Alconbury Air Fetes

[capercaillie]

The little brother of Mildenhall, usually held in either late July or early August, it was almost guaranteed to attract a good selection of NATO hardware, through the 1980s the home team would usually put up a few of their RF-4Cs and F-5Es, sadly this stopped when the A-10s moved in to take their place. A TR-1A was often included in the lying display as well. By the 1990s the HC-130s and MH-53s had moved in from Woodbridge as well.

Unfortunately despite being an oldie myself now, I wasn't old enough to get to the base until 1986, so missed the SR-71 appearing in the flying in 1984. The posts will probably be a bit random and jiggledy, and arrival days feature more heavily than the display days but hopefully something of interest will appear. Images prior to 1991 will be from negatives, 1991 onwards from Kodachrome slides.
1991 to start with. Display featured a Portuguese A-7 solo - things were taked more for granted back then!
EC-135H 61-0282 10ACCS US Air Force RAF Mildenhall by Paul Downes, on Flickr

MC-130E Hercules 64-0555 7SOS/435TAW US Air Force Rhein-Main AFB by Paul Downes, on Flickr

C-141B Starlifter 66-7950 6AS/438AW US Air Force by Paul Downes, on Flickr

TR-1A (later U-2R) 80-1083 95RS/17RW US Air Force RAF Alconbury by Paul Downes, on Flickr

F-15C Eagle 80-0011/BT 22FS/36FW US Air Force Bitburg AFB by Paul Downes, on Flickr

TR-1A (later U-2R) 80-1088 95RS/17RW US Air Force RAF Alconbury by Paul Downes, on Flickr

CF-188B Hornet 188926 421 Squadron Canadian Forces Baden-Sollingen by Paul Downes, on Flickr

F-16A Fighting Falcon J-619 311 Squadron Royal Netherlands Air Force by Paul Downes, on Flickr

A-7P Corsair II 5529 Esq 302 Portuguese Air Force by Paul Downes, on Flickr

Tornado GR1P ZA326 RAE Bedford by Paul Downes, on Flickr

Canberra B6mod XH568 RAE Bedford by Paul Downes, on Flickr

Tornado GR1 ZD810/AA 9 Squadron RAF Bruggen by Paul Downes, on Flickr

Tornado F3 ZE888/EV 23 Squadron RAF Leeming by Paul Downes, on Flickr

Phantom FGR2 XV470/BD 56 Squadron RAF Wattisham by Paul Downes, on Flickr

Tornado GR1 ZA606 45 Squadron/TWCU RAF Honington by Paul Downes, on Flickr

[KeBul]

Nice selection, always nice to see a good SLUF, raspberry ripple variants - lovely and the red tailed Phant and the special GR1 and the F-16 and the sandy sharkmouth...

Aww heck all great - thanks for sharing, enjoyed them.

Did at least one Alconbury Air fete, can't remember the year and I've not found the slides yet.

Kev

[H.A.Bucken]

Reminds me, the late Billy Thirkle, landlord of the long gone Sawyers Arms in Kendal called by ALC on his way back from visiting daughter one time to see a TR-1 in the pattern. A week or so later he told me he'd written to the base asking "what chance a trip in one of your fancy black gliders". It's not often I wet misell!
I managed a couple or three ALC Tattoos I think they were called.
Roger.
A up there's one or two clouds to the north and east:- nowt showing on 'rainfall maps'

[binbrook87]

Aah what a lovely set of images, brings back happy memories. Went to a few shows in the 80s and 90s and they were great little shows, not too big but plenty of variety and with the static laid out amongst the HAS's it always had a unique feel. Thanks for sharing.

[paddyboy]

Hi Paul

Wonderful selection from a display we never missed back in the day

Worth travelling for those gorgeous little Northrops alone

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

[matt e]

Very nice especially the A7 and C141

[dragonchaser]

This show was always worth a visit with some very nice surprises most years, great shots of some memorable times.

[F3]

Hi Paul,
Here's a few of my favourite pics from the '84 Air Tattoo which was far and away the best I ever attended, the highlight of which was the iconic SR-71 Blackbird.

Alconbury - SR -71 Blackbird '84 by Michael Britton, on Flickr

Alconbury '84 -SR-71 Blackbird by Michael Britton, on Flickr

Alconbury - RF-4C x 3 '83 by Michael Britton, on Flickr

Alconbury - RF-4C break '84 by Michael Britton, on Flickr

Alconbury - F5 x 4 '83 by Michael Britton, on Flickr

Alconbury - Warbird Trio by Michael Britton, on Flickr

[garyscott]

Wipes a tear from the cheek . . . . “They just don’t do ‘em like that anymore”

[Philwinward]

Went to quite a few Alconbury shows over the years. One of the thoughts I always came home with was how relaxed and laidback the static display was. Most of the transport aircraft were open for viewing (including an E3 awacs one year. !).
Alconbury was also the only airshow I attended that offered Mexican food, quite enjoyed it as a change from burgers !

[Hunter49]

Great days at Alconbury, got in many aircraft there , also early morning food Beef and Beans !was ok , there Burgers tasted different to Mhall .Always seemed very relaxed Show. Rob

[F3]

Went to quite a few Alconbury shows over the years. One of the thoughts I always came home with was how relaxed and laidback the static display was. Most of the transport aircraft were open for viewing (including an E3 awacs one year. !).
Alconbury was also the only airshow I attended that offered Mexican food, quite enjoyed it as a change from burgers !

Tally that Phil. That's where the wife and I had our first Taco, which made a nice change from Burgers. Must admit tho' my own preference was for the Polish sausages served at The Hall and Heyford which really did fill you. Could nt have managed two even back then when I was in my prime!

[Gordsmith]

Agree with F3, nothing beats a Polish Sausage! Gordon.

[capercaillie]

Never got on with Polish sausages, just not right!

I digress and curse you for seeing that 84 Blackbird display.

Here's the next offering - plus a heading change as I've been told off elsewhere.
Some 1988, last time for a UK based F-5, sorry Paddy. Apologise for the slight colourcast on them, they are off negatives and I'm struggling to balance the colour up at present.
A-10A Thunderbolt II 80-0237/AR 511TFS/10TFW US Air Force RAF Alconbury by Paul Downes, on Flickr

RF-4C Phantom II 71-0251 38TRS US Air Force Zweibrucken AFB by Paul Downes, on Flickr

F-111E 68-0079/UH 79TFS/20TFW US Air Force RAF Upper Heyford by Paul Downes, on Flickr

748 Series 107 XW750 RAE Bedford by Paul Downes, on Flickr

Canberra PR9 XH174 1PRU RAF Wyton by Paul Downes, on Flickr

These two were far side for the Phoenix parachute team.
N262D 91/AT ET065 French Air Force by Paul Downes, on Flickr

DHC-6 Twin Otter 730/65-CA ET065 French Air Force by Paul Downes, on Flickr

F-16A Fighting Falcon J-864 312 Squadron Royal Netherlands Air Force by Paul Downes, on Flickr

SE3160 Alouette III A-350 A-351 A-398 A-499 300 Squadron The Grasshoppers Royal Netherlands Air Force by Paul Downes, on Flickr

RF-4C Phantom II 71-0251 38TRS US Air Force Zweibrucken AFB by Paul Downes, on Flickr

Bye bye 527AS F-5s
F-5E Tiger II 74-1566/66 527AS US Air Force RAF Alconbury by Paul Downes, on Flickr

[Unknown74]

Was that Dutch Special F-16 from 1988 in the Flying or Static? Saw it from a distance but for some reason stupidly didn’t get a picture of it, to this day I have no idea why I didn’t get a picture of it….

[capercaillie]

It was the display aircraft for the year but only static at Alconbury for some reason.

[paddyboy]

Hi Paul

I’m not looking at any ‘colour cast’, just the superb content

PR9 in camo

As for that gorgeous little Northrop

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

PS: Bentwaters was great for Mexican, Vietnamese and several other types of food, beside the usual yummy US-style offerings

[KeBul]

Lovely set of additions Paul, thanks for posting.

As for your colour cast, what are you editing them with? - I found they came up pretty close just using Auto Colour in Photoshop.

Hope it's OK, here's some of them with a quick tweak - I can do the others later or take them down if you're not happy with me posting them.

Kev

[F3]

The shows were never quite the same after the Aggressors swapped bases with the A-10s. Did nt make the first one after the swap - over but my dad did and complained about the static display being fenced off behind locked gates!!??? Anyone recall this?

[capercaillie]

They certainly look a lot better Kev.

I have to admit, I've got a new computer ready to get out of the box and put photoshop onto it, but I've been lazy so far, but your tweaks have certainly spurred me on to start reprocessing some of the scans from negatives especially. many thanks for the advice.