Today's ( RAF Cosford ) Air Show. . .

[Phil Perry]

Been a bit of an interesting day,. . . .we had a guy in a lovely C-180, built 1956 but in concours condx. at the field today to carry out a low level display of his aircraft, for classic air raly purposes, and he did some nice, safe flying. Whilst he was airborne for his three practice displays at around 500 feet, we had tow jet aircradft fly directly through our overhead at less than 1000 feet,. . .a Jet Provost, followed by a Gloster Meteor,. . neith of which called us on the radio. . .!

 

The poor bloke in the Cessna, who is in his seventies, said it was like being in a dogfight ( he's ex-RAF ) so we had to close the site for the rest of the day for safety reasons,. . . .a couple of hours following this, we had a DC9 size aircraft, dunno what type, (but very DC niney looking ) flanked by four Extra 300s from the RAF "Blades" aerobatic team. they were flying a holding pattern prior to their "Run In" to Cosford, but had slipped well outside the notammed holding area. This was shortly followed by a formation of four RV aircraft, another civvie formation team, also below 1000 ft and directly through the overhead.

 

We usually fly normally during Cosford's annual displays, but have never had such a free airshow in the past !

 

We are around 9 NM from Cosford, and well outside thier notammed display zone. The only blokes who didn't bother overflying us were the Red Arrows ! Regrettably, we didn't see the Vulcan, which is destined to be grounded permanently at the end of this years display season. We DID see TWO Lancasters though, frst time for many years that htere have been two of these flying at the same time in the UK, but they skirted our circuit area to the North, and actually CALLED on the radio, joy of joys. . . . . BTW, the formation pic was the third overflight, and they were quite a bit higher by the time I'd found a camera !

 

 

 

 

[DGL Fox]

I wish that show was on in 2 weeks time once we get there... ah well not to worry... we will go and look at the museum that you were recommending Phil, counting down the days..

 

David

 

 

[red750]

Phil, looks very like a B727 to me.

 

 

Compare the flaps:

 

 

 

 

[yampy]

Phil Aer Kid ..... That 727-200 is operated by Oil Spill Response and based at Lasham ... It's very significant in that it's the very last 727 built , and is 31 yrs old . It's a regular now on the British Airshow circuit ( no pun intended ) .. Hopefully I'll be over there next year for the RIAT and Farnborough in July ... Can't make it this year ..

 

I thought the Canadian Lancaster had gone back home , it's still in Blighty it seems .... There's already plenty of Cosford 2015 on YouTube , so at least I get my fix that way ...had a great time at the museum a couple of years ago ..all the best .

 

Dave

 

 

[kasper]

Interesting shot of the 727 - made me think twice ... like where the hell is the third engine? But i agree its a 727 - flaps, long bullet out the back of the tail group and the just diserable jet exhaust in the tail - but the bank angle hiding the ruddy great inlet on the leading edge of the tail fin makes that a really interesting picture.

 

 

[facthunter]

They modified some B 727's to twin engine. Valsan?? Quieter and more fuel efficient. Nev

 

 

[kasper]

They modified some B 727's to twin engine. Valsan?? Quieter and more fuel efficient. Nev

Not quite - the Valsan mods to meet noise limits replaced the external pylon mounted engine and made some minor amendment to the buried engine to address noise issues eg remove reverse thrust. They were still three engined 727's

 

 

[Yenn]

I think it was at Lasham that I saw what appeared to me to be a 727. It came out of a hangar and taxied to the downwind end of the bitumen strip. Did a load of pre flight sort of tests and then taxied to the correct end and took off. While it looked like a 727, had an engine embedded in the tail is still didn't look quite right and I believe it was a European jet. I was told it was being converted for fire fighting duties.

 

I am not even sure if it was Lasham, but it was a strip with a lot of gliding activity, possibly in Hampshire or maybe Surrey.

 

 

[red750]

Other similar sized tri-jets with engine buried in tail are DH Trident, Tupolev Tu-154 or Yakovlev Yak-42.

 

Yak-40, Falcon 50 and Falcon 900 are smaller.

 

 

[facthunter]

The bottom frame is a Douglas DC-9 The front door is too close to the cockpit window to be a B 727.. Nev

 

 

[red750]

That was the point, Nev. Phil referred to a DC9-like aircraft, I was pointing out the difference between his photo and the DC9. The missing photo of a 727 from a similar angle is attached here, showing the two-part flaps.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

yes . also the tail cone on the DC-9 is distinctive. The Douglas fuselage section is smaller diameter than the standard single aisle Boeing section. Always gives them a skinnier look. Nev

 

 

[Phil Perry]

See ?. . . I guessed the experts would exit the timber on that one !

 

As a sad footnote,. . . . the Vulcan flew low throught the airfield overhead fifteen minutes after I had left to collect the boss from a Gardening fair. . .! It had to take this route through the worsening weather as it is not cleared for IFR ops. If one of my friends has a pic, I'll post it later today. . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Vulcan XH558 overhead Otherton at approx 1200 ft,. . . .returning to base. Shame this lovely Lady will be permanently grounded at the end of this year. . . .

 

 

Sorry for the lack of picture quality,. . . grab shot from someone's mobile phone. . .