| Michael Rondot | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shiny Two |  |
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Flying beneath an overcast of grey, threatening cloud, two Tornado GRlAs break formation as the lead aircraft turns and accelerates towards a narrow gap in the cloud covered hills. The aircraft are flying a low-level tactical reconnaissance mission, aiming to locate, identify and film a camouflaged target using their sophisticated on-board video recording sensors.
As night falls and low cloud envelops them, they have the capability, unmatched by any other recce aircraft in the world, to fly their mission in darkness, at very low-level, and still locate and record their target.
During the Gulf War, Recce Tornados were tasked to fly deep-penetration low-level missions at night into Iraq and the Kuwait Theatre of Operations, searching out troop concentrations, armour, and mobile SCUD missile launchers. Their missions were dangerous and lonely work, flying alone and without fighter escort, often into the most heavily defended areas of Iraq and Kuwait.
None were lost on these missions, but the dangers they faced, and the professionalism displayed by the aircrews from No. II (AC) Sqn, and No. 13 Sqn, were recognised in the Gulf War Honours List by several awards for bravery in the air, including the DSO and DFC.
Already regarded as one of the finest strike and attack aircraft in NATO, the Recce Tornado dispenses with conventional cameras altogether, and instead, features infrared linescan and side-looking thermal imagers mounted inside the forward fuselage gun bays. These high-resolution sensors enable Tornado to identify pinpoint targets from tree-top height, by day or by night, even in the most appalling weather conditions.
'SHINY TWO' is published in a single limited edition on finest quality art stock and each copy is signed and numbered by the artist before being stamped with the Collectair seal. Michael Rondot, a Jaguar pilot in the RAF, brings to his paintings an understanding that can only come from having flown combat missions in a modern combat aircraft. The accuracy and authority of his paintings are impeccable, and his distinctive style has made him one of Britain's most sought-after aviation artists.