Tag Archives: air show

Spanish EAV-8B+ Display

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The Spanish Navy Harriers have recently become the darlings of the UK air show scene.  The retirement of the UK’s Harriers left a feeling of longing for many air show attendees and the recent return of the Spanish Navy has made a lot of people happy.  They brought two of the jets to RIAT this year.  They put on a nice job of displaying with both aircraft flying giving some formation work and some faster stuff.  Plenty of hovering of course.

They seemed to be leading a charmed life with the sun seeming to appear whenever they were flying.  Given how the weather was over the weekend, this was no mean feat.  One day I spent down near the ramp when they were operating from so I was able to get some closer shots of them as they taxied out for departure and when they returned.  Harriers are still relatively accessible in the US but it won’t be too long before the F-35B consigns them to history too so it was nice to get some Harrier time again.

Rather Disappointing F-35B Appearance

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The F-35 has been around for quite a while by now so I have shot them on plenty of occasions (although an F-35C is still on the wish list).  My UK trip was one where I was hoping to get an RAF F-35B.  It was scheduled to make an appearance at RIAT but the information did not make it sound like a display.  On the first day of the show, the weather was shocking.  Low cloud and rain got in the way of a lot of things displaying.  Late in the day the F-35B was due in.  Our initial forecast for arrival was extended as the cloud base meant an instrument approach was needed.  It finally appeared and flew through the display line once.  Then it powered away and a while later we were informed it had gone home.I was shooting video of that which is at the bottom of this page.

The next day had better weather so I was hoping for a little more.  It did show up and we did get more than one pass.  However, even then, it was a rather lackluster performance.  I guess they have not worked up any form of display – not even a hovering portion – so we got some passes and a couple of configurations and that was it.  I don’t think I was alone in feeling a little underwhelmed by what they put on.  I guess in coming years, a more worked up display will be seen but I will have to wait a while for that.

BOAC and the Red Arrows

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RIAT is known for special formations and British Airways has been part of them in the past.  Concorde with the Red Arrows and an A380 with the Red Arrows spring to mind.  For 2019 and BA’s 100th anniversary, they wanted to do something special.  The focal point was to be the BOAC liveried 747-400.  I shot this jet at SeaTac and covered it in this post.  To see it in formation with the Red Arrows sounded pretty good.  They put together two passes.

The first was from the right and involved a gentle turn in the direction of the crowd to give a slightly topside view of things.  This was nice but the distance involved did mean there was a bit of heat haze to combat.  The second pass in the other direction was a more straight pass along the display axis.  The sun was popping in and out during this time so the colors popped sometimes and not others.  It made for some tricky shooting but it still looked pretty good and it was nice to just watch when not shooting.

The Tornados Just Weren’t Playing Ball

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I do love the Tornado.  It was coming in to service just when I was getting into aviation and I ended up working on handling clearances for them when I was a junior aerodynamicist.  Their retirement by the RAF was a sad thing for me but I was consoled by the fact they remain in service with the other operators.  I was looking forward to seeing some at RIAT.  I did get to see some flying at a distance on arrivals day and they taxied up our way.  Nothing too close in the air though.

I did get a chance to see them on static display which is fine but not as fun as seeing them flying.  A lot of my hopes, therefore, were focused on departures day.  The German jets were scheduled out at various times during the morning.  However, they weren’t hitting their designated times and I was getting close to needing to leave.  Eventually I realized my time had run out.  I walked back behind the FRIAT stands and popped to the facilities prior to making the drive away.  While in there, I heard a very familiar roar.  Sure enough, as soon as I was out of sight, a Luftwaffe Tornado made its departure.  The Tornado doesn’t climb fast so it was nice and low as it passed the stand – apparently.  Bum!

Piaggio Doesn’t Just Mean Avantis!

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I am a big fan of a certain Piaggio aircraft this this post is not about the Avanti.  This is an older generation of Piaggio aircraft and a piston powered one at that.  However, it still goes with the theme of interesting configurations and it is a pusher.  The P.166 is an interesting looking plane and this one appeared at RIAT.  Apparently, it is a regular for the show but a first for me.

