FighterControl

I was fortunate enough to be at the RAF Valley Open Day in August 1987, and also watched the arrivals the day before. It was a decent line up of visitors and also coincided with the 74 Sqn STAACME deployment for the following week. Unfortunately the flying display itself was disrupted by a very low lying sea mist that crept in at the beginning of the show and lingered there for most of the day. Although visibility was clear underneath it, the cloud base was less than 100 feet, so we had the weird spectacle of seeing aircraft taking off and literally vanishing in plain sight. Very frustrating, you could hear the activity going on over head. Anyway the stars of the show for me were the two WGAF F-104G's that turned up for the static park. While one of the Starfighters was fully tanked up, the other one was clean, which led to a lot of speculation of it being in the flying programme, but alas, wasn't to be. Apart from the Pair of Italian F-104S ASA's in 2002, these were probably the last ever visit of a 104G to Valley.

_61G6308 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6309 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6310 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6411 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6412 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6414 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6415 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6416 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6419 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6424 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6425 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6426 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6430 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6445 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6446 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6447 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6448 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

_61G6449 by Mark Lewis, on Flickr

Lovely comparison of the 2 aircraft, I wondered what was the range of the clean version?. Phil

Thanks for sharing these with us, nice to see F-104s. It's a shame that they don't hold shows at Valley anymore, loved visiting the base.

Excellent set there, Mark

You gotta luv a Hooter

Paddyboy

Very nice to see all these shots of a couple of Memmingen Starfighters. The only time I went to a Valley Open Day was in 1991 which was mainly an RAF event with foreign F-16's instead of F-104's.
Thanks a lot for posting your pictures.

Lovely reminder of a much missed classic. The fully tanked 104 is now preserved at Tessenderlo in Belgium. Saw it last week.

Cheers guys, you can never have 'too many' 104's
Although this was the last occasion of them turning up at Valley, it wasn't entirely the last I saw of the 104G.
The following year at the Lakeheath Open House, I was absolutely delighted to see 23+01 turn up out of the blue, resplendent in the markings of WTD-61 (Manching). Completely unexpected and (despite the B-1B debut) definitely the show stealer.
The last time I saw 23+01 it was in 2006 at Gatow Cold War museum.

roughcutter wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 19, 2025 8:40 am

Cheers guys, you can never have 'too many' 104's
Although this was the last occasion of them turning up at Valley, it wasn't entirely the last I saw of the 104G.
The following year at the Lakeheath Open House, I was absolutely delighted to see 23+01 turn up out of the blue, resplendent in the markings of WTD-61 (Manching). Completely unexpected and (despite the B-1B debut) definitely the show stealer.
The last time I saw 23+01 it was in 2006 at Gatow Cold War museum.

And then even more surprisingly that same one turned up at the Leicester Airshow the same day

andrewn wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 19, 2025 5:31 pm

roughcutter wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 19, 2025 8:40 am

Cheers guys, you can never have 'too many' 104's
Although this was the last occasion of them turning up at Valley, it wasn't entirely the last I saw of the 104G.
The following year at the Lakeheath Open House, I was absolutely delighted to see 23+01 turn up out of the blue, resplendent in the markings of WTD-61 (Manching). Completely unexpected and (despite the B-1B debut) definitely the show stealer.
The last time I saw 23+01 it was in 2006 at Gatow Cold War museum.

And then even more surprisingly that same one turned up at the Leicester Airshow the same day

He certainly did the rounds that day, in fact there was also a Starfighter on the flying display at Cottesmore Families Day in the July.

Luvverly

Ah, the F-104 - the best of the best of the best....IMHO

Thanks for sharing (more please!).

Brilliant captures of a brilliant type with other wonderful background types of yesteryear!
Thanks for sharing your superb captures