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Page 5 of 7 But the RIAT morning started with a wake-up call by the Finish Hornet and was followed by the Belgium F-16, that surprisingly released some flares when I did not watch. But at least I was then prepared for the next day. Mentioning these two aircraft it has to be said that the variety regarding the flight display was a bit sparse as there were 2 Eurofighters (UK, Spain), 2 F-18 (Finland, Switzerland), 2 F-16s (Belgium, Dutch) and 2 Pilatus Aircraft (PC-9 Slovenian, PC-7 Dutch).F-18F-16EurofighterPC-7sAlpha Jet - Hawk - L-159BAnnounced as a highlight a Indian Su-30MKI flew also in from Waddington, but very high, and performed some turns very far away from our cameras and had already disappeared, when the commentator was still talking about it. So the much expected demo was a flop – however we were happy to see this aircraft flying, but many said that at least a touch&go should have been doable. Indian Air Force Su-30MKI
Anyway, I did really enjoy seeing all those things flying around, and together with some helicopters from the mighty Czech Mil Mi-24V to the Royal Navy Sea Lynx pair "The Black Cats" and an Army Lynx with four Gazelles. Naval aviation was furthermore well represented by the new Nimrod MRA4 that did some fly-bys, the FRA Aviation demo simulating a battleship attack including 2 Falcon 20 and 4 Hawks. Army and Navy (the Black cats demo team) HelicoptersJetstream & Nimrod MRA4FRA AviationNew was also the RAF role demo at the end of the RIAT show with Hawks, Tornado F3s and GR4s, a E-3D AWACS, a Hercules and a Chinook. All of these aircraft took off from Fairford except for the GR4 Tornados. The demo included some air intercepts and simulated airfield attacks with heavy fireworks and a rescue demo by the Hercules and the Chinook. Having all these aircraft in the air a final formation fly-by was unfortunately not performed. RAF Eurofighter Solo DisplayRAF Role Demo
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