The Panavia Tornado was arguably the top NATO strike aircraft during the 1980s, first flying in 1974 and continuing in small scale service to this day with Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia. The RAF used it as their primary strike platform from 1980 onwards, during which time it faced off against the might of the Warsaw Pact from bases in West Germany, and it saw combat in many theaters, including the Gulf War and over the Balkans and Libya, before its premature retirement for political and financial reasons in 2019.

Training for those front line missions often involved very low-level flying over Britain’s lakes and valleys, including the famous Mach Loop in Wales, a haven of aviation photographers, such as the author of this book, Scott Rathbone, whose photos have graced many aviation magazines.

The book begins with a short introduction to the Tornado and to low flying in the UK, as well as the author’s perspective on photography in the UK’s low flying areas since the 80s. Following this are somewhere in the region of 250 full colour photos.

The vast majority of the photos, which are presented in roughly chronological order from the 1980s onward, are of Tornadoes flying through one of the UK’s low-flying areas, and so are generally top or near topside shots, flying from left to right or vice versa. This does make it a bit repetitive at times, but there are some really splendid shots that do keep the interest up. Most of the photos are by Rathbone or some of his friends. The book is laid out in landscape format, but many of the shots are presented in too small a format – I feel this book could have been better if it had presented one photo per page, and therefore also benefited from less repetition. It sometimes feels the author insists on having certain photos regardless of quality, as more than once he states that a photo isn’t very good but it’s a record of a certain air frame. Having said that, all variants are covered and all RAF squadrons as well foreign air frames feature, while special schemes are prominent. Each photo is well-captioned, with details of the air frame and how, when and where the photo was captured, providing a permanent record of the type in this element.

This is certainly a nice book, well-presented and with some stunning photos, but I do feel that anyone other than a diehard Tornado fan may not appreciate it fully. Rathbone has another book in a similar vein, “Military Low-Level Flying From F-4 Phantom to F-35 Lightning II” which might be more to the general enthusiast’s liking.

Recommended with that reservation.