Country & City: Great Britain, Fairford

Date of visit: 2010/07/17-18

Summary: RIAT, the world´s largest military airshow with around 250 aircraft on display this year. 31 airforces & a variety of other operators showed their aircraft both in the air display & the static exhibition. RIAT´s theme this year was the Battle of Britain 70th anniversary which gathered planes from many of the participating forces, both modern & from that era. The vast number of planes in the special Battle of Britain tribute made for some very nice massed fly-pasts! Lots of Spitfires, Hurricanes, Messerschmitts together with Falcon F-16´s, Tornados, Hawks & Eagle F-15´s to name a few. Airbus 400M made it´s UK public debut at the show pleasing the crowds with a fine air display. Aerobatic display teams this time was the RAF Red Arrows, Patrouille Suisse, Patrouille de France, Italian WeFly! team & The Royal Jordanian Falcons. But still, the most anticipated guest was of course "Vulcan to the Sky Trusts" Avro Vulcan B2 (XH558). Anyone who has seen & HEARD this aircraft understands the fascination. To name a few others, JAS 39 Gripen, C-130 Hercules, KC-135 Stratotanker, C-17 Globemaster III, Harrier GR9, Eurofighter Typhoon, F/A 18 Hornet and many more aircraft. Check out the pics in both our RIAT airshow & static flightline albums.

Rating: Just as the commercial says, it´s THE largest military airshow around. And indeed it is, both the show & flightline is tremendous. With 8 hours of flying each day a good tip is to visit both Saturday Sunday to make sure you catch everything on site. We spent six hours walking trough the static display alone, so come early! Important tip nr two is to arrive by train as the roads clog up quite fast. Plenty of parking if you do but the shuttle bus from Swindon station is way superior.

Link:www.airtattoo.com