RAF Tornado GR1 - Recruitment Video - IX Squadron Training Flight

Finally, the full 30 minute film uploaded for all.
This video was primarily used for RAF recruitment in the 1980s, and follows IX Squadron as they go through the process of receiving a tasking, briefing, planning and then executing a full interdiction mission, including aerial refuelling and being bounced by 'hostile' fighters, in the form of the USAF F-5E Aggressor Squadron that was based in the UK at the time.
If the Cold War had turned hot, this is the kind of operation the RAF would have been called upon to perform, flying low and fast to deliver nuclear weapons or runway denial ordnance.
As a product COI for the MOD (UK) and Crown Copyright, this video is uploaded under the UK's Open Government License as Archival media www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/do...
This video is sourced from my own VHS library, copies of which are not available from me, so please don't ask.
Permission to host this on KZbin has been kindly granted by the keepers and licensees of the material, the Imperial War Museum.
If you wish to license the original material, please contact them directly.
www.iwm.org.uk/commercial/col...
IWM Catalogue Number: COI 1272
Production Date: 1985
www.iwm.org.uk/collections/it...

[@CTFlyer7]

The most amazing thing about these old UK videos is that they've managed to make the interior of every building look just as grey as the sky outside!

[@edwardpoppy]

CTFlyer7 No, it really was like that at Marham haha

[@jongiant]

We're painting a our doors grey at West Raynham Control Tower, because you should.😀

[@hackdaniels7253]

Apart from random covers on the easy chairs...

[@allandavis8201]

That’s because that was/is how they were/are painted, it was so depressing, nearly as bad as magnolia. 😂👍😀🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇦

[@markspooner16]

@@edwardpoppy but this was filmed at Honington !!!

[@serverlan763]

Those 8 bombs were the total budget allocation for the RAF in 1993

[@Scalextric22]

Many thanks for sharing the full version of this! I have fond memories of being shown this at school by a RAF careers officer when I was in the Air Cadets in the 80s and dreaming of being a Tornado pilot (I have had the music to this vid buzzing in my head for the last 20 years or so!). Sadly, my actual fast jet career involves flying Falcon4 Allied Force on my PC, but I can still dream!

[@a320nick]

@Scalextric22 Why not visit a cool flying club near you....? You can ask them about doing a PPL or a Trial Flying lesson, where you get to fly the aircraft for about 30 mins or more. Sometimes a pilot will take you up with them. I enjoyed Microsoft Flite SIM very realistic to real world!! I flew all the types that I flew in the real world on flite SIM and more😎👍

[@military_nerd1]

I’m hoping to fly the euro fighter typhoon which replaced the tornado

[@VideoUser3053]

I was a developer on F4:AF - wrote the manual, did the intro video and textured the weapons. Happy days.

[@nigelbryant2672]

Space cadets.

[@SimDeck]

@@military_nerd1 How did you get on?

[@gtinteractive1012]

RAF, cup of tea and a squad dog, this is real TopGun 😂

[@jimm3379]

The best of British 😂

[@philiphigh1076]

Boy, this takes me back. I did my first tour as a nav on IX Sqn at Bruggen, 1990-1993. Some of those featured were still on the squadron then. Very happy days in Germany. Thanks for posting!

[@1903chrisholden]

How many flight hours good sir

[@1903chrisholden]

Are you Willing to talk about your time over email?

[@rhurbstafalcon4807]

Where do you hail from .?

[@rhurbstafalcon4807]

I myself belong to the High clan

[@dryflyman7121]

You may have known my Stepson Rob ‘Mac’ McKewan , although he could have been a bit later than 1993. He was ground crew - leading air-craftsman technician on tornadoes. He started on Phantoms. I seem to remember he spent some time at Marham and another - possibly Coltishall?? He’s out now, lives in Holland.

[@Biggles27]

Superb stuff.Thanks for uploading. As an ATC cadet in the mid eighties the Tornado was like something from the future. We had an ex cadet come and give us a 2 hour talk on the Navigators role, he himself a Tornado 'Nav'. As kids we were just being introduced to Vic 20s, Sinclair Spectrums etc and thought nothing about this vital data being put on tape.

