The Royal Air Force closed out thirty years of service with the TriStar tanker on 24 March, as crews in two aircraft flew a final air-to-air refueling mission over the North Sea. Fondly known as Timmy, the fleet of six TriStar tankers was acquired after the Falklands conflict in 1982. Three additional passenger/cargo aircraft were acquired in 1984. Over the last eight years, 216 Squadron crews flew 1,642 times to Afghanistan, carrying 225,000 passengers each way and travelling a total distance equivalent to flying around the world 640 times. The four remaining four TriStar aircraft were flown from RAF Brize Norton for the final time on 25 March to Buntingthorpe Airfield, Leicester, where they will be scrapped.
