Royal International Air Tattoo 1998

RAF Fairford
25th-26th July 1998

(8th November 1998)

Well, after the superb 1997 show, it would take a seriously large quantity of magic pixie dust to do any better this year. And although the organisers did their best, as they always do, the 1998 show was, relatively speaking, good without being truly special. Relative to almost any other airshow in the world on the other hand, RIAT 98 would seem like a fantastic weekend. What I'm trying to say is this: RIAT 97 was something of a one-off that could never be bettered, so just because the show this year failed to do so doesn't mean it wasn't superb, because it certainly was. The flying displays were well up to the standards of previous years, and the static lines seemed to contain even more aircraft, and even more varieties of aircraft, than before. And since, within that collection, were 3 aircraft I've never seen before outside books and videos, and several that I've seen only once before, I'm certainly not complaining :-)

In addition, everything seemed even better organised than before - shorter queues at the food stalls and toilets, better quality PA systems, closer access to the static aircraft (no repeat of the RAF Police vs USAF Aircrew battle of wits from last year...), and yet again, shorter delays in getting on and off the airfield by car.

 

Anyway, since my SLR decided not to pack up this year, I've got just a few more photos this year than from last, which means rather than continue waffling on in order to describe the show, I'll let the photos do it for me. If you were there, I hope they bring back some happy memories. And if you weren't, then look at what you were missing...

Fighters

Bombers/Attack

Cargo, Tanker, Elint, and other fixed wing stuff...

Helicopters

Display Teams

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