321 Panthers	321 "Morningstars"	321 Tigers (1996-2012)

The First (the better ;-) Squadron of Fighterbomberwing 32 is - as the whole wing - history. On 26/10/2012 the squadron was officially disbanded with a short military ceremony. Only few guests were present. The whole wing was officially disbanded on March 31 2013.

This site wants to show the work of the squadron and its former members and inform about the former squadron life and mainly the last weapon system, the mighty TORNADO ECR. The webmaster still owes loads of material in form of pictures and information about the whole lifetime of the unit and will feed this in on a regular basis - time permitting.

Besides this the support of the traditions and the history of the squandron and the friendships and contacts of its former members will be the main task of this homepage in the future.

As a side info for you: all the stuff from the former squadron buildings was brought to the military historical collection (MGS) of Lechfeld airbase and found there a worthy place. It can be visited by everybody. There is no entrance fee.

An important information for collectors and fans of our squadron watches: in the course of an internet search illegal copies of a 321 Lechfeld Tigers squadron watch came up. These are low-grade and unreliable versions of our model "Breitling Watches Navitimer Heritage A35340". These watches are offered by the company LVREPLICA under the name "Breitling Watches Replica Antique Style Men's Navitimer Heritage A35340". As confirmed through a phone call with Breitling is this company (as are any others ) - which has its home in Hong Kong - not lizensed to offer a replica. Also not authorized is the use of the 321 Squadron crest on this replica. Please do not let baffle you by the name "replica" in the offer. This is just an illegal product of some product pirates. Depending on the laws of your country you may incur a penalty.

You now may ask yourself why this replica pays off for the product pirates!? The fake watch costs € 363,63, the 321 original watch is traded by collectors with € 4000 and upwards (sometimes more, sometimes less). The original watches were limited to 250 pieces and each of them wears a unique number on its back like e.g. 010/250.

So, please keep up your eyes when getting an offer or when buying one of those watches. If its a fake one please contact your local police or customs agency.

The Tiger lives on! Two videos of our last tigerjet model at the JET WORLD MASTERS 2013 in Meiringen, Swizzerland and Niederöblarn, Austria.

click the banner for construction report

September 20 2012 should have been and could have been the best date for the maiden flight of our little tigerjet in the course of the traditional Oktoberfest of FBW 32. But all plans were destroyed by some officials: no flying movements on this event - not even for little models. Only heaven knows ....

Thanks to Julius, that he took his time and came over from Swizzerland to show us at least some nice rolling exercises.

Here some impressions:

Wednesday 25-09-2012 was our mini-tiger for the first time in its elemant. Everything was perfect and Julius was very happy about the very stable behaviour while flying.

At the 10th JET WORLD MASTERS, 21.-31.08.2013, Meiringen, Swizzerland, eventually a good video of the model of our last tigerjet was taken. Because of "weight problems" Julius' jet was only a show element of this event and could not take part in that championship:

The tigerjet model in its element:

Julius at the Nitro Days in Niederöblarn, Austria, 20.-22. September 2013

On 25.03.2013 at around. 08:00 the next to last two Tornado ECR from once 48 left FBW 32 and the Lechfeld (one last stayed back and will leave on March 28 2013). One of those two jets was the one with the "LAST CALL - Good-Bye Lechfeld" special paint. Nearly unnoticed by the public took the next to last take-off of a Lechfeld Tornado place. Only around 100 technicians of the wing formed a guard of honour along the runway and waved the departing jets.

On their way to Schleswig where all Tornado ECR are going to, at least those which will not be scrapped, ECR 46+54 und ECR 46+45 had to do a stop-over at Hohn airfield. The following pictures show the departure from Hohn in the afternoon:

In the afternoon the two jets continued on their way to Recce Wing 51 "Immelmann" in Schleswig. The following picures show approach and landing there.

"Hals- und Beinbruch and always Happy Landings in Schleswig", Schnief, we already miss you!!

March 18 2013 - as announced - the BAVARIAN TIGERS UNITED were born at FW 74 in Neuburg in the course of a formal roll call. The "Neuburg Tigers" are not a physical Tiger Squadron but more or less a tactical grouping of the two FW 74 Squadrons, the 741 "Falcons" and the 742 "Zapatas" ("It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees") and given a tiger patch. After the founding of the BAVARIAN TIGERS UNITED in a symbolic act the "Tiger Spirit" of the disbanded 321 Tigers was handed over to the CO of the Neuburg Tigers.

