The Panavia Tornado At Low-Level, Scott Rathbone, published by Pen and Sword books, 318 pages
"The ultimate pictorial display of the Tornado in its element" is the subtitle of this hard-bound volume, and that says it all. Scott Rathbone has collected hundreds of photos of Tornados of the RAF, German Air Force, German Navy, Italian Air Force and Saudi Air Force at low level.. The photos are spectacular, are large enough and clear enough to be used by the modeler, especially due to the number of shots where you're looking down on the aircraft!
Scott Rathbone provides a pictorial record of the Tornado at low-level. Images are provided from the 1980s through retirement, and almost all variants are accounted for, mostly showing RAF squadrons in the UKLFS but including a significant number of photos of German, Italian and even Saudi units.
The first 30 or so pages are text, starting with a handy glossary of abbreviations used in the book, followed by an introduction, a section called Background, that's really a short history of the Tornado, Squadrons, which discusses RAF units flying the Tornado, then a rather interesting discussion of the low altitude flying/training system in the UK, UKLFS Operations, followed by Accidents, which lists accidents and the determined cause, then Operations, and finally, appropriately, Retirement.
the next section is a listing of Tornados whose images are enshrined in the following pages, by serial, starting with the RAF's GR.4s. The columns list Serial, Code, Remarks, generally including any incidents and the airframe's ultimate fate, and the page(s) it's photo can be found on. There are 135 GR.4s listed, and a following table details an additional 129 aircraft of the IDS, ECR, GR.1, and F.1. A total of 232 individual aircraft's photos are thus shown in the book. Each photo lists the aircraft's serial, model, and country, and includes the date and location it was taken.
All in all, while not the traditional walkaround volumes modelers are used to, there's plenty of color and marking details available, the list of serials is a nice inclusion, and the photos have a definite wow factor as we see the plane at or below the observer's viewing level. The text sections are informative and well written as well. Its currently on sale from the Aviation Book Centre in the UK for $37.19, marked down from a regular price of $46.49.
table showing the aircraft serial, type, air force when not the RAF, and the page you will find its photo.