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First, the bad news... Much had been made of the fact that RIAT and Farnborough were back-to-back this year, giving an unprecedented opportunity to share the headline acts and achieve a level of co-operation never before seen on the airshow circuit. Did it work? No. It was quite apparent during RIAT that little mention of the
impending week in Hampshire was made - the preceding days had seen a number of key items
drop from the list. The MV22 Osprey was lost a while before, a consequence of the fatal
accident to one of the Marine Corps machines earlier in the year, Boeing being
understandably nervous about the attendant Also missing were the Patrouille de France, rumoured because the crew accommodation offered by RIAT didn't satisfy the French team's requirements. From an enthusiast's point of view, it was no major loss, but it seems the flimsiest of excuses if true! It certainly didn't deter other French aircraft, such as the Mirage 2000-5 display. Other lesser items failed to make it too, such as the Ukrainian Su24 and Super Etendard, but with the number of aircraft invited, some mechanical casualties are inevitable...better that than what happened to the South African Shackleton a few years ago, which crashed (without serious injury to the crew) on its way to Fairford!
Keep the Backfires burning Undoubted star of the show, judging by the long line of enthusiasts queuing to get a peek in the cockpit, was the Tu22M-3 of the Ukrainian Air Force. Arriving on Wednesday, it dominated the eastern end of the static park, occupying a slot where years ago Vulcans had stood on Cold War alert...Successfully leaving on Monday, unlike the example a couple of years ago, the fiercesome blue-burning afterburners literally burnt their way through the layer of cloud as it speared skywards. How we wait for an example in the flying display! Mediterranean delights It's not often that both the Turks & Greeks attend the same show, but to park their Phantoms side by side may have been asking for an International Incident! One can only guess that their billets were not quite so close...
Meet the Clangers...but where's the Soup Dragon? A nice line-up of Open Skies aircraft occupied the middle of the static line, with no less than three An30 'Clanks' (affectionately referred to as 'Clangers') mixing it with the UK Andover and US OC135B. One from Bulgaria, one from Russia and the other from the Ukraine provided an unparalleled Eastern Bloc flavour. Again, quite ironic that thirty years ago Cottesmore would have been one of their primary interests! International Exports
Alongside the C17 was the first production example of the Lockheed Martin/Alenia C27, a G222 derivation with Dowty six-bladed propellers. Equipped with Rolls-Royce AE2100 engines, it has a ferry range of 3,000 nautical miles, 1,000 more than its closest competitor. It can carry 50% more weight than the G222 and offers an increased level of performance in line with that of the C130J over the C130H. Although registered in Italy, it was evident that Lockheed was the key promoter, with a succession of suits being shown around the all-glass cockpit. B1B 60097 from the 28th BW was the only US bomber to be found, the taxiways of Cottesmore being unsuitable to cater for the B52 and its outriggers.
Mentioned in dispatches Not a single Royal Navy helicopter, nor there were any from the German, French or Danish armies! But, despite such absences, there were many treasures to be found in the rotary parks, most notably a Spanish CH47D and Cougar, Luftwaffe Cougar, Swiss Super Puma, Dutch AH64A and rather more intriguingly, a Bo105 with a large Grasshopper painted on the side - does this mean a return by the infamous display team? Oh, and by the way, congratulations to the checklist team - as usual an excellent publication. As always, unsung heroes of the night before!
But, an example of how difficult the conditions made the flying was experienced on Saturday when the Mirage F1 formation pair committed a very obvious crowdline infringement. After one more pass they were downwind with undercarriage down and their display ended much earlier than normal. They cancelled their display with ATC immediately after they over-flew the crowdline because they lost sight of both the ground and each other - rumours of a 'red card' from the flying committee abounded, but it is quite certain that it was a decision of the French pilots.
Several displays were entirely to crowd centre, a problem with such a vast crowdline and acts such as the Firefly, Grob and gliders to fill it. Even the Harriers were scarcely seen at each end - maybe an idea would be to put the GR7 and FA2 up together, with one at each end for the hovery bits! The 'Lazy Lunch' section was aptly named, but some brilliant flying by the RAF Gliding & Soaring Association Instructors kept spirits high.
On Saturday, midway between Cranwell and Cottesmore, Red Four (Chris Carder) struck a
bird. In accordance with standard procedures, Chris departed from the formation, found
that his aircraft still appeared to be flying normally, and returned to Cranwell. The
remaining aircraft flew an eight-ship flat display. Similarly on Sunday, the display was
interrupted after just three minutes when Red Two struck a bird - Red One saw a large
flock of birds looming but was unable to pull up in time to miss them. Red Two, Jas
Hawker, felt a large impact down near his right foot, and fearing that some debris might
have gone down his engine, Jas pulled up out of the formation and made a text book
fixed-throttle approach onto runway 05. Andy Offer re-started the flat display with Red
Four moving into Red Two's slot for Other display teams were the Patrouille Swiss, Royal Jordanian Falcons (as ever at IAT - they really are part of the furniture, with no disrespect) and the White Albatros with their L39s. And the winners are... As usual, awards were given to the best displays of the
weekend, although this year not everyone got the chance to compete...taking the honours
were Major Ken Burch and the C17 for the Lockheed Martin Cannestra Trophy, Hungarian Air
Force Captain Peter Part Three: Themes
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