Stitches, Beads, Rock N Roll: July 2016

The summer is nearly half-way through meaning so is Jen's Airshow Season. I therefore feel a review of proceedings thus far is in order!

So far I've been to two airshows, Biggin Hill & Farnborough, with Airbourne to come in a week and a half - always my favourite four days of the year!

Biggin Hill.

Biggin Hill is always helpfully close to my birthday - making present options for me very easy! This year's line-up wasn't as good as other shows have been over the last few years, the only jets were the Red Arrows, but there were still lots of warbirds to swoon over.

I particularly enjoy Biggin Hill because of it's history as a fighter station in WW2, you're actually walking on history. In light of this I felt it was a good idea to dress in an appropriate 1940s influenced dress ....

Meeting one of Biggin's resident Spitfires

The flying got a bit hampered by the rain (gotta love the British summer!) but there were still plenty of things to watch -

The Blades put on a great display as always, in fact this year will be their 10th season!

It was good to see the Royal Navy Historic Flight Swordfish

There were more World War two beauties on display too -

B-17 Flying Fortress 'Sally B'

Spitfire preparing for a victory roll

I'm really glad that the Blenheim Bomber is flying again this season, I really enjoyed seeing her for the first time at
Airbourne last year.

Hurricane & Spitfire of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight

The Red Arrows were fantastic as always, they really do make me feel proud to be British.

I'm pleased with this shot of one of the reds taking off over the warbirds!

I have a few more highlights on my YouTube channel -

Farnborough Airshow -

This year's Farnborough also caught the joys of the British summer! The first day of the trade week had it's flying display cancelled because of heavy rain. Me and Dad try to go on the Friday of the show which has a restricted number of public tickets which means there is far less of a crowd and you can wander around the static park far more easily and get a decent spot next to the runway!

In case you couldn't spot the A380 ...

Dad looking every inch the 'enthusiast'

The other benefit of going on the Friday is that you get a lot of arrivals for the weekend -

B25 Mitchell

Gnat Display Team

Yak

P51 Mustang

Catalina

The show kicked off with the Royal Navy Raiders parachute team carrying what may have been the biggest union flag I have ever seen!

The Airbus A380 kicked off the flying, I love the A380, it's utterly huge (the world's biggest airliner) but it's still so graceful and a really nice looking plane.

Big is beautiful!

Airbus also showcased their new airliner the A350

We even got treated to a flypast of the A350 & The Red Arrows (check out my video at the end of the post)

The Airbus section of the show was finished by their military transport plane the A400M 'Atlas', Airbus seem to be the experts in large, attractive, highly maneuverable aircraft!

A400M

The main event of the afternoon was the public debut of the F-35 Lightning II. The F35 will be the RAF's newest multi-role aircraft and will also be operated by the Royal Navy from the new Queen Elizabeth Class carriers.

The F35 was fantastic, there's nothing to beat the sight and sound of a jet screaming towards you at full throttle. It's as agile and impressive looking as I hoped it would be. It didfeel strange though, to see a jet that wasn't a Harrier in a hover (although it definitely needs to introduce a bow to the crowd!).

In the hover

We were treated to a role demo from the Army's Apache AHDT (Attack Holiday Display Team). I love the Apache, it's fantastically mean looking!

The final item was the Eurofighter Typhoon, it was the first time I'd seen a Typhoon this year and it still never fails to impress with it's speed and agility.