Farnborough

Well yesterday was the last day of the Farnborough International Air show 2008 and I blagged a ticket courtesy of a major aerospace manufacturer. No names but it was a bit of a stealth attack if you get my meaning. . .

Despite the fact that I live 10 minutes from the place and have done for 11 years, this was my first time at the show. The queues were quite long and I ended up parking in a different post code but I finally got there.

The interesting thing is that the airshow is actually more show than air on public days. It has something of a carnival atmosphere with children's play areas, fast food stalls, racing car displays, simulator rides and an inflatable castle/slide. It's only when you get deeper into things that you see the static displays and the exhibitor pavilions. Unfortunately most of those pavilions were invite only. And I didn't have an invite!

Air displays:
Running in parallel with all this were the air displays which were quite spectacular. I saw the Hornet, the Blades display team (awesome aerobatics from a bunch of ex Red Arrows pilots), the Navy Lynx display choppers - who flew backwards along the runway, in formation, against a strong crosswind- the Battle Of Britain flight - a Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster bomber making low passes over the airfield- the Hawker Sea Hawk, and the first flight of a completely restored Vulcan bomber.

To be honest the Vulcan was more impressive than I thought as it was very loud, very big and climbed out at what looked to be a very steep angle. A lot of people spent a lot of money putting it back together and they still need more money to keep it flying.

Static displays:
In a way I was a little disapointed with the static displays Don't get me wrong there were quite a few of them, but with one or two exceptions they were all 'Stand at a dstance and watch' displays rather han 'Get up close and personal' displays. The exceptions were the US Air Force Galaxy, Hercules and F15 displays - although they were only letting in small groups at a tie and the queue was almost as long as the one to find a parking space to get in! I got onto the Sirrus stand and looked at their new SR22 Turbo as well as the SR20. Also, despite what you may have read on the Farnborough website, the Boeing 777 and several of the other static displays were not there - at least not on the Sunday. However one welcome arrival was the Airbus A380 which was parked on the end of the cross runway (the only place it would fit). This too was open for inspection - although only for invited people, which was a shame. i watched it for about 30 minutes and saw 8 people wonder inside it. The theme of the A380 was 'Environmentally recyclable' and I had to smile at the irony of pushing an environmental agenda when there were fuel guzzling fighter jets and the old Vulcan bomber flying overhead....

By the way, Blades display team are actually a fully licensed airline which means that you can fly with them, as a fully insured paying passenger, in the front seat of one of their Extra's. How cool is that!

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