Farnborough 2016 Diary (With 1978 Retro) Pages 15 – 17 July 2016 And Idiot' Guide

Er, historical aeroplanes when they were not historic and were British designed and built.

My bucket list has a hole in it. As a consequence my list is getting shorter without me actually doing anything. I only saw the Harrier flying once and that was back in 1978 at the Farnborough air show. As it turned out I was lucky as that was the year of the ski ramp. Harriers fell through the hole along with Concorde, VC10 and Nimrod.

Like all poor workmen I like to blame my tools.:apologetic: Back in the day, before digital, there used to be an expensive thing called roll film (and there still is) and prints were very expensive. To keep the price down you could use transparency film rather than negative, project the image and then print only those that you wanted. Despite using the best generally available film, Kodak Ektachrome (extinct), having them processed at a professional processor and stored in the dark and dry they have not kept too well. Also remember that film was expensive and you did not take the hundreds of pictures you can take now in the hope you might get that extra special image.

So from Farnborough 1978 (I think) a very few shots.

BAe Sea Harrier XZ450 taking to the ski…es.

The DH 106 Comet 4C XW626 flying test bed.

The BAC-111, G- ASYD played an important roll in the development of the variations and now resides just up the road at Brooklands.