Dear Santa can I have one of these for Christmas...

Yes, me too. We don't have too much trouble getting in - I live 20 mins away, so if we leave early (7 ish) we can be in within an hour. Sounds bad, but I have friends who've queued for 3 hours.

Great shots by the way. Especially the A400. We saw that last year and on its debut flight in 2010. The maneuverability is jaw dropping - one of its party pieces is clearly the take off - it takes off within 1000m or so (which is ridiculous for a lump like that) and then just goes vertical and virtually turns on its back! Here is a shot from 2010.

It was a shame about the F35 this year. It was grounded, I think, 3 days before Fairford (I recall Farnborough was the next weekend?) so it was very last minute. Have you seen the F22? It displayed a few years ago, just before the US stopped coming, and is unbelievable - similar take off to the A400, only more "sports car" - drives a few yards then hangs a right angle, stands on its tail and climbs 5000ft in a few seconds! Awesome.

I don't know about Farnborough, but the absence of the Americans really shows. They bring such great planes over that no one else flies. I'll be glad when they come back.

Yup was gutted by the lack of F35, which was the main reason we went to Farnborough

I think airshows are a bit dull in comparison to years gone by. You see fewer and fewer fast jets, and agree you can feel the lack of major American presence. It's still nice to see the vintage fleet though, and anything with a Merlin engine is a winner 

As an ex RAF bod, when I joined up in 87, we still had Lightening's, Phantoms, Tornado GR1s and the new shiny ADV, Vulcans, and Falklands era Harrier GR3's. Plus a multitude of bases and overseas postings. Airshows and Base open days used to be amazing and very noisy!

Then the cold war officially ended and the military has downsized continually now to it's current token force strength, with some terrible decisions (IMHO), such as scrapping the Harrier fleet, scrapping the Nimrod fleet and replacement, and giving us 2 carriers we can't afford to use and haven't got any planes for

Whoops, sliding into a rahhh, so better check myself 

Yes, agree. The fast movers and the US heavies have been replaced in recent years by more and more aero display teams. Not that there's anything wrong with them - they're all very slick, but they all do pretty much the same thing, and they're NOT LOUD ENOUGH!  

I remember the days of the F15 (probably the loudest fast mover that I've seen), and the B1 - the loudest aircraft I've ever heard. You can hear that taking off in the States! Hopefully they'll bring them back soon, although I doubt they'll be in too much of a hurry - every year the yanks still seem to have trouble getting their budget through Congress (and early indications are not good as I read last week that they're pulling out of 3 RAF bases).

Yep, it's a shame there have been so many cuts. The Harrier is old, but it still has a place in my view, especially in CAS roles. The F35 may be designed to replace it, but they're never going to be able to afford enough of them to replace it. I know they're increasingly reliant on the AH 64 now for CAS, but the trade-off is that it takes much longer to get to the front line.

I've also heard they're proposing to mothball the Tonka! That HAS to be treason! I hope it's not true. I know the F3 is only really good for BVR, and is about as good at dogfighting as an oil tanker, but the GR4 is still a very effective strike platform. I can't see the F35 replacing that either.

As you say, also shame about the carriers. Another great common sense British decision! LOL

Give it 10 years, and they won't refer to the British Navy and RAF any more - it will be the British Plane and ship.

As you say, rant over!

Used to work with the Harriers and the original GR3s were retired in the early 1990's when the Harrier II GR5 arrived and took over. The GR5's had a few probs (couldn't drop bombs if I remember rightly without the wings breaking, or so the techies used to say) and soon got upgraded to GR7's.

In the mid naughties they were upgraded to GR9's before getting the treasury axe prematurely in 2010, which also sadly killed off the Fleet Air Arm strike force who were using RAF airframes as there old sea harriers really were a bit long in the tooth.

Apparently we sold off the Airframes to the USMC who are breaking them up for parts to for their AV8B force  

The Tonkas though to be fair have had a pretty spectacular and long career and must have been involved in more operations over more years than any other RAF aircraft. The first batch were getting retired from service from expired airframe hours while the last batch were still coming off the production lines! 

They are a fabulous (and noisy) aircraft though, but will be sad when they do go.

Top gun tanker driver Richardson, breathing in and trying to look thin

"The GR5's had a few probs (couldn't drop bombs if I remember rightly without the wings breaking" LOL - didn't know that. Not one of their better selling points! I remember reading a book about the Harriers in the Falklands, and the fact that they weren't fitted with chaff dispensers, so they stuffed tin foil in the airbrakes and when they got a radar lock, airbrakes open! Obviously only worked once, but great idea, and if there is one thing the Brits are good at it's improvising!

Yes, I'll be sad when Tornados go too. I've not been lucky enough to work with work with them (how lucky are you?), but I've spent hours dribbling over them at air shows and made models as a youth (I suppose that's a good indication of how long they've been around!). You are right about the long active service career, which I recall started with the first Gulf War, and the suicidal runway denial missions with the JP233. Still will be a shame when they go.