Tornado
Panavia Tornado ADR, Tornado ECR, Tornado GR1 and Tornado F3, as well as the new Tornado GR4 were all made by a consortium between the aviation industries of four countries: Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Tornado F3 is the interceptor version, Tornado GR1 is the ground attack version, while Tornado GR4 is the latest upgrade version, meant to be an escort in combat to the new fighter of the RAF, the Eurofighter2000 Typhoon.
Believed to be "the most advanced jet that the RAF has", (until EF2000 entered the stage in late 2002, of course), Tornado GR1 had to face the Harrier GR7 for that position, and many, many aviation enthuziasts as well as pilots would argue that in fact, the Harrier GR7 should be given credit for that. Not that it would matter the world to combat operations or anything, just a little arguement...
The same four countries, plus France, set up a new program in 1981, for their future european fighter. However France got itself out of the group in 1987, same year when they started their own program, called Rafale, and again, same year in which the remaining four came up with their final name and design of the European Future Fighter: the Eurofighter2000 Typhoon.
The Tornado Page is still under construction by Sorin A. Crasmarelu
