CORGI AA29401 Panavia Tornado GR.1, ZD748/AK, Johnnie Walker ‘Still Going Strong’, RAF No.9 Squadron

AA29401 Panavia Tornado GR.1, ZD748/AK, Johnnie Walker ‘Still Going Strong’, RAF No.9 Squadron

As the oldest dedicated bomber squadron in the Royal Air Force, it was somehow fitting that No.IX Squadron took the honour of becoming the world’s first operational Panavia Tornado unit in front-line service when it was equipped with the GR.1 variant in June 1982.

The Tornado was a highly advanced, nuclear-capable strike attack and reconnaissance aircraft of the late Cold War era, with its potentially devastating capabilities meaning that at least four squadrons were usually based in Germany for much of its early service.

Tornado ZD748 was produced as a GR.1 variant in 1984 and delivered to No.IX Squadron at RAF Brüggen on 8th October that same year, where she wore the code AK and was referred to colloquially as ‘Anola Kay’.

Proud of their celebrated squadron history, ZD748 later benefitted from some special artwork in commemoration of wartime Avro Lancaster B.I W4964, one of only 35 Lancasters which completed at least 100 operational missions: the celebrated ‘Centurions’.

This famous aircraft was ‘J for Johnnie’ and carried the Johnny Walker whiskey brand artwork on its nose, along with the firm’s equally famous motto, ‘Still Going Strong’ and its impressive mission tally scoreboard.

This aircraft dropped a 12,000Ib Tallboy bomb on the German Battleship Tirpitz on 15th September 1944. Tornado ZD748 was still carrying her ‘Johnnie Walker’ artwork when she was pictured in the static aircraft display at the RAF Waddington Airshow in the summer of 1993.