Mid-week displays at Farnborough delivered a squadron of delights in the form of the Phoenix like return of the Vulcan to the air – I remember being onboard a Vulcan at least 10 years ago listening to the plans for its refurbishment – which later became the most expensive return to service ever cannibalising 15 of them to produce one of air-worthiness.  A packed airstrip at Farnborough 2008 waited patiently to be shaken by the Vulcan’s take off less than 100 yards away.  It reminded me of my tour of that plane previously with anecdotes about its Cold War role as nuclear bomber with wings filled with fuel at the height of the Cold War. A time when Britain had an aerial nuclear delivery platform as well as the submaritine Polaris.  The return to flight of the Vulcan is pictured in the sequence above:

Flying in immediately in the opposite direction to the Vulcan were the Red Arrows display team in their hallmark red Hawks from BAE Systems.  Written about previously when DefenceIntegration.org attended Paris and Eastbourne, the Red Arrows remain a battle ready unit within the RAF.

Registering about the same level as the Vulcan in terms of deafness, acoustic vibration and ground shaking was the Airbus A-380 which took to the skies immediately in front of the exhibition halls at Farnborough 2008.  Its always fascinating to see the manoeuvrability of large but unoccupied passenger planes, indeed the A-380 is the largest example.  

Tight turns, sharp banks made the 4-engined Airbus display a real spectacle – a few doubted the runway would be long enough for take-off.  Still larger than the twin-engined Boeing 777 and the 787 and the future generation of Boeing planes under their Yellowstone technology project to include the Y3 – the era of supersonic jet travel has been displaced by the race for supersized ecological variants.  The Yellowstone project from Boeing aims to replace their existing fleet with

  
more advanced planes utilising the industry wide moves towards electric driven motor based components to replace bulkier but proven hydraulic systems.  Other Yellowstone improvements will include the utilisation of novel materials including advanced composite materials and the latest generation of fuel economic engines -  to use such a term comparatively.  The drive within the industry for eco-friendly marketing pinnacled in an exhibition hall stand which had actually turfed its display with real grass, wet to the touch as shown with Jon Masding our Publisher and DefenceIntegration.org’s Anika Patel.

The USAF B-1B followed the usual superb display from the Eurofighter Typhoon. 

Both were on display in the paddocks that morning so we took advantage of the opportunity to shoot them up close on the ground and then in-flight later that day to bring you these up close images of the B-1B;

Long-time Corporate Members of SAE-UK Rojac are well positioned to take advantage of the increasing take-up of composite materials in Military Aerospace. Whilst visiting them on their Stand at Farnborough we discussed their new 2 metre wide Autoclave, that uses pressure and heat to form the composite parts prepared in the adjacent clean room.  In discussion with Rojac’s Steve Walton we discussed the importance of SAE Standards when operating in markets accessing the United States directly or indirectly.

Finally and after frequent request, the editorial crew of DefenceIntegration.org were subjected to rigorous simulation of the forces involved in jet fighter operation on the wrong end of the oversized robotic arm pictured below; Our thanks to www.Kuka.co.uk for the experience