Farnborough International Airshow 2006

Author: Robin Powney
Photography: Author & Paul Tiller

Eighteen years ago, Farnborough became the first airshow in the UK to host the MiG-29 Fulcrum. Escorted in by 5 Squadron Tornado F.3s, it was fair to say the Fulcrums were the stars of the show. Fast forward the eighteen years to the 2006 show and now Farnborough has now become the first airfield in the UK to host the latest and greatest variant, albeit in developmental form, of the ageing Fulcrum – the MiG-29M OVT. However, it's not the first visit from this particular airframe as it attended the 1992 show as a MiG-29M. Yes, it looks like a Fulcrum and yes, it’s made by the same people that brought the world the Fulcrum but a Fulcrum-B it ain’t. This gem is to the original MiG-29 what the Focus is to the Model T in the Ford line-up. It’s still a MiG-29 but one that’s undergone a lot of changes and, all for the good. On the all-singing, all-dancing Fulcrum, gone is the ageing fully mechanical control system to be replaced by a full fly-by-wire HOTAS set-up. However, that’s not all the new Fulcrum has up its extensive sleeves. Extended range, new avionics, improvements to weapons systems, addition of wing-tip rails for lightweight AAMs (not on the demonstrator) and something called OVT (which could probably be called the “Newton’s Fourth Law” system) all feature in the MiG-29M OVT. In case you were wondering, OVT means Otklanyayemi Vektor Tyagi which is Russian, according to MiG, for “Deflected Thrust Vector” and may also be referred to as KLIVT (Klimov Vectoring Thrust). The nozzles, designed by Klimov, allow for 15º of movement in any direction, at any point throughout the entire flight regime and can move at a rate of 60º/sec. Yes, you did read that right - that’s full deflection one way to full deflection the other in just 0.5 seconds. The engines, of which only five exist anywhere, to which the nozzles are mated are still Klimov RD-33s, but have been tweaked for the new role by Klimov’s Design Division and also offer almost 7kN more thrust in afterburner. All of this adds up to one seriously agile jet that is capable of flying at very low speeds with pretty much no AoA limitation.

RSK MiG didn’t just send along anybody to fly their pride and joy... at the helm of this garishly coloured “Super Fulcrum” for the numerous displays were none other than the RSK MiG Chief Test Pilot ‘Hero of Russia’ Pavel Vlasov or his colleague, Mikhail Belyaev. During the demo, the Fulcrum did things that one would think were damn near impossible for even the likes of an Extra 300, let alone twelve tonnes of metals and composites that are capable of hitting Mach 2.2. Awesome isn’t a strong enough word to describe it. Cobras are now not exactly Cobras but more correctly defined as a full 360º “backflip” and at one point during the terrific routine, as the jet completes one backflip and begins to lose altitude, it drops into another. To make it easier for the Mk 1 eyeball to discern just what was happening, two wing mounted smoke generators meant you could see which way the jet was going and on more than one occasion, the smoke was actually coming off the edge of the rear wing at 90º to the direction of travel. On the subject of manoeuvre names, RSK MiG ran a competition at Farnborough for visitors to name four of the new and un-named tricks performed in the display; with the prize being a trip to Moscow to have a ride in a MiG-29. Quite simply, I haven’t ever seen anything like it. Someone ought to tell the good people at RSK MiG that the numerous laws of physics do in fact apply to them and their aircraft too. However, if this is what they can do with a thirty-two year old design; God only knows what they can do with a blank sheet of paper and new pencils. It also bodes well for the Indians as the MiG-29M and MiG-29M2 are competing in the MRCA competition to replace ageing MiG-23MFs Flogger-Bs and their OVT is basically a developmental platform for the M/M2s.

F-22A Raptor not withstanding, it’s perhaps not going too far to state that the most agile and awe-inspiring jets that the World’s aviation companies have to offer were on the bill. The F/A-18F, already proven to be a supremely agile jet, was represented by two brand new examples assigned to the first ever unit to operate the Super Hornet – the west coast F/A-18E/F Fleet Replacement Squadron, VFA-122 “Flying Eagles” from NAS Lemoore in California. Although sadly lacking any hi-viz CAG or XO jet paintjobs a la the VFA-2 “Bounty Hunter” F/A-18Fs of 2004, these two jets were about the latest Super Hornets that Boeing could get their hands on, bar the Block 2 AESA equipped jets flown by VFA-213 “Black Lions” at Oceana. Your average common or garden F/A-18E/F is a perfectly capable platform for putting ordnance on target – already most precision munitions in the US arsenal are cleared for the Rhino yet the Block 2 jets take this a little further. What this seemingly innocuous “Block 2” means is that the older AN/APG-73 radar has been replaced by Raytheon’s newest box of gadgetry, the AN/APG-79 AESA, the jets are now able to fully use the Raytheon ATFLIR targeting pod and a Link-16 datalink. The APG-79 is the first AESA radar (and that includes the AN/APG-77 in the Raptor) that permits almost simultaneous use of the air-to-air and air-to-ground modes in any US aircraft. It also offers further significant advantages over the APG-73 in so much as it has greater range, an ability to track more targets and even pass targeting information for munitions such as JDAMs to other jets that may or may not have their own AESA radars. Whilst a Tomcat it ain’t, a Block 2 F/A-18F (most Block 2 jets will be twin-seat Fs rather than single-seat Es) with developments of the AMRAAM will be able to offer a Carrier Strike Group greater cover than current carrier borne assets thanks to the improved radar and longer ranged AIM-120s. However, the Block 2 electrickery doesn’t bring anything extra to the agility table and any Super Hornet can be quite an airshow performer.

