End of an era at Farnborough airshow

Not at all. I really shouldn’t have even mentioned it.

I agree this is more likely to be the demise. I went to the press day on the Thursday for a number of years, which was great, but the public day not so much. I think there bottom line more likely to be the cause.

Whilst Shoreham has changed things, I think a bigger impact to the uk airshow scene has been the reduction in variety of aircraft available to display.

A few years ago, at a typical uk event you’d see Harriers, Tornado’s and Typhoons as well as Hercules from the RAF as a minimum. The USAF would put up A-10s, F-15’s. Adding in the Vulcan and the BBMF would please most enthusiasts.

Two of those frontline a/c are now retired and one no longer stationed in the UK and the Vulcan is grounded.

I also think there’s a disconnect of what people want to see, which is they focus on quantity or duration of display. Wanting to put on a display of length vs different a/c leaves me as an enthusiast slightly disappointed. For the average non-aviation nerd it must be very dull.

I appreciate that airforces commitments have increased and military budgets have changed, so maybe this is the future.

I just wish I’d had the camera equipment I have now back when I went to the USAF Alconbury display and the A-7 Corsair tore down the runway so very low.

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Very good points. It’s going to be very hard to have a good display when the only operational front line aircraft will be the F35… all painted the same AD grey, no matter what country they belong to.

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Sad new for the airshow community.

Wheels

I guess we have all (or nearly all) been doing our part by supporting the Fighter Collection through our patronage of DCS. Flying displays are far from dead in the UK…yet. Speaking of which…time to go to work!

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From the original article:

As a result of the fatal crash, safety measures for airshows were enhanced by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Ex-military jets are restricted to flypasts over land.

Ms Kearney said the public expected “fast aerobatic displays as part of the weekend”, but teams like the RAF Red Arrows could no longer perform aerobatic stunts at shows like Farnborough.

Somebody please tell me that this is inaccurate… that the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s measures do not apply to professional, active duty, extremely safety conscious, demonstration teams like the RAF Red Arrows.

Yeah, that’s bull****. The CAA restrictions apply only to ex-military (ie civil operated) swept wing fast jets. All other restrictions put in place after the shoreham crash have been lifted. However, the risk assessment culture has changed radically, with display teams having to negotiate a very detailed process of contingency planning before getting permission to display - not in itself a bad thing but it has had a big impact on small teams.

WRT the Farnborough statement, it just reads like a poor set of excuses for not bothering with their least profitable days to me. I severely doubt that health and safety has anything to do with the decision.

Edit: Thought I’d add this link to make the point that the Red Arrows are performing just as they always have. In fact, I think the non-public Farnborough show is still on their calendar.

https://youtu.be/g1957A_jUSw

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Thanks! I had Googled to no avail. I was starting to get upset. BP now back to normal. :slightly_smiling_face:

LOL…although a small team I bet the US Army Golden Knights don’t have to worry much about this…

Airshow Planner - So Sergeant what are your accident contingency plans?
Golden Kight rep - I pull my reserve chute and if that doesn’t work I will be the first one on the scene of the accident. :open_mouth:

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Gonna need photographic evidence of this, sounds awesome :smiley:

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I definitely can deliver on this. Bear with me I’ll work out which HDD the pics are on and upload…

That was a funny day out

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