Military Jets Photography

2010 07 18 RIAT Fairford

This year saw 155,000 people attend the Royal International Air Tattoo over the two days at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. The weather was much better on Saturday but although very cloudy the rain held off for Sunday. In total, 246 aircraft took part in the Air Tattoo, from 30 air arms representing 17 nations. The themes this year included the 'Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary', 'Training', and 'Cadet150'.
A selection of warbirds performed flypasts to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain which included four Hurricanes, seven Spitfires, Buchon (Me-109), Messerschmitt Bf109G-4, and Nord 1002 Pingouin (Messerschmitt 108). There was also a Multi-national flypast from air forces involved in the Battle of Britain including Hawk T1/T2 & Tornado F3 (UK), F-15C Eagle (USA), F-16A (Belgium), Mirage 2000 (France), and Boeing 757-200 (New Zealand) although this took place on Saturday only.
Display Teams included the Red Arrows (9x BAe Hawk T1/T1A), Patrouille Suisse (6x Northdrop F-5E Tiger II), Patrouille de France (8x Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet E), and the Royal Jordanian Falcons (4x Extra EA300L). The Italian WeFly! Team also displayed in three Texan 550 aircraft. Based at Caposile, near Venice, the WeFly! Team is the official representative of Baroni Rotti, the foundation of Italian disabled pilots.
One of the highlights of the display was the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor from the 1st Fighter Wing, US Air Force Air Combat Command based at Langley Air Force Base. The F-22 Stealth Fighter was a welcome addition to the display after the disappointment of RIAT 2008, when they last came to RAF Fairford, the event was cancelled due to heavy rain and flooding. No such problems this year, and the Raptor put on an awesome display of its power and manoeuvrability. The Raptor is the world's first and only operational 5th generation fighter, combining stealth, super-cruise (supersonic cruise without afterburners), thrust vectoring giving it super manoeuvrability, and advanced intergrated avionics.
Other Jet fighters in the display included the US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet, RAF Typhoon F2, Swedish Saab Jas39C Gripen, Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16AM, the superbly flown Belgium F-16A MLU (loved the fast flypast on Sunday), and the Multi-national flypast which included the French Mirage 2000, RAF Tornado F3, and USAF F-15C which displayed on Saturday.
The RAF displayed their Tutor T1, Tucano T1, Hawk T1 & new T2, Typhoon F2, Chinook HC2, King Air B200, the Harrier GR9 making a welcome return, and a Tornado GR4 Role Demo which involved some very loud pyrotechnics and which kept the fire crews busy putting out the resulting fires.
Another highlight of the display was the Avro Vulcan B2 which took off with its distinctive whine after the USAF B-52H Stratofortress had passed overhead. This year is the 50th anniversary of the first flight of Avro Vulcan B2 XH558 which is the last flying example of its type remaining in the world. In recognition of this achievement the words 'The Spirit of Great Britain' have been added to her nose.
Making its UK public debut was the new Airbus A400M four engine turboprop military transport aircraft. This aircraft is intended to replace the Lockheed Hercules, and the Transall being used by many European nations. The A400M will operate as a cargo transport, troop transport, medical evacuation, aerial refuelling, and electronic surveillance. It is intended for use on short, soft landing strips, and for long-range cargo transport flights. The propellers on each wing turn in opposite directions while the four Europrop TP400-D6 engines turn in the same direction.
Also displaying were the USAF C-17A Globemaster III, Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, Dutch AH-64D Apache which flew alongside the Dutch F-16AM, and the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100. The Superjet is a modern fly-by-wire regional jet with 75 to 95 seat capacity and is designed to compete against the Embraer E-Jets and the Bombardier CRJ programs. The Superjet 100 has been described as the most important and successful civil aircraft program of the Russian aerospace industry.
The flying display was concluded with the Spitfire and Typhoon synchro-pair which gave an amazing display. The manoeuvrability of the Typhoon F2 and the gracefulness of the legendary Spitfire made for a stunning display. Both these aircraft are from RAF Coningsby, and the Spitfire LFIXc is part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

M346 Aermacchi CMX616

B-52H USAF 61-0039/MT

Tucano T1 Royal Air Force ZF171/LZ-R

Hawk Royal Air Force XX263

Typhoon FGR4 Royal Air Force ZJ916/QO-U

F-16AM Belgian Air Force FA-110

Jas-39C Swedish Air Force 39204/204

A400M Airbus Industry EC-402

Supperjet 100 Sukhoi 97005

F-5E Swiss Air Force Patrouille Suisse

Boeing 757 2K2 New Zealand Air Force NZ7572/72

Bf-109G-4 EADS D-FWME

HA.1112-ML Privatly owned G-BWUE

Spitfire HFIXe The Kent Spitfire G-PMNF

F-22A USAF 06-4108/AK

F-22A USAF 06-4108/AK

F/A-18F US Navy 166923

Extra 300L Royal Jordanian Falcons

Vulcan B2 Vulcan to the Sky G-VLCN

F-16AM Netherlands Air Force J-015

Tornado GR4A Royal Air Force ZD895/115, ZA459/F

Tornado GR4A Royal Air Force ZD895/115

Tornado Royal Air Force ZD895/115

Tornado GR4A Royal Air Force ZA459/F

Harrier GR9 Royal Air Force ZG858

Hawk Royal Air Force Red Arrows

Typhoon FGR4 Royal Air Force ZJ916/QO-U

Typhoon FGR4 Royal Air Force ZJ916/QO-U
Spitfire LFIXc Battle of Britian Memorial Flight MK356/UF-Q

