.

Pre-Production Panavia Tornado XZ630/PS12

(Image: David A. Ingham; XZ630, or PS12, the first of two pre-production Tornado IDS built for the RAF)

Former Lightning and Tornado F3 pilot Ian Black states in his excellent RAF Tornado Owners’ Workshop Manual that: “While the first ten aircraft could be considered true prototypes, the first real Tornado for the RAF flew in March 1977 (XZ630) and it was quickly assigned to the A&AEE at RAF Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.” Crewed by Tim Ferguson and Roy Kenward, the aircraft had departed the runway at Warton for the first on March 14, 1977 and later participated in weapons release trials at the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE). Pre-production Tornados incorporated a number of refinements over earlier prototypes that would be incorporated onto production aircraft and, after a successful career as a trials aircraft, Panavia Tornado XZ630 (PS12) was retired to ground duties as 8976M and since 2004 has been preserved on the parade ground at RAF Halton.

Pre-Production Panavia Tornado XZ631/PS15

(Image: Steve Tron; pre-production Panavia Tornado XZ631 (PS15), repainted in 2015)

Of all Britain’s prototype and pre-production Tornado airframes, the last one to be delivered – XZ631 (PS15) – enjoyed the longest and arguably most varied career of Panavia’s early development jets. First flown by Jerry Lee and Jim Evans on November 24, 1978, Tornado XZ631 was used in supersonic flutter, in-flight refueling, and weapons handling and clearance trials. It was the first Tornado to incorporate the production-standard rear fuselage and fin mounted fuel tank, the latter a feature of RAF Tornados but not those of the German and Italian air forces. P15, however, didn’t merely serve as a trials aircraft early in the Multi-Role Combat Aircraft programme. The pre-production airframe also became the prototype for the Tornado Mid-Life Update (MLU), which saw around 142 Tornado GR1 jets upgraded to GR4 standard between 1997 and 2003. This technically made XZ631 the first Tornado GR4, and the aircraft was still flying as late as 2004. Retired to the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington the following year, PS15 was beginning to look rather tired after years in the open air. But 2015 saw the historic airframe repainted in the modern all-over light grey worn by the remaining Tornado GR4 force today.

Prototype Tornado P.10 (Honourable Mention)

Not all of the UK’s Panavia Tornado prototypes flew. One of them was destined to never take to the air at all, ordered instead for use as a static test article. Photographs of this non-flying airframe (known as P.10 or P.90) have thus far proved elusive, but it nevertheless deserves a mention. If anyone does recall seeing it at Warton back in the late 1970s, or – better still – has a photograph of Tornado P.10, we’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, here’s a summary of the test article’s service career courtesy of Tornado-Data.com:

P.10 was destined never to fly but to be used as a static test airframe. The airframe was extensively instrumented and subject to a great number of trials. The airframe and some of its assemblies were tested to destruction. Many parts are dumped around the Warton site, others were scrapped after the trials.

Related – A Definitive Guide to the World’s Last Airworthy Hawker Hurricane Fighters

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(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal; rusting hulks of Soviet armoured personnel carriers)

For a brutal and bloody decade from 1979 to 1989, the Soviet–Afghan War raged in the tribal regions of Afghanistan. Casualties were sky high as the Red Army and its allies fought the insurgent groups of the Mujahideen in a guerrilla war that decimated the country and led to the death of over a million refugees. Millions more fled over the border into Iran and Pakistan before the broken Soviet army finally withdrew.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal; Fayzabad served as a garrison during the Soviet-Afghan War)

Even today, amid more recent conflict, the rusted relics of that dreadful time abound across Afghanistan. These abandoned armoured vehicles were documented by photographer Ilya Varlamov in the city of Fayzabad, capital of Badakhshan Province in the north of the country. Fayzabad was used heavily by insurgents until its capture by Soviet forces in 1980, becoming a garrison town until the Red Army withdrew a decade later, leaving much of their abandoned military equipment behind.

(Image: Ilya Varlamov/28-300 (Livejournal; rusting trucks, APCs and other abandoned military technology)

Related – 10 Mighty Tank Graveyards & Abandoned Battle Vehicles of the World

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(Image: Pedmore; revisiting the abandoned airfields of Iraq)

For quarter of a century under the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq became a hotbed of military activity that saw the establishing of the Middle East’s largest army and the use of chemical weapons against Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists alike. Vast military airfields were constructed across the country – some of them new, others rebuilt – which would become key targets when Iraqi forces invaded neighbouring Kuwait in 1990, threatening the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

As the West intervened, Operation Desert Storm saw allied warplanes tasked to destroy Saddam’s military arsenal, putting heavily defended airfields and other strategic targets firmly out of commission. Some of these military airbases have been abandoned ever since, while others again saw action during the US-led invasion of 2003. This article explores a number of abandoned airfields across Iraq, from the bombed-out relics of the First Gulf War to those crippled in more recent times.

Jalibah Southeast Air Base

(Images: Bing Maps; US Army; USAF; Gulf War wrecks at abandoned Jalibah Air Base)

Along the banks of the Euphrates River, near the ancient city of Ur, sits the remains of Jalibah Southeast Air Base. A few strips of concrete slowly being reclaimed by the burning desert sand, this desolate base has been the scene of several decisive military encounters over the years.

Most dramatically, this came during the First Gulf War of 1991. Jalibah was a f ocal point for Saddam’s attack on Kuwait, and became a prime coalition target. For a brief period bombs rained heavily down on the base, before US ground forces captured it in a spectacularly bloody battle that saw multiple aircraft destroyed and Iraqi troops routed and killed in large numbers. In the aftermath of the war, engineers decommissioned the base before the US Army exited to stop Saddam from using it again.

Not that this marked the end of Jalibah Southeast Air Base. In 2003, it was overrun by Allied forces again during Operation Iraqi Freedom. For a brief period, the abandoned Iraqi airfield returned to life, only to be deserted once again.

Ubaydah Bin Al Jarrah Air Base

(Images: Google Earth; Bing Maps; abandoned Iraqi airfield Ubaydah Bin Al Jarrah)

In the 1970s, the ruling Baath party of Saddam Hussein went through a period of intense paranoia. Scarred by the Israeli-Arab wars, the party began construction of impregnable ‘super bases’ across the nation. Ostensibly meant for defence, each base contained an underground lair of hangars and operations centres so hardened it could withstand a direct hit by a tactical nuclear bomb.

