East. Point the nose East. That’s where the dragons lay. And if not dragons, then certainly the Soviet Bear, Serbian paramilitary goons or thugs from a collapsing Caliphate.

Tornado was built for one purpose only: to race to a target as fast as human ingenuity would allow and deliver death and destruction to the Queen’s enemies.

She did it magnificently, practising in Germany for the Soviet tanks that never came, or doing it for real from Italy and Cyprus, into eastern Europe, Iraq, Libya or Syria and earlier, from Saudi Arabia against Saddam. A steady reminder to dictators and bullies that actions have consequences. And what better way to deliver the message than faster than the speed of sound? By the time they heard it, they were an irrelevant historical note.

Designed in the era of Dan Dare, this aircraft, although fantastic, was no science fiction fantasy, but the compressed expression of engineering excellence and operational single-mindedness.

Sleek and deadly, Tornado eschewed the smooth edges and stealth of the nouveau riche upstarts, like the F-35 meekly poking its stubby nose from the hangar next door at the Norfolk base they shared.