Last weekend was the Royal International Air Tattoo for 2006 (read, great big military airshow), and courtesy of my parents, I attended. Things I forgot to bring: spare camera battery, wide-brimmed hat. Things I remembered to bring: KM 5D, 3.5 GB of memory cards, myself. We arrived just before 9 AM, and found ourselves a spot just west of the grandstand area, which is where we usually end up. The wind was out of the East at about 12 knots, so the aircraft would be going left-right across the runway in front of us for takeoff and landing (other than helicopters and one mad Russian pilot).

The show kicked off at 10 A.M. with a display from a Pilatus PC-7 training craft demonstrating how agile a turbo-prop craft can be. The show then rolled steadily onwards, with appearances of a Canberra PR-9, F/A-18C Hornet, BAe Harrier GR7A (a staple of UK airshows I think), Mi-24V Hind, F-16AM Falcon, two Westland Lynxes, B-1B Lancer, B52-H Stratofortress, MV-22B Osprey, MiG-29M OVT, F/A-18F Super Hornet, F-15C Eagle, P-51C Mustang, Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire and much more. Yes, that list was only about half of the flying craft. There was also the static display, with approximately 100 fighters, tankers, helicopters and support craft on display.

(That image plays with Lightbox 2, just to see if I like the effect in the blog.)

The show also had a feature called Imagineering aimed at non-adults (and adults in some ways) to introduce them to engineering concepts in a fun way. One of the exhibits in the hall was a fan holding a round ball up in the air. No, the fan wasn’t pointing directly upwards, it was pointing 45 degrees above the horizon. Got to love the Bernoulli Effect.

If you’ve never seen a MiG-29 OVT in action, try and see one – it’ll blow your mind what a modern vectored-thrust fighter craft can do. The Harrier is impressive because of the VTOL capabilities. The MiG-29 is impressive because of the crazy things it can do in mid-air, such as tail-walk. In a dogfight between F-16 (or F-18F) and MiG-29 OVT, I’d probably bet on the MiG (no missiles allowed). The other neat trick aircraft has to be the Westland Lynx – helicopters are not meant to fly upside down!

All in all, a good day out, despite running out of battery capacity at the 8 hour mark, which really wasn’t bad. I shot 500ish photos in 8 hours on a single battery charge, and I can’t complain about that.  The gallery has been kicked off with the Hurricane picture, and should be filled in after a bit.