'The Panavia Tornado was a joint development by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy for a high-speed, low level interdictor/strike [IDS] aircraft, and now as a mature aircraft, the Tornado remains one of the worlds most sophisticated and able attack aircraft, capable of carrying a large payload, endowed with long range and high survivability'.
Andy Evans

The opening paragraph of the book says it all really. What started of as a proposal initially between the French and the UK into variable geometry design in the early 60's, the former pulling out in 1965, being replaced by West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Canada. Finally the UK, West Germany and Italy signed an Intention to Proceed document to produce what we now see serving the three countries air forces and the sole export customer, the Royal Saudi Air Force. The distinctive shape of the Tornado first flew on the 14th August 1974 and as a result seems to have been around a very long time. I have a great bias towards this aircraft. I used to live in their playground in North and Mid Wales. I have fond memories of seeing them screaming low overhead, carrying their huge fuel tanks under their wings and watching them jinking around as they disappeared around the between the hills. Anyway back to the book!

The Air Data Panavia Tornado IDS is the second of a series of publications by SAM Publications. The book is soft bound, A4 size, with four staples in the spin that act as attachments so they can be added to a A4, 4 ringed binder. This particular book is written by Andy Evans, who has also done the art work. The book contains 66 pages including the inside of the covers. The book is split into 13 chapters:

1.Tornado Origins.
2.RAF GR.1.
3.RAF GR1A/4A.
4.RAF GR.1B.
5.RAF GR.4. Including a walk around
6.Operation Granby. Including nose art from the 1991 Gulf War.
7.Operation Telic. 2003 Gulf War.
8.Luftwaffe IDS.
9.Luftwaffe ECR. Including a walk around.
10.Luftwaffe recon.
11.Italian IDS.
12.Italian ECR.
13.Saudi Arabian IDS.

Also included is a chart with the Tornado development history, Tornado build and Tornado operators. There are three pages with15 port side profiles in colour and two pages of views of the port side, above and below of a RSAF GR.1 and a RAF GR.4A. All the colours have FS or BS references, which is a great idea. There are approximately 288 good quality colour photographs. As you can see from the above chapters just over half of the book deals with RAF Tornadoes.

Aimed at the modeler and air enthusiast this tittle is packed with photos and informative text. It describes in text and pictures the development of the aircraft. There is an abundance of colour schemes that would keep any fan of the Tornado modeling for a very long time. The walk around photos are excellent, featuring details of the undercarriage, air intakes, looking into the engines from the rear, extended flaps and refueling probe, both cockpits, but alas no views of the bang seats. There are numerous photos of the fitted weapons, sensors, fuel tanks and reconnaissance pods. Some of the weapons I did not realise the Tornado carried such as Storm Shadow cruise missiles and Brimstone anti-armour missiles. Chapter 6 has numerous photos of the nose art that adorned the Tornadoes during Operation Granby. Some of the artwork makes this publication definitely one for the top shelf of your local newsagents! Seriously it is worth the price of the book alone and also to see how mucky some of the aircraft were. There are lots of photos that should inspire the modeler who prefers to place their model within a diorama. There are also photos of some of the elaborate anniversary schemes sported by the Tornado's of the German and Italian Air Forces.

Conclusion

Being a big fan of the Tornado I feel the need to buy several kits and portray some of the examples illustrated in this book., particularly the one with white painted over the dark sea grey for an exercise in Norway. If you looking to buy a book that covers all aspects of the Tornado then this is the one to go for. Highly recommended.

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