RAF Waddington

I've been to the air show at RAF Waddington today and was suprised by the lack of aircraft ,both static & in the sky.

The star of the show was the Eurofighter which blasted off on full reheat and vanished into orbit then descended and did a short display (only a short one because it's still just out of the box and they dont want to bend it)
But as for the rest of NATO not much turned up ,some Turkish Phantoms
the Italian team were impressive 1 Belgium F16, New Zealand sent a P3 Orion ,USAF not there at all

Everyone must be out on deployment

why wasnt the US airfore there they are not on deployment not all of it im sure they could have brought some aircraft there.

I wonder if it has to do with the increased prices of fuel. Making it more expencive to do things like airshows. I really don't know, but the airshow that happens in my town seems to be suffering a bit too. At least compaired to the old days. For the past 5 years we've been getting the exact same stuff... makes it a bit repetitive after a while. though last year we got the blue angles and the year before that we had the thunderbirds, but those are the only main changes.

I'd love to see the russians come this way again. They came in the early 90's once. also seeing some other europian aircraft would be great too, just be nice to see something differnt.

anyway i think im rambling now so i'll shut up.

I was there to ( one of the pilots of the Belgian Virtual Tigers :p ).
The reason of no US planes was that they all were on deployment.
The F-15's that were last year in Waddington are at the moment operational in Iraq. Also a couple of the RAF aircraft were cancelled, because the same reason. Think also that because they handed over Iraq back to the Iraqi people, there were more planes on duty.
It was a great show nevertheless ( the Italian stuntteam was owsome ! Just as the show of the Red Arrows, as was the Tornado. Shame it was bad weather on saterday. Sunday was lots better ).
Next year the show is on 3 - 4 july in Waddington, and we will be back
Hope the US has some planes then also, just as the Russians ! God damn, i love those red guys

Originally posted by jra
I'd love to see the russians come this way again. They came in the early 90's once.

I read a while back that the Russians AFwere not doing many international shows because they feared that the planes would be impunded for a variety of unpaied debts. Im pretty sure it was in AWST some time ago. Airshows would be a great way for the Russians to market there planes. They put on quite a show with thier SU-27. While I feel the Cobra is not the hot combat manuver they claim it still is impressive to the the Russians throw thier planes all over the sky

Got a point Fredt !
I know here in Belgium on the airport of Ostend, they also have token some planes because the company who ones them didn't payed open bills of landing rigths etc. It where some Russian Il cargoplanes. Buth they were from a private company, not the Russian Air Force or something.