Day 4 – Thursday 5th September

Thursday dawned bright and clear, giving everybody a longed for break from low cloud and light occasional showers. At last the pilots could display their aircraft fully, using the vertical performance of their various mounts to best effect, and the photographers of the world’s aviation press swarmed over the static park making the most of the bright sunshine to acquire the pictures denied to them thus far.

The good weather certainly brought out the best in the individual displays. The Dassault Rafale was electrifying as it curved around the sky, and John Turner took the Eurofighter EF2000 into the third dimension with power and elan. Great sweeping manoeuvres were the order of the day, the Su-30 and -37 certainly used the whole of the Farnborough sky and gave the crowd a real taste of the tremendous capabilities of these types. A first for today was the display of the MiG-21MF, the upgraded version of this classic fighter from Aerostar of Romania and Elbit of Israel. Featuring a wholly new integrated cockpit and weapons systems, the aircraft has been structurally modified to produce a real improvement in performance over existing MiG-21 models. Considering there are still 22 air forces listed as MiG-21 operators, there is a large, ready-built market for the new type. It was fascinating to watch the aircraft display, immediately after the Su-37 as it was, because although this is a forty year old design it certainly proved to be no slouch.

News from the trade side of the show included a number of interesting items, not least of which is the announcement of an agreement in the final stages of negotiation between Boeing, Rolls-Royce and the United States Air Force. The deal concerns the venerable B-52, and the plan is to extend the useful operating life of the aircraft well into the next century by replacing its eight TF33s with four Rolls-Royce RB211-535 turbofans, the same engine as used on the Boeing 757 and tested on the Tupolev 204. The new engines would increase the power available, at the same time as dramatically decreasing fuel consumption, giving the old “Buff” a new lease of life.

The second piece of news concerns the proposed merger of Boeing and Rockwell. The Boeing Defense president said that the formalities of the merger may be completed by December. The aviation assets of Rockwell would become a new company, Boeing North American, and would consolidate a number of already joint programmes, such as the B-1B and Dark Star. Given the scope of the activities of both companies, the new corporation will become one of the largest single aerospace groups in the world.

Tomorrow is the last day of the trade display, and traditionally an exciting one, as much business is concluded and many last air displays are flown a little harder than earlier in the week!