Legendary Moments in Military Aviation

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

RAF Boscombe Down and the Salisbury Plain Military Training area.

is home to bases such as , , and the .

Unfortunately, they are no longer the bases they used to be in their glory days; Boscombe Down has passed into private hands (), and most of their aircraft now carry civilian markings. (Very sad). Middle Wallop has suffered from the financial cuts imposed on the Armed Services; some days, you can pass it by, wondering whether any helicopters are still based there.

A visit to with blue skies and an afternoon visit to the .

Here are the photographers from that 2018 trip.

Wfu Stored Boscombe Down.

, Wfu stored at Boscombe Down.

is one of a pair delivering troops to the plain.

ZK562 Chinook HC.6 RAF.

G-ETPI QinetiQ Airbus AS350 B3/H125.

Chinook

ZJ207 Apache AH.1 673(AHTU) Sqn.

ZA766 Gazelle AH.1 7Regt.

ZZ413 Wildcat HMA2 Royal Navy.

G-ETPI QinetiQ Airbus AS350 B3/H125.

Happy Days!

B-2 Stealth Bomber deployment to RAF Fairford

The , assigned to the (), has deployed three of its stealth bombers to in , flying directly from its home base at in . The deployment is rumoured to be for up to two months.
I made my first visit to photograph them on ; the local weather started fine but deteriorated to overcast before two of the three visiting bombers recovered to Fairford.
On the ground, along with B-2 , were two . At least one was parked up while was visiting .

There's nothing else to say other than I hope you enjoy the photos.

82-1071/WM B-2 Spirit of Mississippi USAF.

89-0129/WB B-2 Spirit of Georgia USAF.

82-1071/WM B-2 Spirit of Mississippi USAF.

89-0129/WB B-2 Spirit of Georgia USAF.

89-0129.

89-0129/WB B-2 Spirit of Georgia USAF.

89-0129.

89-0129/WB B-2 Spirit of Georgia USAF.

, the sixteenth conversion to C-5M Super Galaxy.

.

Happy Days!

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

l’Armée de Terre open day 1992 at Compiegne in Northern France

Back in 1992, I frequently visited , and on this one occasion, my visit coincided with the Sunday at .

Looking back, it was a different environment from what we find today; I arrived early Saturday evening, having travelled from the , and I slept in the van alongside the fence between two base hangars.

Sunday morning, with the Sun rising and a perfect blue sky, ground crews were busy arriving at the base and preparing for a great day. I was allowed access to the airfield at that early hour. Walking around the rows of , the overnight condensation was still evident on the cockpits.

These are a few of the photographs I captured on slide film that morning.