WARNING. This blogg may damage your health, Its a mega multi picture history lesson as well as my experience of the display. Pictures arn't the best quality but here goes anyway

So the airshow is upon us again. Sunday 25th July 2010 sees me up at 6:30am to catch the train to North Camp station, to pick up the free bus to the show. Packing my rucksack with my trusty picnic, a plentiful supply of AA batteries and my Fuji Finepix S1600 off we go for 12 hours of fun. Oh I forgot grabs 12 year old son Daniel, disater 1 averted. Meets son number 2 Matthew at North Camp, jumps on the freebie bus and off we go.

Well, OMG what a day, sporting sun burnt face, aching back and legs and a crick in the neck permanantly damaged shutter finger time to pour a Vodka & coke and trawl throught the 1249 pictures I took (yep really) its now time to share some of my day with you all.

The following blogg just covers part of the flying display, I may put together another one later of the ground exhibits. This is my first blogg, well here anyway and the way I have set it out is to post a few shots and then a decent description of the aircraft or event.

If you manage to stay awake until the end I hope that you will enjoy it and have learnt something as well. I also hope that you will all get some idea of the atmosphere I experienced.

Enough chat on with the meaty bits

First off, and in no particular order the Airbus A380:

The Airbus A380 is a double deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. The largest passenger airliner in the world, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its development phase, but the nickname Superjumbo has since become associated with it.The A380's upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is equivalent to that of a widebody aircraft. This allows for an A380-800's cabin with 5,146 square feet (478.1 m2) of floor space; 49% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400 with 3,453 square feet (320.8 m2), and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all-economy class configurations. The postponed freighter version, the A380-800F, is offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude).

Next the B52:

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber designed and built by Boeing and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). Beginning with the successful contract bid on 5 June 1946, the B-52 design evolved from a straight-wing aircraft powered by six turboprop engines to the final prototype YB-52 with eight turbojet engines. The aircraft first flew on 15 April 1952 with "Tex" Johnston as pilot. Built to carry nuclear weapons for Cold War-era deterrence missions, the B-52 Stratofortress replaced the Convair B-36. Although a veteran of a number of wars, the Stratofortress has dropped only conventional munitions in combat. The B-52 carries up to 70,000 pounds (32,000 kg) of weapons. Its Stratofortress name is rarely used outside on official use.

Next the C130 Hercules:

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport aircraft. The versatile airframe has found uses in a variety of other roles, including as a gunship (AC-130), for airborne assault, search and rescue, scientific research support, weather reconnaissance, aerial refueling, maritime patrol and aerial firefighting. It is the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. Over 40 models and variants of the Hercules serve with more than 60 nations

Now the F16:

The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multirole jet fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. Designed as a lightweight, daytime fighter, it evolved into a successful multirole aircraft. Over 4,400 aircraft have been built since production was approved in 1976.[  Though no longer being purchased by the U.S. Air Force, improved versions are still being built for export customers. In 1993, General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to the Lockheed Corporation, which in turn became part of Lockheed Martin after a 1995 merger with Martin Marietta.

The Red Arrows:

The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force, based at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, UK (soon to be RAF Waddington). They were formed in late 1964 as an all-RAF team, replacing a number of unofficial teams that had been sponsored by RAF commands. The Red Arrows badge shows the aircraft in their trademark diamond nine formation, with the motto Éclat, a French word meaning "brilliance" or "excellence" and sometimes "best". The Red Arrows were equipped with seven Folland Gnat trainers which were inherited from the RAF Yellowjacks display team. This aircraft was chosen because it was less expensive to operate than front-line fighters. In their first season, they flew at 65 shows across Europe. In 1966, the team was increased to nine members, enabling them to develop their Diamond Nine formation. In late 1979, they switched to the BAE Hawk trainer. The Red Arrows have performed over 4,000 displays worldwide in 53 countries. At a charity auction, a British woman paid £1,500,000 to fly with them.

