First flown in 1976 and delivered to II(AC) Sqdn at RAF Laarbruch, XZ106 flew 35 operations in the 1991 Gulf War, painted in 'Desert Pink'. After that it was transferred to 41 Sqdn and underwent modification to GR,3A standard, seeing service in the Balkans conflict in 1995. It was retired in May 2005 and joined the Manston museum in November 2008, where it was painted into arctic camo colours. I last shot this aircraft from a VC10 over the North Sea in 2004 - photo #2583