Military Jets Photography: 2005 07 17 RIAT Fairford

The Royal International Air Tattoo, also known as the biggist airshow in the world was held during the weekend of 16 and 17 July. With over 300 aircraft participating each year, more then 170,000 visitors and support from the Royal Air Force, this is a show not to miss.
After some years on the FRIAT stand, I changed my 5 days of RIAT into 1 day. Early Sunday morning we left home to catch the Eurotunnel for the cross under the Channel. We arrived around 6 o'clock on the Red parking. Once entered on the showground I began with a walk in the static.
RIAT 2005 had three themes: Tiger Roar, the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations and the main theme Surveillance. 'Tigers Roar' was likely to provide a number of special colour schemes but this was not the case. There were a couple of nicely painted or decorated Tigers like the Puma HC1 and the Lynx AH7 from the RAF, a KC-135R from the USAF and the Merlin HM1 from the Royal Navy. All Tiger associated airplanes were parked together except for two, a Polish Air Force Su-22M-3K and a Spanish Air Force EF-18B were to be found within the fighter park.
For the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations there was a display of helicopters and transport aircraft from various nations. The rotary winged element of this part of the static was both impressive and varied and included a German Army CH-53G, Dutch AS532 Cougar, a Lithuanian Air Force Mil Mi-8 and Italian Air Force HH-3F Pelican. Also from Italy were three AB-412s, one from the Army and two from the Guardia di Finanza. Additional to all the helicopters, transport types utilised on UN operations were also well represented by examples of the GAF Transall C-160D, Italian G222, Romanian An-26 and, of course, the C-130 Hercules.
Surveillance 05 was the main theme at RIAT this year, and this theme managed to attract some rare types to Fairford. These include a French Air Force C-160G 'Gabriel' and a AS532UL Cougar 'Horizon' from the French Army, a recce Phantom from the Hellenic Air Force, the RAF brought a Sentry AEW1, Nimrod R1 and a Canberra PR9 and the Italians came with a BR1150 Atlantic.
After the static it was time for some flying action. The flying programme, as always, was full, long and varied, with fast jets, display teams, aerobatic displays and a few historic pistons. The RAF supported the event with everything that was allowed to make a flying display: C-17, Tornado GR4, Tornado F.3, Jaguar GR3A, Harrier GR7, Hawk T1, Tucano T1, Chinook HC2, Merlin HC3, Hercules C5, Blue Eagles, JetsreamT2, 4 Sea Harriers, Black Cats and the famous Red Arrows (who flew an unique flypast with three Spitfires). 2005 also saw the first year of the Typhoon solo display and making its debut on a airshow was an UAV (unmaned airborne vehicle) in the form of the Scan Eagle. Unfortunately 2005 saw also the last solo displays of the Tornado F.3, the Jaguar GR3A and the Sea Harriers. The US came with their F-16 East Coast Demonstration Team, a B-1b and a B-52H, both making some fly passes before landing. Other acts were a French Air Force Mirage 2000B, a Dutch F-16 and a Finnish Air Force F/A-18C, a civilian Hunter, FRADU Hawks and Falcon 20's. As always the Royal Jordanian Falcons are almost a fact a RIAT. Other display teams were the Frecce Tricolori from Italy and Patrulla Aguila from Spain.
Although not the best Air Tattoo I've been to, it was still a very enjoyable airshow, with the best weather we could have.