Next up the AVRO Lancaster:

PA474 was built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd at Chester in 1945 and was to be part of the British Tiger Force for strategic bombing in the Far East. With the end of the war with Japan the aircraft was not needed and PA474 entered storage. With gun turrets removed it was assigned to Photographic Reconnaissance duties with 82 Squadron in East and South Africa. On return from squadron service PA474 was loaned to Flight Refuelling Limited to be used as a pilotless drone. Flight Refuelling used an Avro Lincoln instead and PA474 was then transferred to the Royal College of Aeronautics to be used for trials on the Handley Page laminar flow wing. The test wings were mounted vertically above the rear fuselage. In 1964 she came under the control of the Air Historical Branch for possible display in the proposed RAF Museum. During this time she appeared in two films: Operation Crossbow and The Guns of Navarone. Following a request from 44 Squadron the Lancaster moved to RAF Waddington for restoration back to wartime standard including fitting back the front and rear turrets.PA474 was transferred to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in 1973. In 1975 a mid-upper turret was found in Argentina and fitted. During the winter of 1995 the Lancaster was fitted with a new main spar to extend her flying life. Having been flown for much of her service with the BBMF as City of Lincoln, PA474 now also wears the markings of the Phantom of the Ruhr depicting a Lancaster that flew 121 sorties, a so called "ton-up" Lancaster. She displays the markings of bombs for operations over Germany, ice-cream cones for operations over Italy, and poppies for when she has released poppies during exhibition flights.

Yippee best aircraft ever to be invented the SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE

The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used into the 1950s both as a front line fighter and in secondary roles. It was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft and was the only Allied fighter in production throughout the war. The Spitfire was designed as a short-range high-performance interceptor aircraftby R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works (since 1928 a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrongs). He continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith became chief designer. The Spitfire's elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a higher top speed than the Hawker Hurricane and several contemporary fighters. Speed was seen as essential to carry out the mission of home defence against enemy bombers. During the Battle of Britain there was a public perception that the Spitfire was the RAF fighter of the battle; in fact the more numerous Hurricane actually shouldered a greater proportion of the burden against the Luftwaffe. After the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire became the backbone of RAF Fighter Command and saw action in the European Theatre, Pacific Theatre and the South-East Asian theatre. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire saw service in several roles, including interceptor, photo-reconnaissance, fighter-bomber, carrier-based fighter, and trainer. It was built in many different variants, using several wing configurations. Although the original airframe was designed to be powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine producing 1,030hp (768 kW), it was adaptable enough to use increasingly more powerful Merlin and the later Rolls-Royce Griffon engines; the latter was eventually able to produce 2,035 hp (1,520  kW).

Next up the Me109:

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s. It was one of the first true modern fighters of the era, including such features as an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. Having gone through its baptism of fire in the Spanish Civil War, the Bf 109 was still in service at the dawn of the jet age at the end of World War II, during which it was the backbone of the German Luftwaffe fighter force. An inverted Vee-piston engined fighter, the Bf 109 was supplemented, but never completely replaced in service, by the radial engined Focke-Wulf Fw 190 from the end of 1941. Originally conceived as an interceptor, later models were developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as bomber escort, fighter bomber, day-, night- all-weather fighter, bomber destroyer, ground-attack aircraft, and as reconnaissance aircraft. It was supplied to and operated by several states during World War II, and served with several countries for many years after the war. The Bf 109 was the most produced warplane during World War II, with 30,573 examples built during the war, and the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 units produced up to April 1945. The Bf 109 was flown by the three top-scoring German fighter aces of World War II, who claimed 928 victories between them while flying with Jagdgeschwader 52, chiefly on the Eastern Front, as well as by the highest scoring German ace in the North African Campaign It was also flown by the highest high-scoring non-German ace Ilmari Juutilainen, and several other successful ones, notably from Finland, Romania, Croatia and Hungary. Through constant development, it remained competitive with the latest Allied fighter aircraft until the end of the war.

The Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight:

Just as a side note, it was officially announced at the show, that the BBMF is now a National Heritage and will be funded as such so as future generations will benefit from the outstanding work that the pilots and crews did for the British public during WWII. There was an issue with future funding with the possibility that the BBMF would be dis-banded to to lack of private funding.

Spitfires & Me109 (who would have thought it all together)

Last (for this blogg anyway) but by no means least,

The RED DEVILS:

The Red Devils are the British Army & Parachute Regiments's display team. The team wears the distinctive maroon beret. The Red Devils are regular serving paratroopers from the three battalions of the Parachute Regiment who have volunteered to serve on the display team. The team was formed on 1 January 1964 by Major-General Glyn Gilbert, who was then Regimental Colonel of the Parachute Regiment, and in 1979 was officially declared the British Army's parachute display team. The team actually comprises two display teams of ten men, each with a cameraman who records each performance.

Well, all done for the time being lol, this blogg contains only a part of the display, but I hope that you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have putting it together. The pics are not of a very high standard but it gives you some idea of what my day was like.

Time for another Vodka and coke and a chance to plan the next installment ( bet you can't wait lmao)

Kevin