Panavia Tornado ADV

what is it?

The Panavia Tornado Air Defence Variant (ADV) is a long-range, twin-engine swing-wing interceptor aircraft developed by the European Panavia Aircraft GmbH consortium. It was a specialised derivative of the multirole Panavia Tornado. Development of the Tornado ADV formally commenced in 1976.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 13.9 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 2,400 km/htop speed
• size 28 tmax take-off weight
• built 218made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 47 years ago, in 1979.
• 🏎️Top speed is 18.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 1.9 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 13.9 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 5 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.7× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1979-10-27

introduced

1985

retired

2011

status

retired

number built

218

role

interceptor

makers

Panavia Aircraft GmbH

engines

2× Turbo-Union RB199-34R

crew

2

length

18.7 m

wingspan

13.9 m

height

6 m

max take-off weight

28 t

top speed

2,400 km/h

range

—

ceiling

15,240 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.

family