[@SM-dt1pr]

I was a Space Cadet in the 80s, and can confirm. A mate's dad was an engineering officer on Tornados, and we got shown round one day - remember having a go on that navigation computer, with the map table, and loading all the autopilot data onto a cassette.

[@Arcturan]

RIP Tornado..March, 2019...end of service. I am ex RAF Cottesmore TTTE, 1983.

[@Flanker751]

Rip Tornado sta cippa! In Italy we fly again

[@allandavis8201]

My deepest sympathies, plank trash was boredom, you know the truth, 4 screws always better than two blow jobs. And yes I did do Tonka Toys along with Fat Alberts, Wokas, Puma, and a few others. 79-03 Rigger.

[@TheAutisticAngler]

I was at Cottesmore 1980-1984 in the ESC, you

[@averageaviationgeek9318]

*Tea drinking intensifies*

[@bestcity0979]

SHLRRRRRRREPPPPPOP

[@BrySkye]

Absolutely. It was the real core of the Tornado's capabilities. Day or night and in all weathers.

[@BrySkye]

The F3 did. The Cockpit Voice Recorder was a two-track tape recorder to provide an audio log of the flight and could also be used for Rapid Data Entry like in the GR1. As I understand it, both were capable of playing music too, which was sometimes done on long ferry flights, much like in the movie Iron Eagle. The F-117 used data cassettes as well. I don't know if the RDE facilities were overhauled or modified as part of the GR4 Mid-Life Update.

[@forsdykemontague1017]

Indeed, I picked up a number of Albums inadvertently left in the CVR 😂

[@ainsleystones4600]

I love everything about this. I always wanted a job in the RAF flying Tonkas, but became distracted by guitars and girls. Oh well. Thanks for posting! ❤

[@Robert-nz2qw]

Haha, I recognise so many shots that were used for the DOS game Tornado from this film, not the least the cover image. So now I know where they got a lot of their data from :)

[@Akm72]

I used to work with one of the guys who made that game. :)

[@johnnydiamondsmusic1673]

As a civi I used to supply the spares for Tornadoes and all the other aircraft. I used to deliver spares and complete systems to the ESGs on most of the flying stations from 30MU RAF Sealand. Very proud to do my very little bit. I used to find it fascinating watching the technicians in our workshops repairing and maintaining all the various flight systems. A lot of people behind the scenes to enable those pilots to do their jobs.

[@curryattack8985]

This popped into my playlist today! BLOODY EXCELLENT!! Just think, this vid was made less than 40 years after ww2. Most crewrooms in the RAF still look like this, but the combovers are gone. The preflight brief is still the same, the only difference is that ppt has replaced overhead projectors. I was using less sophisticated planning equipment well into the 2000’s!!!

[@MyScotty7]

Watching this opened my eyes about how good the RAF is,incredible people!

[@richardgeorge8612]

this is why you need maths in school

[@globalnomad450]

What’s maths ?

[@RedCoka]

More like a functionnal body and a decent pair of eyes one can work maths, eyesight tho ... meh

[@christophertownley6734]

At the same time you also need people that can teach math well.

[@patrickwcowley]

Thank you so much for sharing this!!! I've just seen a little bit, but it brings back such warm memories when I was young hoping to be a fighter pilot one day. Wishing you all the very best!!

[@ades104]

Those were the days. Great video - thanks for uploading this.

[@mondeo2500]

Superb vid, takes me back to my 14 years working on them Thanks

[@Hewster]

Brilliant. We used to watch this at RAF Leeming 11aef when the weather was too bad to fly. Class.

[@TheFatNumpty]

Fascinating! Takes me back to my days as an Air Cadet in the early nineties when this baby was very much the bit of kit to be flying though after you saw one roar past you didnt need any videos to convince you of that! I would have loved to have taken part in that story, the video was so very much like the dreams I had all those years ago of joining the RAF and doing that every day, great memories! The music fits perfectly with the era, almost Krypton-Factor esque. Thanks for posting!

