Farnborough Airshow advice
- Thread starter NeilF
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 11 May 2007
- Posts
- 9,231
- Location
- Surrey
Think I've found a spot for the morning where I can take my son for a kickabout and watch some planes, Ewshot recreation ground.
Whereabouts do you work? I work in Farnborough business park and can see it from our office too.
My recommendations for Farnborough based on my day today.
Take a waterproof jacket.
Wear very comfortable shoes that you don't mind walking a lot in.
If they can be waterproof shoes that'd be good too, the ground along the flightline is a bit... squishy.
Food is actually ok. Certainly a damn sight better than the traditional greasy burger crap you used to get at Airshows.
I'd recommend taking a bottle of water too, there's places you can refill them around.
Spent close to 7 hours there today, partially in the halls and the chalets, but also on the flightline. Display wise, it was reduced by the weather being a pain in the butt. Cloud level lowered and then the rain arrived.
Seriously impressed with the A380, A400M and Apache displays. Whoever's flying the A400M knows how to throw the thing around.
Apache was flung around a lot too. 90° climbs and descents are impressive for that thing.
F-35 display is really very basic. Couple of fast passes, min radius turn, slow pass, gear and lift engine open and into the hover and so on... Nothing that the Harrier wasn't doing 30 years ago. And that's the problem, we've seen it all before with the Harrier. And the Harrier did things the F-35 can't.
Haven't gone through my pictures yet. Coping them onto the server first.
Take a waterproof jacket.
Wear very comfortable shoes that you don't mind walking a lot in.
If they can be waterproof shoes that'd be good too, the ground along the flightline is a bit... squishy.
Food is actually ok. Certainly a damn sight better than the traditional greasy burger crap you used to get at Airshows.
I'd recommend taking a bottle of water too, there's places you can refill them around.
Spent close to 7 hours there today, partially in the halls and the chalets, but also on the flightline. Display wise, it was reduced by the weather being a pain in the butt. Cloud level lowered and then the rain arrived.
Seriously impressed with the A380, A400M and Apache displays. Whoever's flying the A400M knows how to throw the thing around.
Apache was flung around a lot too. 90° climbs and descents are impressive for that thing.F-35 display is really very basic. Couple of fast passes, min radius turn, slow pass, gear and lift engine open and into the hover and so on... Nothing that the Harrier wasn't doing 30 years ago. And that's the problem, we've seen it all before with the Harrier. And the Harrier did things the F-35 can't.
Haven't gone through my pictures yet. Coping them onto the server first.
Seriously impressed with the A380, A400M and Apache displays. Whoever's flying the A400M knows how to throw the thing around.
F-35 display is really very basic. Couple of fast passes, min radius turn, slow pass, gear and lift engine open and into the hover and so on... Nothing that the Harrier wasn't doing 30 years ago. And that's the problem, we've seen it all before with the Harrier. And the Harrier did things the F-35 can't.
Haven't gone through my pictures yet. Coping them onto the server first.
And can you think why that might be? (bold)
Agreed on the A400M and the A380. Both looked incredible. Something about the sound of a prop plane...
Last edited:
And can you think why that might be? (bold)
Agreed on the A400M and the A380. Both looked incredible. Something about the sound of a prop plane...
Just my guess.... but the computers are unreliable, the software crashes and the general flight performance of the airframe is lacking.
So... No idea.
Still miss the retired airframes... Vulcan, A10, Harrier, Jaguar, F14, F111 and so on...
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Apr 2011
- Posts
- 5,607
- Location
- UK
Well the air display rules are so restrictive anyway now they can barely do anything. The reds were a joke yesterday, might aswell have not bothered turning up.
Was supposed to be there today too but have come down with a bad chest combined with over indulgent hosting last night! Was a good day though
Was supposed to be there today too but have come down with a bad chest combined with over indulgent hosting last night! Was a good day though
Just my guess.... but the computers are unreliable, the software crashes and the general flight performance of the airframe is lacking.
So... No idea.
Still miss the retired airframes... Vulcan, A10, Harrier, Jaguar, F14, F111 and so on...
Haha nope. Try again.
Associate
- Joined
- 9 Jul 2013
- Posts
- 2,201
Saw the A400 at fairford, what an awesome plane that is.
Thought the f35 was pants. As said lacklustre display and the hover side of it is just that, it just hovers. Harrier used to be able to bank left right now etc, so much more nimble. The f35 also squeals like a constipated pig while hovering.
Thought the f35 was pants. As said lacklustre display and the hover side of it is just that, it just hovers. Harrier used to be able to bank left right now etc, so much more nimble. The f35 also squeals like a constipated pig while hovering.
Just got back from working there, heard that the restrictions should be slacken somewhat for 2018, so should be much better display from the reds.
Hopefully this is true. But it'll make our job hell, trying to track them all.
I work in the building by where the Ham and Blackbird used to be next to the station.
Oh yes... Sorry, I forgot that it was a US owned aircraft piloted by a US pilot and as such isn't allowed to do anything interesting at all.
As an aircraft, it's a terrible compromise. Trying to essentially replace almost every aircraft with a single model. Just like they tried in the 60's with the F111 - that went well...
The entire concept is a complete brainfart. The only V/STOL aircraft that has ever properly worked is the Harrier, and a big chunk of that is due to the Pegasus engine. And as for aircraft with separate lift engines to the the main engine, only 1 has been built in any numbers and that's the Yak-38, and that was retired 25 years ago.
The F35 has been designed around the engine and lift fan configuration, which isn't an economical design idea to start with and the airframe is shared across all variants, even the Air Force F35A's which won't have the lift fan. Add to that, due to it having to be a low observable aircraft, the weaponry needs to be carried internally. Normally that's along the centreline of the airframe, unfortunately, that's where the lift fan and associated systems are, so they're offset to the sides, which made it wider and heavier, and they've ended up with a heavy, bulky, slow, unmaneuverable aircraft that has poor visibility due to the bloody great big space for the fan behind the cockpit.
Sadly whats happened is they've ploughed so much money into the F35 project that it now has to succeed... Shame... it's only 7 years behind schedule and well over $160 billion over budget so far...
F117 took 30 months and 50 designers. That's what happens when you have a single purpose aircraft and leave the guys the hell alone to do their jobs.
Anyway...
The Eurofighter tried to put on a decent display. The cloud level wasn't helping all day really, very low level. It was certainly a noisy show, but just isn't interesting to begin with unless you like the politics of an utter shambles.
The A400M still stands out for me as the 'what the hell are they doing to that thing?!' moment.
