Green and White!

Saudi Display Team Hawks.

Photographed from under the wing of Vulcan XH558, where ViolaMaths and I were sheltering from the rain at RAF Fairford! The enormous jet pipes for the Olympus engines seemed to me to frame the Saudi 'planes very nicely.

Here are the leaders of the Hawks a little later on, making their way to the runway for their display. They even put out green and white smoke during their display.

ViolaMaths's Blipfoto for this day explains why we were under the wonderful Vulcan, and gives an excellent description of the day at Fairford, so I will not repeat everything here. We came quite early, and as members of the Vulcan to the Sky Club we got ourselves on an underwing tour on the parking apron. As it happened, this was the only part of the day when there was any serious rain, so we were very lucky.

There were several other interesting aircraft parked very near by to us. Here is a Hunter with Tiger markings, formerly of the Swiss Air Force, being prepared for its display (in a formation of these aesthetically beautiful aeroplanes).

Of the many photographs I took of the Vulcan itself, two will have to suffice as examples. This is a close up of the tail. And the next one shows the way in to the cockpit : up a steep ladder, and then through a small hole. Something in my mind about Pooh Bear getting stuck in Rabbit's hole makes me think that it would be very unwise for someone of my build to eat too much while in the cockpit!

My little Coolpix compact digital camera is not really much good for aerial 'photos. I've "fitted" it (with Blu-Tack) with a viewfinder raided from a disposable film camera, so that at least a few percent of the shots have an aeroplane in them. But it doesn't like to focus when looking at an (almost) empty sky. So I took most of my pictures of the actual flying display with my trusty film F3, but I'll have to wait for the films to be processed. Meanwhile, here a just two of the Coolpix images:

The BBMF Lancaster;

A Netherlands AF F16 in very high angle of attack ("high alpha") flypast.

Just think that the Lancaster and the Vulcan were both designed by the same person (Roy Chadwick), roughly a decade apart: the future had arrived by the early 1950s!