Tornado 50th at Manching – celebrating a year long…

On 14th August 1974 the Tornado MRCA took off at Manching, Germany for its first flight. 50 years later, the aircraft is still operational with the Air Forces of Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia. To celebrate its 50th First Flight anniversary, a special scheme has been designed in Germany and rolled out in March 2024 at the Airbus Defence and Space site at Manching, Germany.

Tornado 43+92 in the 50th First Flight anniversary paintwork

Luftwaffe Tornado 43+92 was chosen to wear the scheme. It is a Tornado GT, a German Trainer version (S/N GT030), and was delivered to the Luftwaffe in August 1983.

…elements of the P01 prototype have been chosen as a basis and further include the camouflage of Luftwaffe Tornados

Painting the jet was a combined effort by a Luftwaffe and Airbus team. They realized the idea of Designer Tom Marschik, who is also responsible for previous Tornado special schemes of the late JaboG32 “ECR” from Lagerlechfeld in Southern Bavaria.

For this 50th First Flight anniversary paintwork, elements of the P01 prototype have been chosen as a basis and further include the camouflage of Luftwaffe Tornados over the years. It starts  from the 1980s with the focus on “low-level flight and transitions into a “gray” halftone design (mainly on the underside (airframe, wings and taileron), which symbolizes the era of the 1990s and stands in color for the range of operations over the Balkans with the changed altitude profile of Operation Deliberate Force with the EG1 (Einsatzgeschwader 1). The colour patches are applied in the ‘triangle camouflage style’ that is used by Bundeswehr public affairs since a few years.

In addition, below the cockpit on the left side the signatures of the two test pilots of the first flight of the P01 with the identification D-9591 on August 14, 1974, Paul Millet and Nils Meister have been added. Back then, the jet was still called MRCA – MutliRole Combat Aircraft, before it received its current name, most likely driven by the British who used to give their combat aircraft names derived from weather phenomena (Hurricane, Lightning, Typhoon,…).

The scheme arouse great interest amongst enthusiasts and should been seen around airshows in 2024, with ILA 2024 at Berlin being the major event in Germany. It will then continue to fly regularly for TaktLwG 33 until the airframe will be decommissioned in 2025 and put on static display at a major Luftwaffe/Bundeswehr site.

And the crew put up quite a show at Manching when the jet was again delivered to Luftwaffe’s TaktLwG33 at Nörvenich.

Just a few weeks after the presentation of Luftwaffe’s 43+92, WTD61 at Manching revealed another Tornado anniversary scheme.

WTD61’s Tornado 43+97

Tornado 43+97 (GT033), currently operated by WTD61, took off on 23rd April 2024, also featuring some special colors.

More decent than its Luftwaffe counterpart, the jet is also painted in reminiscence of Tornado prototype P01 and includes style elements of the first prototype and pre-series aircraft that were used for flight testing, also at Manching, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Most prominent however is the white tail, or fin, showing of the Panavia Tornado roundel, which combines the rounders of the consortium’s partner nations Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the front fuselages decently includes the logo of WTD61.

Whereas 43+92 returned from Manching back to its wing TaktLwG33, currently operating out of Nörvenich, on 25/03/2024, 43+97 will remain based at Manching and support the flight test operations of WTD61.

WTD61’s Flight Test Tornados 98+59 and 98+60

Flight Test Tornado 98+59 received a more decent version of 43+97’s anniversary markings. Whereas the orange highlights have already been applied to the jet in 2022 and reflect the high viz markings applied to the several Prototypes in the 1970/80s, it was slightly modified in May 2024. 98+59, which was ‘born’ as a Trainer (GT015) and later on modified to a dedicated German flight test aircraft, now adopts the “50 years” wording on the tail and a smaller version of Panavia’s roundel, representing Tornados three core nations Germany, Italy and the UK. The “50 years” anniversary sticker was lower short-lived and disappeared from the aircraft around October.

Her sister ship 98+60 was also slightly modified in this anniversary year and received orange markings that slightly differ from 98+59, but reflect the markings worn by the first test aircraft P04 and P07 that were based in Manching in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

A visit by Italian friends

In September the 50th anniversary of the first flight was officially celebrated at the Airbus site in Manching. For this occasion the Italian Air Force did send on of the anniversary schemes to Manching. Tornado IDS 6-41 (MM7067) came for a short visit to Bavaria and joined Luftwaffe’s 43+92 on the ground for some formation fly-bys. After the ILA in Berlin is the second and last opportunity to see those special jets together.

Shooting a very special jet

When 43+92 was at Manching, I had the chance of some great photo opportunities and rare insights, for which I am very grateful to each and everyone who was involved. It really meant something special to me shooting this old lady in her 50th. Further I got lucky catching the two other schemes also by times. Enjoy the following photos!

Tornado 50th anniversary schemes at Manching – Photo Gallery

Thanks to all Airbus Defence and Space, Luftwaffe and WTD61 personnel who supported me taking the photos that illustrate this article!