I’m sad to say that it’s not just this year’s show that was so feeble. The rot was already well established in 2018. I was working at that show, and I was horrified by the lacklustre flying displays.
But I was lucky enough to persuade Craig Hoyle, the Editor of Flight International magazine, to let me have 500 words on the letters page of his 7-13 August 2018 edition. Here’s the text of that letter (if anyone’s still interested!)
Over the 70 years since Farnborough started, I have been to every show, with the exception of a couple in the 1960s. Over its seven decades, Farnborough had, of course, become one of the two top international shows, alongside Paris. In the UK, it was, and probably still is, the one air show that practically everybody knows about.
Your Comment article (Flight International 24-30 July) tells us: “…anyone who thought this year’s Farnborough would pass with a whimper was mistaken. … the skies are clear, the seatbelt signs are off, and we are cruising at a comfortable altitude.” That, of course, refers to the trade show part. The flying displays were a totally different matter.
We’ve grown used to unique Farnborough flying displays that have amazed and delighted, but last week’s flying displays were a sad travesty of former glories. The Royal Air Force, in its centenary year, declined to fly any of its displays, limiting itself only to flypasts, even by the Red Arrows. Most days the Typhoon was not to be seen, and nor was the F-35 Lightning.
In order to provide at least some big jet noise, the Flying Display Director had to resort to displays by an ancient Spanish AV8B Harrier and an even older US Air Force F-16C, displaying twice on some days. And the displays that did take place were further away from the audience, vertically and horizontally.
The reason for all this? Mainly that Farnborough, with its surrounding built-up areas, has become a totally unsuitable venue for the safety requirements of a modern air show. That had been the case for a while, but new regulations brought in after the Shoreham crash in 2015 have sealed its fate. It has had to instigate “the Farnborough bowl”, whereby, put simply, the further a displaying aircraft is from display datum, the higher it has to be. This drastically affects approved and practised display sequences, and was responsible at least in part for the RAF’s refusal to fly any of its displays.
I saw the whole programme on the Friday (the last trade day), and the Sunday (the final public day). There were valiant efforts by the Blades aerobatic display team and the Aerosuperbatics Wingwalkers, some lovely ‘warbirds’, and Airbus had retiring Chief Test Pilot Peter Chandler give the expected brilliant display of the A350-1000.
But I have to say that, in four decades of commentating at air shows, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such lacklustre and uninspiring display programming at any major show, let alone Farnborough.
Clearly, the trade show was the usual resounding success, with huge orders announced, but future flying displays at the event should now be in doubt.
Going to air shows is still immensely popular in the UK, ranking amongst the top outdoor spectator activities, with millions attending each year. I’m sad to report that Farnborough has finally dived, vertiginously, from its decades-long pre-eminent position.
That 2018 letter sparked quite a lot of response, both in the magazine and elsewhere - all of it, as far as I know, agreeing with it.
And of course, in the meantime, Farnborough International decided not to have any more public days on the Saturday and Sunday.
It is, I’m immensely sad to say, the true end of a special era - one that I feel very lucky to have experienced.
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