Ricardo Traven, Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Chief Test Pilot and the maestro that simply blitzed the opposition for the RIAT King Hussein Memorial Sword and As The Crow Flies trophies in 2004, was once again at the helm of the USN’s primary strike-fighter with the intention of flinging it about the Hampshire skies. However, unlike 2004 where the jet was almost fully tooled-up with four AIM-120s and two AIM-9s, the 2006 demo would be conducted with a clean jet to create, in the words of the man himself, “a faster, more dynamic show with all the high-angle-of-attack and signature maneouvres that only a Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet can do.” Between the rather impressive short take-off departure and carrier style “fly it into the deck for a controlled crash” landing, Ricardo really did a fantastic job of showing off just how agile the Rhino actually is. Bar any MiG-29M OVT-only tricks, Ricardo did pretty much everything else possible in a currently displayed fast jet and actually said he intended to “fly the wings off” the thing on the opening day of the show. 2004 saw superb displays at RIAT and Farnborough – 2006, well, it’s better. Although four AIM-120s dangling from the wings does look better than a clean jet, the reduction of drag and weight does seem to have had a marked effect on the ability of the Rhino to make big holes in the sky. When Boeing put together the Super Hornet, you’d think they’d deliberately designed it for airshows! Ignoring the eye-watering thrust-vectored stunts of the Fulcrum, which will probably take witchcraft to beat, the Super Hornet can be fairly considered as perhaps one of the finest jet demonstration of recent years.

Ricardo’s briefings also have to been seen to be believed; sitting with the coach, Franklin Green, Ricardo actually describes in massive detail, even down to airspeed, altitude and timings, his display and what he would do given something failed – such as an engine flame-out. Both high and low shows are discussed in the same fashion, as was the point at which the decision would be made to continue with the high show or switch to the low. Watching and listening to this brief is, quite simply, watching a genius at work although without the massive support provided by the rest of team, Ricardo wouldn’t have a serviceable jet to fly in. All are employees of Boeing, rather than the US Navy, and this small team spends all sorts of hours for weeks on end ensuring the jets work when Boeing needs them to work. Given the thunderstorm and torrential downpour that rolled in just as Ricardo was strapping on the jet, it was obvious that Saturday would see the low show and, whilst it shouldn’t be quite as good as the high show, the very high humidity and dark skies made for a thoroughly entertaining display thanks to the Rhino’s ability to generate its own clouds, pull off manoeuvres you’d think it couldn’t do and the uncanny ability of the F414-GE-400 engines to turn kerosene into vast amounts of noise is a bonus. In a further nod to Boeing’s intentions with the Super Hornet, two HAL test pilots, Air Marshals AK Nagalia and Bhushan Gokhale (the Rhino is going toe-to-toe in the Indian MRCA competition with the MiG-29M/M2), got to fly the Rhino in the skies of the UK and after leaving Hampshire, the jets didn’t go home, they went to Bulgaria following a RFI (Request For Information) issued to Boeing for the F/A-18E/F. With 462 Echos and Foxtrots going to the US Navy (the only operator of the type, although the original request was for about twice as many) with an extra 90 EA-18G Growlers replacing the EA-6B Prowler, it’s not as if Boeing need to export the Rhino but obviously a sale is a sale – one can only wonder how the Super Hornet would look in Indian or Bulgarian markings! Other potential export customers could include Switzerland, Spain, Kuwait, Finland, Japan and Australia.

In what was considered a slight surprise due to what would be in attendance, the F-22 wasn’t brought across to join the party. The omission left Lockheed to face the Super Hornet and down-right crazy MiG-29M OVT with the venerable F-16 which didn’t seem all that fair to be honest - it can't touch the F/A-18E/F, let alone the MiG-29M OVT. The F-16 type chosen was the Block 50, provided by the Spangdahlem-based 23rd FS “Fighting Hawks”, rather than a new Block 60 F-16E/F. Granted the performance of the F-16CJ is perhaps slightly better than the heavier F-16E/F thanks to, amongst other things, a standard spine and lack of conformal fuel tanks yet a shiny new UAE AF Block 60 Viper would have been quite an addition to the show. Flown by Troy Pennington and Bill Gigliotti, both Lockheed test pilots and with fitted with just a pair of smokewinders, the displays didn’t quite have the measure of the best the European Viper nations had to offer although they were quite impressive. Eurofighter GmbH and Gripen International, in their own backyards, couldn’t be seen to let the Americans and Russians sew up the fast jet displays and duly stepped up to oche wielding a Typhoon and JAS-39C Gripen. The Typhoon would be flown by 29(R) Squadron’s Sqn Ldr Matt Elliott whilst the Gripen would be flown by Fredrik Müchler, an ex-Swedish AF Draken and Team 60 pilot who has more than 1,000hrs on the JAS-39 and 3,700hrs in most Swedish AF types including the Sk60, Draken, Viggen and Gripen. The two Europeans did an admirable job of demonstrating their products although both had the edge knocked off the displays by displaying at a seemingly greater height whilst, due to the slightly smaller size, the Gripen suffered more than the Typhoon did. Gripen International and SAAB didn't just feature in the flying display - to support the announcement about QinetiQ's Empire Test Pilots School using the Gripen as their advanced fast jet platform, a JAS-39B had some blue emulsion splashed on the tail and down the spine and finished off with gold ETPS Griffin logos on either side of the tail. Although the Gripen has been part of ETPS schooling for 7 years, this announcement sees a 30% increase in student numbers, a 20% increase in flights per student (for a total of 12.5 hrs), the inclusion of a third ETPS Gripen IP and the inclusion of Flight Test Engineer students. Students get simulator time at the Swedish AF’s F7 Wing facility at Såtenäs and will undertake all flights from Saab’s facility at Linköping.