Yet these bases were also symbols of aggression. Ubaydah Bin Al Jarrah was no exception. In 1991, it was targeted by the RAF thanks to its involvement in the invasion of Kuwait. The British bombed the hell out of the base, yet it was so well-constructed that repairing it proved relatively straightforward.

So it was that the base played a role in the second Gulf War, too. A key target, it was eventually overrun by US marines who abandoned it at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today, it appears damaged and possibly abandoned. But possibly not. In 2015 the Iraqi Defence Minister reportedly visited the site to unveil a new drone, suggesting it remains in use to this day.

Ar Rumaylah Southwest Air Base

(Images: Bing Maps; abandoned Iraqi airfield Ar Rumaylah Southwest Air Base)

Only a short hop from the Kuwaiti border, Ar Rumaylah Southwest Air Base was once one of Saddam’s most important military airfields. A massive super base that sprawled over a vast area, it came equipped with a 10,000ft runway and a dozen specially-hardened aircraft hangers that could repel most types of bombs. Unsurprisingly, it became a key battleground in the 1991 Gulf War.

As Saddam’s troops overran Kuwait, the coalition launched a large-scale air campaign against Iraqi targets. In January 1991 Ar Rumaylah came in for heavy bombing as the coalition sought to keep the Iraqi air force firmly on the ground. Less than a month later, ground troops captured it in a massive surge. It was during an attack on Rumaylah that Panavia Tornado GR1 ZD791, crewed by John Peters and John Nichol, was shot down by a surface to air missile while flying at high speed around 50 feet above the desert. The pilot and navigator ejected and, having been paraded on Iraqi television, were released along with other prisoners of war at the end of the conflict.

Like Jalibah, the abandoned airbase was decommissioned following the ceasefire. Unlike Jalibah, however, it never returned to action. Today, most of Ar Rumaylah’s bombed-out buildings appear to have been demolished, while the cratered runway and taxiways have been slowly consumed by the desert and are disappearing into the sand.

Tallil Air Base

(Images: Google Earth; US Army; Harley Copic (artwork); USAF; wrecks of Tallil Air Base)

Tallil Air Base stands on one of the most-historically significant sites on Earth. Within its vast 22km security perimeter lies part of the ancient city of Ur, including its fabled Great Ziggurat. Not that this did the site any great favours when war came. In 1991 it was heavily bombed and the city of Ur damaged by explosions and small arms fire.

However, Tallil’s history doesn’t end there. In 2003, the abandoned Iraqi airfield was occupied by the US Army, rechristened Camp Adder, and transformed into one of the most-significant bases in the whole of Iraq. Thousands upon thousands of troops were stationed there until 2011, enough to support a local McDonald’s branch, a Taco Bell and a commercial internet provider. Australian and Romanian troops were also stationed there, the latter defiantly calling the place Camp Dracula prior to their 2009 exit.

It wasn’t until 2011 that US troops finally pulled out of Tallil Air Base, which had once been home to Soviet-built fighters and helicopter gunships, and handed it back over to Iraq. At one point, there were plans afoot to turn it into a civilian airport. However, the ISIS insurgency has pushed these plans onto the back-burner and as far as we can tell, the base currently stands empty.

Kut Al Hayy Air Base

(Image: Bing Maps; this abandoned Iraqi airfield has almost completely disappeared into the desert)

(Images: Bing Maps; Google Earth; the abandoned Kut Al Hayy Air Base)

One of the first things you notice when reading the history of Kut Al Hayy Air Base is it’s anglicized name. In 2003, US Marines took over the then-abandoned Iraqi airfield and rechristened it as the oddly suggestive-sounding ‘Camp Chesty.’ Bizarre nomenclature aside, the base has a significant history. Like many of Saddam’s massive airfields, Kut Al Hayy was built in the mid 1980s by Yugoslavian contractors. Later, during the US occupation, it was one of the largest supply depots in the whole of Iraq, ferrying equipment to soldiers on the front line.

Like other bases on this list, Kut Al Hayy had previously seen action in the First Gulf War of 1991. Bombed during Operation Desert Storm, it was abandoned by Iraqi troops who fled before the advancing coalition army. Although its resurrection was impressive, it was also brief. In 2006, engineers set to work dismantling the runways and making the whole base unusable. Today, it’s little more than a ruin in the desert, a broken down reminder of the shaky occupation days, before the whole country began to utterly collapse.

H-3 Air Base

(Images: Bing Maps; abandoned Iraqi airfield H-3 Air Base)

(Image: Google Earth; derelict Soviet-built jets still stand on the abandoned Iraqi airfield)

One of a cluster of airbases near the Jordanian border, H-3 was another of Iraq’s infamous ‘super bases’. It was also far-scarier than most on this list. During the 1980s and 1990s, chemical weapons were stored there, ready to unleash toxic death on any enemies of Saddam. When the coalition attacked Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, it was one of the bases from where Scud missiles were hurled into Israel, striking Tel Aviv.

As a result, H-3 became a major target, both in 1991 and again in 2003. Prior to the second invasion of Iraq, intense bombing raids involving some 100 US and UK planes were conducted, on the off-chance that Saddam might be stockpiling chemical weapons there that could be used on American or British troops. In March 2003, it was finally overthrown. Iraqi forces were driven out and H-3 converted into a forward special operations base.

It’s understood that H-3 Air Base now lies abandoned, though its buildings remain largely intact and massive runway operational, albeit obstructed by a series of obstacles. Taxiways, meanwhile, are being steadily reclaimed by the desert and the old hulks of Russian-built warplanes lie derelict across the abandoned Iraqi airfield.

Al-Taji Airfield (Camp Cooke)

(Images: Ahodges7; Pedmore; Google Earth; abandoned Camp Cooke/Al-Taji Air Base)

The history of Al-Taji (later renamed Camp Cooke after being occupied by American troops) is a volatile one, to say the least. In the 1990s, it was a major centre for producing chemical weapons designed to be mounted on missiles. It was also targeted beyond the 1991 and 2003 conflicts. In 1998 Al-Taji Airfield was bombed as part of Operation Desert Fox – a four day campaign designed to disable Saddam’s WMD program.

