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Page 4 of 7 Saturday, July 14thGetting up early was not very difficult with the expectation to go and see the biggest military air show on earth - the RIAT at Fairford. The weather forecast was not that optimistic, but still ok. As the gates open at 7h30 we decided to arrive a bit earlier, and whereas the streets were already busy it was no problem to arrive at the parking place and we even got a place in the first line. But in contrast to our easy arrival by car the queue was for the visitors. As it started raining a bit before the gates were opening we stayed a bit longer in the car and were on the showground a bit before 8am. The handling of the masses of people was really impressive and very fast. There were also shuttle busses going along the showground which could be used in order to avoid walking long distances. The only problem that occurred during the day at the entrance was the overload of the mobile phone net which made paying the entrance tickets at 37,50GBP impossible. But I have already been on site at that time… The presence of aircraft in the static display was really overwhelming.  Arriving from the east it already started with many aircraft lined up for the flying display and continued with a big presence of USAF aircraft, including a B-1 and a B-52. A colourful spot in contrast to the grey was Jordanian C-130. Some bagpipe players right beside it even made promotion for their homeland as a tourist destination.  The exhibition continued through kilometres – however it must be mentioned that there was also a lot of free space between a lot of the exhibits that was used for children entertainment, a car exhibition, etc… - with many interesting aircraft and I tried to get some decent photos of the most interesting ones which proved to be difficult as the sun only came out in very short intervals. Furthermore some jets still had their covers on and the time was very short as flying already started at 09h30.
The flight display was described as the "world's longest military flying display", and it really did last for more than 9 hours. Of course there were a lot of highlights, interrupted by, in relation to the other acts, quite boring displays, but the overall impression remained excellent. Where else in Europe can you see a B-1 and F-117 flight display? These two aircraft participated around noon in the "USAF hour", as RIAT 2007 was also used to celebrate the USAF's 60th anniversary. F-117B-1USAF ThunderbirdsF-15EUSAF heritage Flight - P-51Therefore the USAF Thunderbirds were also present at RIAT as part of their European Tour, maybe the show's biggest highlight this year. Part of this block was also the F-15E Strike Eagle demo. Another anniversary was also celebrated at Fairford: 50 years of the BBMF (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight). Therefore the spectators became to see a nice formation flying of a Hurricane and 3 Spitfires, that were also accompanied by the Red Arrows during their first fly-by. The Lancaster bomber, that has been recently repainted and is also part of the BBMF, joined the air show also during the afternoon. Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF)Red ArrowsFrecce Tricolori
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