Author Archives: Rob

RAF’s First Wedgetail

The provision of airborne early warning seems to be a topic that is vexing countries currently. The RAF retired its E-3 fleet without a replacement. They then ordered five Wedgetails only to later reduce the order to three. Now there is discussion of increasing it again. Meanwhile the US decided to similarly replace the E-3 fleet with Wedgetails and ordered two.

A change of administration brought a plan to scrap that idea, use satellite surveillance and buy some more Hawkeyes in the interim. Congress is pushing back on that. Meanwhile, NATO had planned to go down the Wedgetail route but is now looking elsewhere given the lack of commitment from the US to the platform. SAAB’s GlobalEye has since picked up more orders including one from France and NATO might follow that route. All a bit of a mess.

Anyway, all of that is a long prelude to the fact that the first of the RAF’s Wedgetail fleet made an appearance at RIAT in 2025. It was supposed to appear on one day but apparently scrubbed. Consequently, it was rearranged to come in the following day. I imagine the RAF didn’t want the embarrassment of it failing to appear. It made a run in with the Red Arrows providing formation support. Then it made solo passes and an approach for a touch and go.

I don’t know how far off service entry it is, but testing continues at Boscombe Down. I have seen its distinctive outline on the airfield when driving along the A303. Hopefully they will be active before too long and also that, this time, the funding is provided to keep the systems current unlike the issues that led to the E-3 fleet fading away.

The Funicular Collection Continues and One That Isn’t Anymore

Leave a Reply

I do not travel around looking for funicular railways (yet!), but I do seem to come across them on my regular travels. My visit to Scarborough has already shown up on this blog as a result of the shots I got while there on my cycling trip. However, I had excluded the funiculars. I say funiculars because I saw two although only one was operational – well, it would have been but not at the time I was there.

The working railway takes you down the cliffs from the town to the waterfront. Not a long run but I imagine it gets a few customers when the peak season is underway. I paid it a bit of attention as I walked around the town first thing in the morning. Then, I walked along the shore towards the spa and saw another track. This one has clearly been deactivated but the core infrastructure was still visible. I don’t know when it was taken out of service. This got me wondering whether there were even more in Scarborough when it was at its peak of popularity.

Another A350 Operator for Me

Leave a Reply

Regular visitors to the blog will know I find the A350 to be the best-looking airliner in production at the moment. During a visit to Heathrow, I got my first look at one of the more recent operators. Air India started taking delivery of jets last year. They have done the decent thing and put a colourful livery on their planes as opposed to the usual mostly white. I am grateful for this as well as for the good light I had when it came in.

Rutting Stags in Action(ish)

Leave a Reply

Part of the reason for our visit to Bushy Park was because the rut was underway and I thought it might be possible to see the stags at their best. I hadn’t anticipated just how prevalent the deer herds would be. One herd was right in the middle of the trails and, while there was a dominant male that was overseeing things, there were a couple of younger stags within the herd.

These two were trying out their jousting skills. They would engage their antlers and push each other around for a bit before getting distracted by something nearby. They would look at that for a while and then get back into training. It felt like they weren’t really trying to prove anything to each other but were just getting in practice for the days when they might be genuine contenders for dominance.

Initially, I was on the side away from the sun and thought I would have to make do with that. However, it proved easier than I thought to walk around them and get shots from the other side. They seemed uninterested in the people that were watching them. After grabbing a bunch of images, I thought that video might be a better way to record their action – even if it makes it clear that they weren’t really going for it.

Images Won’t Let You Experience the Scream!

Leave a Reply

The Pakistan Air Force IL-78 showed up at RIAT in 2025 supporting the JF-17 Thunders. Unlike the more recent versions of the IL-76 family, this jet has the original engines. They are a low bypass ratio jet and are not in any way quiet. The high-pitched scream that they produce when idling is really hard on the ears. An occasional bit of fingers jammed in ears was necessary when the angle to the plane made the noise particularly painful, but it was worth it. However, nothing about stills images can convey just how loud these four engines were!

Riding the Thames Clipper

Leave a Reply

During some previous visits, I had seen the Thames Clipper/Uber ferries running up and down the river. They seemed to be pretty powerful beasts as they fought the strong currents that the Thames can produce. However, I never used them myself. I finally got around to using one recently. We had been down to Battersea and decided to take the ferry back towards the station rather than retrace our steps on the Tube.

It was a pretty good ride but had me wondering about its use in the centre of town. We didn’t go very far but we stopped multiple times en route. We were crisscrossing the river a lot so our overall progress was slow. We were not in a hurry but, even so, decided not to go where we originally planned and cut short to walk to the station. The speed with which they dock, unload, load and depart is very impressive. They have the whole thing well worked out. It is just a slow process. I imagine that a longer run would be a very efficient way to get through the city, but the price premium wasn’t worth it to me.

More Retro American Airlines Liveries

Leave a Reply

The arrival of the American Airlines retro 777 at Heathrow got me thinking about other liveries that American Airlines has included on its planes. As a result of mergers, there are a lot of legacy airlines that have been engulfed by American over the years. They do reflect this by painting planes in liveries of the older operators. Some of these will probably have shown up on the blog over the years but here is a compilation of different paint jobs on American (and predecessor) planes including variations on their own livery.

The Long Walk from Both Ends

Leave a Reply

Windsor Great Park has a long, straight road that aligns with the castle, known as the Long Walk. We started our day out in Windsor itself and walked around the castle to the beginning of the Long Walk. I took some photos looking out into the park with the many people walking up the road. However, we weren’t going to join them yet.

We drove to the other side of the Great Park to have a longer walk (get it) around the parklands. As part of this route, we did end up at the statue of George III on his horse at the other end of the Long Walk. From here you have a great view back towards the castle. There were loads of people at the statue. Most had clearly walked up from the town and would be heading back. We were heading in a different direction, though.

The Etihad Livery is a Standout

Leave a Reply

I posted a bunch of shots from Heathrow in an earlier post, but I saved this one for its own post. The A380 is a plane some love and some hate. If you have been a passenger on one, you probably love it. It really is a great experience on board. It does seem to make people feel better about themselves that it wasn’t a huge success. Not sure why that happens but people are strange.

I have seen a ton of them over the years, but Etihad was an operator whose fleet I had never photographed until I moved back to the UK. At first this was only from a distance too. When I saw one was coming in a little after the American Airlines special, I decided to wait for it. In an era of white planes, a colourful plane is so welcome, and I find Etihad’s livery very appealing. Here is a great looking jet.

Lines of Boats in Lymington

Leave a Reply

The route into Lymington from the Solent involves a relatively narrow channel. Alongside the deeper water are mooring points for the local boats. As we headed back in after our day over on the Island, I was quite taken by the organised lines of boats. They seemed so perfect in what would normally be a relatively random looking scenario. Here is how they looked from up on the deck of the ferry.