As with many other Iraqi bases, Al-Taji fell in 2003 to American troops. Repurposed into a US base, it soon became one of the biggest in the country. As a result, things sometimes got scary. Between 2004 and 2011 the facility was attacked five separate times, with one assault involving over 70 separate rockets pounding its buildings. Another  attack left behind something in the region of 40 casualties.

After the United States exited Iraq, the base fell into disuse. Some buildings were looted, some simply left to decay under a layer of thick dust. Today, however, it is the centre of yet another US incursion into the Middle East. With ISIS’s frontlines located less than 50km from the previously-abandoned Iraqi airfield, it has once again been pressed into action.

RAF Habbaniya

(Images: Google Earth; Andy Dincher (1, 2); abandoned RAF Habbaniya)

The oldest base on our list, RAF Habbaniya on the banks of the Euphrates has been around since 1936, when Iraq was still governed by Britain. Abandoned by the British during the 1958 revolution, it was put to use by the newly-independent Iraqi state for its own ends (though the Habbaniya Association maintains of those buried in the small British cemetery at the site).

Unfortunately, those ends were far from noble. Following Saddam’s rise to power, the base was converted into a factory for producing mustard gas. At its height, the factory was spewing out around 80 tonnes of the deadly material per year. Mustard is the gas that Saddam used when he massacred the Kurds. It is also the gas he dropped on Iran during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War. In 2014, Time magazine reported that Iranian mustard gas casualties may have reached 90,000 (but since the gas can affect people decades after exposure, the true tally is not yet known).

As a result, the former RAF Habbaniya has one of the most-sombre histories of all of Iraq’s abandoned airfields and military bases. Technically, however, it’s no longer call it ‘abandoned’. Like Al-Taji, above, the base is now being used in yet another conflict in Iraq’s inhospitable deserts: the war against ISIS.

Related – 12 Abandoned Cold War Airfields of the Former Soviet Union

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(Image: via fourfax.co.uk; grounded Harrier jets at RAF Cottesmore in June 2011)

In March 2011, amid increasingly austere budget cuts, the Royal Air Force grounded the last of its 143 British Aerospace Harrier II strike jets. The last Fleet Air Arm planes within Joint Force Harrier had gone by the previous year, and the end of an era came not just (albeit temporarily) for the Royal Navy’s fixed-wing carrier capability, but for one of the most innovative aircraft of the Cold War era.

The original Hawker Siddeley Harrier, along with its P.1127 prototype and Kestrel FGA.1 development aircraft, was the world’s first operational vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) fighter jet. The innovative design was later developed through an Anglo-American into a larger, more capable version of the aircraft that cemented the famous Harrier Jump Jet family’s place in aeronautical history.

But as we’ve reported previously on Urban Ghosts, Britain’s long-serving Harrier fleet was grounded in 2011 amid the harsh economic climate. Initially retired to their original hangars at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland, England, some 72 Harriers had been sold to the US Marine Corps before the end of the year, at the bargain price of just £116 million ($180 million).

At the time the above photograph was taken, their fate was still uncertain. Fast forward several years, and their empty shells lie in the searing heat of the Arizona desert Boneyard (below) or at MCAS Cherry Point in North Carolina. Despite a £500 million contract to upgrade the Harriers from GR7 to GR9 standard, the airframes are now used as a source of spare parts and will never fly again.

Nearest the camera (above) is twin-seat Harrier T12 ZH664, which first flew in 1995 and was withdrawn from service in 2010. Immediately behind it is GR9 ZD352, which flew for the first time in 1988. Meanwhile, the aircraft at right with the specially painted tail fin is the 1991 Harrier GR9 ZG858. All three aircraft now lie at Davis-Monthan AFB near Tucson. Among the withdrawn GR9s are a handful of Harrier GR7s that had not yet gone through the upgrade programme when the fleet was finally grounded.

(Image: cactusbillaz; British Harrier GR9 ‘jump jets’ in storage at AMARG)

Related – 8 Aircraft Wrecks and Crash Sites of the Falklands War

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(Image: Allen Watkin; Folland Gnat T1 XR954 pictured at Bournemouth in 2007)

In a grassy enclosure on the south side of Dorset’s Bournemouth Airport, on England’s south coast, is a small aviation museum that echoes the site’s original wartime role as RAF Hurn. Among a range of exhibits, which include a Sepecat Jaguar, Hawker Hunter and the cockpit of an Avro Vulcan B2, was the empty shell of a Folland Gnat, a former fast jet trainer which entered RAF service in 1959.

A grand total of 449 Gnats were built during the production run, which included aircraft exported to Finland and another variant – the HAL Ajeet – manufactured for the Indian Air Force. The Folland Gnat pictured above, serial number XR954, is a T1 trainer which entered RAF service in 1962. After many years of dedicated service helping to train the next generation of fast jet pilots, the airframe was withdrawn from flying duties and given the maintenance serial 8670M. Relegated to ground instructional duties for the remainder of its military career, the jet trainer was eventually struck off charge and put up for disposal.

Thankfully the decommissioned Gnat XR954 escaped scrapping and its forlorn hulk eventually arrived at the Bournemouth Aviation Museum on the old World War Two airfield near Hurn. But according to the Demobbed website, the dismantled jet moved on in 2008 and its whereabouts are currently unknown. Wearing the code number ’30’ on its nose, we’re hoping that XR954 one day reemerges in one piece.

(Image: Alan Wilson; the Gnat display team pictured at RAF Waddington in 2014)

Several former RAF Gnats, meanwhile, remain in flying condition and are always a welcome addition on the airshow circuit. Their small size and relative simplicity have not only ensured that a good number of their ranks survive today, but can also be flown in civilian hands. Though the engineless shell of Gnat XR954 may never fly again, a cosmetic restoration would make it a welcome addition to the surviving fleet, wherever it may be.

Related – ZH588 & ZH590: Grounded Eurofighter Typhoon Fighter Jets Up Close

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(Image: Amy Heiden Photography; withdrawn stealth ship Sea Shadow mothballed at Suisun Bay, California)

With the success of the top secret Have Blue stealth technology demonstrator programme, which ultimately led to the groundbreaking F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack jet, American defence giant Lockheed sought to take its knowledge of low observables developed on black project planes and apply it to naval vessels. The result was the highly classified stealth ship known as Sea Shadow which, despite its exotic appearance, never proved as popular as its airborne counterpart.

