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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I had seen a few Catalina family aircraft in recent years living in the PNW. I was a little surprised by this one showing up at Fairford for RIAT last year. Sadly, I only got to see it on the ground as it taxied in after arriving. I don’t know when it departed and why I missed it, but such is life. Here are a few shots of it. The blister windows on the rear fuselage look a lot slicker than the original design!
Last summer, the evening show at Old Warden included a flight by the de Havilland Comet. It was both in a formation and making some solo passes. The light had been absolutely excellent, but I was getting concerned that the light might be gone before it flew. The bright red paint has the potential to look excellent in very low angle sun, and I wanted to see that if possible.
It started out in a four-ship formation, and I was hoping that they would then do solo performances. Instead, the Comet ended up doing a series of formation passes with the Lysander. This was an interesting combination, but I was hoping to isolate it a bit. With a bit of luck and planning, I was able to get some individual shots that I liked. Sadly, the light was definitely on the way out by this time and, instead of having some gorgeous warmth on a red airframe, things were a little muted. Even so, not a bad thing to wrap up the air show.
