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The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) in England is billed as the world's
biggest airshow. It's truly international, with display teams
from Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Chile and Jordan, as well
as individual displays from the air forces of Belgium, Holland and Germany.
My biggest disappointment was not seeing the Ukrainian air force Tu-22
Backfire bomber and Su-27 fighter jet, which had to withdraw at the last
minute, presumably for financial reasons. A week later, a Ukrainian
Su-27 crashed into the crowd at an airshow, killing 83 people in the worst
ever airshow accident, surpassing the 70 people killed when an Italian
display team jet crashed into the crowd at an airshow in Ramstein, Germany.
RIAT 2002 itself is the first airshow I've attended where there's been
an accident - an Italian G222 cargo plane suffered
a collapsed nosewheel after a botched landing, and skidded several
hundred meters down the runway. The tire on the nosewheel caught
fire, smoke poured out, fire engines and rescue personnel rushed out, but
it was really a minor incident - except that it closed the runway for most
of the first day. It was a memorable end to what had been the
most memorable aerobatic display
by a cargo plane that I've ever seen.
RIAT is mostly a showcase for modern aircraft and military display teams,
but they do also have some historic aircraft on show. Ironically,
I got better shots of the Avro Lancaster
and Bristol Blenheim than I did at the Duxford
Airshow the previous weekend, even though the weather at Duxford was
better. Other world war two aircraft on the British side which
were on display were a Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane, and for
the Americans the B-17 Flying Fortress "Sally B", together with a P-51D
Mustang and P-47 Thunderbolt.
A lot of people expected this show to be less impressive than previous
years because of changed American policies after the September 11, 2002,
terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
However, these concerns were unjustified and there was a good turnout of
modern military aircraft. Along with American aircraft like
the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon, there were also a pair of Mirage
F1 fighters and German and British Tornado
fighters and fighter/bombers.
This year was dedicated to the Bomber Crews, so as well as world war two
aircraft like the Lancaster, Blenheim and Flying Fortress, there were also
modern aircraft like the B-1B Lancer, F-117 Nighthawk,
B-52 Superfortress and a feeble flypast by the B-2 stealth bomber. |
