Yup…and looped.

Well XM558 didn’t, but there was footage of a test pilot rolling and looping an early prototype

Excellant video…Never noticed that the Griffon ran in the opposite direction to the Merlins before.

From the RIAT site

Published: 14 Jul 2015

We would like to warn those people without tickets to this weekend’s Air Tattoo to avoid the area as the event is sold out on Saturday and Sunday and the surrounding roads will be extremely busy.

There will be no tickets available at the gates and Air Tattoo stewards and security staff have been instructed to turn away anyone that has entered the car parks without a ticket.

Unprecedented ticket demand plus an extended Friday opening time look set to make this one of the most popular Air Tattoo’s in recent memory. A few Friday tickets are still available and must be purchased in advance HERE.

Perhaps online booking and home printing of tickets up until two or three days (assuming availability) before would be better than two weeks which is current policy..

Now that seems like a happy balance, folk can then at least choose nearer the time (if tickets ares still available) and check weather etc

I thoroughly enjoyed this years Legends, and goes down as certainly one of the better ones in my opinion.

I found the commentary OK, I know to aviation buffs the same old stuff gets churned out, but there are folk and children who don’t go that often, or maybe its their first air show, and the commentary is therefore very informative. Sure, the open mic bits were a tad amateur but forgivable. Just like the Ju52 revving up to full throttle drowning out the Manhattan Dolls whilst Sally B performed. And I was sitting in the Friends enclosure right close to a speaker, so the commentary and music was both loud and clear.

I think a great job was done by all those involved.

It’s hard to imagine the arguments for the market and policing, when a two day model show has been held at North Weald for years.

In fact Wings and Wheels model show was held last w/e 28-29 June.

“The investigation found that the condition of the trim tab attachment screws’ locknut inserts, which showed evidence of age and reuse, rendered them ineffective at providing sufficient clamping pressure on the trim tab attachment screws to keep the hinge surfaces tight.”

I’m not sure how you would scrutinize lock nut inserts without dismantling. If the bolts were fully home and tight/torqued then they would appear to be fine, even if they had been reused or lacked high tensile strength. Especially as it would appear as they were inserts, so still attached to the elevator, then my guess is they would not be visible when assembled.

It’s easy to criticise or suggest that scrutineering would have prevented this tragedy, but that is the wonder of hindsight!