FighterControl

June 1995 saw F-111s from Cannon air force base and B-52s from Barksdale arrive at RAF Fairford. I spent a few days there and how times have changed, I did not encounter another person, even a dog walker, quite amazing. Anyway here are the planes from another memorable time back then.

1.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-4 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

2.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-32 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

3.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-17 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

4.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-33 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

5.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-69 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

6.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-31 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

7.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-16 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

8.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-8 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

9.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-67 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

10.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-56 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

11.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-21 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

12.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-22 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

13.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-19 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

14.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-29 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

15.Cannon F-111s and B-52s at Fairford June1995-75 by Michael Fisher, on Flickr

A very nice bonus, Hope you enjoyed them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65425040@N07/

Great pictures of three wonderful aircraft.Really enjoyed looking at those.great stuff.

Fantastic stuff, lucky you having the place to yourself, how times have changed.
Cheers.

Very nice - spent a lot of time there myself, armed with a video camera. One day an F-111, all of which were ex 48thFW Lakenheath, took the R27 approach end cable with a hydraulics problem. The U-2R was one of 3 based there having been displaced from Alconbury which was ending flying ops. The move to Fairford in March was only temporary until facilities at the French base at Istres were ready to accept them in Jan'96. At the end of the CC/LA deployment 2 of the U-2's RTB'd as a pair, did a run and break and landed on 09 - hadn't seen anything like that before and not likely to see it again.

Thanks for sharing. Imagine the crowds if a similar deployment happened these days.

Fantastic stuff, thanks for posting. Would definitely be crazy crowds now. I remember back in the 90s deployments and even show arrival days that myself and my father would go to and there’d be only a handful of people. More and more chasing less and less!

Loving those Cannon Varks and the U2. Thing is there was so much going on back then and so little by way of means of communication. Now it seems like every enthusiast in the country gets to know of and descend upon every event/deployment/diversion. Spotting was definitely a more relaxed pastime.

Those are great photos especially of the Aardvarks. If I remember rightly I visited Fairford during this deployment and luckily the day I was there they opened the base up in the afternoon. I think we parked round by the main entrance and were bussed out to the ramp to wander around to our hearts content. This might have been one of the last visits by F-111s to the U.K. as I purchased a Varks Last Stand patch from a member of aircrew.
This was one of the few times I happened to be in the right place at the right time, just by chance, and is an experience that would never happen now but one that I won't forget..

Rob

After checking my spotting log I have found out it was Friday 16th June 1995 that this happened.

I remember being there for the F-111F taking the cable that Graham mentioned. As fisherman says, there weren't many people around. I guess that was partly due to the F-111Fs being ex-Lakenheath examples, but I was jolly happy to see and photograph them again.

Superb Mike, happy days

Kev.

Absolutely brilliant collection and photo report. Great quality scans also. F-111F burner shots are terrific

Only have a few prints of this one as working in Liverpool at the time and borrowed a colleagues camera driving up early one morning

Thanks for the post

Darren

I think the Cannon F-111s were the D mark- never saw any regrettably.
Roger.
p.s. quality pictures indeed.

Hi Michael

Stunning

F15E's are no replacement for F-model 'Varks (IMHO) .... they're too quiet

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

Wow... guess reading all those kind replies we all like a bit of heavy metal on steroids. I really enjoyed reading the comments and came to the conclusion it would be quite nice if we could go back and do it all over again...without the crowds? Thanks again for taking the time.

H.A.Bucken wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 09, 2019 3:23 pm

I think the Cannon F-111s were the D mark- never saw any regrettably.
Roger.
p.s. quality pictures indeed.

They were definitely ex-Lakenheath F-111Fs which replaced the D models at Cannon. You can see the Pave Tack pod that the F model carried in it's bomb bay deployed under the fuselage of a couple of them.

Rob

H.A.Bucken wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 09, 2019 3:23 pm

I think the Cannon F-111s were the D mark- never saw any regrettably.
Roger.
p.s. quality pictures indeed.

Cannon was primarly Ds and then got Fs when LN switched to Strike Eagles. Cannon even had a sq of FBs Which where called Gs minus the Nuke cabability and stratcomm. And at one time or another had every model of the 111 except the C and K models

The F-111s were beasts. I lived in east Norwich in the 80s and they were daily sights over the house en route home to Lakenheath.

Agree as well that you could see some of those deployments and hardly anyone else would be there. I recall the arrival of some MB A10s at Woodbridge one summers evening in 1985 and only a handful of people being there to see them.

Thanks for posting.

Andrew

Seems a bit strange now, back in the day more to see and less people seeing and now less to see and more people seeing it, great selection of one of the best post war planes ever built

These are just fantastic, I remember it well, I went a few times to see them there.

Rob

f106dart wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 09, 2019 10:16 pm

H.A.Bucken wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 09, 2019 3:23 pm

I think the Cannon F-111s were the D mark- never saw any regrettably.
Roger.
p.s. quality pictures indeed.

Cannon was primarly Ds and then got Fs when LN switched to Strike Eagles. Cannon even had a sq of FBs Which where called Gs minus the Nuke cabability and stratcomm. And at one time or another had every model of the 111 except the C and K models

Yep, Cannon's 27thTFW, 481st TFS (tail code CA) used to operate F-111E's before they were transferred to the 20th at Upper Heyford. At least one was delivered to Upper Heyford in full 481st markings.