(Image: Tornado ZA326, reproduced with permission)
Despite numerous special paint schemes across the fleet over the years, ZA326 is certainly the most colourful Panavia Tornado GR1 ever to fly. And now, thanks to a team of enthusiasts and engineers, the aircraft is currently under restoration to a serviceable standard at Bruntingthorpe Airfield in Leicestershire, UK, where it’ll ultimately be put through its paces alongside Britain’s most iconic, and now retired, jets, including the English Electric Lightning.
(Image: Shaun Connor, reproduced with permission)
It seems somewhat premature to label the Tornado vintage. After all the GR4 variant is still operated by the RAF and, despite its ageing airframe, remains one of the world’s foremost interdictor/strike aircraft. But with more and more planes being sent for RTP (parts reclamation and scrapping), the Tornado’s flying days are numbered. It’s great to see, therefore, that at least one will survive in a serviceable condition allowing it to fast-taxi on Bruntingthorpe’s long runway. And what better aircraft for the role than the colourful ‘Rasberry Ripple’.
(Image: Tornado ZA326, reproduced with permission)
(This series of photographs shows the aircraft arriving at Bruntingthorpe following eight years hibernation in the back of a storage hangar.)
(Images: Tornado ZA326, reproduced with permission)
Preserving Tornado ZA326
For more than two decades, Tornado ZA326 served as a trials aircraft helping to develop the cutting-edge technology that makes today’s active GR4s the formidable weapon system they’ve become. After the jet’s retirement in December 2005, ZA326 was stored at MoD Boscombe Down. It was acquired from QinetiQ in 2013 by Elliot Atkins, who donated it to the Cold War Jets Collection at Bruntingthorpe. At the time of its retirement, ZA326 was the last airworthy Tornado GR1.
From the website: “Having spent its entire 22-year career as a trials aircraft, ZA326 holds a unique place in British aviation history, having been involved in a number of research projects including the development of terrain-following radar, the MIL-STD-1533B bus and the Reconnaissance Airborne Pod for TORnado (RAPTOR). An interactive timeline showing the history of the aircraft is available here.”
(Images: Tornado ZA326, reproduced with permission)
Having featured a considerable number of RTP victims (not to mention abandoned aircraft and aircraft graveyards across the world), Urban Ghosts is delighted to report that, as of August 2014, ZA326 is back and one piece and tucked away in an immaculate hangar at Bruntingthorpe.
(Images: Tornado ZA326, reproduced with permission)
Be sure to visit the ZA326 Preservation Group’s website for more information about the aircraft and how to support the project. Check out the full photostream on Flickr.
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