[@glo41f]

Thanks for this. I was attached to the squadron about the time that this was made. i recognise several faces not least being the GLO and the Squadron Boss who was a good type. They were at Honnighton at the time which was a good station. I left them when they went to Bruggen.

[@neilfraser4851]

Great to see you again Rick after some 51 years ! Glad the Lightning still comes out tops:)

[@SuperPeaking]

Great video ! Makes me feel old ! I had posters all over my bedroom of Tornados, and now my son has posters of the Typhoon :)

[@cherminatorDR]

That music is trippy, man. Love how they got attacked by Mig-28s on the 23 minute

[@davidedgecombe3788]

This film is on the BFI COI Collection DVD They Stand Ready.Music was composed by Christopher Gunning who has composed a lot for TV, advertising and film.

[@fouba2]

It's cool that they used Cassette tape players as a memory device in the 80's. by the way it was a very good video you uploaded Thank you very much. I liked the Tornado very much when I was a little kid but in recent years I have to say that according to my taste, the Harrier GR3 from the same era is a very beautiful aircraft. It's a pity that in Sweden we did not use them. It would be very fun to see them in the sky. I've only had the honor of seeing a Harrier GR7 on a flight show here in Sweden but never a GR3

[@KumaBean]

I clocked that too, I was like 'damn Son!?!' 😂

[@Cdr_Mansfield_Cumming]

All the regular early home PC's did too. The Commodore 64 (64kb), Spectrum, ZX81(named after the year it was made)., Apple's Dragon 32 32kb). You would buy the game on cassette tape, put it in a tape player and type C:/Load CD. Once uploaded from the tape to the computer (which would take 5-10 minutes of pure anticipation) you would find that often or not, the program didn't load properly. After these table-top keyboard computers, we moved on to the leap in computers that was the Amstrad 128mb PC.

[@rahulsengupta5484]

love the mission map and way point planning part ,, interestingly magnetic tapes were used to transfer the way point coordinates data on to the aircraft computer .

[@richardjonsson1745]

Love the music and the comb-overs!

[@stuartsteel1]

Comb overs and tea drinking. Love it.

[@jimm3379]

Don’t forget the dog

[@_Matsimus_]

Old school and still going strong! Good girl!

[@Geobiery]

+Matsimus Gaming Yeah man crazy seeing you here

[@_Matsimus_]

haha seeing me here?

[@SPiderman-rh2zk]

The old school Tornado was a lot meaner. They were faster and were flown 'harder' especially in 1991 in the Gulf. The Tornado had variable intake ramps, which were wired shut which limited the air going into the engine - The Tornado was best at low level but we had to change tactics after the opening of hostilities in January 91 - to medium level which the Tornado was never designed for. It also had no laser designator of its own so the venerable Buccaneers designated for them (The GR4 obviously has one now, and had to designate for Libya sorties for... the Typhoon! Still going strong indeed. Love your videos by the way!

[@rollsroycegriffon2375]

Why Am I always seeing Matsimus on every videos as same as this? Quite crazy for me, actually.

[@James-sh8mu]

I love how rugged it is

[@allgood6760]

Thanks! ..things have evolved since then but one thing is for sure the Tornado will never lose it'"s coolness.👍✈️

[@BrySkye]

It's a data cassette that contains just about everything you can imagine in terms of mission planning. At 6:30 you can see one of the air crew moving a cursor over a map and pressing a button, which enters the location onto a computer. The data is then downloaded from the computer onto the data cassette tape for use in the aircraft. The Tornado was a product of the 1970's, and a cassette was a pretty efficient means of basic data storage, being before the creation of 3½-inch floppy disks.

[@Glee73]

computers of the era, also used cassette tapes as storage and well into the 80s.

[@damsonn]

Well done chaps, splendid video indeed, cheers!

[@Shahranim]

we need more of these chap, thank you very much

[@markp5737]

Love the massive floppy discs :)

[@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM]

That's what she said? Ha, I think that works :-/

[@VideoUser3053]

Superb - and fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

[@keiko909]

22:51 MIG 28's no ones been this close before!...

