A Polish AF MiG managed to do a low display which was as usual pretty spectacular.
The real highlight of the show for me was to finally see one of these supersonic, delta winged beasties in the UK. Initially these were the French nuclear bomber. These were supplanted and eventually replaced by the Mirage 2000N armed with the ASMP missile. The surviving Mirage IV are configured for Strategic Recon. They are impressive looking warplanes despite their age. The flight refulling probe on the nose merely enhances their dart like appearance.
I could not resist one little Phantom pic. This one is a reconaisance version transferred from the Luftwaffe to the Turkish AF. With the impending retirement of the Spanish RF4C's these will be the last recon Phantoms in service.
Odd llooking little plane this. It seems to fly OK though. This Swedish bird is flying with the Austrian AF.
This massive beast from the Ukraine is just collosal. This thing is a Mach 2, swing wing nuclear bomber. You can get a good sense of the scale of the thing by the people walking under it. You can walk around undernearth without stooping. just don't look too closely at the tires as they would fail any NATO inspection at a glance they were so worn.
At the business end there are two massive afterburning engine nozzles. Bear in mind that the similar scaled American B1B has 4 engines and this only has 2! You can also see that it still has a tailgun. US B52's have all now had their tail gun removed to save weight.
A few years back one of these was on the flying display at Farnborough. it was an amazing sight to behold.
Since we started with a helecopter we may as well end with one. It seems a shame to bolt on TOW missile launchers and roof mounted sights onto such a curvacious, streamlined, Italian styled form. Its a bit like having a Ferrari and towing a caravan with it!.....but I guess the Belgians don't really care as long as is kills tanks!
That's All Folks. Lets hope the weather is better next year!
