Military Jets Photography: June 2013

2008 09 10 TLP at EBFS

Again a new sesstion of the famous TLP at Florennes air base. This time the diversty wasn't big with Tornado's from the RAF and the Luftwaffe, F-16's from Denmark and the USAF, Mirages 2000 from France and AMX from Italy.

Tornado F.3 Royal Air Force ZE831/GN, ZE887/GF

Tornado IDS German Air Force 45+39

F-16C USAF 91-0388/SP

AMX Italian Air Force MM7196/32-13

Tornado GR4 Royal Air Force ZG709/120

F-16C USAF 91-0344/SP

Tornado GR4 Royal Air Force ZD748

Tornado F.3 Royal Air Force ZE788/HV

Mirage 2000-5F French Air Force 2-ER/68

Tornado IDS German Air Force 45+39, 45+82
F-16C USAF 90-0833/SP, 91-0388/SP

F-16C USAF 90-0833/SP

F-16AM Belgian Air Force FA-71

F-16AM Belgian Air Force FA-125

2008 08 28 Airday Koksijde

Like every summer, the Belgian Air Component open the doors of the coast base Koksijde. Ones more this was a succesful event with the 30.000 visitors registrated. This years the show was axed more on the military operations of the Air Component and the good co-operation with the French Air Force was also demonstrated.
Some old flying machines were showed in the static area and some in flight like the Fouga, the Vampire and the Avia BH-5, which arrived from the Czech Republic to commemorate the historical flight made in 1923 between Prague and Brussels.
Koksijde 2008 was also the last official solo display in Belgium for 2 well known pilots : Cdt Michael "Mickey" Artiges with the F-16AM and Cpt Rallet "Ralloche" from the French Air Force with his Mirage 2000C.
It was a real great show except for the weather conditions,but the amount of visitors is the proof of the interest for this kind of airshow.

Sea King Mk48 Belgian Air Force RS04

EMB121AN French Navy 68

Sea King Mk41 German Navy 89+64

SA365N French Navy 81

Alpha Jet E French Air Force F-TETJ/E25

Tornado IDS Italian Air Force MM7080/6-33

F-16AM Belgian Air Force FA-87

Mirage 2000C French Air Force 5-OQ/510
F-16AM Belgian Air Force FA-131

Mirage 2000C French Air Force 5-OQ/510

C-130H Belgian Air Force CH-04

Sea King Mk48 Belgian Air Force RS01, RS03

Sea King Mk48 Belgian Air Force RS03

Sea King Mk48 Belgian Air Force RS01

Do228 Dutch Coastguard PH-CGN

2008 07 30 Spottersday at Wittmund

One of the four traditional air defensive units of the German Luftwaffe is based at Wittmundhafen. The unit called Jagdgeschwader 71 (JG-71) is the only one out of four units which is still operational with the F-4F Phantom II. JG-72 at Hopsten has been disbanded a few years ago and that base is nowadays closed. JG-73 based at Laage and JG-74 based at Neuburg are nowadays already converted to the EF-2000 Eurofighter. The main task of this base is to defend the Northern German airspace and guard it against unwanted intruders or unidentified objects.
JG-71 was founded on June 6, 1959 at Ahlhorn, Germany. In 1960 it received the mission from the NATO to defend German airspace during the Cold War. The unit received the traditional name Richthofen exactly 43 years after the death of the Red Baron Manfred von Richthofen. The great name of Von Richthofen was in this way honored with the approval of the Federal Chancellor Heinrich Lübke. In 1963, the unit moved to its current location Wittmundhafen and it was also converted from the F-86 Sabre to the F-104 Starfighter. It was the first unit in Western Germany which was equipped with the Starfighter. In 1974, the Starfighter was retired from its duty at this unit and replaced with the F-4F Phantom II. JG-71 is nowadays still operational with the Phantom. The Richthofen Phantoms are easy to identify by the red letter R on their air intake.
At the spottersday there were four Phantoms presented. The first F-4 was painted blue and had “50 years Phantom” markings. The second Phantom was painted orange, which is the unit color of WTD-61 from Manching-Ingolstadt in Southern Germany. This test unit had its 50th anniversary, to celebrate this a Phantom and a Tornado were painted orange. At Wittmund only the orange Phantom was present, they left the orange Tornado home. The third coloured Phantom was a remaining part of Neuburg which is already converted to the Euro Fighter. This Phantom was sprayed into a black and grey color scheme which symbolized the departure of the Phantom at Neuburg in Southern Germany.The fourth Phantom was the standard grey one but equipped with missiles ready to perform a Quick Reaction Alart mission. On the other side of the static you could find the history of JG-71 aircrafts like the Starfighter, the Sabre and the Buchon. Wittmund is also the homebase of the ex-Israeli A-4's which now serve for BAe Systems. One of these could also be fouind in the static.