[@PhilAss]

keiko909 x

[@bernie2108]

look closely NORTHROP F5 Tallons !

[@keiko909]

@@bernie2108 it's a quote from top gun. The evemy migs they used were actually F5's

[@markburley2343]

Aggressor Squadron RAF Alconbury

[@quaser2000]

I remember this film being made- how old do I feel! Great days :)

[@mike6179]

Thanks for the upload, nice to see my bats in the air. I had 4 great years in Germany with IX, in fact best of my life.

[@nigelbryant2672]

Not your bats though Ickie as you were not at Honington. You were still with those losers at Marham.

[@SimDeck]

I love the cassette tape data transfer. Brilliant.

[@neilrobinson5115]

Great video,loved Tornado,sadly missed in RAF service,wizz kidz typhoon now,great shots of direct hits on Garvie island.

[@sabercruiser.7053]

INCREDIBLE FOOTAGE MY DEAR THANK YOU

[@alexscarbro796]

This is unlike any British RAF video I’ve ever seen!

[@hughjones13]

Thanks Bry! you made me feel very old ! lol I was a Plumber at Honingtn sometime just after they made this vid. @ Blahblah, I would guess around 83 , as the ear defs are still the white amplivox, and grey denims . The good old days !

[@Jamesrx8]

Remember watching my dad's VHS copy of this video when I was little! He was in the film - Sqn Ldr Robbie Hamilton

[@petedunn795]

Wow. Brings back memories. I was a Tornado Technician at Honington when this was made!! Forgot all about it. I recognise a couple of the Zobs but can't remember their names!

[@wilddog9x]

At 1:23 I thought he was going to hand the paperwork to the dog.

[@stephenvince9994]

Utterly secure, well loyal anyways, data delivery system. Cannot be trusted with a plate of warm sausages though...

[@COIcultist]

@@stephenvince9994 RAF bombing mission. FFS don't mention the name of the dog!

[@allandavis8201]

COIcultist what, Trigger?

[@ozzieparky]

@@allandavis8201 I thought that was Ernie's horse? 😂

[@erwin4501]

Great video

[@edwardglenn9310]

Stunning aircraft. What a workhorse it turned out to be.

[@derekmacdougall3011]

Superb to watch, beautiful aircraft.

[@samidee84]

Good video for a great aircraft ! ❤️

[@davidporter3810]

spent my late teens and early 20s refueling these guys at Bruggen Loved my time in Germany. Oh how i miss those days

[@TheAutisticAngler]

did you ever go to Roemond for a few beers and then to The Jerusalem for a late night Jerusalem Special?

[@BrySkye]

That would most likely be the rather famous downing of John Peters and John Nichol on the first day of the war (note, first -day-, not first night). Though more specifically, a MANPADS, probably an SA-16, hit one of the engines. By their account in the book "Tornado Down", they were also hit by AAA which caused the AIM-9L rocket motor to fire, without the missile leaving the rail, which began burning away the wing. Probably one of the major factors was a low-level raid in broad daylight.

[@thetreblerebel]

Anything daylight with ground attack is quite a bit dangerous. No wonder Tornados had a big loss rate in Desert Storm

[@gonzomuse]

@@thetreblerebel Yeah, the Tornados were tasked with destroying the Iraqi runways, which meant they had to basically fly low level along a well known straight course to drop their bombs.

[@entity_dragons2013]

Reading the new book "Tornado"

[@PicRic]

Groovy sound track in the Tornado, man!

[@BigKelvPark]

To all the people saying it took too long - the alleged incident was a training exercise (although it shows the taxying jests carrying live weapons) with a set time to planned mission. The QRF (Quick Reaction Force) had a manned aircraft ready to taxi at all times.

[@BrySkye]

As for Australia, they got a very good deal with ASRAAM. Although there were difficulties along the way, they eventually gained full access to the intellectual property of the missile, allowing them to upgrade it independently of the UK.

