Originally Posted by
Nortonious
One of these days I'm gonna make Farnborough! I don't doubt your observations and probably would have agreed with you had I seen it also. It's tough to size up the superior fighter from an airshow. For the record, I've always thought the Blue Angels had a better show than the Thunderbirds (sorry to my T-Bird bros, I still love ya, it must be something about that configured aileron roll the Blue Angels do after t/o), but from my knowledge of both aircraft, I'd rather ride the Viper into combat. Now if I had to land on a boat afterwards, my answer would change.
True on the airshow demos, but most were dedicated to exploring low speed handling and manueverability. The Super Hornet kept demonstrating its high AOA and how it can "push over" along its CG and accelerate.
The Eurofighter just did a standard show...and the Viper seemed kinda standard too..although it demo'd some nice tight turns......the Saab was pretty impressive.
The Red Arrows kicked any US demo teams *ss, BTW. Of course, Brit airshow rules are different. The Arrows formed above a scatted layer (which became a BKN layer), and flew a from loop through holes in the clouds.
The Brit Harrier demo was awesome. 4 ship in trail. They turned toward the audience. The center two moved forward and bowed. Their exhaust was directly above the metal fence where photographers and audience folks were....needless to say they didnt get a good shot. I was laughing at the blast they endured. Never see THAT at a US show!
It was cool. My Sq is there now. Lockheed treated us WELL.