TRUST TREATS TORNADO TEAMS
IN between their air displays, the Tornado GR4 teams walked around the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, sporting smart new black jackets courtesy of the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust.
Role Demo navigator Flt Lt Ian Snelling approached Press and PR manager Richard Arquati at the press launch of the Air Tattoo last month to enquire about the sponsored jackets after spotting Trust staff wearing the black designs.
Flt Lt Snelling, who was last at the Air Tattoo with his university air squadron ten years ago, said: "They are perfect and just what we are after, and they were perfect for the wet weather yesterday.
"We were down for the press day in June and I saw some people wearing the jackets. Our normal flying jackets are green and they don't go with the black flying suits we are wearing so these ones looked ideal."
The short jackets are black with the Charitable Trust logo to the left-hand side and 'RAF Tornado Role Demonstration Team' written on the right.
The role demo team has been coming here in its current form for the last two years.
"It's really good here," said Flt Lt Snelling. "The Air Tattoo is definitely the air show you want to be invited to and we always like meeting the public and showing what the aircraft is capable of doing.
"It's very important for us to come here. We were a bit worried about the turnout because of the weather, but it was a good turnout. The whole event is very well organised on the ground and very slick."
The Tornado GR4 is an all-weather attack aircraft with a long-range, high-speed precision strike capability, powered by two Rolls-Royce turbofan engines. As well as carrying up to nine alarm missiles, the GR4 has recently been equipped with a Storm Shadow missile and the Brimstone missile, allowing the Tornado to strike on target in poor weather conditions.
The Tornado GR4, which can reach altitudes of up to 50,000 feet and has a top speed of 1.3 Mach, is operated out of RAF Lossiemouth, in Scotland, and RAF Marham.
The Royal International Air Tattoo is staged annually in support of the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust which, in turn, awards grants in support of the RAF family, including serving personnel and Air Cadets. Since it was established in January 2005, the Trustees have awarded over £1.56 million to a wide range of projects and initiatives.
July 27, 2011