I didn’t see it arrive so my first look was in the static display.  It was parked up at the end of the field but this was the end where I was parking so I got to see it each time I arrived.  It was fenced off on the Friday but was easier to see after that.  I was hoping to get a good look at it on departures day but it only backtracked a short way and then took off away from the FRIAT stand.  That was a touch disappointing but there were a lot of planes to get out that day, so I guess there was no point making it use all of one of the UK’s longest runways!

Ukrainian Sukhois

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Non-Western jets are always a strong attraction at a Western air show and the appearance of the Ukrainian Sukhois at RIAT was no exception.  The SU-27 is a beast of a jet and quite an impressive performer at a show.  The arrival was cool and the practice display was welcome.  I was a bit annoyed as I didn’t have the camera to hand when the jet thundered off the runway and turned towards us and blasted over our heads at the Western Park and View.

The light wasn’t great for any of the times I saw the jet fly but the sky blue camo scheme it wore seemed to do a good job of picking up the light as it maneuvered around the display.  Plenty of blasts of power for the engines combined with a damp atmosphere allowing a bit of vapor to be pulled from the air was pretty cool.  The front fuselage shape is a little odd and this shows more so when on the ground where it droops down.  Once airborne, things are different.

Something photos don’t show is the way in which the auxiliary inlet doors on the underside of the intakes flap around in certain flight regimes.  Looking through the viewfinder, you could see them oscillating a lot but only video would show that off.  It was a long time since I had last seen the Ukrainian jets at Fairford and this was my first time to shoot them digitally.  They were accompanied by an IL-76 and I suspect that will get a post one day!

 

Romanian LanceRs

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RIAT proved to be a lot of fun with such a variety of types to see.  The shooting conditions were less than ideal but that shouldn’t take away from what was there and the effort that went in to organizing it all – I’m looking at you Tom if you are reading this.  Your team did a great job.  One of the stars of the show was actually a rather aged type.  Romania brought a pair of MiG-21 LanceR jets.  The last time I shot an active MiG-21 was at Rockford many years ago and that was privately owned.  These were very definitely active.

Their arrival on the Thursday certainly got everyone excited and the display itself was great.  The jet is from an era when the current levels of maneuverability had not been achieved but the jet can still put on quite a show.  The speed is something to behold, particularly on final approach when it fairly screams in to land.  I got to shoot it from a couple of locations including being at the departure end on the Sunday of the show and getting slightly closer to the jet as it taxied out.  I understand that they will disappear before too long to be replaced with something more generic – F-16s I think – so it was time to enjoy something old school for perhaps the last time.

Lots of Prop Vortices

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Departure day at RIAT was a bit overcast, much like the majority of the show.  The damp atmosphere did have the positive effect of meaning many of the more powerful prop aircraft were pulling vortices from the tips of their propellers.  This was most obvious earlier in their take off runs but you could get a  pretty good view of it even head on from where I was sitting in the FRIAT stand.  Here is one of the Hercs that was beating the air into submission.

Concorde Formations Flypast

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RIAT is known for putting together formations of different types to celebrate certain events.  The fiftieth anniversary of the first flight of Concorde resulted in two display teams getting together.  Concorde was an Anglo-French collaboration and so was the celebration in this case.  The Red Arrows and the Patrouille de France both fly formations to represent Concorde so, for this joint effort, both teams got airborne and flew their two Concorde formations in line astern.  They made passes in each direction with the national anthems of each country playing – one on the first pass and the other on the second.  It was a simple demonstration but an impressive one all the same.

Forgotten F-22 Pass

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There are a lot of air shows that I have been to over the years.  You think you remember them well and then something shows up in your archive of images that you have completely forgotten about.  I am a member of a Facebook group that has a different challenge each week and, when I get the next challenge, I work through my catalog to see what I have that might contribute.  It is an interesting exercise in finding stuff that I had forgotten about.

This wasn’t one of those challenges but I was looking for something else when I came across this shot of an F-22 pulling vapor and shockwaves as it did a fast pass at the Rockford Air Show.  Rockford was a great show that I used to go to when I lived in Chicago.  They always got great static displays and performers for the flying display.  The only limitation was that you were pretty much shooting in to the sun.

This F-22 made a fast pass and was clearly pulling a lot of vapor as it went.  I don’t know why I forgot about this sequence but apparently I did.  I had a go at processing them again to see what I could make of the shots this time compared to my technique in 2009.  Not an easy shot to make work but the plane is dramatic enough to make it worthwhile I think.