One thing that Eurofighter pulled off was a second Typhoon display although this time round with a T.1 fully loaded with six Paveway LGBs. Mark Bowman, the BAE Systems Typhoon Project pilot made a very good showing for the bombed-up Typhoon and, strangely enough, it coincided with the day when Ultra Electronics were awarded a £56M contract to provide Rafael Litening EF (Gen III) targeting pods for the RAF Typhoons. Whilst buying the pods direct from Israel would no doubt ultimately achieve the same goal, the terms of the agreement include a technology transfer such that Ultra can update and upgrade the pods without Rafael over a period of 20 years. These pods, in addition to the obvious designation of ground targets, also permit air-to-air targeting, ground reconnaissance and have a FLIR to permit low-level night-time and adverse weather flying. Still on the subject of the Typhoon, a welcome addition to the static was that of a single Italian 4º Stormo Typhoon in the Finmeccanica exhibition area – an area which featured various types of aircraft and UAVs all adorned with World Cup 2006 winners artwork. Another jet conspicuous by its absence was the Dassault Rafale. In light of the fact that Farnborough is a trade show and Dassault are desperate to get the Rafale onto the world export market, it did seem just that little odd that it was missing. It would have also given the chance to compare pretty much all the jets on the various “we want a new fighter” lists of several nations around the World on a level playing field yet irrespective of the relative pros and cons of each type, comments overheard during the course of the show suggested that your average airshow goer is as impressed with the Typhoon or Gripen as he or she is with the physics-ignoring shenanigans of the MiG-29M OVT.

However, it wasn’t all afterburners, high-g this and barrel-roll that during the display… Airbus, as was expected, brought their two biggest airliners with them. Those two heavyweights being the very long and seemingly quite thin A340-600 and the shorter but much, MUCH fatter A380-800 double-decker super-jumbo; both featuring Airbus Industries house colour schemes rather than any particular airline scheme. Having never seen, except in photos, the A380 before, all I can say is “WOW”. It is a whole different kind of enormous. Whilst similar in length to the 747-400 and a little wider, wingspan wise, the full-length double-decker fuselage and immense tail make the A380 look massively bigger than the older Boeing passenger hauler. Parked on the cross runway next to this behemoth was the A340-600 which compounded just how big the A380 is. Although the tube-like A340-600 is much longer than its younger brother, the A380 is almost 40% taller (tail height) and has a wing area that is only a little shy of twice that of the A340-600. What’s even more shocking is the weight of the things considering both can start at, for instance, Heathrow and end up roughly 15,000km away on just the one tank of fuel – the A340-600 tips the scales at a maximum of about 380 tonnes whereas the A380, which makes use of new lighter-weight composites, comes in at a truly massive 560 tonnes and is roughly 100 tonnes heavier than the A340-600 when empty. Like I said, HUGE!! Just thinking of customs delays, we can only hope no-one decides to take an A380 and stuff it full of economy-class seating as that will mean, when it comes to getting off, there could be 852 people between you, immigration and passport control. That’s the type of delay that two 747-400s could create! Given a typical layout, well, “typical” according to Airbus, there’d only be 554 in front of you which isn’t quite so bad! Thus far, 159 of the $300M giants have been ordered by 16 customers worldwide, with just Virgin Atlantic representing the UK airlines, although about another 100 need to be sold for Airbus to break even.

Whilst obviously all the attention at the show was focused on the A380, the A340-600 had conducted a spirited display although it does have to be said - the A340-600, thanks to its massive Smarties tube looks, does look a bit, well, strange. Airbus must really look forward to these trade shows as once again the A340 was thrown around the skies of Hampshire with Claude Lelaie seemingly having little to no regard for the laws of airliner physics. The landing on Monday was somewhat eye-opening as the main wheels were brought into contact with terra firma with quite a thump at not far off the half-way mark of the runway. Comments of "it's not gonna stop from there!" and "how are they going to stop that?" and so forth were overheard but stop it they did although two orange-flashy-light equipped vehicles, chasing the A340 down the runway at a fair rate of knots, implied not everything may have been entirely as it should. No real emergency vehicles, by that I mean the big red trucks with the blue lights, ventured out so one can only presume the result was that the landing was a little harder than normal but not a problem.

Following a relatively short take-off into a tight bank to starboard, a redistribution of a vast amount of grass cuttings over most of the county and with Deputy Project Pilot Peter Chandler (a former A340 pilot with Virgin Atlantic) in the pilot seat, the A380 proved itself to be a surprisingly capable performer which isn't quite what you expect from something that looks so unwieldy. In perhaps the biggest shock, the massive airliner actually performed a low-speed high-alpha pass! Amazing. Another surprise was just how quiet it is... you would expect an aircraft the size of a small African nation with its four massive engines to sound more like some kind of party than a library but at times you just can't hear the thing which must surely come as a blessing to those fearful of A380 operations. The four Rolls-Royce Trent 970s, the biggest engines Rolls-Royce have ever built, together can muster 280,000lbf of thrust although A380s could, and probably will, feature Trent 900 versions capable of providing a total of 336,000lbf. Thus far, roughly half of all A380s will be fitted with the Trent 900 whilst the rest will be fitted with the competing EngineAlliance (a joint GE and P&W company) GP7200 which has similar specifications to the Trent 900. Logic or common sense would suggest that airliners shouldn't be able to do what these airliners did and for that, Airbus have to be congratulated. They also managed to show off their two giants whilst the green and white Boeing 777-300ER (also capable of 14,000km+ flights) of Taiwan-based EVA Air remained firmly on the tarmac until it left on the Sunday morning.