Sea Shadow (IX-529) was built in Redwood City, California and set sale in secret for the first time in 1984. Developed by Lockheed for the United States Navy and funded in large part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the stealth ship was used to test the application of low observable technology to military watercraft as well as a high stability configuration reflected in its distinctive twin hull design.

The 164 ft, diesel-electric-powered stealth ship also sought to test automation in a bid to reduce the number of crew required to operate it. As such, the vessel was somewhat spartan inside, fitted with just 12 bunks, a table, a fridge and a microwave oven. But luxuries (or lack of) aside, Sea Shadow remained an important programme until the end of the Cold War saw it finally revealed to the public in 1993.

(Image: Amy Heiden Photography; the former black project was stored out of sight on the Hughes Mining Barge)

Despite the secrecy surrounding it, Sea Shadow remained a prototype and was never commissioned or put into production. From its unveiling in 1993, the one-of-a-kind stealth vessel was based at the San Diego Naval Station until 2006, when it was reportedly made available to any maritime museum that might want it.

Even today, after almost a decade in storage, the mothballed F-117 stealth fighter fleet remains one of the most impressive aircraft of its generation. Aviation museums would surely love to get their hands on one, but the production Nighthawks rest far from prying eyes, cocooned in their original hangars at Nevada’s secretive Tonopah Test Range Airport.

The fate of Sea Shadow, however, was rather different. After the US Navy had failed to interest a museum, the stealth ship was offered to the highest bidder. But once again buyers proved elusive. In the end the innovative stealth ship was advertised for scrap, with the condition that the buyer must destroy Sea Shadow.

(Image: Amy Heiden Photography; Sea Shadow remained part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet until scrapping in 2012)

From 2006 until its final dismantling in 2012, the mothballed stealth ship was stored amid the US Navy’s mighty ‘ghost fleet’ in Suisun Bay, California. Menacing and somewhat retro-futuristic, Sea Shadow was documented by photographer Amy Heiden beneath the roof of the Hughes Mining Barge (HMB-1), which shielded the secret ship from passing satellites during its days of classified operation.

The former black project craft may have failed to find a buyer, but its legacy lives on in Pierce Brosnan’s Bond outing Tomorrow Never Dies, where it inspired the villain’s own stealth vessel, and various classes of oceanographic ships that inherited its innovative, high stability hull design.

Related – Abandoned Warships: 10 Decaying Aircraft Carriers, Submarines & Other Military Vessels

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(Image: Jonathan Irwin Photography; the gutted hulk of Tornado ZD844 in a scrap yard prior to recycling)

Over the past year or so Urban Ghosts has documented the slow demise of the Panavia Tornado GR4, as airframes at the limits of their service lives are stripped for parts (a process known as RTP – reduced to produce) to keep the remaining fleet flying until its planned out of service date in 2019. Following completion of the RTP process, the donor airframe is reduced to an empty, hollow carcass that looks more like a boat’s hull than the fuselage of one of the world’s most formidable strike jets.

But unlike the decommissioned hulks of early Tornado trainers, and redundant Tornado GR1Bs and F2s, which were dumped for scrap at RAF St Athan in the early 2000s, I’d not until now witnessed the disposal of the upgraded GR4s that had been dismantled for spares at RAF Leeming in Yorkshire. A naive and somewhat wishful image had formed in my mind of a hangar full of empty Tornado GR4 fuselages, carefully stored on large shelves, their useful components removed and stockpiled for delivery to RAF Marham or Lossiemouth when required. Silly, perhaps. And, not surprisingly, that vision didn’t quite mirror reality. The above image created by Jonathan Irwin Photography shows the mortal remains of Tornado GR4 ZD844 – a veteran of the first Gulf War – which was sent to Leeming for RTP in May 2015 and was seen in a scrap yard just two months later.

Clearly, this doesn’t bode well for other withdrawn GR4s. Ironically, much of Tornado ZD844 probably still exists (from canopy and radome to wings and tail, engines, undercarriage and everything beneath the surface) in one form or another. But without this barely-recognisable fuselage shell, the chance of one day putting the jet back together again is nil. Fortunately a number of early Tornado GR1s survive as ground instructional airframes and a handful have been sold to private owners. Time will tell how many of those still on RAF charge – and indeed the GR4s still flying – become available to museums when the type is finally retired. With history as our guide, the majority will be scrapped.

A Brief History of Panavia Tornado ZD844

(Image: PaulC7001; Panavia Tornado ZD844 during a low level training sortie in 2012)

Panavia Tornado ZD844 first flew in March 1985 and was delivered to the RAF the following month. The strike jet was one of several RAF Bruggen-based Tornados dispatched to Tabuk airfield in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Granby, the name given to British military operations during 1991 Gulf War. Painted desert pink and adorned with wartime nose art, ZD844 used its Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator (TIALD) pod to ensure that guided weapons dropped by other NATO jets struck their ground targets with lethal accuracy.

Despite its ignominious fate, the end of Tornado ZD844 almost came 21 years earlier, in August 1994, when the aircraft collided with another Tornado, ZA397, en route from Goose Bay in Canada to the UK. The planes were flying in a four-ship formation behind a tanker aircraft when the collision occurred, causing the crew of ZA397 to successfully eject from their stricken jet. ZD844, however, limped to the nearest airfield for an emergency landing and was subsequently repaired.

The aircraft was later converted to GR4 standard during the Tornado mid-life upgrade programme, receiving the code 107, which was latterly worn on its tail fin. The aircraft was destined to remain in RAF service for 30 years before being disposed of for scrap, its fate unfortunate considering its Gulf War history.

As photographer Jonathan Irwin wrote on Flickr: “To conclude it may look like a piece of metal waiting to be scrapped but dig a bit deeper as I have done and it had quite an interesting life while serving the RAF for over 30 years.”

Related – Multi-Role Combat Aircraft: Panavia Tornado Prototypes & Pre-Production Aircraft of the RAF

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(Image: Hector Patrick; abandoned Coastal Command maintenance jetty, RAF Castle Archdale)

When the Fleet Air Arm was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1937, Coastal Command became the RAF’s sole maritime operation. The formation was tasked with the protection of Allied convoys and the defence of supply lines from German U-Boats and aircraft, operating graceful flying boats as well as more conventional aircraft, including the Beaufighter, Spitfire and Lancaster, during World War Two and the early years of the Cold War.

