Military Jets Photography

2005 06 23 TLP at EBFS

With my invitation for the spottersday I left my home in time. The weather was glorious and it stayed like that the whole day.
Unfortunately there was a traffic accident on the highway followed by a huge traffic jam which caused me to arrive at the main gate of Florennes AB more then 3h later then planned. Therefore instead of arriving nicely in time, I missed the agreed check-in time and I wasn't allowed to enter the base anymore. Because the TLP was gonna begin I quickly went to "spotterscorner" outside.
Not much later the first participant in the form of a Spanish Falcon 20 departed. Other participants for this session included six Danish, two Italian and four Hellenic Vipers, two F-15E Strike Eagles from the USAF, 3 German Tornados IDS, 2 French Mirages 2000N and 2 French Navy Super Etendards. The RAF was represented with two Tornados F.3, one Harrier GR7 and two Jaguars GR.3A.
After the take-off of the TLP players we had the arrival of 4 Hellenic Vipers, of which one was a F-16D with CFT tanks on the spine, who were going to take part in the exercise Clean Hunter the week after the TLP. The mission was completed after a bit more then one hour. In less then half an hour all 30 jets which took part in the mission were back on the TLP platform.

F-16AM Belgian AF FA-107

F-16AM Danish AF E-070

Mirage 2000C French AF 12-KS/79

F-16AM Danish AF E-610

Tornado F.3 RAF ZG780/WF

Tornado F.3 RAF ZG753/HH

F-16AM Danish AF E-601

F-16AM Danish AF E-607

F-15E USAF 96-0201/LN

Mirage 2000N French AF 6-AW/367

Jaguar GR.3A RAF XZ118/FR

Jaguar GR.3A RAF XX767/FK

Super Etendard French Navy 51

Super Etendard French Navy 52

Tornado IDS German AF 45+69

Harrier GR7 RAF ZD466/56

Mirage 2000N French AF 4-AK/337

F-16AM Belgian AF FA-101

F-16C Hellenic AF 500

F-16C Hellenic AF 505

Tornado F.3 RAF ZG753/HH

F-16C Hellenic AF 514

Mirage 2000C French AF 12-KR/102

Jaguar GR.3A RAF XX767/FK

F-15E USAF 98-0135/LN

Falcon 20 Spanish AF TM.11-4/408-12

2005 06 19 Le Bourget

The 46th International Paris Airshow was all about he first public appearance of the Airbus A380. Boeing tried to take some glimp away from the A380 with their 787 Dreamliner. They choosed a different approach (moving more folk more efficiently) to their main rivals.
Meanwhile in the military industry, we had the market with the fourth generation multirole fighter competing eachother to gain new orders. Dassault (Rafale), Eurofighter (Typhoon), Boeing (F/A-18F) and Saab/BAE Systems (Gripen) were present. A welcome return was made by the Russians in the form of the Sukhoi Su-27SKM, after settling their difference of opinion with some Swiss bankers.
The static layout was much like any other Trade show, with barriers etc. specially placed so you can't see too much of the planes without clutter. Dassault and Eurocopter were very well reprensted. The Indian Aerospace Industry was nice to see. The Americans were also well represented.

One disappointment was that the soon to be retired Mirage IVP, with its snazzy paint job, was shoehorned into a corner and took no part in the flying.
The main problem with photography of the display at Le Bourget usually is the distance of the runway from the crowd line. At least some decent taxiing shots can usually be taken.
Apart from the A380, new types debuting at the show were the Aermacchi M346, Embraer 195, Dassault Falcon 7x, Boeing 777-200LR and Gulfstream G550.

M-346 Aermacchi CMX616

C-27J Hellenic AF CSX62232 Typhoon EF-2000T Italian AF CSX55092

E-2C US Navy 165813/AA-600

A318-122, A-340-642 and A380-841 Airbus Industrie

Su-27SKM Russian AF 305 (blue)

ALH Druv Indian AF Z3183

IJT-36 Indian AF S3466

Mirage IVP French AF 59/CF

Merlin HC3 RAF ZJ131/P

NH-90 NH Industries F-ZWTJ

EC.665 Tigre Eurocopter F-ZVLJ

A318-122 Airbus Industrie F-WWIA

A340-642 Airbus Industrie F-WWCA

A380-841 Airbus Industrie F-WWOW

Rafale B French AF 301

Su-27SKM Russian AF 305 (blue)

F-16CJ USAF 91-0405/SP

Typhoon EF2000 Italian AF CSX7272

Tornado IDS Italian AF MM7015

F/A-18F Super Hornet US Navy 166633/AA-244

2011 04 05 Spotting at EBOS

With the help of EBOS spotting forum I knew there was an Il-76 and an An-124 at apron 1 at Ostende airport. Reasons enough to make the little trip too see these cargo lifters. I arrived around 18h. The Il-76 was planned to depart at 19h while the Antonov was planned for 21h.
Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with rain during the start-up, taxi and take-off of the Ilyushin. When it was time for the the Antonov it was already too dark to take some descent pictures.
Nevertheless I enjoyed watching these 2 heavy cargo lifters at Ostend.