„Tattoos” Drawn by Smoke Pencils in the Sky

The Gripen of the Puma Squadron with tail number 43 was placed at the end of the static line-up beside the NATO AWACS and the German tiger-striped Tornado and Phantom jets. Many took photos of the Hungarian “Gryphon" equipped with three auxiliary fuel tanks, and the avid collectors were able to enrich their collectibles with Gripen posters. Apart from the Hungarians, only the Swedes brought Jas-39s to England, so Lt.-Col. Csaba Ugrik and Capt. Péter Tőzsér invited the foreign colleagues interested in the type to the cockpit for a brief presentation and demo instruction.

It took an eight kilometer-walk back and forth to see the line-up of the planes and helicopters sorted into categories, and as the RIAT is a national event in Britain, many people used wheelchairs to cover this distance. There were some types, for instance the F-16, of which several countries sent fighters to the display, so it was the curiosities that most visitors stopped to see for the longest time.

The star was the B-2 Spirit bomber which flew from overseas with multiple air refueling, because the mysterious “stealth" fighters have always raised the civilians’ interest.

The scheduled flying program had to be changed several times due to the weather, because west of London, we had everything from sunshine to heavy shower. Basically, everybody was flying the “bad weather" program, as the cloud base of 600-700 meters did not enable them to perform vertical maneuvers. In the morning the Polish MiG-29 was the only aircraft that tried to demonstrate the capability of the twin engines, but the former “Hungarian virtues" of “tower maneuver" and flare-popping are things of the past.

The home audience is always eager to watch the British pilot’s performance. This year an old wish of theirs came true with the flight of the last Avro Vulcan bomber, the famous XH558, a legendary veteran of British aircraft manufacturing. Once it was a symbol of deterrence as the carrier of the British nuclear weapon, 30 years ago it dropped conventional bombs during the Falkland War, and later it faced the threat of becoming obsolete. The British, however, did not let the huge aircraft end up in the junkyard, so they set up a foundation for its rebirth which overhauled it from private donations and made it airworthy again so that it can remind the air show visitors of the work of British constructors and experts.

While the visitors were watching the display flights in the air or were refreshing themselves outside the tents offering food and drink, the leaders of military aviation discussed the possibilities of further cooperation inside the pavilions of global companies. The air force chiefs from the member nations of the Gripen User Group (GUG) met the leaders of SAAB International, so they had a chance to share the hands-on experience of many joint exercises.

Early afternoon we even needed the “aegis of NATO", as our correspondent and the Gripen aircrews and AVUM crews found shelter from the sudden pour of rain under the wings of the NATO AWACS aircraft…

Photos by the author

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