In 1993 I was working at BAe’s plant in Warton when we had a special event.  It was the last delivery of a Tornado to the RAF and the aircraft was AT051, a twin stick ADV (or F3 in RAF parlance).  We all received a print of a painting of the aircraft to celebrate the event and trooped out to watch the aircraft depart.  I don’t have pictures of that since cameras were not permitted inside the security perimeter at Warton.

It therefore feels slightly more personal to read all of the information online about the demise of the RAF’s ADV fleet.  They have been on the way out for quite a while but the end has finally come.  Since I made it across to RIAT last year, I did get some final shots of the remaining aircraft and I am glad that I did.  My transition to digital shooting coincided with my move to the US so I don’t have many ADV shots that aren’t on film and I certainly didn’t shoot as many shots before going digital.

I only have a limited number of shots which amazes me given how often I saw ADVs over the years.  I guess when they were common I didn’t make much effort to shoot them when film was something I treated as precious.

So here are a few mementos and good bye to a plane I liked working on.