Royal International Air Tattoo 2004, RAF Fairford 
17th-18th July 2004

The most important part of any airshow is the flying display. RIAT's flying display is the longest and one of the most packed of any UK show. It therefore has to be got right, as no-one wants to sit through a boring eight hour flying display with little variety or flow. Photography Paul Johnson/Flightline UK or as credited

Thankfully for the public flying displays the weather just about behaved itself. Friday's youth day had been a wash out with very little braving the elements. It was good to see that throughout the two days, the flying displays seemed to match the printed programme with very few changes. The displays also seemed to flow together much better this year than 2003, particular when compared with the Sunday display in 2003. Both day's shows were quite different from previous years by getting the two big UB bombers, the B-52H Stratofortress and B-1B Lancer into the air quite early in the flying display. This actually helped to improve the flow of the flying display separating them from the other touring items that often appear later on the flying display. In fact the americans had a startling presence in the flying display. 10 years ago, the IAT'94 display had no US aircraft flown by US pilots at all. 2004's display. Sadly however, apart from the the F/A-18F and F-15C, the displays from the bombers and F-117A Nighthawk and B-2A Spirit were all too short and flat - no topside passes at all from the F-117A, alledgely due to some classified modifications to the upper surfaces of the aircraft. It's always nice to see these aircraft, they are an all too rare sight nowadays, but all too frustrating to photographers and regular airshow visitors. The B-2A appearance gets more and more farcical each year. Once again we were treated to the same high flat flypast with escort F-15s - THREE on Saturday and FOUR on Sunday.

It was unfortuate that the formation of the USAF's MC-130P Combat Talon and MH-53M Pave Low IV flypast was only seen on the Saturday. Since Mildenhall has not held a show since 2001 these tow types have not been seen at a flying display. We guess it must have been very frustrating to those attending just on Sunday.

Thankfully though, the US did send the East Coast Demonstration Team for the Boeing F-15C Eagle. While not in the league of european solo displays, the Eagle is a rariety in a flying display and does make plenty of noise which is enough to get the attention of the crowd. More spectacular however was the Heritage Flight by bringing the F-15C solo pilot together with P-51D Mustang maestro Ed Shipley for a few tight formation circuits.

The only other nation contributing so much to the flying was of course the United Kingdom and it's air arms. Headlined by the Red Arrows celebrating their own 40th anniversary and the 30th Anniversary of the Hawk. They were joined by most of the RAF's current front line and training types, though a display by Nimrod was lost due to unservicability of the alloted aircraft. Perhaps the most eye-catching UK aircraft was the Sea Harrier FA2 in it's admiral's barge scheme marking the start of the type's retirement. Winning the award for best display by a UK based aircraft/team, the Steedman Display Sword were Flt lts Tim Freeman and Neil Crawley for their superb solo demonstration of the Panavia Tornado F3 from No 56(R) Squadron, RAF Leuchars. The RAF also provided the only fourth generation fighter on show in the form of the Eurofighter Typhoon T1 flown by Wg Cmdr Jon Hitchcock of 29(R) Squadron - though the aircraft itself was from 17(R) Squadron. Though not as dramatic as 2003's "Paris" display from Maurizio Chelli, it did underline the fact Typhoon is now an RAF fighter.

The next biggest contigent came from the French Air Force as part of the Entente Cordiale 100 celebrations. Sadly, the elegant Patrouille De France were only able to stay for Saturday's display, though they did get the best weather for another supreb aerial ballet against deep blue skies. Winning the Lockheed Martin Cannestra Trophy for best overseas flying demonstration were Capt Yann Valet and Lt Fabrice Camliti who shared the display flying of the Mirage 2000C. A few years ago we may have welcomed the TBM700 display from the Fench Army as something rare. Sadly, for such a quiet and small aircraft we have seen far too much of it at recent Tattoos. It's a very pleasant display, but it is lost in the wide arena of Fairford and has been seen to many times before. Now, if it was the Pilatus from the static display, that would have been a different story! Still it was nice to see the formations of RAF Jaguar/FAF Mirage and RAF Tucuno/ALAT TBM700 to highlight the Entente Cordiale. No, we didn't capture the explosion!

A particular highlight of the flying this year was the celebration of the Patrouille Suisse' s 40th Anniversary. They commenced their segment of the flying display in formation with the Swiss Air Force's solo F/A-18C Hornet in what is a rare formation outside of Switzerland. On any other day, the Swiss Hornet display would have won an award or two for what was a truly dramatic display. Unfortuately, a bigger and meaner verion of Hornet stole the show. The Patrouille's display was followed on both days by Hawker Hunter Aviation's Hunter F58a in the markings of the 1994 team which marked the end of the team's assocation with the Hunter as well as being their 30th anniversary.

A team making their UK debut was the Finnish Air Force Midnight Hawks. The appearance of such as team is what make RIAT so special - bringing new and rare aircraft and displays to the UK. This was their second display outside of Finland, and though we've seen Finland's Hawks before, this was the first time they had been seen as part of the flying display. Of course, themain reason for the presence was the 30th Anniversary of the BAE Systems Hawk. Their display was a very tight formation routine, for which they stayed together throughout. The affection for the aircraft and joy at being at RIAT was very evident thoughout the weekend. They talked to all the other big teams about display flying as well as all the other things pilots tend to talk about and we hope they will be back soon.

We are once again treated to a shoot out between the Belgians and Dutch over who had to best F-16 display as part of the Fighter '04 segment of the flying. The winner on this occasion was Commandant John Vandebosch (great name!) from the Belgian Armed Forces who took the Paul Bowen Solo Jet Trophy.. The Belgians also brought the elegant Fouga Magister.

Another man no stranger to airshow awards is Will Curtis in the Honda Dream Team Sukhoi Su-26M2. His first appearance at RIAT was no exception winning the Sir Douglas Bader Trophy for Best Individual Flying Demonstration. Will flies a demanding well positioned routine in what is a very eye catching aircraft. His in flight "banter" with team commentator Pete MacNamara certain brings out the "WOW" factor for the crowd.

The biggest award winner however was Ricardo Traven in the Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet. Ricardo is Boeing's chief test pilots and was demonstrating the Super Hornet at Farnborough the week after RIAT. Luckily, he was able to fit in RIAT this year with his usual dramatic routine. Ricardo won the King Hussain Memorial Sword and the As The Crow Flies (FRIAT) awards for best overall flying displays. His jet also won the award for best livery as voted for by FRIAT members. "This is incredible" said Ricardo, "I demonstrate the Super Hornet in many parts of the world but Fairford is all about great crowds and great competition. is not just the individual but the entire team. And I have one helluva team."

The finale of each day's flying was the D-Day salute which we have detailed much earlier. Although it continued the quality of the flying displays, we felt that the gaps between the different set pieces somewhat let down what had been a very well constructed program. That's not to say we felt it let down the event, it just seemed a little slower paced and felt like RIAT was winding down rather than building to a rousing finale.

I would like to thank Michele Eccles and all at the RIAT Press Office, Brian Hayward and all at FRIAT as well as all of the volunteers whom help to make RIAT the event it is. See you next year!

 copyright Flightline UK 2004