E-3A NATO LX-N90455

C-130H Omani Air Force 501

MC-130E USAF 64-0523

HH-60G USAF 89-26208/LN

2010 07 04 Navy Days Zeebrugge

The annual open house of the Belgian Navy. The Sea King performed a Search and Rescue mission between the visiting vessels. In the static there was a Belgian Navy Alouette III and a Dutch Lynx while a Merlin HM1 and a MH-60S could be found on board.

Sea King Mk48 Belgian Air Force RS05

SH-14D Netherlands Navy 272

MH-60S US Navy 166322/BR

Merlin HM1 Royal Navy ZH832

SA316B Belgian Navy M-1

2010 07 02 Beauvechain Airshow

On Friday 2nd of July I attended the spottersday of the Defence Days at Beauvehain. Normally these spotterdays are well organized within the Belgian Air Force. Unfortunately this year the organisation was outsourced and this was clearly felt.
Luckily the airshow itself was organized by the Belgian Air Force and they had managed to attract some nice participants like an Ukrainian An-26.

F-16AM Netherlands Air Force J-193

Tornado GR4 Royal Air Force ZA446/020

P-3C German Navy 60+07

An-26 Hungarian Air Force 110

Tornado IDS German Air Force 46+01

F-16BM danish Air Force ET-199

MD900 Federal Police G-12

E-3A NATO LX-N90446

An-26 Ukrainian Air Force 25

F-16AM Danish Air Force E-194

T-17 Danish Air Force Baby Blue Team

EMB121AA French Air Force 105/YU

F-16BM Norwegian Air Force 305

Spitfire PR19 Le temps de hélices F-AZJS

OV-10B Bronco Demo Team G-BZGK

C-130H Belgian Air Force CH-12

Ja-35A Swedish Air Force 35067/34

2010 06 26 Meeting de l'air Cambrai

With the closure of Base Aérienne 103 approaching in 2012 and only one resident Mirage 2000C Squadron left, Cambrai/Epinoy hosted its first airshow since 2006 over the weekend of 26th/27th June. The theme for Cambrai was "from Blériot to Rafale" and boasted an interesting line-up but perhaps on first glance not what you'd call a classic.
The static display included a good mix of types from various air arms, although photography was a challenge due to the close proximity of the barriers. The quantity of static aircraft was also slightly down compared to '06 but times have of course changed. That said, there was plenty to see with a line up of modern metal including Hungarian Gripen, Belgian and French Alpha Jets, Danish F-16, French Rafale, Mirage F1 and Mirage 2000C, D and N variants, USAF F-15Es from Lakenheath, RAF Tornado GR.4 and Hawks.
The base is now home to only one Mirage 2000C Squadron - EC 01.012 Cambrésis, whose sister squadron, EC 02.012 Picardie, disbanded last year, but the Tiger squadron's days are also numbered with draw down scheduled for 2011. Two M2000Cs were on static allowing visitors into the cockpit with a steady queue of wannabe fighter pilots waiting to have their photos taken. A third aircraft was on jacks in an open HAS and two more participated in the flying display.
A nice feature at Cambrai is that the display aircraft park in front of the crowd and all taxi to & from display along the crowdline. The only disadvantage this year with six display teams was a lack of space for most of the fast jets that had to operate from remote areas of the field. The flying started at 10am and continued uninterrupted until 07pm - an impressive nine hour program. Bearing in mind this isn't an annual event, the organisers are to be congratulated on attracting such a diverse range of displays and running almost exactly to the scheduled times with only one no-show.
The flying display had something for all, display teams, fast jets, helicopters and histroic types. These were nicely spread out in the program so that everyone kept entertained.
The home team launched two Mirage 2000s for a 'presentation tactique' along with a C-160R Transall from ET 02.064 based at Evreux. The Mirages demonstrated several airfield attack profiles, a mix of slow & fast passes as singles and paired, a loose air to air refuelling formation with the Transall and strangest of all a slow formation, or as close as they could manage, with a TB-30 Epsilon. The Transall then performed a short solo routine complete with a steep Khe Sanh approach and landing.
The star of the show was the 1 SLK Mig-29UB from Sliac. This iconic type is very rare on the airshow scene, so a powerful display including topside passes, a missed approach and lots of smoke from a pair of Klimov RD-33s was very welcome. The few clouds that had bubbled up to cover the sun at this point however were less welcome. With the landing and shutdown of the engines of the Alpha Jets of the Patrouille de France the Meeting de l'air was over. It was a perfect day with some nice flying and very good weather.