Anybody else think Farnborough's Cr*p?
Hi Guys,
I have lived fairly close to Farnborough for over 30 years. Attending the bi-annual Farnborough Air Show has been one of my regular summer treats for a very long time. In more recent years, however, I have gradually become aware that each Farnborough is poorer than the last. I wonder whether the time has come to knock it on the head?
Yesterday, I attended their so called 'Fab Friday'. The flying display was supposed to start at 1:30 p.m. and last until about 5 p.m. In fact by just after 4 p.m. I was on the shuttle bus heading back to the car park to go home disappointed and bored stiff.
In the mid eighties, when I started to attend, you saw the latest developments in aviation technology from numerous countries. The programme would be so packed that no sooner would one demonstrating aircraft depart the active runway, having completed its performance, than the landing lights of the next performer would be seen over the approach. There were no purely 'entertainment' turns then, other than the genuinely historic appearances by, say, the Battle of Britain Flight the Red Arrows and Concorde.
Yesterday, however, there were long delays between each performance, suggesting they were having to spread the performances out in order to fill the time. The advertising was misleading too because it seemed to me to suggest there would be an appearance by the Airlander (flyng ar6eh0le). In fact that very afternoon the Airlander made its very first short flight around Cardington having just undergone extensive repair after its recent crash landing. And there were things on the programme that really belong in ordinary regional air shows and not at Farnborough, such as 'The Blades' (good though they are) and the wing walkers. The only really interesting new aircraft I saw yesterday were the A350 and an autogyro.
I won't be going again: it's not worth the money.
BP.