The Static U2 80-073 BB
Over the past few days we have been very pleased to have seen much U2 activity. The machine on static was rotating back to the US following her latest mission to hot and sandy climes and was showing signs of the hard work she had been doing. Rather embarrassing, to me anyway, were the comments being made about her weathered appearance. The airframe is returning to the States after the show for a full nut and bolt service. The pilot was clearly, and quite rightly, very proud of his machine and the operations it performed which consisted of pre-planned ops lasting around 10 hours but with the capability of being re-tasked if a need arose. Large format negative film is still the preferred medium alongside digital allowing the digital images to be downloaded immediately for initial analysis whilst waiting for the arrival of the better analogue images if a more detailed analysis is required. The usual merchandise table was present manned by other team members. T shirts which had a certificate stating that they had been taken to 70K feet were on sale at £40 apiece.
The chase car is necessary to ensure that wing tips are clear of any obstructions and, should it prove necessary, any wing drop to one side although apparently the U2 is well balanced and stable. Handling at lower flight levels is “not so good” but at higher levels, at her operation height, she handles “beautifully”. The main problem is that the steering is accomplished by two small wheels, visible in some of the pictures, with only about six degrees of movement to each side. On landing at Fairford it did take a few minutes to vacate the runway with the assistance of several ground crew to deploy the wing wheeled struts.
Just checking it is still there. Also the sky high T shirts!:D
Today the biggest met the best;)
The now traditional Reds accompanied fly past, today with the USAF Thunderbirds.
Clearly the Thunderbirds obtain their smoke from Fords, you can have any color as long as it is white.
Following the flypast the Reds performed their display and the Thunderbirds closed the Friday truncated flying display. Rumour has it that there are plans afoot to expand the Friday display.
Apparently the feedback the Reds have been getting from Joe public is that they want more colour! So more colour we had today creating an even greater contrast with the white only performance of the Thunderbirds.
One hesitates to pass comment when they have come so far for our benefit but then I suppose we are so used to the action packed displays of the Reds that large pauses whilst regrouping and singleton flypasts, upside down or not, fail to impress. The airshow is full of fast jets performing all sorts of manoeuvres and passes and one has come to expect that something extra from the display teams and the Reds deliver. The French team last year put on an excellent display, interestingly different from the Reds and multicoloured too! Having said that the Thunderbirds did have an impressive crossover of four ships one from each cardinal point of the compass.
These, of course, are just my personal views and no doubt many will disagree and I would be very interest to hear what other people thought of the Thunderbirds.
The B52 landed on 27 but exited left off the runway to provided an excellent photo opportunity and probably as close as you would really want to get. And as she turned away you just have to love the smell of ATF in the morning. Lots of it!
And finding her slot on the static line.
If you want to see aeroplanes like this in the air you have to be there on the fly in/out days. Wednesday had a 12 hour program of arrivals, departures and many rehearsals. It was, in fact, an airshow including many types you will not see flying at any show, 12 hours flying all for £15 a head.
Sorry for the silence, severe bandwidth problems!
We arrived 0700 on Wednesday at the western PAV. Drove straight in an joined the queue of about 100 people. We easily obtained a good location on the fence.
This was our first time at this end and the wind was basically from the east for most of the day so we were hoping that 09 would be in use.
However, initially not 27 was in use. The first flight of the day was a U2 taking off so that was a great start but it didn’t use much of the runway and with it’s steep climb out and low cloud it was soon lost from sight. However, much better opportunities were to come later and when by which time 09 was in use.
Maybe grey in a better colour after all.
And complete with chase car…….
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