Operating between 1936-1969 and known by some as the ‘Cinderella Service’, RAF Coastal Command nevertheless proved its worth flying exhausting missions out over the treacherous seas in search of enemy ships. In World War Two alone, its members racked up over one million flying hours and nearly 6,000 deaths; a far from inconsiderable number. And while Coastal Command itself may long ago have been absorbed into other outfits, evidence of its short life still remains. Abandoned airfields and bases lie dotted around the shores of Britain, long since forgotten or repurposed. Here are 10 surviving examples.

RAF Castle Archdale, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland

(Images: IWM (top, middle, bottom); Sunderland & Catalina flying boats at RAF Castle Archdale)

One of the most-westerly RAF bases in the whole of Britain, Castle Archdale was almost one of the most controversial too. Situated on the eastern shore of Lower Lough Erne in Northern Ireland, its position placed it a mere 30 miles from the Atlantic. Unfortunately, those 30 miles didn’t pass through Allied airspace. Instead, they crossed over County Donegal, part of neutral Ireland.

Given the history of animosity between Britain and Ireland (more apt in the 1940s than today), this could have led to disaster. Surprisingly, though, the two governments reached a secret agreement. RAF planes would be allowed to fly over County Donegal provided they stuck to a very narrow air corridor aptly known as the Donegal Corridor. Unlikely as it was, this decision allowed Coastal Command to dominate their part of the Atlantic. It also managed to last the entire war.

(Images: Hector Patrick; station beacon and abandoned refueling jetty)

(Image: Bing; the abandoned Coastal Command base today)

Today, not much remains of the old base. Just some overgrown buildings fallen into disuse, and the  derelict slipway. Sections of it have even been turned into a caravan park, although a museum has also opened on the site, charting its role in defeating the German war machine.

RAF Dounreay, Highlands, Scotland

(Images: Bing Maps; Google Maps; abandoned Coastal Command runways of Dounreay)

Of all the bases on our list, RAF Dounreay in the north of Scotland undoubtedly had the shortest career. Constructed for use by Coastal Command in 1942, it was inspected, found to be good to put to use, then promptly forgotten about. During its entire existence, it was never once occupied.

The plan had been to use it as an advance base for expected attacks on Norway, then under occupation by German forces. However, the plans in that form never went ahead, rendering RAF Dounreay pointless. It wasn’t until well into the Cold War that a practical use was finally found for it: nuclear facilities were established there, placing it high on the Soviet’s list of targets in event of a thermonuclear exchange.

Many years later, the abandoned Coastal Command airfield is still visible, especially when seen from above. On the ground, it remains the strangest of enigmas. An entire airfield that practically never was.

RAF Dallachy, Moray, Scotland

(Images: Bing; Anne Burgess (1, 2); Christopher Gillan; RAF Dallachy today)

If you were to unwittingly walk into RAF Dallachy today, you’d be hard-pressed to find much evidence of its lively history. Now a desolate rain swept wasteland, its better known as the location of a waste recycling plant than of any acts of heroics. Yet go back in time 70 years, and you’d find an RAF Coastal Command airbase in the grip of unspeakable tragedy.

Constructed in 1942 some 118 miles north of Edinburgh, RAF Dallachy was principally useful for conducting raids against Norway. It was during one such raid that disaster struck. In February 1945, the Germans had only a single destroyer left, hidden in a fjord in Norway. On the 9th of that month, Coastal Command deployed 32 Beaufighters from Dallachy to take it out. What followed next was a massacre.

(Image: RAF; crashed Beaufighter at RAF Dallachy on Black Friday – February 9, 1945)

Even severely weakened by the war’s endgame, the Luftwaffe managed to get the jump on the Allies. A dozen FW-190s attacked, resulting in the largest aerial battle ever fought over Norway. In the carnage that followed, nine Beaufighters were downed, 14 Allied airmen killed, and another four captured. It was the single biggest disaster Coastal Command faced during a single operation in the entire war. In certain circles, the date became known as ‘Black Friday.’

RAF Davidstow Moor, Cornwall, England

(Images: Bing; Google; abandoned Coastal Command airfield at Davidstow Moor)

Seen today, RAF Davidstow Moor in Cornwall has a distinctly eerie quality. A vast ‘A’ with elongated limbs, trapped inside a shapeless bubble of concrete, it sits isolated and alone in Cornwall’s rural interior. Its old buildings decay to rack and ruin on the periphery. Though criss-crossed by country lanes, the abandoned Coastal Command airfield looks almost totally forgotten. But seen from above, the abandoned runways and taxiways flanked by dozens of hard standings sit hauntingly intact amid the peaceful farmland.

(Images: Canadian Forces; Google; Bristol Beaufighter and the abandoned main runway)

Things weren’t much different in its brief life. Despite being active from 1942 to 1954, the base was one of Coastal Command’s least-used in the whole of England. Perhaps this is unsurprising. Cornwall’s moors are notoriously desolate, and easier-to-reach bases in close driving distance must have made RAF Davidstow Moor seem like a backwater. That’s not to say the lonely base didn’t play its part. Today, an onsite museum documents its contributions to World War Two, as well as serving as a memorial to the servicemen who lost their lives.

RAF St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales

(Images: Group Captain E. C. Kidd; Google Maps; RAF St David’s then and now)

(Images: Google Maps; Bing Maps; abandoned Coastal Command runways at RAF St David’s)

Most visitors are drawn to St Davids in Wales for its cathedral and status as Britain’s smallest city (population: 2,000). But the abandoned Coastal Command airfield offers at least one more reason to drop by. Built at the Western extreme of Pembrokeshire, it was a key base in Britain’s then-raging Battle of the Atlantic.

At the time, this was seen as crucial for winning the war. German U-Boats were in the habit of torpedoing ships bound for the UK, hoping to cut off all supplies to the island. Along with similar bases in Ireland and the South West, RAF St Davids was responsible for ensuring that didn’t happen. Multiple bombing raids were taken over the empty wastes of the ocean, desperately trying to preserve a link between the increasingly-isolated UK and distant America and Canada.

