25th Anniversary of the Tornado

Actually TWCU stood for Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit,
or To Work Continuously Unrewarded………. for those of us that were there 😉

How those Twikyu Lineys slaved to win the cold war for Blighty with their heroic actions on the beaches of Sardinia, the bars of Macrihanish and the pubs of Thetford. Their bravery on the fields of bunging and blanking and whilst yellow peril emtying will not be forgotten. We salute the fallen man A’s and B’s of the Death Camels from Hell, taken from us whilst undertaking heavy surfing in the Chase and we lament the passing of “Downtown 45″….
sadly now just a Pongo Tank park.

What say you Bloodnock ? 🙂

or one last interpretation of the letters TWCU was Tornado Washing and Cleaning Unit…… which came about after a lot of back seat jollies for vip’s on friday afternoons, with the aircraft needing to be washed on nightshift the night before. it got so bad we had cloth badges made up (i still have mine!) and sewed them onto our overalls much to the amusement of the wing commander, but not the flight sergeant!

Surfing in the chase…. now that brings back memories… i still want to jump up as soon as i hear ‘i get around’ by the beach boys. rallying cars across the battle area at barnham, and the block parties/barbeques….. happy days!

Mmm Tornados! 😎

Actually TWCU stood for Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit.

Knew I’d balls that up…thanks for the correction. 🙂

Empire Test Pilots School

Tactical Weapons Conversion Unit

Actually TWCU stood for Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit,
or To Work Continuously Unrewarded………. for those of us that were there 😉

How those Twikyu Lineys slaved to win the cold war for Blighty with their heroic actions on the beaches of Sardinia, the bars of Macrihanish and the pubs of Thetford. Their bravery on the fields of bunging and blanking and whilst yellow peril emtying will not be forgotten. We salute the fallen man A’s and B’s of the Death Camels from Hell, taken from us whilst undertaking heavy surfing in the Chase and we lament the passing of “Downtown 45″….
sadly now just a Pongo Tank park.

What say you Bloodnock ? 🙂

Bloodnook – I have seen a few comedy see-offs ! The pained looks from instructors as a see-off went past the 45 minute stage with the more hapless TTTE students was a sight to see .

Empire Test Pilots School

Tactical Weapons Conversion Unit

hi im fairly new to this site and ive seen a few tordnadoes but im not familiar with some of the terminology can an anyone help with ETPS TWCU? thanks

I just spotted on Anglia News that today the RAF are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the tornado up at Marham, I suppose that makes it a vintage type from now on then.
What puzzles me is that the only event listed on the Marham website is a flypast by 3 a/c over the officers mess at 7:55 PM, bit of a wierd time considering it will be dark, does anyone have any more info.

Was only a 2 ship with an airborne spare, they went vertical over the mess in reheat and separated whilst climbing. Even though it was dark, it looked quite good.

ETPS Tornado low level….

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1421229487065035130XRsFcq

i was at the IAT at Fairford in 1989 with our TWCU tornados and on the monday after the show was asked to do a starter crew on a ETPS tornado as they had no ground crew with them.
it was quite unusual in that it was a one man starter crew (normally its a 2 man job), and that the pilot (a rather elderly gentleman) had totally forgotten how to start one up!
whilst i was perched on the side of the cockpit strapping the crew in, the pilot put his glasses on, opened up a set of pilots notes, and started flicking switches in the order that they were written down in the notes…. next thing i know the APU is firing up and he’s raring to go!
i had to keep reminding of the checks he had to do, and whilst chatting to him on the headset i jokingly asked him if he’d ever flown one before….his answers was “not for about 18months, but they all fly the same once you get them in the air” , then the navigator started joking about turning the command eject on just in case…. it was an amusing end to a brilliant weekend away.

Jag
THanks for sharing that photo, it looks really good. Technicallity time, and a question for people to think about, Tornados might still be in service, but there are a few preserved, so to me, that makes them historic (ish) even tho they replaced a few of my favourite aircraft (cough) LoL

Bex

25 anniversary mks

Although not strictly historic (yet) here’s a fortuitous piccy taken last Wednesday.

Well I wonder if Tornado will last as long the Canberras, I can see Tornado is some version hitting the big 30, but I doubt anything after that. It will also be interesting to see whether collectors or museums dare i say “scramble” after retired Tornados in the same way oher aircraft have been bought up. But i also reckon if any are preserved complete and working that the CAA will add it to their “No FLy” list. Bex

Mother Rileys Cardboard Aircraft

Jeepers, now that anniversary does start to make me feel old – I can still remember seeing the first “MRCA”s at Farnborough shows, carrying the tri-national markings.

Good old tempus has been “fugit”ing again!

Paul F

Tornado 02

http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/aircraftpage.php?ID=665

ETPS Tornado low level….

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1421229487065035130XRsFcq