Remaining on the topic of Airbus, Farnborough also saw the announcement of a whole new airliner from the Toulouse gang. The A350XWB, or Xtra Wide Body, will be a brand-new airliner designed to go head to head with Boeing's 787 "Dreamliner" which has thus far done quite well for itself in gaining sales even though it is currently a little overweight. Singapore Airlines are yet again first off the starting blocks with an Airbus jet and have placed a firm order for twenty XWBs with options for twenty more. With a fuselage wider than the 787, the A350XWB should be able to offer passengers greater comfort thanks to more space and the three versions (the -800, -900 and -1000) can offer seating for between 270 and 350 passengers over distances of up to almost 16,000km with a maximum speed of Mach 0.85 which is pretty much what the 787-8 and 787-9 are capable of. In terms of orders announced by both major airliner players, Airbus announced 182 orders from twelve customers for what were predominantly A320s and A330s; Boeing on the other hand have 79 firm orders, most of which were for the 737-800 & -900, the rest being 747s and 777s so sold more large aircraft than Airbus did. In terms of total orders, 1480 exhibitors from 35 different countries and 110 different airlines sent representatives to the show which eventually recorded more than $42B in sales which is exactly double the $21B announced for the orders taken at the 2004 show.

The award for the strangest looking attendee at the show must surely go to Bell-Boeing Textron’s MV-22B Osprey. Bar, that is, the down right crazy Bell X-Hawk mockup but I’ll get back to that later on. Designed to combine the relative merits of helicopter (VTOL) and turboprop aircraft (greater range and a higher cruise speed) operations, the 24 ton V-22 is the World's first production tiltrotor and comes after a problematic twenty year development that has cost a not inconsiderable $30B. Mid-2005 saw the Osprey successfully complete its final OPEVAL which included high altitude, high temperature, desert, shipborne (aboard LHD-5 USS Bataan) and long range operations which was the precursor to the Pentagon announcing full-rate production. The UK appearance of the Ospreys, in addition to being shown off to potential customers at RIAT and Farnborough and the kick start to a sales drive, would allow the Osprey to demonstrate the ability to self-deploy over several thousand miles – something the currently used force of ageing CH-46E Sea Knights cannot do. The sixteen hour flight was conducted by VMX-22 crews and involved a stop in Canada prior to actually hopping over the Atlantic. However, all was not entirely sweetness and light as when the two VMX-22 Ospreys and their two VMGR-252 KC-130J tankers were heading to the UK from Canada, one of the Ospreys suffered from a compressor stall in one of the engines so diverted into Keflavik. The little hiccup with the engine was remedied relatively easily by swapping the duff engine with a spare that had already been pre-positioned in the UK; this meant the poorly Osprey could then join its squadron mate at Farnborough, albeit 36 hours later and, once here, reliability didn't seem to be a problem for either machine.

In total, there will be 360 MV-22Bs for the USMC and 50 CV-22Bs for the USAF with a future requirement of 48 HV-22Bs for the USN and the possibility of some UV-22Bs for the US Army. The first operational squadron will be the USMC’s VMM-263 "Thunder Chickens" based at MCAS New River alongside the two pre-existing squadrons of VMX-22 "Argonauts" (the test and development squadron) and VMMT-204 "Raptors" (the MV-22 training squadron) and should see operational duty in Iraq in 2007. Eventually all CH-46 units at New River will transition onto the MV-22 with VMM-162 "Golden Eagles" being the next one to stand up as an operational Osprey unit. The first thing you think of when faced with a V-22 is “that shouldn’t fly”... it just looks like it shouldn’t fly yet thanks to two Rolls-Royce AE1107C engines that each provide 6,150shp to 38-ft diameter foldable rotors, fly it does. Noise wise, you’d expect it to sound Chinook-like but it creates a somewhat odd sound that lies somewhere between that of an idling tractor and a Puma yet isn’t quite as loud as you’d think it would be (which must help the Marines sleep at night knowing they won’t be going into combat in a flying klaxon). The pilots, Bell’s Marty Schubert and Boeing’s Steve Grohsmeyer, took turns to display the Osprey and showed off the unique abilities of the tiltrotor by amply demonstrating both helicopter and aircraft ‘modes’ and the transition phases between the two. It has even been said the demos of the Osprey were about 60% of what the thing can really do – I’d love to see the other 40% of what it can do now, let alone after VMX-22 crews have been busy playing with the rule book for another few years! One further ‘oddity’ was the paint scheme, both MV-22s were resplendent in a very smart two-tone IR/radar signature reducing silver scheme rather than an expected “tactical grey” and the peculiar machines really did look extremely good in the sunshine. Normal Corps Ospreys will be painted in the aforesaid tactical grey and not the silver finish which will stay within VMX-22.

In what amounted to yet another first for Farnborough, the booming Indian aviation industry was represented by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (now in the top 50 of the top 100 worldwide aviation companies) AJT-36 Sitara intermediate jet trainer and the troubled Dhruv light helicopter, two of each arrived in Hampshire aboard an An-124 Condor. The Dhruv is basically an indigenous Indian light multi-role helicopter that is small, agile and adaptable to a considerable number of roles and actually looks quite similar to the Eurocopter/Kawasaki BK-117. First announced way back in 1984, the first prototype flew in 1992 yet deliveries of the 300 helicopters ordered by the Indian Air Force, Navy, Army and Coast Guard, Nepal and Israel didn’t actually start until 2002. The Dhruv is capable of carrying a 20mm gun, eight anti-tank missiles or four unguided rocket pods in the army and air force guises or two torpedoes, depth charges or anti-shipping missiles in the naval guise. Initial reports/rumours claimed that the Dhruvs at Farnborough would be demonstrated by the Sarang display team but this wasn’t entirely accurate – the display was flown as a single ship with a second fitted out with various munitions and left in the static park although both were wearing the eye-catching peacock scheme of the Sarang team. Display wise, Wing Commanders Hari Nair, Unni Pillai and C. D. Upadhyay (HAL’s Chief rotary wing test pilot) certainly know their stuff and went on to prove just how nimble the Advance Light Helicopter really is although it is enhanced by the use of smoke generating pods – which can cause a little surprise when the said generator “flames out”. HAL also displayed their light jet trainer alongside the ALH, intended to replace the 42-year old AJT-16 Kiran and provide a stepping stone onto modern aircraft like the Su-30MKI (and if Boeing get their way, the F/A-18F), the AJT-36 has had a development life almost completely opposite to the Dhruv –development work began in 1999 and just four years later it made a successful first flight at HALs Bangalore plant. As a tiny jet, at times, the Sitara seemed to just get ‘lost’ in the skies over Farnborough yet nevertheless proved to be a reasonable display with manoeuvres typical of a small jet trainer demonstration. The awful weather on Saturday wasn’t enough to keep Boeing on the ground but it was enough to keep the IJT team on terra firma – the jet actually made it to the runway yet aborted the take-off due to the awful weather.