Although much of this legacy has long since been lost, a few signs remain of the nightly battle that raged from the former airfield. Eleven structures still survive, some in various stages of decay, others repurposed. Take a walk along the Pembrokeshire coastal path and you might just catch a glimpse of the sort of place this once was.

RAF Oban, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

(Images: Bing Maps; Stuart Wilding; former Kerrera base & 18 Group war memorial)

Located out on Scotland’s remote and craggy west coast, RAF Oban was notable among wartime Coastal Command bases in that it was split over two nearby locations. The flying boat base itself sat on the north side of Kerrera island, across Ardantrive Bay from the picturesque old town of Oban. Elsewhere, a couple of miles north of the town, a maintenance base operated out of Ganavan. They were known collectively as RAF Oban.

(Images: IWM; Google Maps; Short Sunderland and former Ganavan maintenance ramp)

The history of the now-abandoned Coastal Command base is slightly patchy. In 1933, flying boats were already using the bay as a landing point. But it wasn’t until 1937 that it began to resemble anything even remotely like an active base. At first existing purely as a refuelling point for aircraft making the long slog around Britain, it was finally upgraded to fully operational status with the advent of World War Two. For the next few years, the bay would see all manner of RAF Coastal Command aircraft come and go, heading out into the devastation of the unfolding war.

(Image: ㇹヮィㇳ; the sad remains of Catalina flying boat on Vatersay)

Today, visitors can still make out the old pier, and a few wartime buildings scattered around. There’s even a little museum that contains a vast model flying boat; a hat-tip to the old days.

RAF Beccles, Suffolk, England

(Images: Helen Steed; Bing; abandoned Coastal Command airfield and control tower)

Unlike many on our list, RAF Beccles in Suffolk continues to see light aircraft use. Small companies operate out of there, scheduling private flights and offering everything from training courses to parachute jumps. They’re the last remnants of a legacy that stretches back over 70 years.

The last World War Two airbase to be built in Suffolk, Beccles was originally intended to house the US Air Force after America came steamrollering into the war. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the war had shifted gear by the time the base was completed, and the USAAF had no need to station its planes there. Instead, the airfield passed to Coastal Command, who used it as a convenient air-sea rescue post until Victory in Europe Day.

(Images: John Chorley; Google; RAF Beccles’ abandoned runway & surviving wartime hangar)

Today, much of the abandoned Coastal Command base has been ploughed over. Broken stretches of runway and perimeter track still remain, as does the derelict wartime control tower: a lost concrete box tucked away amidst the trees.

RAF Castletown, Caithness, Scotland

(Images: Bing Maps; Google Maps; Peter Moore; abandoned RAF Castletown)

In the uncertain months of the Phony War, remote Castletown in Scotland was the site of an unexpected race against time. Hitler’s Germany had yet to start bombing the UK, but the top brass were all-too aware that the crucial Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow was exceedingly vulnerable to attack. Although RNAS Hatston (covered in our feature of the Royal Navy’s abandoned Fleet Air Arm bases) was nearby, it had no permanent aircraft allocation. The solution: build another airfield as quickly as possible.

It was from this panic that RAF Castletown was born. Although not officially opened until May 1940, it was to prove invaluable throughout the Battle of Britain. As German aircraft filled the skies overhead, penetrating through the dark Scottish night in streaks of fire, airmen would scramble out of Castletown – seemingly the last line of defense in this remote part of the country.

Although the base spent most of its life under the control of No. 13 Group RAF Fighter Command, it was briefly held as a satellite of No. 18 Group’s Coastal Command base at Wick. Today, Wick is still a functioning commuter airport. Castletown, by contrast, is a collection of three abandoned concrete runways lost in the fields. Meanwhile, Castletown’s own satellite, the long-disused RAF Skitten (below), makes up the trio of wartime airfields in the area.

RAF Skitten, Caithness, Scotland

(Images: Steven Brown; Bing; Google Maps; abandoned Coastal Command base RAF Skitten)

If you were looking for somewhere in Scotland to film a cheap Mad Max knock-off, you could do worse than the former RAF Skitten. Turned into a quarry sometime in the late 20th century, it now looks like an abandoned airfield at the end of the world. Runways have been torn up. Gouges cut deep into the Earth. What remains is in a state of decay so advanced it seems impossible to ever row back from.

All of which seems a shame, as RAF Skitten has a definite claim to fame. Built as a satellite of RAF Castletown, the small airfield was designed to accommodate a single fighter squadron but wound up becoming a satellite of RAF Wick – then part of Coastal Command. The most significant period of its history only came, however, after it was transferred to RAF Bomber Command in 1943. It was here that pilots began training with the Highball bomb, a derivative of the famous Upkeep bouncing bomb used by No. 617 ‘Dambusters’ Squadron against the Ruhr dams. It also saw a spectacular feint on the part of the Allies. Under the guise of the ‘Washington Cup’, pilots were able to train there for a raid on Norway without German interference.

RAF Carew Cheriton, Pembrokeshire, Wales

(Images: Bing Maps; Wikipedia; abandoned RAF Carew Cheriton today and in 1917)

Finally, we return to Pembrokeshire for one last look at RAF Carew Cheriton. A former First World War airfield that was reopened (as many were) during World War Two, the Coastal Command base is perhaps remembered more as the scene of tragedy than anything else.

A support station for the flying boats at RAF Pembroke Dock, Carew Cheriton should have been way down the list of German targets. When first opened in 1938, its crew had to make do with grass runways. It was a minor target in every sense of the word. Yet on 15 April, 1942 it was the target of a devastating Luftwaffe raid. Out of nowhere, German planes suddenly dropped from the sky, unleashing a torrent of bombs. Significantly, one scored a direct hit on the station’s sickbay. In the resulting explosion, twelve servicemen were killed instantly.

(Images: IWM; Jeremy Bolwell; Avro Anson and the small RAF cemetery at Carew Cheriton)

The base never really recovered. Later that year, it was reassigned as a radio school for training operators. No more active missions were flown. In 1945, RAF Carew Cheriton was shut down altogether. Today, the abandoned Coastal Command airfield has been extensive redeveloped as a business park, while the restored wartime control tower has become a small museum dedicated to the station’s turbulent history.

