527th AS 'Aggressors' at Alconbury

[bigcrow]

Myself & my late dad were fortunate to visit RAF Alconbury on numerous times during the late seventies & early eighties & what a great airbase it was for photography, ‘Owl End’ now goes down in folk law as one the best places ever for photography particularly when you could shoot the beautifully marked 527th Aggressors Squadron F-5E Tigers so close.. I'll throw in the Bahrain AF examples in for completeness they were at the time on delivery..

#1

74-1545 F-5E 527th Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

#2

74-1532 F-5E 527th Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

#3

74-1549 F-5E 527th Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

#4

74-1566 F-5E 527th Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

#5

74-1554 F-5E 527th Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

#6

74-1534 F-5E 527th Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

#7

74-1553 F-5E 527th Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

#8

74-1559 F-5E 527th Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

#9

684 F-5E Bahrain Amiri AF. by Stuart Freer - Touchdown Aviation, on Flickr

[3Greens]

Absolutely fantastic, as usual, Stuart. Trudged down the side of those fields to the fence a few times.
Thanks very much for posting
3Greens (Keith)

[das]

Ahhh,them were the days at my local base,Raf Alconbury.Stilton,ghost,grape,snake,silver and frog paint schemes....

[Ross Forsyth]

Cracking,to bad I never found the good spot there until the end of the flying......got to see plenty F-5`s pull out from the HAS though on a few visits.

[tanker]

beautiful pics,thanks for sharing.

[Knife 04]

Excellent post Stuart - as always! Never got up to Alconbury to see the F-5s before they upgraded to the F-16s and transferred to Bentwaters - thanks for these!

Dont suppose you feel like doing a post on the TR-1s (politically correct U-2s) based there from the same place? Now that (in my opinion) would be a good one

Cheers again

Darren

[bigcrow]

Cheers guys.. Darren got quite a few TR-1 images from Alconbury but only landing they used the farside HAS area, so used the opposite taxiway to Owl End so was difficult to get taxi shots. I may do a thread on Alconbury it's self..

[venom]

cracking set o photos buddy i loved the F5

[paddyboy]

Hi Stuart

I have always loved these little Northrop beasties

Went to almost all the Alconbury displays, and they were great (apart from the one where SWMBO got a full plate of chilli down her new frock/skirt)

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

[Frank the Dog]

Marvelous post, fantastic paint schemes, many thanks for sharing

[graham luxton]

Cheers guys.. Darren got quite a few TR-1 images from Alconbury but only landing they used the farside HAS area, so used the opposite taxiway to Owl End so was difficult to get taxi shots. I may do a thread on Alconbury it's self..

Agree with the other comments Stu - its a great post and brings back many memories of action packed days spent at Owl End over the years. Also remember when the F-5's got delivered in '76 - by C-5's.

Regarding the far taxiway - I'm fairly sure that this didn't come into operation until 1988 as I recall filming TR-1's still using the Owl End side in '87. It also doubled up as an Assault Strip/Emergency runway - video'd the local SOG Herks landing on it a few times.

A thread on Alconbury would certainly be something to look forward to!

cheers,
Graham

[honest man]

Like the F5 too,saw those Bahrain machines at Prestwick