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![]() The Panavia Tornado, the company's primary product | |
Company type | Joint venture |
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Industry | Aerospace |
Founded | 29 March 1969 |
Headquarters | , Germany |
Area served | UK, Italy, Germany |
Key people | Dr. Welf-Werner Degel Jeffrey Quill |
Products | Panavia Tornado Panavia Tornado ADV |
Parent |
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Website | panavia |
Panavia Aircraft GmbH is a German company established by the three partner states of the Tornado Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) project: West Germany, Italy and the UK.
The company was based and registered in West Germany. Since its founding the company is based in Hallbergmoos, a municipality in the district of Freising in Upper Bavaria, Germany.
In a similar arrangement, development of the Tornado's RB199 turbofans is undertaken by the multinational Turbo-Union Limited based in the UK (Moor Lane, Derby).
The partner companies are:
In the late 1960s, the British, German and Italian main defence companies looked at developing a strike aircraft together. The West Germans and Italians wanted a more short-range battlefield aircraft (something like the current A-10), but the British, specifically Air Chief Marshal Derek Hodgkinson, argued for a more long range aircraft. Negotiations took place in London, Bonn and Munich.
The NATO Multirole Combat Aircraft Development and Production Management Agency (NAMMA) was established to manage development and production of the Tornado. It was initially based in the same building as Panavia.
Panavia was established in 1969 by the British Aircraft Corporation, Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (which had formed the year before) and Fiat Aviazione (which became Aeritalia that year). It was planned to produce more than 1,000 aircraft. An aircraft was needed to counter the perceived threat from Russian aircraft such as the MiG-25 Foxbat and the Su-15 Flagon aircraft, which had been in service since around 1967. A multi-purpose aircraft was needed to allow a long production run and to lower costs per aircraft (unit price). In 1970, the unit cost was expected to be only $2.9m.
Around 1965, the UK (BAC) had been negotiating with France (Dassault Aviation) to produce the AFVG (Anglo-French Variable Geometry), which looked remarkably similar to what became the Tornado. The project failed due to the French manufacturer wanting to produce its own all-French variable geometry aircraft (the experimental Dassault Mirage G) which first flew in 1967, and never entered service, being cancelled in the 1970s. Marcel Dassault later saw the Panavia project as a direct threat to his company. Another Anglo-French defence project of the late 1960s was the SEPECAT Jaguar.
In 1959, the French and West Germans had collaborated to form Transall, which produced the Transall C-160 transport aircraft in 1963.
Canada and the Netherlands withdrew from the project in 1969 for financial reasons. The first Chairman was Allen Greenwood, of BAC in Weybridge. [1]
In 1989, the German involvement became DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA). On 15 September 1986, the Munich offices (which also housed the Bavarian State Office for Environmental Protection) were damaged by a bomb.
The aircraft was originally known as the MRA-75, the MRCA and the ACA. Design work began in May 1969. By 1970, it was known as the Panavia 100, with the two-seat version being the Panavia 200. The RAF was to have the two-seat version. The avionics on the aircraft were developed by another ad hoc European company, Avionica, formed by Elliott (UK), Elektronik System (West Germany) and SIA (Italy).
The Tornado first flew in 1974. The first director of flight operations was Wing Commander Roland Beamont. Marketing of the plane was directed by Jeffrey Quill from 1969–76, who had been head of marketing at SEPECAT. The RAF flew a variant, the Panavia Tornado ADV, with a larger GEC-Marconi AI.24 Foxhunter radar, implemented in the mid-1970s with the involvement of Air Chief Marshal Sir Neil Wheeler. Another variant was the Tornado ECR (Electronic Combat and Reconnaissance), developed for the Luftwaffe, and proposed to be sold to the US in 1985. Its all-weather capabilities at the time were unmatched in the world.[ citation needed ]
The Tornado aircraft is expected to remain in service until at least 2025. That would be more than fifty years after it first flew. The Tornado for the RAF and RSAF was assembled at Warton Aerodrome, then owned by British Aerospace.
The Tornado management model was adopted for the European Fighter Aircraft, which is now in production as the Eurofighter Typhoon. The NAMMA was replaced by the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA), which is the prime contractor for the Eurofighter Weapon System and continued development of the Tornado.
In the 1970s, Euromissile was formed by West Germany and Aérospatiale of France. This company now has a similar mix to Panavia, and also includes the French, being known as MBDA.
British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. It purchased Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company, in 1999 to form BAE Systems.
The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with shareholdings of 20%, 40% and 40% respectively. BAC in turn acquired the share capital of their aviation interests and 70% of Hunting Aircraft several months later.
DASA was a German aerospace manufacturer.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, foreplanes delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, representing the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, manages the project and is the prime customer.
The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (interdictor/strike) fighter-bomber, the Tornado ECR SEAD aircraft and the Tornado ADV interceptor aircraft.
The SEPECAT Jaguar is an Anglo-French supersonic jet attack aircraft originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Air Force in the close air support and nuclear strike role. As of 2024, the Jaguar remains in service with the Indian Air Force.
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.
The BK 27 is a 27 mm (1.063 in) caliber revolver cannon manufactured by Mauser of Germany. It was developed in the late 1960s for the MRCA program that ultimately became the Panavia Tornado.
The Turbo-Union RB199 is a turbofan jet engine designed and built in the early 1970s by Turbo-Union, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce, MTU and Aeritalia. The only production application was the Panavia Tornado.
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Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH is a multinational company that coordinates the design, production and upgrade of the Eurofighter Typhoon military jet.
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Warton Aerodrome is an airfield located in Warton village on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is 7 miles (11 km) west of Preston, Lancashire. The western end of the site adjoins the village of Freckleton.
A multirole combat aircraft (MRCA) is a combat aircraft intended to perform different roles in combat. These roles can include air to air combat, air support, aerial bombing, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and suppression of air defenses.
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The aerospace industry of the United Kingdom is the second-largest national aerospace industry in the world and the largest in Europe by turnover, with a global market share of 17% in 2019. In 2020, the industry employed 116,000 people.
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