Having only watched the 1943 film “First of the Few” featuring Leslie Howard and David Niven, I was staggered when I stumbled across the track “Spitfire” by Public Service Broadcasting. The track features samples taken from the dialogue of the film, whose plot is based around the development of the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire,
An evening with 238 Squadron at RAF Cosford to shoot their collection of Sepecat Jaguars and Panavia Tornado at night. The use of staged lighting, a smoke machine and re-enactors resulted in some very atmospheric shots. My thanks to RAF Cosford and TLE Photos.
A happy new year to you all!
2016 was certainly an interesting year with notable highlights including the F-35 and F-22 at RIAT; the Sea Vixen at Yeovilton, and of course any sight of a spitfire or mustang always gets my heart racing.
An evening with Avro Shackleton AEW2, WR963, operated by the Shackleton Preservation Trust at Coventry Airport. Also in attendance were a number of re-enactors to help create the illusion of stepping back in time. This was previously home to the Classic Air Force / Airbase, and a number of their aircraft still remain on site albeit in a deteriorating condition.
Whilst holidaying in East Anglia, I decided to detour to this small museum in Norfolk. Located on the former RAF Bungay airfield although only a few Nissan huts give any sort of indication that there was previously an airfield here. Most off the aircraft are positioned in the grounds of the museum, with a further collection in a very tightly packed hangar, making photography very difficult.
In the week leading up to a planned visit to the Shuttleworth Collection, there was plenty of speculation that the claimed world’s latest largest aircraft would be outside of its hangar for the first time in preparation for its maiden flight. Therefore, I re-routed past the old airship hangars at Cardington in the hope I might be lucky.
Despite the clear blue skies, unfortunately strong winds resulted in a number of planned displays cancelling. However a number of the larger & heavier aircraft from the collection were able to display including:
The ever popular departures day at RIAT, and although some the star attractions had departed the night before or were scheduled to remain, there was enough variety to class this as one of the best departure days for a couple of years.
The full list of aircraft shot are listed below:
RIAT finally was able to secure the appearance of the long awaited F-35 Lightning II. Not only was able to secure the RAF’s F-35B but also an appearance from the US Marines and an F-35A from the USAF.
The full list of aircraft shot are listed below:
My first visit to Yeovilton for an airshow. Whilst initially surprised by a relatively small crowd line which made getting a decent vantage point challenging, I found the show to be very entertaining in contrast to some comments by others on social media.
Aircraft photographed: