Queen's Birthday Flypast

[major_clanger]

Once again purplecthulhu and I enjoyed the tradition of watching a flypast kindly laid on by Her Majesty and my former employers, thanks to the close proximity of Cthlulhu Towers to the approach flightpath to the Mall and Buckingham Palace.

We began with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight: the Lancaster, three Spitfires and a Hurricane EDIT two Spitfire and two Hurricanes, no matter what the BBC says.



Then a C-130 Hercules accompanied by two Beech 200s (trainer aircraft from RAF Cranwell), followed by nine Eurofighter Typhoons. Watching the commentary later, I found out that the lead Typhoon was flown by John Stringer, who was on the same basic training course as me back in 1990! It's a small Air Force...



Then a mixed formation of a VC10 tanker, streaming its refuelling hoses, together with a Sentry AWACS aircraft and a pair of the F3 fighter variant of the Tornado. Close behind was a nine-ship formation of Tornado F3s - now nearing the end of their RAF service, as they are being replaced in the air defence fighter role by Typhoons.



Next in line was another of the RAF's newer aircraft, a C-17 Globemaster strategic transport, followed by a Nimrod patrol aircraft. Both were flanked by a pair of F3s; most of the RAF Leuchars Tornado wing must have been over London today!



The Tristar tanker/transport didn't get a Tornado escort; instead, it was accompanied by two HS.125 business jets, used by the RAF as VIP transports. Then came the tail formation, and what a formation it was - sixteen of the GR4 strike version of the Tornado, identifiable by the chaff/ECM pods they carry outboard of the underwing fuel tanks.





No Vulcan, alas - XH588 has completed all its test flights, but is awaiting both CAA certification for display flights and, probably more importantly, a sponsor generous enough to get it onto the air display circuit, from which point it can hopefully generate enough revenue from appearance fees to keep going. Rumour has it that it's scheduled for Farnborough Air Show, which if true will justify the admission cost alone. In the mean time, some recent pictures (by someone way better at aircraft photography than me) are here.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I forgot this was happening but saw quite a lot of it (not, alas, the WW2 aircraft) from Portobello Road.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

What I saw was the second one, the Hurricane. I realized only later than when my mom and my dad told me of watching the flying fortresses coming to bomb them, these where what they saw.

[jamesb.livejournal.com]

yeah, saw these flyover just perfectly from Charing Cross, superb sound from the propeller aircraft.

[jimtrash.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures.
The fly past was quite a sight.
We were at the Beeblebear picnic in Kensington Gardens so, of course, we presumed they were flying by for our benefit.

[blufive.livejournal.com]

Fab piccies.

At risk of being simultaneously nitpicky and embarrassingly wrong, that first BBMF group is two spitfires (inner pair, elliptic wing planform and radiators under the starboard wing) and two hurricanes (outer pair, more traditional wing shape, centerline radiators) surely?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

You're quite right. As it happens I initially thought it was two of each, then listened to the BBC commentary which claimed three plus one. Assuming that I'd misidentified a clipped-wing Spitfire, that's what I listed, but a check of a press release confirms that you're right.

I will await my merciless ridiculing at the hands of swisstone.

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

Great pictures. We got an up close view of the low flying Lancaster with probably a Spitfire last weekend while we were out driving. It was very misty with low clouds when suddenly, out of nowhere, there they were, flying low over the A142 between Soham and Ely. They were so low that my first response was to will them to go "Up! Up!" Then we just enjoyed the show. It was magnificent! It's almost as good as having and F-16 fly below you whilst abseiling. Now *that's* a heart stopper!