From The Archives: First Prototype Of European Multi-Role Combat Aircraft In Flight Test

The cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology’s June 2, 1975, issue depicts the first prototype of the European multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) flying over its flight test base at Manching, Germany. 

The program had recently concluded an intensive, six-day test period by flying four times in one day in performance checks at high subsonic speeds. 

Two prototypes of the multinational, Mach 2-plus variable-geometry fighter had been completed—one in West Germany, the second in Great Britain. 

The aircraft was produced by the Panavia Aircraft Gmbh consortium comprising West Germany's Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm, Great Britain's British Aircraft Corp. and Italy's Aeritalia. 

Eventually produced as the Panavia Tornado from 1979 to 1998, nearly a thousand aircraft were made. 

It flew until the UK Royal Air Force retired the last of the type in 2019. Photo by Dieter Scharzer of Messerschmitt- Boelkow-Blohm.

See the cover and read the full issue dated June 2 1975 | Aviation Week

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