Are airshows getting tamer?
 

I remember when I was a lad, going to Woodford, Finningley, Farnborough etc etc and seeing Jags, Lightning, Harrier, Tornado GR3 and F2, Phantom, F111, F16, F15, Hornet, Blackbird, Concord, Vulcan, Rafale and Viggen to name but a few. Only a few of these are now displaying looking at the few airshows that remain, with the addition of fairly tame displays of US stealth bombers in return and with maybe just Eurofighter any reason to draw breath. Are modern airshows not a bit tame compared to what they once were?

Totally.....

Bearing in mind that there are fewer manufacturers due to mergers/takeovers, therefore fewer types of aircraft in general, many more airforces overstretched due to cuts and deployments, many more rules about how close displaying aircraft can be to the crowd line and then the costs involved with flying, very much increased from yesteryear, it should be no suprise.

Just wait until 20 years from now when the shows will be all about who has the the best UAV, and the pilots will be kids playing somewhere today in a living room with a PSP/Wii/Gameboy :8



SHJ

just come back from the Berlin Airshow and my personal highlight was the Red Bull DC6!. :\

Yes, I am afraid they are, and it is inevitable for reasons already stated.
Those of us who are old enough have many happy memories of great shows, here and abroad. I went to my sixth Oshkosh, Wisconsin, show last year, and, as I am not a photographer, decided that there was nothing new to entertain me, so I have closed the door on virtually all Airshows, except for Rougham, in Suffolk, which was a magnificent show last year, and is local, as is Duxford, which I would never miss.
Going to Airshows was a hobby for a number of years, and reulted in my travelling to many places, including Lightnings in South Africa, Russia, Israel, Venezuela etc.,
Guess I have got a bit bored with grey F.16s etc, and now prefer to see the best flying in the world at Duxford shows. [Flying Legends coming up soon!!!] The future of more variety doesn't look too encouraging I'm sorry to say. Great times in the past.

Totally agree, I remember the gay abandon before health and safety took all the risk, and fun, out of airshows being blasted by hi subsonic?(low super sonic) fighter jets from behind the crowd line while the crowd attention was held to the front. What the F$$k was that:eek: with Starfighters and F111's

However the best was a visit late60's early 70's taken on a family cruise from San Diego and we were taken to stand off a US carrier, doing launches and recovery with training low level fly pasts with Phantoms I think and deffinatly F14's doing as Maverick says " request a fly by" and after flying was over taken aboard and given a tour of the ship and witnessed the planes departing to their shore base

Awsome

Tamer ? Yes. See: Ramstein :sad:

I remember the Red Arrows Gnats (yes, Gnats) doing their opposition manoeuvres right over the crowd at Biggin one year. While I'm not averse to loud noises and some b***s-out flying, that DID put the wind up me a bit.

Those with a number of years under their belts will remember some great shows with great performances. Sometimes these weren't approved either. Does anyone remember the close to supersonic pass of the Viking's F-104 at Fairford?

I recall BoB shows at Biggin Hill in the 1960s and 70s. I have lots of grainy B&W shots of performing aircraft overhead, something unheard of now unless you are in a part of the world that still draws a correct balance between entertainment and H&S. However, in the "olden days" there were also boring performances too. The Yanks, for example, never did anything more than a single pass down the runway - dead dull! A flypast by F-100s or a KB-50 might be great in terms of subject matter but it was boring in terms of entertainment.

I was refreshed this year by my first visit to the La Ferte Alais show which was simply wonderful! The Duxford shows were referred too earlier but LFA knocks them in to a cocked hat for sure. There was even one "overhead" item (not-intentional I guess)!

RR

Ridge Runner, you mean when almost over the spectators they went virtually vertical with full after burner...magic. And later with one trolling along about 500 feet (guess) over the runway, and suddenly another flew ball breakingly fast underneath it!!

Fairford one year when the Soviets were there. Remember looking up at 27 tons of SU27 coming down vertically tail first straight at me in the crowd. Rehearsal only, then tea and biscuits with the display safety officer, I imagine. It was not repeated. La Ferte very good, once saw a Vatour there, plus the Patrouille De France with a Mystere 1V in the middle of the Alpha jets. It was in Team Colours too.

Ah, the Vautour..... You were lucky!!

And yes, Gannet Fan, that kind of thing! Sadly all a memory now unless you're in Russia or somewhere with an adversion to yellow coats!!

I used to think Farnborough was reasonable until about 20 years ago. Now it all health and safety and long delays between displays, not to mention an arm and leg to get in! Couple of years back we went to a show at Duxford which was amazing. The sky was busy the whole time.. brilliant.

The Migs are coming !!
 

RIAT 2010 Fairford

Several Migs are due to perform so cant be all bad :)

And a Sri Lankan AN32... but it can't beat seeing them at their home base!!

Yeah Woodford Airshow was crap this year. :{

About 1960/1 Ta Kali, Malta. Canberra dropping live ordnance. Pretty impressive and scary for a 10/11 year old!

Tiger Meet Cambrai France 1986 ?

I was stood on the runway pavement edge in my PR RAF photographer role along with 1/2 dozen French airforce photographers when a Mirage 4 (Nuclear bomber) taxied out for a simulated tactical departure, I was a bit puzzled when my non english speaking colleagues started to withdraw towards the crowd line, I presumed they had seen it many times before and were not interested in the departure, 30 seconds later I was lying on my belly gasping for air as the Mirage had turned the air black with rocket fuel fumes as it performed a JATO assisted take off, absolutely awesome, dont think my lungs ever recovered :)

Not my photo (i was much closer) but you get the picture !!

http://worldweapon.ru/images/sam/mirage4/mirage4_02.jpg

Some years ago we were flying the Tiller Girls support equipment from Kemble (IIRC) and, as we walked across to our Argosy, they decided to frighten the truckies.
I stood my ground and didn't duck but only because I could still see a tiny bit of sky between my attacker and the horizon. :eek:

(R)IAT Greenham Common. Don't recall the year (guess early 80's) but think it was a Canadian Team of F-104's, possibly 5 a/c. Start their show with full afterburn arrival from crowd rear line abreast... awsome!

Also remember long line of Harriers in the hover in front of the crowd. Seems to be rare to see even a single Harrier display anywhere these days due op comitments I guess., though would have thought the OCU could spare one at weekends.

There is some excitement to come soon, I recently visited Tulsa Oklahoma and went to the Rocket racing airshow:
QuikTrip Air and Rocket Racing Show

This is where in the future, pilots will race through "virtual gates in the sky". A couple of days after the show, I visited the museum itself and sure enough there was a computer simulation and the kids who were good at games found the sim fairly easy. The world is changing!!.

One great highlight for me personally was I got to meet and shake hands with a childhood hero, Buzz Aldrin :D.

Knife Edge, that's the one that I was writing about above. Talk about death by afterburner, everything shook. And in which case you would remember the 2 104s one under the other as I described!

Awe inspiring