After the official event in the "Alte Werft" hangar the guests were invited to the combined squadron lounge for an informal party with food and drinks. In the course of this party gifts were given to the attending Tigers from Austria and the belgian 31 Squadron and between the COs from Lechfeld and Neuburg Tigers. As a last act the last CO of the 321 Tigers, LTC Jörg "Atze" Schröder handed all the squadron's tiger insignia and ceremonial items to the CO of the Neuburg Tigers Marc "Turbo" Grüne. These were in detail:

• the keys of the Tiger Car (Tiger deLorean)
• the steel helmet with tiger stripes for the "Tiger Baptism Ceremony" master,
• a mini-mini Tiger Moped,
• a twin brother of our mascot, the Tiger Baby which was in the Guiness Book of Records 2000 and finally
• a framed copy of our former squadron print, which shows our most famous tigerjet ECR 46+44 "Metamorphose" from 2001.

This was the very last formal/informal showtime for the famous 321 Lechfeld Tigers. They are gone forever!

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Unbelievable but true: both squadrons of TFW 47 from Neuburg - the 741 "Falcons" and the 742 "Zapatas" - will become Tiger Squadrons and have the order to take over and carry on the Tigerspirit of the Lechfeld Tigers.

For the transition will be there an official roll call of the Flying Group of TFW 74, Monday 18-03-2013, on Neuburg airbase, where

1. the offical founding of the "BAVARIAN TIGERS" and
2. the official takeover of the "Tigerspirit" from the 321 Lechfeld Tigers" by Oberstleutnant Marc Grüne, CO of both fightersquadrons TFW 74 from Oberstleutnant Jörg Schröder, former CO of the Lechfeld Tigers

will take place. The BAVARIAN TIGERS will after that get right away the status of a "probationary member" of the NATO Tiger Association.

Today, the very last special painted Tornado Jet of FBW 32, the 46+45 "LAST CALL", a "final" desgn by Tom Marschik, was flown from the paint shop at the technical center in Erding, to Lechfeld, where it arrived late afternoon at marginal weather condition (AMBER). Piloted was the jet by the acting station commander (Kommodore) LTC Dohler.

Take-off in Erding. Thanks to Frank Schmidl!

Arrival in Lechfeld

Thursday Novemver 15 2012 a big serenade conducted by the Lufwaffe musical corps 1 was given for an official good-bye of FBW 32 to the public. With this serenade the wing draws officially back from public before it will be completely set out of order March 31 2013. Prior to this event a big muster took place in a hangar in the afternoon to discharge the wingcommander (Kommodere) Oberst Scheibl. The rests of the wing were taken over by LTC Dohler.

The new concept of german Bundeswehr/Luftwaffe is official:

Fighterbomberwing 32 and with it of course the 231 Lechfeld Tigers (and 322 Monsters) are bound for disbandment!! According to the official papers of a new stationing concept in Germany the end of FBW 32 is determined. The airfield Lechfeld though will survive and remain open with a small ops section to serve as an alternate airfield for FW 74 in Neuburg and Testwing 61 in Manching. Also Premium Aerotech will continue to fly out Airbus parts with the Beluga from their production halls on the airfield.

According to newest press releases (please note: press news, not official Luftwaffe news) will the Wing already be closed end of 2012. One year to go dear friends and then this all will be history. Of course will this homepage be contiunued as long as possible to serve as a keeper of traditon and a forum for all former members of our history writing wing.

On Thursday July 28 2011 finally the announced invitation of the design competition participants to the Lechfeld Tigers took place. Unfortunately by far not all participants could find the way to FBW 32 due to job or private reasons. Also inivted were the painters from Erding and Lechfeld.

The biggest highlight for everybody was the visit to the simulator and the short flight everybody was allowed to conduct with the Tornado.

After that the Lechfeld Tigers could not - against all expectations - win an award at the Tiger Meet 2011 for their Tigerjet design, they finally succeeded at RIAT 2011 and could win one of the prices there. Here the original wording from the official RIAT website:

.... And finally, the Best Livery award went to Maj Ingo Heinle and Capt Rene Lorgen of JBG 32, German Air Force with their Tornado ECR. They received the award from Gardiner Porter, Senior Manager, Military Global Sales for Jeppesen. Maj Heinle said: "The award belongs to the designer of our scheme, Joey. Thank you very much on his behalf." July 18, 2011

The Squadron Commander Maj. Schroeder with TOM, the creator of the winning design in front of our Tigerjet 2011 during the visit of the participants of our tigerjet design competition in the squadron July 28 2011l.
            

Since end of March TORNADO ECR 46+33 is for painting in Erding with the department for "surface technics" at the so called " SysZLfzT" (System Center for Aircraft Technics). There - with help of MSgt. Waldinger and his experienced team - plus the sprayer specialist Joey from FBW 32 and his doughter, transformation to a tigerjet takes place. To support the works as much as possible the winner of the competition Tom has brought a printout of the design in the size of 3m x 1m. It helps a lot to bring up the design as exact as possible onto the fuselage. Further on he brought vector graphics of most of the desing and text elements which easily make it possible to produce those with help of a cutting plotter.

The transfer to Lechfeld is planned in the 3rd or 4th week in April during a special night flight mission.

More info about the making of our new tigerjet shortly.