[@BrySkye]

ASRAAM... the least agile of the next generation of short range AA missiles. It started out as a joint UK/German project, with the US also going to buy them. After East and West Germany were unified, the Luftwaffe got their hands on East Germany's MiG-29's, equipped with the seriously underestimated R-73 (AA-11) and suddenly felt ASRAAM was seriously inadequate. They abandoned ASRAAM to make their own IRIS-T & the US the AIM-9X Unlike ASRAAM, both IRIS-T and AIM-9X have thrust vectoring.

[@lendoggtheking]

synthtastic!

[@BensoftMedia]

"Go wind the computers up". Im assuming he meant that literally back then?

[@MrJimbaloid]

If the computers that we had at KINLOSS back in the 90's were anything to go by then yes you did wind them up.

[@JoakimFritz]

"Allright, Pete, put on your training kit get on the hamster wheel. We have some numbers to crunch."

[@comedywriter8408]

1.37 Back in days when a comb over, was still ridiculed. Lol

[@KumaBean]

He meant it figuratively, 'wind it up' can be used in place of 'spin it up', he didn't mean literally as in winding up a radio or a torch. The tech back then was primitive, for sure, but they had electricity, lol. Even today in laptops and PC's there's a spinning hard-drive, when you hear the computer start on power-up, that's the disk winding up to load data. PS, I love how they load the mission data into the aircraft with an old cassette, I remember the days of trying to load games the same way 😂

[@hoilst]

@@MrJimbaloid I'm actually hoping there was a crank handle out the side that played a music-box version of "Pop Goes The Weasel" as you did that.

[@thesceptic1018]

Outstanding! Love how orders are prefaced by “I’d like” And how does a Tornado get on a MIG’s 6!?

[@TOTALAIRPLANEFRAK962]

@munkyfuka I may have been misinformed, but from what I understand, the intake ramps were wire-locked shut in the Mid-90s to limit the airflow into the engines and so reducing speed. Then again, I may be wrong.

[@BrySkye]

Easily done, it had crossed my own mind once as well!

[@macethe20vtace]

So British I love it 👍🏻 roger, cheers 🍻

[@shd4618]

I'm not worthy. These guys did what I have only ever dreamed. But that comb over the boss is sporting is disgraceful.

[@jjsmallpiece9234]

Good show chaps. home for tea with eggs and bacon. Nice to see the lineys wearing proper RAF grey overalls - still have my pair.

[@Decrepit_biker]

Wow, they managed to get some MiG 28s for filming, and during the cold War at that! Seriously though fantastic film and very Uchida of its time ❤

[@notmenotme614]

12:26 I remember the map display in the back of early GR’s like a microfiche. It’s interesting seeing how primitive technology was back then.

[@TINY5BB]

Huge respect

[@fortresstheband]

Beautiful Jet.

[@BrySkye]

Anyway, the main reason the F-111C was retired was that it became to expensive to fly and maintain. Australia was the last country to operate the F-111, keeping them until 2010. The USAF retired it's very last EF-111's in 1998. You can imagine that has an impact of spares, etc, when the main operator no longer uses them. At the moment, the RAAF is using the 2 seater F/A-18F Super Hornet until the F-35 is ready, though there is debate there about if the F/A-18F is the better strike jet of the 2

[@barrywallace7155]

That’s one rough comb over!

[@MyLegend420]

beautifull music with beast good

[@andersleofranzen7019]

Well performed mission by the TORNADOS!!🇬🇧⚡️🙏

[@woodchuckandfox]

Awesome

[@YTJM96]

Cheers for that mate. On the current GR4, are they operational?

[@midgetace]

Yes it's Honington and I'll ask the not so young looking HAS Cpl, now a Mr, when I see him on Monday. A bit of cinematic license ref the HAS doors not opening until it taxied, the ground grew would've been belly up by then. What cracking comb over the Wing Commander had and one of the crews there was the chap who bounced one on the runway with lift dump and thrust reverse pre-selected, it nose dived and was written off. They cheekily used the photo of it covered in foam on an anti FOD poster.

