Final Tornado to RAF fleeming

With retirement of the Royal Air Force’s Tornado GR4 strike aircraft less than four months away, the last aircraft to be scrapped under the Reduce to Produce (RTP) programme at RAF fleeming, ZA543/036, lew into the North Yorkshire base on December 3. The jet, with all squadron markings removed, took of from RAF Marham, Norfolk at noon and lew out over the North Sea where it made a supersonic run before recovering to fleeming to make its inal landing. It will now be carefully disassembled, with valuable parts being used to keep other Tornados, both those of the RAF and other nations that operate the type, airworthy. At the time of writing only 18 Tornado GR4s remain in RAF service with six of those assigned to Operation Shader and deployed to RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus.