Farnborough International Airshow 2006
Sitting and drinking all day is all very well of course, but it doesn’t get me any decent photos until the displays start up, so off I toddled to see what was lying around. And I wasn’t disappointed. Being someone who actually works in Farnborough during the week, I saw this interesting vehicle arrive a few days before – and wow, what a great looking machine! This is, of course, the V22 Osprey, a transport vehicle that has VTOL capabilities like a Helicopter, and the flying capabilities of a plane. Using its twin tiltrotors, the Osprey can take off vertically or in a very short take off distance before rotating the nacelles forward by 90 degrees and becoming a fast turboprop airplane.
I couldn’t resist a shot of me with my ACG in front of this beast. And here’s a picture of another Osprey during the later display. The Osprey was able to demonstrate its abilities very impressively by showing off a combination of helicopter and airplane type flying.
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The usual array of warplanes were scattered around amongst the corporate tents and buildings.
Sometimes, the pilots were even on hand to talk about their planes – here are some pictures from what was, to all intents and purposes, a tiny piece of the USA nestling in the Hampshire countryside.
One of my favourite helicopters is the Apache – alas, despite thinking this was one of them, it turns out…it’s not. It actually appears to be an Agusta A129 Mangusta..
But here’s something you definitely won’t see in the sky – it’s actually an unmanned underwater vehicle. Not the sort of thing you normally find at an airshow either…
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