Related – Related – The Remains of Britain’s Massive Emergency Runways Seen from Above

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(Image: Erik Meijerink; abandoned Duga-3 radar in the radioactive forests of northern Ukraine)

It’s one of the most iconic technological marvels of the Cold War-era Soviet Union to still grace the skyline: a vast, imposing metal net stretching into the Ukrainian sky. The Duga-3 early warning system fell silent in 1989, and its prior top secret status – coupled with its location amid what became the notorious Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – have made it a mysterious landmark, a giant piece of abandoned radar technology that has fueled its fair share of legends over the years.

(Image: Ingmar Runge; the early warning system was designed to detect incoming missiles)

During its operational years, the foreboding sight of Duga-3 spawned a whole host of far-out theories about what it could possibly be. Known as the Russian Woodpecker for the maddening, never-ending series of clicks that it gave off, some people claimed the vast structure represented an epic experiment in mind control technology.

(Image: Erik Meijerink; the Soviet over-the-horizon radar stands deep in the Exclusion Zone)

Others, meanwhile, believed that the Soviet Union was using it in an effort to control the weather. But the official – and althogether more mundane – theory was the correct one. Duga-3 was an over-the-horizon radar system, a role that was only confirmed after the Soviet Union fell, after the tense decades of Cold War cat and mouse played out between the superpowers were finally over.

(Image: Erik Meijerink; explorers trekked miles to document the defunct early warning radar)

Today, the radioactive Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl has, rather worryingly, become a popular destination for tourists and urban explorers eager to document the dystopian wasteland left behind, including the abandoned city of Pripyat and the graveyard of heavily contaminated rescue vehicles parked out in the barren landscape.

The mysterious area known as Chernobyl 2 – which includes Duga-3 – remained off-limits for longer than other parts of the Exclusion Zone because of its former military use. But didn’t stop the most audacious explorers from getting close enough to obtain haunting photographs and videos of the massive steel structure.

(Image: Erik Meijerink)

Once a major and seemingly impenetrable defence system of the Soviet empire, able to detect incoming ballistic missiles by bouncing a signal off the planet’s ionosphere, Duga-3 now lies silent, abandoned and all but forgotten by the authorities. The epic mesh of steel is there for anyone willing to trek miles through the notorious Exclusion Zone around the ruptured nuclear reactor to climb it – there’s even a handy staircase.

Related – Cold Warning: The Abandoned Radar Stations of the Arctic Circle

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(© DM Parody (www.dotcom.gi/photos; Panavia Tornado ZA367 at RAF Gibraltar)

Tucked away in the back of a hangar at RAF Gibraltar, Panavia Tornado GR4 ZA367 was photographed undergoing repairs following a nose wheel malfunction. The strike jet, which still wears the distinctive markings and tail code (KC-N) of the famous 617 ‘Dambusters’ Squadron, was one of several 12 Squadron machines deployed from the UK to the Mediterranean base in April 2012, affording crews the experience of clear skies during a weekend training exercise.

The deployment would also be something of a swansong for ZA367, which was withdrawn from use and scrapped just three months later. Wearing the tail code 002, the aircraft was one of the oldest in the fleet, and the second production Tornado to go through the Mid-Life Upgrade programme to GR4 standard.

Tornado ZA367 first flew on July 29, 1982 and was delivered to the RAF the following September. Almost two decades later, the aircraft was flown to BAE Systems at Warton in February 2000 for conversion to GR4, returning to front-line service in November of that year. ZA367 soldiered on in the GR4 role for more than a decade, before retiring to RAF Leeming for RTP in July 2012. Once there, all reusable spare parts were removed and the jet’s empty shell recycled.

No. 12 (Bomber) Squadron RAF boasts an illustrious history, founded as a Royal Flying Corps unit in 1915 and earning a number of Victoria Crosses during World War Two. In 1993 the squadron equipped with the Panavia Tornado GR1 strike jet and continues in that role to this day, operating updated GR4 airframes.

(Images: Sergeant Ross Tilly; an armed Tornado GR4 taxis out at Kandahar Airport)

In June 2009, 12 Squadron deployed eight Tornado GR4s to Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan in support of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), providing close air support to NATO troops on the ground. The unit again saw action in Afghanistan during Operation Herrick in 2011, and the same year played a key role in Operation Ellamy, the UK’s contribution to the military intervention in Libya.

Having disbanded at Lossiemouth on March 31, 2014, the decorated bomber squadron reformed early the following year at RAF Marham in Suffolk, where it took over a batch of former 2 Squadron GR4s under Wing Commander Nikki Thomas, the first female officer to command an RAF fast jet squadron.

Related – GR4 Scrapped: Mortal Remains of Panavia Tornado ZD844

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(Image: Glenn Reay; old Finningley gate guard Vulcan XJ782)

Like XH563 at Scampton, the decommissioned Avro Vulcan B2 XJ782 spent several years as the gate guardian at RAF Finningley in South Yorkshire (now Robin Hood Airport) before being unceremoniously towed to the far side of the airfield and scrapped a few years later.

The mighty Vulcan wasn’t on display for long before being towed from pride of place near the main entrance and left to languish on the dump, not far from a Nimrod AEW aircraft which was a fixture at Finningley during the same period.

(Image: Glenn Reay; XJ782 preserved at RAF Finningley in 1983)

But despite its increasingly dishevelled condition throughout the 1980s, the RAF ironically continued to employ the services of XJ782 on the static line at Finningley’s annual airshow. Yet this Cold War icon of obvious public appeal wasn’t deemed important enough for more than a few years of preservation.

(Image: Glenn Reay)

The neglected hulk of Vulcan XJ782 was finally scrapped in 1988. Even today, 28 years later, the three heavy concrete bases that once supported the old Finningley gate guard’s wheels can still be seen (below), set into an equally-neglected patch of land by Hayfield Lane.

(Image: Bing Maps; neglected land where XJ782 once stood)

XJ782 was built in February 1961 and flew the last Vulcan sortie out of RAF Scampton on March 31, 1982. Earmarked for the Scampton dump, the bomber received an eleventh hour reprieve when she was posted to No. 101 Squadron before making her final flight to RAF Finningley for preservation on September 4, 1982.

(Image: Bing Maps; the abandoned gate guardian location by Hayfield Lane, Finningley)

Avro Vulcan XJ782 was broken up for scrap in 1988. One of her two main undercarriage doors, identified by the aircraft’s serial number, survived for some years at the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum near Firbeck (now relocated to Doncaster). On a happier note Robin Hood Airport is now the permanent home of XH558, the world’s last airworthy Vulcan until its final flight in 2015.

