Farnborough Public Weekend Axed

[Brian 48nav]

SwanFIS

Lighting op Heathrow?

[Pontius Navigator]

Ewan, your last was correct but citing Russian and American air shows was not. As they were not in UK all that would happen Is a check if our procedures to see if there were lessons to be learnt.

[Tankertrashnav]

I live around 6 miles by road from the main gate at Culdrose. When I first came to live here in 1977 I went to Culdrose Air Day. I drove down my drive and immediately joined the end of the queue to get into the show. I think the last one was held in 2016, and now it has been "combined" with the one at Yeovilton, which is "only" about 150 miles away, so that's ok! Nothing to do with Shoreham, I think the writing was on the wall for years as attendance dwindled. The navy blames manpower shortages for cancelling the show, which I can well believe, but in any case once the big noisy jets have gone off the programme, what have you got left to impress Joe Public?

[ATSA1]

The last couple of shows at the "other" Trade Show, Paris, have been disappointing too...how long before that goes the same way?

[reds & greens]

Statement of the forum so far ... "Airshows are on borrowed time"

[mmitch]

So I suppose there will be even more spectators outside the fence in the nearby streets?
mmitch.

[tartare]

Originally Posted by Tashengurt

Farnborough on the TV, Raymond Baxter giving the commentary.
Theres my childhood, right there!

Me also.
At the time I were a little ignorant oik in shorts in UnZud.
But I always absolutely Ioved the bit near the end when the commentator chap went for the ride in the Harrier or the Jag - they kept a live feed of his voice - and he sounded funny when they pulled the sharp turns.
How was a young fella to know the commentator was a former WW2 Spitfire pilot.

[downsizer]

I didn't realise putting on airshows was a priority task for defence.

[Chris Kebab]

...agree to a point but I think the taxpayer ought to be able to see what they are paying for occassionally, and maybe meet the folks doing the business on their behalf.

[GeeRam]

Originally Posted by Chris Kebab

...agree to a point but I think the taxpayer ought to be able to see what they are paying for occassionally, and maybe meet the folks doing the business on their behalf.

And also thus encourage the next generations into wanting to join as well.......

The ever shrinking understanding of the services by Joe Public is entirely coincidental with the ever shrinking size of the forces and hand-on exposure to the forces.

Be that RAF At Home Days, Navy Dockyard Days, or general military Tattoo's such as the Royal Tournament..............all pretty much gone now, and its almost as if the forces are almost hidden from public view!

[chevvron]

Originally Posted by Tashengurt

Farnborough on the TV, Raymond Baxter giving the commentary.
Theres my childhood, right there!

I watched it avidly on TV in the '50s, not knowing that from 1976 onwards I would be put 'in charge' of writing the daily display programme, a task which I continued until 'Farnborough International' took it over from 2006 onwards.

[MarcK]

From Flanders and Swann:

I agree with the old lady who said, 'If God had intended us to fly, He would never have given us the railways.'

[SwanFIS]

Brian 48nav

Nope, my name says it all!

[BVRAAM]

Good, because now they have more time to put in to organising the trade show and it gives me something to look forward to. I think for most people with a serious interest in aviation, the technology is just as cool as flying.
After RIAT, very few shows actually tick my boxes. I think Flying Legends/BoB Air Show and Jersey's air day (Swedish jets) are really the only ones I'd consider. Yeovilton for flares would be cool if I had the time.

[melmothtw]

Yeovilton for flares

That could be misconstrued.

[ivor toolbox]

Originally Posted by BVRAAM

Good, because now they have more time to put in to organising the trade show and it gives me something to look forward to. I think for most people with a serious interest in aviation, the technology is just as cool as flying.
After RIAT, very few shows actually tick my boxes. I think Flying Legends/BoB Air Show and Jersey's air day (Swedish jets) are really the only ones I'd consider. Yeovilton for flares would be cool if I had the time.

It always was a trade show, going under the name of the Society of British Aerospace Constructors, back in the day we had rather more Aerospace Construction going on in Blighty, hence the diverse military types. However, the past 2 shows have basically been the Airbus vs Boeing show, with a few hangers on that have largely departed by the mid-week, leaving the weekend shows to be gap filled with whatever could be had. Then the Shoreham effect meant most fj displays were happening well out over Laffans Plain, and nearly to Odiham. The final nail, was lack of display by the Red Arrows, pretty much the only reason parents allowed themselves to be dragged along there by their offspring.

Ttfn

[pax britanica]

As a local resident this in sad news but the last show was dire and far too expensive .

OK FNB is hardly an ideal location being literally in the middle of the town even though the western end is fairly open but it iconic and very popular with local people . OK they have built a housing estate right on the airfield but people clearly saw what they were getting into there.

Move it to Blackbushe just up the road for the display-nice and remote but no facilities .It brings a huge amount of business to local hotels pubs bnbs taxi firms etc and will be seen as very serious news by the business community. As for the silly snowflake stereotype -after all a snowflake is one of the worlds most beautiful shapes- in my experience it is the Xenophobic hang em and flog em characters who object to most developments and activities as they focus much of their life on property values.

[pax britanica]

Oh and one other reason for closing the show down is the obsessively secret-with good reason as their customers are almost exclusively tax dodgers or other dubious characters -airfield operators who don't much care for the place being virtually shut down on that weekend. That is just business though, to be fair they run a superb operation and really look after all the natural areas of the airfield and the flora and fauna to the same very high standards as the airfield itself and the airfield is a real asset to the town.

They do organise very interesting public group visits for which there is quite a waiting list which shows how an airfield and related ATC operate

[BVRAAM]

Originally Posted by ivor toolbox

It always was a trade show, going under the name of the Society of British Aerospace Constructors, back in the day we had rather more Aerospace Construction going on in Blighty, hence the diverse military types. However, the past 2 shows have basically been the Airbus vs Boeing show, with a few hangers on that have largely departed by the mid-week, leaving the weekend shows to be gap filled with whatever could be had. Then the Shoreham effect meant most fj displays were happening well out over Laffans Plain, and nearly to Odiham. The final nail, was lack of display by the Red Arrows, pretty much the only reason parents allowed themselves to be dragged along there by their offspring.

Ttfn

Yup, if you want to kill a major British airshow, simply make life difficult for the Red Arrows to display there. It's guaranteed to work.

[chevvron]

Originally Posted by BVRAAM

Yup, if you want to kill a major British airshow, simply make life difficult for the Red Arrows to display there. It's guaranteed to work.

The year the Antonov 225 (no the 225 not the 124) displayed, one (trade) day I scheduled it just ahead of the Red Arrows, who were to close the show.
When the '225 had landed and was backtracking, from the tower you could see a mass movement of spectators towards the exits; they weren't bothering to stay to watch the Arrows!