Re: Concrete Tornado
Yes, the early Tornado Air Defence Variant (F2) aircraft did fly with concrete ballast in the nose as the Marconi radar just wasn't ready, and the aircraft could not have flown without that weight to balance it. There was no measurement error and it could never be stored in the rear of the aircraft. It did mean the "Blue Circle" joke was very funny for those people familiar with how code word projects were assigned at the time.