UK Trip
Great Britain - 13-23 juli 2024
At the end of 2023 the idea was brought up to visit Great Britain during the Royal International Air Tattoo, and to combine the trip with visits to multiple musea and active airfields. There are many aircraft in those museums that I still wanted on picture, so this was a chance I could not let go by.
But... 11 days... I never went this long from home in decades. And I did not know what to expect. Big risk for me, but the rewards were the deciding factor.
Especially some planes of World War II were on my list: Ju-87 Stuka, Hawker Typhoon, Fw 190, He 111, that sort. And I looked forward to going back to Cosford since last visit in 1996.
The rest would be bonus for me.
Day 1: Travel & London sightseeing
Day 2a: RAF Museum London
Day 2b: Imperial War Museum Duxford
Day 3a & 4: RAF Lakenheath
Day 3b: RAF Mildenhall
Day 5-8 & 10: RIAT Fairford
Day 9a: RAF Museum Midlands
Day 9b: Midland Air Museum
Day 11: RAF Brize Norton & travel home
Day 1: Travel & London sightseeing
London - 13 juli 2024
After a waaaaay too early travel from home to Schiphol by car, and then to London Heathrow by plane, we would be the tourist in London on our first day. Traveling of course by the London Underground. Being tourist is not my favorite thing, but hey... we saw the Tower Bridge and I finally pictured the HMS Belfast. We saw the Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the guards. Very tired after a long day we went to the hotel.
Day 2a: RAF Museum London
Hendon - 14 juli 2024
The next day we went for our first museum visit, the RAF museum in Hendon. I pictured my first wishlist planes of this trip. You find my highlights below.
This includes a Bucanneer in Desert Pink camo, which i already had on picture back in 1996. Nice to see it is still around!
Also very nice is the collection of (Axis) World War II planes. The main reason I went on this trip in the first place.
Day 2b: Imperial War Museum Duxford
Duxford - 14 juli 2024
The second museum of the day I have visited many times. I knew exactly what to expect. With Erik we rushed off to the end of the museum and worked our way back. In the back you have the Land Warfare hall, followed by the American hangar. After that 3 hangers with a lot of stuff, most British and some planes still flying. Hangar 1 is the main hall and has, just like the American hanger, a permanent exhibition. We were lucky to have some activities at the airfield, A landing Blenheim, B-17 engine test run and a Mustang taking off. Scored not a lot of new ones, but its always nice to visit Duxford. Biggest surprise here was the very nice restored Victor in Hangar 1.
Day 3a & 4: RAF Lakenheath
Lakenheath - 15 & 16 juli 2024
Day 3 was a day at the active airbase Lakenheath. This base is in use by the USAF, with F-15E Strike Eagles and F-35 Lightning II's. We were very lucky with the English weather. And we saw all four brand new Qatar F-15QA's! Two came in and two departed to Fairford for the RIAT airshow.
On Day 4 the travel to the east side of the country would take half a day, so we decided to spend the morning again at Lakenheath. The weather was a lot worse (clouded, rain), but it was fun nevertheless. And the emergency landing with landinghook and sparks was a unique experience to witness.
All in all we caught in one and a half day 25 different F-15E's, 4 F-15QA's and 16 F-35's. Some even multiple times. Something you can only dream of days like this.
Day 3b: RAF Mildenhall
Mildenhall - 15 juli 2024
At the end of day 3 we decided to go from Lakenheath to Mildenhall to get some tanker planes. The two bases are about 12 km (8 miles) apart. Through the fence we pictured some KC-135's and KC-46's. Also two tankers were flying circuits.
Day 5-8 & 10: RIAT Fairford
Fairford - 17-20 & 22 juli 2024
Then it was time for the main event of this trip: the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford. Two days of arrivals, one day a mix of show and arrivals, one day of show from the grandstand and one day of departures.
Since I took a lot of pictures. I tried to give a small impression of each day and to show as much of different aircraft as possible. These are the ones that one way or another, stand out for me: nice picture, exotic plane, great shot, etcetera.
Starting with a sunny day of arrivals on Wednesday 17th of July.
Day 2, Thursday 18th July was also a day of arrivals. Again, the English weather was beautiful. Some teams practiced their demo's.
Fryday 19th of July was a show day till 15:00 hours, after then more arrivals were expected.
The show started with a surprisingly good display of the parachute team Falcons.
My highlight was the demonstration of the U-2, I was really looking forward to see that bird fly.
Multiple NATO-celebrating formations and the Red Arrows finished the show.
After that more planes were coming in, including two Greek Phantoms and the return of another U-2 after a real 10-hour mission!
The Saturday show on 20th of July was a bit disappointing. Not very strange, we had seen nearly all planes already, and it was very grey-ish weather. The grandstand was fun, but the cables that connected the speakers for the commentary were in the way for pictures on the runway... The 50 year F-16 lineup was accessible, which was in my eyes the highlight of this day. The Hawk formation was nice and unique.
I think this was one of the worst days for me of this trip.
After a museum-day on the 21st (see below), monday 22nd of July we went back to RIAT for departure day. A good opportunity to photograph the planes operational. The weather was ok, the pilots were nice and the pictures were mostly above average. And that concluded this year RIAT, were I pictured 228 different planes!
Day 9a: RAF Museum Midlands
Cosford - 21 juli 2024
Sunday 21st of July we had a museum day,which was a nice break from the RIAT.
First museum was RAF Cosford. I was looking forward for this one, because of a number Second World War planes. It is a very well maintained museum, one of the best I have ever seen, altough in the Cold War hall was a bit cramped...
Day 9b: Midland Air Museum
Baginton- 21 juli 2024
The second museum for the day was unknown to me. You can clearly see it is a private museum, and you can smell it too! Smells how a old museum must smell. They have lots of bits and pieces.
The museum owns some really nice planes, although the status of most is a bit weathered and worn...
My personal highlights:
- F-101 Voodoo, the first time I saw one in reality
- Fi-282 Kolibri, which was beautifully restored
- F-4 Phantom, which is a real MiG-killer. It even has got some battle damage.
Day 11: RAF Brize Norton & travel home
Brize Norton - 23 juli 2024
The last day was planned for the trip home. We had some time left, so we decided to go to Brize Norton to see what we could photograph there.
An A400 departured and a Canadian Hercules arrived. We got a nice lunch in the small village, were I was able to photograph the special livery Voyager returning from a mission.
And then it was time to go to Heathrow airport to return home.
It was a great trip for me. I photograped 551 different planes and 56 military vehicles.
But 10 days is way too long. I am glad I photographed so many 'missing' type of planes for my collection, which was the reason I went. But I will not do this ever again.
Also, 5 days at the RIAT was a bit too much. The arrivals and the departures are great, but I have had it a bit with airshows. It is nice, but it is a case of "been there, done that"...
Mixed feelings after this one.