Static wise, the main focal point with the exception of the A340 and A380, was the US Department of Defense Corral from which the rest of the static line-ups radiated. The DoD Corral is basically a collection of US aircraft all located together and was this year dominated by the imposing 815th AS "Flying Jennies" stretched C-130J from the 403rd Wing at Keesler AFB with single examples of the F-16C, F/A-18F, F-15C, F-15E and UH-60A located round it. Looking on over the said corral were EVA Air’s 777-300ER, the 6th AS "Billy Beef Express" C-17A and a tiny, in comparison, replica of an X-46 N-UCAV. Of the fast jets in the corral, the best turned out machine was the VFA-122 F/A-18F as, to show off its truly multi-role ability, it was pretty much fully tooled up with quite an arsenal of [dummy] weaponry. AIM-9X Sidewinders populated the wing-tip rails, AIM-120 AMRAAMs on the two fuselage stations, AGM-88E AARGMs (the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile is the latest multi-mode version and successor of the AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation missile which can now not only take out the radar but, thanks to the addition of an MMW seeker, it can also be used to take out the control vehicle which the HARM couldn’t do) were located on the outermost wing pylons, inboard of these were 2,000-lb GBU-31 JDAMs on the centre pylons and 2,000-lb GBU-24/B Paveway III LGBs on the innermost pylons with a fuel tank hanging from the fuselage centreline. On display with the Rhino, well, within the DoD Corral, was quite a range of ordnance. You could maybe argue that the three strike aircraft within the corral could all quite easily employ the weapons but it was quite clear they were part of the Boeing master plan to get the Super Hornet onto the international market with a big "look what we can do!".

However, on Monday morning, you could have quite justifiably assumed Boeing had got all creative as most of the munitions were displayed alongside the C-17A... although the USAF do want a new bomber by 2018, we're quite sure that there aren't any C-17s flying with AARGM capability or with some kind of fancy bomb rack mechanism inside the cargo hold. The venerable JDAM was represented by the GBU-38/B, GBU-32(V)2/B and GBU-31(V)2/B together with the latest in precision munition deployment - the BRU-55 Smart Bomb Rack. This innocuous looking device basically enhances the hitting power of the jet from which it dangles by allowing two 1,000-lb weapons to be hung from a suitable pylon. However, it also allows fully independent targeting and release of each weapon. The first of 135 such racks was delivered by EDO to the USN on the Friday of the show and will eventually feature in the arsenal of all USN F/A-18 types. Whilst capable of hauling a pair of GBU-32s, the modern way of doing things (that is the act of trying very hard to avoid collateral damage) would imply that the BRU-55 will primarily be used hand-in-hand with GBU-38 500-lb JDAMs. Where, previously, a certain jet could have carried say two under each wing, it can now carry four for a total of eight. The strangest looking munition on display was the AGM-84K SLAM-ER ATA – the latest version of the Stand-off Land Attack Missile. This thing, equipped with pop-out wings and a rather strange looking chiselled nose housing the electro-optical wizardry, is to all intents and purposes a cruise missile. One that is more than capable of taking the 500-lb class warhead more than 150 miles from the point of launch and putting it wherever it needs to be with impressive accuracy. The SLAM-ER was alongside its ship-killing sibling, the RGM-84L Harpoon, which is the export version of the Block II Harpoon and although similar in size, the Lima lacks the pop-out wings and funny nose of the SLAM-ER yet is good at what it does - giving enemy warships a serious head-ache. Thanks to various bits from the SLAM, the Lima can also give shore-based targets a good going over too.

Three newish BAe Hawks were also out and about, one being the first of six Hawk 129s for the Royal Bahraini AF, one being a Hawk 120 in the BAE Systems pavilion and the other being a Hawk T.2. The RBAF Hawk 129, an improved Hawk 127 and intended to improve both the quality and number of RBAF F-16 pilots, was handed over to the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, on Monday morning after BAE Systems test pilot Nat Makepeace and Lt Col Omar Ebrahim Mohamed Al Mahmood flew it in an impressive formation with the Red Arrows in front of the assembled Bahraini delegation which also included the RBAF Commander, Col Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. Taking pride of place in the impressive BAE System pavilion, the Hawk 120 features benefits taken from the Mk 127 and is basically similar to the Hawk 129 although this one featured a much more stylish black, red and silver paint scheme rather than the grey chosen by the Bahrainis. The third and final new Hawk was the T.2 down by the crowdline. The T.2 is the designation given to the Mk 128, selected as the RAFs "Advanced Jet Trainer" and, due in no small part to an advanced fully-glass cockpit, is intended to train aircrew to fly the Typhoon / F-35 and features a laser range finder and FLIR in the new elongated and, frankly, strange-shape snout.