[@inxskfirligamarty]

very nice vid... tornado is a fantastic plane...- the tornado and the sepecat jaguar the best plane for ground attack and low fly-----tornado y sepecat jaguar mis aviones favoritos para ataque a baja altura,

[@krostouin]

That soundtrack ^^

[@BrySkye]

They are pretty different scenarios between the F-111 and F-35 in terms of avionics. The issue between the US and UK came down to access to the source code, which is a pretty big deal on such a computerised aircraft, allowing us to modify or upgrade the aircraft completely independently of the US. The F-111 didn't even use Fly-By-Wire, and Australia upgraded their aircraft in the 80's and 90's.

[@hughjones13]

@blahblah48856 Around 83 I would guess,. white ear defs, grey denims, Sqn still at Honington, and the Has management cabin looks fairly new still!

[@Paullawshingwhye]

Love the video. Magnificient! Which year was this video made?

[@alanbuzzard3511]

Late 1984

[@YTJM96]

@BDFPA Me being 15 and born after all of this I would say how little we now have in operational service compared to the eightees. Aircraft like the Bucc, Jag, Tonka GR1 and so on are now gone, leaving us with GR4s (albeit tuned-down aircraft) and nowhere near as many fast jets

[@Noneofyourbusiness99999]

It’s Top Gun without all the Yeehaa’ing and homoeroticism - and more cups of tea

[@redbaron9029]

Gentlemen's Top Gun

[@grimaldispa7139]

'I was inverted, what what'. 🧐

[@BrySkye]

The F-111 and Tonka tie at low level speed, with a max of mach 1.2 However, the Tornado can only do this when 'clean' (no external stores). It's the same with the F-111, but unlike the Tornado (and more like the Buccaneer), it has an internal weapons bay, so it can still carry weapons. But in a combat scenario, the Buccaneer was faster than both at low level! The F-111 is larger, with more range and payload, but the avionics are a LOT older. It's also more expensive to fly and maintain.

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

Which version of the F1-111? Half a statement!

[@stephenpage-murray7226]

@@JohnSmith-ei2pz F-111F will do Mach 1.6 at 100 ft.

[@Jones607]

“For a longtime we (The UKs Tornado Squadrons) were flying in our Tornado’s at a height of 50 feet, and our speed was 600 knots everywhere, all over the UK. And we didn’t receive one single complaint from any member of the UK public.”🇬🇧 Sqn-Leader John Peters

[@paulmorgan6269]

Awe I was immersed until they were loaded with live but took off with practice weapons. Still enjoyed the memories of Bruggen and my two tours.

[@alexwrixton6898]

Anyone know where I can get a copy of the music? Brings back so many memories

[@user-sx9tk7fo1m]

The composer of the song is Chris Gunning? What is the name of the song?

[@rashdin]

so for both tornado adv and gr4 are both of these aircraft using the tape???

[@martynmcnulty782]

one of my favourite RAF warplanes 😊

[@distortedreality4603]

fantastic video! I miss the cold war! 😉

[@BrySkye]

lol, that explains it. Working on the Tombs and its AIM-7s I mean.

[@BrySkye]

Naw, if you read the credits, it was Flt Lt Nigel Nickles in the video, rather than John Nichol. :)

[@shrapnelicus]

great to see him putting a c d in the player,bit of music whilst in flight

[@edwardwally]

I love how British and gentlemanly this video is. No offense to army or navy boys and girls, But any Royal....... Add your commonwealth country air forces so much more rah rah ladi dah. Man I wish I was a Tornado pilot.

[@mike6179]

pre '86 as thats when they moved to Bruggen, single letter tail code gives the game away, RAFG Sqns had twin letter codes ie. AA AB etc.

[@fawaztagar6553]

Good👍🏻

[@Kelvin_Foo]

Ahh, my mistake, I think it was a common perception at the time. I read of one loss when an Iraqi AAA round hit the AIM-9L missile carried for self defence, is that correct? The aircraft was carrying a normal bomb load for lofting, IIRC.

[@starfleethastanks]

HOLY SHIT GUYS! THE TORNADO IS COMING TO DCS!!!