[MilCom] Fairford International Air Tattoo

[Peter Tomlinson]

Off topic 'cos no radios used.

Was at Fairford today, mainly to see the Avro Vulcan B.2 XH558 fly 
(having in my teens lived near the factory where it was built, and 
almost certainly seen it doing flight testing at that time). After its 
spectacular display (with a take-off reminiscent of the almost straight 
up display every time a Vulcan B.2 made a test run down the ILS at 
Ringway Airport - now Manchester Airport - it was possible to join a 
party to go under the aircraft and look around.

A B52 had arrived, having come up from Spain according to the 
commentator. It made several fly-bys and then landed at about the same 
time as the Vulcan. There was also a static B52. By the time that we got 
to sprint across to the Vulcan in pouring rain, a number of B52 
personnel had joined the party, and it was very interesting to listen as 
they quizzed a B52 engineer about the aircraft's fuel, hydraulic and 
electrical systems and compared them with some USA practice of the same 
era. And the very cramped cockpit of the Vulcan surprised the younger 
B52 men.

You can learn more at www.vulcantothesky.com and, of course, on 
Wikipedia (where I learned that the Vulcan had ejectors seats but only 
for the 2 pilots, not for the other 3 to 5 crew - I had thought that 
there were no ejector seats).

Also had a discussion with a great guy who was handling the enquiries 
about the static B1. There is a story about one of those flying a 
display at Fairford in the 1990s (too fast)...

Peter