Farnborough International Airshow 2014, UK It all started when I received a call from my cousin in mid June to check whether I would be free to attend an airshow in July , planes have always fascinated me since my childhood , during my college days most of my weekends were spent on my friends apartment terrace in Begumpet ( Hyderabad ) which had lovely views of the old airport runway watching flights land and take off for hours together , when I moved to London in 2002 I was amazed to find clear views of the Heathrow runway from the car park and the bust stop , many a evening was spent with friends just watching planes fly off into the horizon , immediately answered yes to my cousin and the tickets were booked for the Farnborough International Airshow for Saturday 19 July .
Farnborough International Airshow - It is a biennial event staged at Farnborough roughly around 30 miles away from London , it is one of the biggest aircraft + related peripherals exhibition & airshow in Europe and attracts the top players from the industry , whilst the event is held over a week it is open for the public only at the weekend through ticket purchase. This year FIA was held from 14-20 July 2014.
Since the tickets arrived I was counting the days out and was super excited , the weather was absolutely glorious as the week started which meant 100 % participation of the listed aircraft at the weekend show , however it is common knowledge that you cannot trust weather up here in England , you can witness all the seasons in one single day and so it happened , there were severe thunderstorms around London on Thursday and the forecast predicted rains on Saturday casting a shadow of doubt over the airshow itself , we decided that come what may we will make it to the airshow and had a plan B to drive else where if the show was cancelled .
Woke up early on the day and set off from home at 07:45 am , large crowds and significant traffic jams were expected and we certainly did not fancy being stuck on the M3 for hours together , although it was only 30 miles drive from my house we were at the gates by 09:10 am as we had to park few miles away and take the shuttle bus to reach the venue . The airshow was meant to start at 12:30 pm thus giving us ample time to go through the various static exhibits and get into some aircraft.
Without boring you any further , here are some pics from the day ,I ended up clicking close to 2000 pics and the attached pics are just a snap shot of the collection, kindly excuse the quality and the framing angles as it was extremely crowded and there was very little room around to wriggle and get a decent shot .
Few Details regarding the attached pics -
Pic 6 - Blackhawk
Pic 7 - Augusta West land 149
Pic 8 - Augusta West Land 189
( Augusta West Land was in the news in India not too long ago regarding some corrupt deals )
Pic 10 - Selex ES Falco - All weather Unmanned Aerial Vehicle used for civil and military surveillance
Pic 11 - P1 HH Hammerhead - Medium Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Drone
Pic 14 - 2000 LX - private Jet for the rich and the mighty
Pic 15 - NH 90 - Military Transporter
Pic 16 - Airbus A 400 - The needle like structure on the top of the cockpit is used to refuel other military aircraft in mid air.
Pic 17 - the famous A 380 - Was amazed by its versatility in the air , very nimble manoeuvres
Pic 18,19, 20 - Harrier II
Pic 21,22,23 - Avro Vulcan
Pic 24 -30 - Breitling Wing Walker - Was one of the highlights of the show for me personally , the girls are strapped to a pole like structure on top of the wings and perform stunts at high altitude , at one point they took of their safety straps at high altitude which was jaw dropping , true dare devils in my book.
Few more pics to follow shortly - |