An extremely welcome addition to the static park (technically the Eurocopter pavilion) was one seriously rare visitor to UK shores – an EC.725HUS Cougar. Like several other “trade days only” attendees, the said Cougar didn’t hang about for the public show days and left on Saturday morning which did at least mean some got a chance to see it. One of just eight such types ordered by ALAT and assigned to EOS3 of Détachement ALAT des Opérations Spéciales (DAOS), the EC.725HUS is basically the French Army’s chosen platform for special operations. This particular machine is, whilst part of EOS3/DAOS, not based at Pau like the rest of DAOS and instead lives at Villacoublay on detachment. Based on the Cougar Mk 2, the EC.725 introduces new “Spheriflex” main and tail rotors, an up-rated gearbox and engines, new avionics and is capable of carrying more payload further and faster than the earlier derivatives. Equipped with the kind of equipment normally seen on the likes of the Pave Lows, including in-flight refuelling capability (not that the French have a helo-capable tanker yet by why let that stop anything?), Kevlar mats in the cabin and cockpit, armoured flightdeck seats, FLIR, GPS/INS, various warning receivers, self-sealing fuel tanks and enough firepower to almost rival a dedicated gunship, the EC.725HUS is well suited to the role of CSAR and Special Operations. DAOS itself has roughly twenty-two helicopters assigned to three squadrons, EOS1, EOS2 and EOS3 and are based alongside 1.RPIMa and 13.RDP under BFST. EOS1 are equipped for the tactical transport role with SA.330Ba Pumas and AS.532UL Cougars whereas EOS2 are the ‘proper’ gunship unit with SA.341F Gazelles armed with 20mm cannons and SA.342M Gazelles armed with four HOT-3 anti-tank missiles. To say DAOS has a similar tasking to the US Army’s 160th SOAR(A) is not too far wide of the mark. On the subject of gunships, two examples of what is arguably the world’s best armour and terrorist killing helicopter, the AH-64 Apache were to be found within the confines of the Farnborough fence – the static example was provided by a Dutch 301 Squadron AH-64D (sans Longbow ‘donut’ atop the rotor mast) whilst the job of demonstrating it in the air fell to Boeing’s Rich Lee in a radar-equipped US Army AH-64D Apache Longbow although it was just too far away considering the relatively diminutive size of the Apache.

Making only its second airshow appearance after Waddington was the Raytheon Sentinel R.1 and, funnily enough, the bizjet upon which it is based – the very tidy Bombardier Global Express – was also in amongst the static park. An interesting photo opportunity could have been come out of parking the two types together but it was not to be. Selected by the MoD as the ASTOR (Airborne Stand-Off Radar) platform, the Sentinel will have a role similar to that of the E-8 J-STARS in the US inventory – battlefield and ground surveillance – with the multi-service crews looking at mission times of 8~11hrs whilst the various sensors and systems, like the Raytheon ASARS-2 SAR/MTI radar in the under-belly canoe fairing, let them keep an eye out for anything untoward going on 40,000ft below. All five Sentinels and the supporting ground stations will be operated by the joint RAF/Army/Navy 5(AC) Sqn at RAF Waddington although, at the minute, no aircraft have yet been handed over so are bereft of squadron markings. On that same subject, that being a lack of squadron markings, a brand new Nimrod MRA.4 (with none other than BAe Nimrod MRA.4 chief test pilot Bill Ovel in the driving seat) made a few fleeting appearances on the public days and a number of trade days – marking the first time many had seen the said new Nimrod. Its first appearance on the 18th coincided with an announcement from the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, that a contract was signed that means the RAF will actually get the new Nimrod, albeit only 12 of them. The MRA.4 is a smart looking jet although the familiar noise and engine exhaust filth of the Nimrod R.1/MR.2 has now sadly gone thanks to four new engines in a redesigned wing. The aircraft should also now be able to employ Storm Shadows, ALARM-IIs and AGM-65 Mavericks in a land-attack role.

Farnborough wouldn’t be Farnborough without bizjets (or, I guess, bizprops) and 2006 proved to be no different although the vast majority had left Farnborough on Wednesday night so weren’t about for the public days; considering all were pretty much polished bright gloss white, we can only surmise it was to protect the eyes of the paying public should the sun come out to play! The award for having the greatest number of such products went to Raytheon who had no less than seven types on display – the Hawker 400XP, Hawker 850XP, Hawker 1000, Premier 1A, Beechcraft 1900D, Beechcraft King Air 200 and King Air 350. Whilst displayed as executive transportation, some have military roles – the Hawker 400XP for instance is used by the USAF in the T-1A Jayhawk guise as a multi-engine large aircraft (i.e. tanker, transport and bomber) trainer. The four AETC squadrons that fly the Jayhawk are the 32nd FTS "Mustangers", 48th FTS "Alley Cats", 86th FTS "Rio Lobos" and 99th FTS "Panthers" at Vance AFB, Columbus AFB, Laughlin AFB and Randolph AFB respectively. The King Air 200 is another executive toy that’s found a use in various armed forces of the world and is in fact used by 45(R) Squadron / 3FTS at Cranwell as a Jetstream replacement in the multi-engine training role. It also forms the basis for the C-12 Huron – used by the US, Israeli and Greek militaries in many roles ranging from passenger and light cargo transport to the US Army's electronic warfare variant, the RC-12 Guardrail which is basically tasked with listening in on enemy radio transmissions, in effect, a miniature RC-135V/W Rivet Joint. Raytheon also took advantage of the show to launch and generally get vocal about the new AT-6 JAWS, no, that’s not a shark, it’s the Joint Airborne Weapons System – or, to you or I, an armed T-6B. Now, whilst the AT-6 is still pretty much in the land of the artists impression, the T-6B Texan II isn’t and how better to help show off the AT-6 than by flinging the T-6B about the sky? Not a bad move. However, Raytheon pulled a flanker – and didn’t just drop anyone into the cockpit. They went for someone who was arguably the best aerobatic pilot in the world in the mid to late 90s. Since retired from the competition scene, Patty Wagstaff must still rank amongst the world’s top aerobatic pilots and was the pilot of choice for Raytheon. During her time as an aerobatic pilot, Patty has won goodness knows how many awards for her superb flying and the T-6B display didn’t disappoint.

