Editing British Aircraft Corporation (section)

===Tornado===
[[File:tornado.ze342.arp.jpg|thumb|left|An [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] [[Panavia Tornado]] F3 (also known as the [[Panavia Tornado ADV|Tornado ADV]]) taxiing for take-off.]]

In June 1967, the AFVG was cancelled due to the withdrawal of French participation. Britain then turned to a national project, the UK Variable Geometry (UKVG), for which [[Warton Aerodrome|BAC Warton]] was given a design contract by the [[Ministry of Technology]]. These studies eventually became known as the BAC Advanced Combat Aircraft programme. In 1968, Britain was invited to join Canada and the F-104 Consortium (a grouping of Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands), all of whom wished to replace their current aircraft with a common design, subsequently described as the Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA).

On 26 March 1969, [[Panavia Aircraft GmbH]] was formed by BAC, [[Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm|MBB]], [[Fiat]] and [[Fokker]]. In May, a "project definition phase" was commenced, concluding in early 1970. Two aircraft designs resulted: the single-seat Panavia 100 and the twin-seat Panavia 200. The RAF favoured the 200, as did Germany after its initial enthusiasm for the 100.

In September 1971, the governments of Britain, Italy and Germany signed an Intention to Proceed (ITP) with the [[Panavia Tornado]]. On 30 October 1974, the first British prototype (the second to fly) took off from the BAC airfield at Warton. The three governments signed the contract for Batch 1 of the aircraft on 29 July 1976. BAC and subsequently British Aerospace would deliver 228 [[RAF Tornado GR1|Tornado GR1s]] and 152 [[RAF Tornado F3|Tornado F3s]] to the RAF.