Category Archives: Air Shows

Hats Off to the Chinook Demo Team

The final display of the Cosford air show was the Chinook demo. I have always enjoyed a Chinook display because it is a very agile helicopter despite its size and it can be thrown around which impresses. There is also the wheelie that it can do which has a unique feel to it. However, I wasn’t prepared for just how much I enjoyed the display.

There were a number of elements that made it so good. First, it was at the end of the show, and the light had come around to be more favourable for photos. This could have been even better because a bit of cloud cover rolled in. A little while after the display was over, this cleared and the warm light was so nice. It would have been great to have that on the helicopter during the display. Let’s not focus on the negative though, when there is so much positive.

They started the display carrying in a couple of underslung loads. Showing off the lifting performance of the helicopter is a great way of showing what this capability is all about. They had a howitzer and a truck on lifting lines using two of the three pickup points that the Chinook has. A bit of manoeuvring with that before dropping it off on the airfield. The gun crew then came out and set the gun up. They proceeded to fire off a few blank rounds.

Then it was back to throwing the helicopter around for a bit. A helicopter display always has an advantage in that it can keep things in front of the crowd, and some tight turns certainly achieved that.

However, I haven’t yet highlighted what really made the display great. The commentary was top notch. You might think that a military display narrator is going to run through a staid list of talking points but that was not the case here. Sure, they did highlight the capabilities of the helicopter and the helicopter force as a while but there was so much ridiculousness thrown in to keep you amused throughout.

Whether it was pointing out that one of the crew had both of his friends in attendance or describing the vertical climb and pointing out it has no operational benefit but it does look really cool, the lines kept coming. They were delivered in such a normal way, though, that you needed to pay attention to spot when the serious bits had been superseded by the more flippant lines. Top stuff and hats off to the team. Great flying, great performance and excellent writing!

Who is Holding Who Up?

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The Royal Navy contribution to the RAF Cosford air show was a great combination. They brought a Leonardo Wildcat in partnership with a Fairey Swordfish. This is right up there with the odd combination that I have seen at air shows over the years. A rotary airframe and a fixed wing has happened before but often the fixed wing is really struggling to go slowly enough for the helicopter. In this case, the helicopter has the speed advantage on the Swordfish. It is not a speed demon.

They did a pairs takeoff which was really interesting and then commenced their display with a flypast in tribute to the lost crew from the Merlin crash that had occurred not long before the show. They then carried out a sequence of passes before splitting for individual performances. The Stringbag is a beast of an aircraft, even if it isn’t fast. I got some other shots of it that will probably show up at some point.

Up Close with the Gripen E Pair

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With RIAT having been cancelled for 2026, I find myself looking back at some shots from last year. This was the first time I got to see some Gripen E variants. All of my previous Gripen encounters have been earlier generations of the jet from the prototypes onwards. There was a pair of the jets taking off together at the end of the show. A tight crop on them as they climbed out gave a good look at these new airframes. I do like the Gripen. Nice to see it still finding customers.

Strike Eagle Shot I Couldn’t Ignore

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As is often the case, this shot is the result of me looking for something else. While searching through the catalogue to find something, I came across my first visit to the Aviation Nation show at Nellis AFB. I would end up spending a lot of time at Nellis over the years, but this was possibly my first real visit. The USAF F-15E Strike Eagle demo was on the programme, and I had the 500mm on as it took off. By purely good fortune, it rotated at almost the perfect spot for that focal length.

There is a tiny bit of clipping of the airframe, but the dynamism of the shot combined with the favourable lighting means I don’t mind. This then got me thinking of other F-15E demos that occurred around then. On two of them I got the mudhen in an arcing turn at speed with vapour across the airframe. One was in nice light but slightly backlit while the other was in more muted conditions. I figured I would include both of them here so you can compare them yourself.

What a Difference a Bit of Editing Makes

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I will put together a post soon about the Chinook display at RAF Cosford. It was a great display. However, this post is not about that. Instead, it is about editing. Lightroom Classic recently had an update to the masking tools and the subject select process is now way better than it used to be. I used to spend a lot of time refining the selection to get something usable but now the process has become a fair bit quicker as a result of the starting point being more accurate. Not perfect, but better. Anyway, I include a version of the image almost out of camera and then the result when working on the airframe and sky in separate masks. It is a lot more how the thing looked at the time and a significant improvement in my mind.