Related – Dramatic Images of Vulcan XL319 in ‘Take-Off’ Pose at Sunderland

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(Image: Phil Kemp; Westland Wessex XT672 preserved at MOD Stafford)

This old Westland Wessex helicopter, displayed outside the Tactical Supply Wing at MOD Stafford, a former non-flying RAF base also known as Beacon Barracks, remains nicely intact despite its fading camouflage paintwork.

The decommissioned utility helicopter, which is known as Aries and wears the serial number XT672, has retained its original RAF squadron code ‘WE’ in retirement and, though worn, appears to be well maintained. The workhorse rotorcraft first flew in November 1966 and was passed into Royal Air Force service the following month.

Withdrawn from flying duties in 1997, Wessex XT672’s post-retirment movements have been varied. She spent some years in storage at RAF Shawbury before departing for Air & Ground Aviation at Hixon in 1999. By 2003 she had returned to Shawbury for display but was replaced by another decommissioned Wessex six years later. In 2010 the helicopter moved to MOD Stafford, where she remains today.

(Image: Phil Kemp; the decommissioned helicopter framed by old railway sleepers)

Since that time, Wessex XT672 has been displayed on a bed of gravel and appears to have acquired a series of old railway sleepers around her robust undercarriage. Though the helicopter was reassembled and no doubt spruced up in 2010, but several years on XT672 looks ready for a fresh coat of paint.

The Wessex, a turbo-powered development of the American Sikorsky H-34 built under license by Westland Helicopters in the UK, was introduced in 1961 and remained in service with the Royal Navy and later the RAF for more than 40 years.

Around 55 Wessex airframes were used during the Falklands War in a variety of roles from transportation to the insertion and extrication of British special forces units. Nine were lost during the conflict, including six Wessex HU.5s from 848 Naval Air Squadron, which went down with the ill-fated container ship Atlantic Conveyor, which was sunk by two Argentine air-launched Exocet missiles.

Related – Abandoned Puma Helicopter Wreck Lies in a Forest in Southern England

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(Image: Staff Sgt. Perry Aston; Tornado GR4s refuel during Operation Shader)

This stunning photograph, which depicts two Panavia Tornado GR4 strike jets of the Royal Air Force taking on fuel from an Airbus Voyager KC2 tanker, was snapped over Iraq during Operation Shader on March 4, 2015. Operation Shader, which officially began on September 26, 2014, is the code name given to the UK’s ongoing participation in the military intervention against ISIL fundamentalists, also known as Daesh.

In 2014, in a bid to lend support to the fragile Iraqi government, the RAF had begun dropping much needed aid to displaced peoples taking refuge in the Sinjar Mountains of northwestern Iraq. Soon after, UK forces began airlifting vulnerable refugees to safety. By October that year, the RAF had been mandated to conduct reconnaissance missions over Syria and, by December 2015, was engaged in full-scale airstrikes against ISIL extremists in the embattled country.

As of this month, British jets are understood to have conducted more than 640 separate airstrikes over the course of 2,200 combat missions. More than 1,200 ISIL fighters have been killed with no civilian casualties. The UK fast jet contingent is comprised of Tornado GR4 and Eurofighter Typhoon.

Despite the Tornado’s ageing airframe, which has been adapted greatly since its Cold War inception, the robust aircraft remains at the cutting-edge of its capabilities and is still considered one of the most capable all-weather strike jets in the world. The Typhoon will one ultimately take over the Tornado’s role, along with the F-35, but the Eurofighter is not yet cleared to carry all the air-to-ground weapons available to Tornado GR4 crews.

To date, Urban Ghosts has covered the Tornado in some detail, in particular the type’s steady wind-down and the disposal of early GR1 airframes. But as the above photograph demonstrates, the aircraft will remain at the forefront of the NATO inventory until its final out-of-service date arrives in three years time.

Of the jets pictured, the serial number of the Voyager KC2 is ZZ334. The Tornados are harder to identify, though the port jet appears to be ZA449 (tail code 020).

Related – Tornado ZA367 Undergoes Repairs at RAF Gibraltar in 2012

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(Image: Martin Henderson; Tornado GR1 ZA409 in September 1988)

Urban Ghosts is sorry to report that two grounded Panavia Tornado GR1 airframes, which were previously understood to be in storage at RAF Lossiemouth, have been scrapped. The aircraft, ZA409 and ZA474, were scrapped at a yard in Stirling, Scotland, in April 2005.

According to a Freedom of Information request, the Tornados were disposed of to the DSA’s then-specialist scrap contractor, John Graham (Metals) Ltd, and were presumably broken up soon after. However, it’s likely that any useful parts were removed from the airframes before recycling, leaving only gaunt, empty hulks (similar to those below).

Tornado ZA409 was a twin stick trainer version of the formidable Panavia strike jet, which first flew in February 1983 and was delivered to the RAF two months later.

ZA474, meanwhile, was converted to GR1B standard in the early 1990s, replacing the venerable Blackburn Buccaneer in the maritime attack role until the short-lived Tornado GR1B variant was withdrawn from use.

(Image: via Tornado-Data.com; scenes from St Athan: another Tornado GR1B (ZA471) was little more than a carcass bearing the markings of No. 617 Sqn when scrapped. Alongside is former Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit machine ZA590)

ZA474 was delivered to the RAF in January 1984, having made her maiden flight late the previous years. The aircraft was retired at RAF Lossiemouth in 2002 and issued the maintenance serial 9312M. The strike jet had been earmarked for preservation at the Moray air base, but was towed into storage when another grounded GR1B – Gulf War veteran ZA475 – took up gate guardian duties instead.

It’s uncertain whether the airframes were used for ground training or simply mothballed in the back of a hangar during their down time at Lossiemouth. But by April 2005, Tornado ZA474 and GR1T ZA409 had been disposed of as scrap metal, making their final journey to Stirling on the back of a lorry.

(Images: Bing Maps; Google Maps; J Graham Metals, where Panavia Tornado GR1s ZA409 & ZA474 are understood to have been scrapped)

Related – Derelict Tornado GR1 Carcasses (ZA322, ZA361 & ZA375) on Marham Dump

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