When it comes to 360 degree videos, most as I’m sure you’ve seen aren’t that long, and are more often around 4 minutes maximum in length. Certainly, most that we show off on Life In 360° seem to be around 90 seconds to 3 minutes long. This particular video, made by the BBC, is somewhat longer than that. In fact, it clocks in at a pretty impressive 18 minutes.
Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) celebrated its centenary earlier this month. If you were wondering about the post’s title ‘Through Adversity to the Stars’ (sometimes ‘Through Struggle’) is the English translation of the RAF’s Latin motto Per ardua ad astra. Created during the latter period of World War I, the RAF is the oldest independent air force in the world. In celebration of this the BBC went on board one of its longest serving aircraft: The Panavia Tornado. For nearly 40 years, the supersonic Tornado attack bomber has been at the heart of the RAF’s operations, from the Cold War to current missions over Iraq and Syria operating a dual role as both an attack and reconnaissance aircraft.
2019 marks the end of its tenured service, with its roles likely taken on by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II from 2020. The Tornado has also been used as part of the Italian Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force.
Boarding an RAF Tornado in Liverpool, the Today programme’s Sarah Montague was taken for a flight by Wing Commander James Heeps, who put the jet through its paces and also touched on the history of the RAF itself.
You can consider this entry yet another example of 360 degree video being used in aviation and something of a history less of military too. We will be back on VRFocus later this week with another example of Life In 360°. Will we be up in the air once more? Probably not; but you’ll have to wait and see what will be going on.