1/72 Tornado GR.1 Debbie ZD790 31 Sqn Bahrain 1991 Operation Granby

The Panavia Tornado was a joint effort between the UK, West Germany and Italy to produce a two-seat, dual-engine aircraft with variable-sweep wings. The Tornado took its maiden flight on August 14, 1974 with the first aircraft being delivered to the German Air Force on July 27, 1979. There are three main variants of the Tornado, the IDS (interdictor/strike), ECR (electronic combat/reconnaissance) and ADV (air defense variant) interceptor. By the end of production in 1998 there had been 992 aircraft of all versions built of which 745 were IDS variants.

The Aircraft

In 1991 during the Gulf War British forces were part of an alliance to remove Iraq from Kuwait. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had his forces invade Kuwait and for seven months ignored warnings from the UN to leave. A coalition of member countries gathered in Saudi Arabia and began to forcibly remove Iraq from Kuwait. The British forces involved in the operation used the name “Operation Granby”. One of the British Tornados to take part was ZD790 from the 31 Squadron nicknamed “Snoopy Squadron”. ZD790 was built in 1984 and flew 28 sorties during the operation.