Slightly outdone by Raytheon was Bombardier who claimed second place in the “who can bring the most executive aircraft” competition. However, where Raytheon’s longest legged product could ‘only’ manage a 6000km trip, Bombardier have them well and truly hammered as they brought the stunning Global Express XRS to the party. This thing, a derivative of, funnily enough, the Global Express (upon which the Raytheon Sentinel R.1 is built) can travel from London to New York and back again on just the one tank of fuel. Or, still using London as the starting point and again just using one tank of fuel, the following cities, amongst many more, are all within reach…Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Singapore. Impressive, eh! Bombardier also brought along two examples from the Challenger stable – the Challenger 604 and the CRJ900, which is based on the aforesaid Challenger 600 series. Whilst not having the legs of the Global Express, the Challenger 604 has also found a military role with the Royal Danish Air Force. Esk 721, based at Ålborg AB, use the three Challengers in the VIP transport, fisheries protection and maritime patrol roles.

Bringing equally impressive aircraft to the show was General Dynamics’ Gulfstream division. The three types shown off, in what appeared to be house colours, were the G200, G450 and G550, all of which are capable transcontinental methods of transport. The smaller G200 was originally the “Galaxy Business Jet” which gained its new name when General Dynamics bought Galaxy. Still made in Tel Aviv, the G200s are finished and readied in Dallas. The G450 is a larger jet and though it can seat about the same number of passengers, it can haul them almost 1,000 miles further. Gulfstream’s range topper comes courtesy of the G550 which can even out-range the Global Express XRS by 300 miles although you’ll need to wait a year before you can get your mitts on one of these $46M beasties. As per other exec jet suppliers like Bombardier and Raytheon, Gulfstream has military users amongst its client list and in this case, the military versions are the USAF’s C-37A Gulfstream V (aka G500, basically a shorter ranged G550) and Israel’s new SIGINT platform, the Gulfstream Vsp (a G550). Of the USAF C-37s, the 99th AS at Andrews operate four, the 310th AS at Macdill AFB operate three and both the 65th AS at Hickam AFB and the 309th AS at Chievres, Belgium, operate one each.

The little bit of Farnborough real estate set aside for Finmeccanica (Italy's second largest industrial group behind FIAT) was perhaps the most obvious and conspicuous exhibition / pavilion at the show. Located pretty much where everyone must walk past to get in or out of the show (bar those that used a helicopter or the 8,000ft of runway), the impressive bright red and grey structure housed numerous small display items (and an almost limitless amount of Finmeccanica staff and clients) whilst the smaller chalet type buildings were slap bang in the middle of the Finmeccanica static park. As Finmeccanica are the parent company of Alenia, Aermacchi and AgustaWestland, not to mention owning 25% of MBDA and 21% of Eurofighter GmbH, an example of most of the current product line-up was parked up. The first thing to greet those coming out of the large building mentioned above was a brand-new Grosetto-based 4ºSt/9ºGr Typhoon taking understandable pride of place in their little static park together with a selection of dummy missiles like the MBDA Meteor BVRAAM. Alongside the Typhoon was an M346, a small twin-engined trainer derived from the Yak-130, that was also to feature in the flying display with Olinto Cecconello at the helm. In the same compound as these two jets was a single Guardia Costiera ATR42-400MP, a selection of model UAVs and a single C-27J Spartan. All exhibits, however, were adorned with World Cup 2006 winners’ artwork which consisted of the Italian flag, the Jules Rimet trophy (minus Pickles' teethmarks) and four gold stars.

The rotary winged business, i.e. AgustaWestland, was not to be left out and a slightly larger area was devoted to the modern descendents of Leonardo’s helicopter. Arguably, for many, the star of this little section of real estate must have been the Swedish Hkp15 and its terrific splinter camo paintjob; known outside Sweden as the A109 LUH, the Hkp15 replaces three older rotary wing types (the Hkp3, Hkp6 and Hkp5B - the AB204B, AB206A and Schweizer 300C respectively) in the Swedish armed forces. In addition to the Hkp15’s primary mission of training, the type can be employed in the SAR, ASW, utility and MEDEVAC roles although some of the twenty are also equipped for shipborne operations aboard the Visby-class stealth corvettes. Running the Hkp15 close was the South African Navy Lynx Mk.64 (aka Super Lynx 300)… even if it was wearing a UK serial! Said to be the most advanced version of the Lynx yet, the four Lynx will be based at Ysterplaat AB and flown by air force crews on behalf of the navy; they will also be deployed aboard the Valour-class MEKO A-200SAN patrol corvettes in the ASW, ASuW, SAR, transport and MEDEVAC roles. Apparently, the South African avionics fit is so good that AgustaWestland are offering it to future customers. Two more notable exhibits were the A129 Mangusta attack helicopter and a Danish SAR EH-101 Mk.512 alongside a mock-up cabin of an EH-101 CSAR derivative – after the EH-101 won the “Marine One” contract, it’d be a foolish man to write AgustaWestland out of the USAF’s CSAR-X competition.