An Early Generation of Anson

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When the announcers at the RAF Cosford Airshow said that an Avro Anson would be displaying, I have to admit I was not terribly interested. My assumption was that it was the same example I had seen flying at Old Warden during shows last year. Nothing wrong with that display but I wasn’t super psyched by it. However, that was not the plane. Instead, this was an early model Anson.

It had flown in from Czechia in the hands of its owner. RAF Cosford has a strong historical link with the Czech Air Force, so this was something they were keen to highlight during the display. Because it was an operational rather than training Anson, it was wearing camo. The display really made good use of the plane. It kept nicely tight in front of the crowd. The angles showed off the plane very well. The framing and windows along the fuselage are quite a curious look and they showed up well with the light behind the plane. It was a good display and a lovely looking aircraft. What a delight compared to my misplaced expectations.

Finally, I Get to See the Bronco Demo

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Tony De Bruyn’s air show performances with the Rockwell OV-10 Bronco have been a feature of shows for many years but, with me having not lived in the UK for a chunk of that time, I have never seen home display. Therefore, I was rather pleased to see he was on the schedule for the RAF Cosford air show. The plane is an agile performer and so well suited to keeping it tight in front of the crowd.

The lighting at Cosford is not ideal and his display did take place when the sun had not come around. However, I did the best I could to get some reasonable shots of the show. He really threw the plane around nicely including some slow passes and some aeros. The sideslip approach was something to see and the rate of decent he achieved was something else.

Not sure when the next chance will come my way, but I do hope to get to photograph another of his displays – preferably in better light. An evening display would be really great to make the most of the Luftwaffe colours on the plane.

Vintage Harriers Pulled Out for the Show

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The static displays at RAF Cosford’s air show included quite the variety of out of service types that are kept at Cosford for training purposes. This included the first generation of Harriers. A pair of Harrier GR3s were on one lineup while a Sea Harrier FA2 was on another. The sun was out on the GR3s which made their ‘80s camouflage look great. Funny how, after years of Harrier IIs in service, when I think of Harriers, it is still the GR3s and the SHARs that come to mind.

A Very Famous Chinook

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Parked in the static at RAF Cosford’s air show was a Chinook. Nothing too special, you might be forgiven for thinking. However, this is a Chinook with some history. Known broadly as Bravo November, despite having worn many markings over the years, this aircraft was delivered to the RAF in 1980. In 1982, it was one of four that went south to the Falklands on Atlantic Conveyor. It was the first to have its blades fitted and flew off the ship shortly before it was hit by an Exocet. The other three Chinooks went down with the ship.

As the sole Chinook with the task force, her lifting capacity was in high demand. There were missions when she was seriously overloaded compared to what the release to service might have said. Some rapid leaps forward were possible by carrying way more troops than would have been the case in peacetime. There was also one flight when the crew got too low and hit a lake. As they skimmed across the surface, water sprayed up towards the engines which began to spool down. A chunk of collective pulled them up and, without the water hitting them, the engines were able to come back up to power. Amazingly no serious damage was done, and she served throughout the remainder of the conflict.

The Falkland’s conflict was 1982 and there were then decades of service in all sorts of operations – both peacetime and conflict. Finally, the airframe has come to the end of its life and now it is on the ground at Cosford. Plenty of visitors were checking out this historic helicopter. Towards the end of the day, the sun came around nicely and it looked great.

Rafale Display

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The Rafale has been in service for a long time now and exports have meant more countries operate it. I got to see some Indian Air Force examples when they came through Washington a couple of years ago. However, my experience of watching a display has been limited to the original Rafale A demonstrator and then the initial Rafale C development aircraft – both of which displayed at Farnborough. I have not seen a Rafale display since then.

This wasn’t the only reason I went to Cosford but it certainly was a big factor. The cancellation of RIAT had me thinking about what other air shows I might want to see and, while Cosford is not ideal from a lighting point of view with the crowd facing south-east, the knowledge that the French Air Force was bringing a Rafale to display was influential in my decision to go.

The display was excellent. I don’t know whether it is the characteristics of the aircraft and the nature of the display flying that the French Air Force goes for but this was an excellent show. (The French Mirage 2000 display always used to wow me too so there is a pattern.) The plane was constantly in motion and it really kept the attention of the crowd. There are definitely some lessons that other air forces could learn.

The display was just far enough into the show to get some benefit from the lighting coming around slightly. There was also some cloud which may have reduced the potential for silhouetting of the jet against the sky. I was a bit out of practice with my tracking but managed to get a few shots that I was happy with. I am not always in favour of special paint schemes for display jets but this one was no bad thing. I do hope to see the display again at some point – preferably in better lighting.