As briefly mentioned earlier, Bell (along with UrbanAero) pulled out all the stops to bring truly the most bizarre contraption to the show in the rather odd shape of the X-Hawk. This isn’t Bell getting in on the Blackhawk game, this thing is something that Cockerill would have been proud of – picture a hovercraft without the skirt and there’s the X-Hawk. Another method could be to picture the Batmobile with two huge fans down the centre line. Yes, it really is that odd. The idea of the X-Hawk is to provide helicopter-like manoeuvrability yet in the urban environment in amongst buildings and so on, rotors can’t be exposed as they’re undoubtedly going to end up clipping something. In the sense of the helicopter, the X-Hawk is completely rotorless and can land pretty much anywhere the crew sees fit. Swinging from the ceiling and menacingly painted in black and decked out with a FLIR turret and miniguns, it is quite easy to picture the X-Hawk in the thick of urban combat and in fact, “Black Hawk Down” springs to mind. More 'normal' types in the Bell line-up were exhibited alongside models of the various tiltrotor designs including the Eagle Eye UAV tiltrotor. These included the ARH-70A Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter, the 417 and the 429. The ARH-70 is a militarized derivative of the Bell 407 and will replace the ageing OH-58D Kiowa after the US Army cancelled the RAH-66 Comanche program on grounds of it not meeting future requirements although the fact that for the same cost as the 121 RAH-66s (roughly $14B of the $39B program cost), you could get 800 new helicopters (predominantly UH-60s) and update 1,400 others is perhaps the real reason…

A major feature of Farnborough is the exhibition hall, or, more specifically, the five halls. All told, the temporary buildings tip the scales at more than 3,500 tonnes and offered more than 90,000m² of space. In fact, it is officially the world’s largest temporary exhibition area and anybody who’s anybody in aerospace has some degree of presence in these massive halls – ranging from the small to the huge, such as Airbus’ stand where they had 1:1 models of various airliner innards (A320 and A380). The Klimov stand proved to be remarkably popular thanks to the two girls they had working for them although some of the large, well-known companies had stands that offered something for the public such as posters, magazines, etc. It is also in these halls where you may stumble across the weird or the new – scale models of everything ranging from UAVs to strategic airlifters and space vehicles, with pretty much everything in between, were dotted about the halls. On Saturday, at least, the halls took on a slightly different role – shelter. You’re at an exposed airfield and it starts to rain like a cloud has just burst, what do you do? Yup, go inside. The trade days were subject to a slightly different kind of weather – that of something resembling sub-Saharan Africa. Temperatures of up to 39ºC were reported during the week and the halls became ovens with the aircon struggling to cope with keeping that much air cool. On a slight tangent, it’s interesting to note that the two-storey extension to Hall 1 made its first appearance out in Germany at the World Cup.

In terms of general show opinions, although the displays are a little higher and perhaps a little further away compared to other shows like RIAT, for the sheer variety of participants - including some that wouldn't be seen at other shows (similarly, without Farnborough, RIAT wouldn't have had participation by the MV-22s, F/A-18Fs or MiG-29M OVT) - Farnborough is impossible to beat. Organisation wise, everything seemed hunky-dorey - even the bottlenecks of entrance security and queues for the shuttle bus at the end of the show didn't create that much of a problem. Everyone going in did so via a fairly typical walk-through X-ray machine yet arrangements for bags differed between trade and public days - on the trade days, Monday at least, bags were subject to a search whereas on the Saturday (and probably the Sunday), all bags went through a proper X-ray machine. Both techniques had their merits but neither created much hassle, at least not in my own experience. Like 2004, parking (for those without the requisite documentation) was all "off-base" with buses making continuous loops between the car parks and the main entrance. Maybe it was down to the fact that basically the organisation was handed over to specialist public events company but things certainly just seemed to be much smoother than they have been. Previous years where parking was almost on-base made things a little easier but in an era of increased security due to an increased terrorist threat, it's to be expected that measures are taken to reduce the risk. Obviously the trade days suffered less from the delays due to the number of people involved - public day visitors totalled 130,000 (call it an average of 65,000/day), up 20,000 on 2004 figures, whereas trade day visitors numbered 140,000, up 7,000 on 2004 figures, which averages out at 28,000/day during the week.

Farnborough hosts its 46th show over the 14th-20th of July 2008... here's to hoping Sukhoi make a return to the Hampshire skies, especially in light of the fact that MiG has returned with a fast jet after eight years away. MiG brought the ungainly looking MiG-29SMT and two-seat MiG-29UBT across to the 1998 show; in fact, Sukhoi was represented at the same show by the Gromov's Flight Research Institute SU-27P Flanker so in terms of timescales, it's time Sukhoi came back (although they did bring the Su-27IB/Su-32 "Platypus" Flanker to the 2002 show). RSK MiG have even gone so far as saying they’re working on making the MiG-29M OVT even more manoeuvrable - maybe 2008 will be the year of the "MiG-29M OVT Mk II" (although by that time, the foreign export designation of the thrust-vectored MiG-29M2 - MiG-35 Fulcrum-F - could well be making an official appearance). Airbus have also stated that the A400M strategic airlifter will make an appearance at the show, no doubt together with another A380 (in airline livery with any luck) which will undoubtedly be in the shadow of the media furore round the 787 Dreamliner. Furthermore, it perhaps isn't an assumption too far to guess at participation from the F-22A Raptor, the F/A-18F Super Hornet, the MV-22 (or CV-22) and maybe even the JSF.

More photos... Boeing - Other

Massive thanks and much appreciation must go to Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (you know who you are), Francesca at Finmeccanica, MSgt Larry Loeding and the crew of 815th AS “Flying Jennies” from the 403rd Wing at Keesler AFB, David Dorman and the Farnborough International 2006 media team.