Royal International Air Tattoo 2023 General Discussion Thread

[James Cutting]

Dare I ask what happened regarding the Saudi Hawks?

[Bobby 1211]

Saudi and UAE will both be 330’s most likely, Zambia C27 and Pakistan probably either C130, or if they follow SKYTANKER, we might be lucky and get an IL78.

If rumours are true, both Saudi and UAE will be in the flying with display teams.

Rumours… I can make up a few, and then they spread like wildfires

Al-Fursan are planning on doing an European tour this year with Radom and RIAT being the first two airshows which have apparently booked them, pending official confirmation and authorisation. With the Saudi Hawks it's a similar situation. They are already booked to perform in France and are rumored to also be participating in a few other European events.

[SkyMan]

Hopefully the US stuff will be announced soon. Im looking forward to this year's show.

[Skywatcher]

Fingers crossed for B-1B that will do fine for me

[Discodaz]

Hopefully the US stuff will be announced soon. Im looking forward to this year's show.

yes, bring on an A10..its got to happen one year....surely!

Daz

[Campbell89]

Hopefully the US stuff will be announced soon. Im looking forward to this year's show.

yes, bring on an A10..its got to happen one year....surely!

Daz

The ACC schedule has the A-10 Demo team at Duluth Airshow the RIAT weekend

[Discodaz]

Hopefully the US stuff will be announced soon. Im looking forward to this year's show.

yes, bring on an A10..its got to happen one year....surely!

Daz

The ACC schedule has the A-10 Demo team at Duluth Airshow the RIAT weekend

yeah i know but surely the US airforce could muster a static participant??

Daz

[iainpeden]

Hopefully the US stuff will be announced soon. Im looking forward to this year's show.

Current USAF policy is not to send a/c out of operational theatre for display purposes so the chance of an A-10 is, probably, non-existent. There is also speculation that this policy may impact the attendance of CONUS based tankers.
One would hope LN and ‘hall based a/c will attend.
More details were available at the FRIAT forum - have a look at the discussion on UKAR.

[bland1]

Turkish stars added today

[Mike]

After a lengthy hiatus, we're very pleased to welcome the Turkish Stars Display Team back to the Royal International Air Tattoo! The team will be preforming in our weekend flying display with their six colourful NF-5A Freedom Fighter aircraft and promise to be one of the highlights of the flying display programme. This will be their first display appearance at a British airshow since 2010 and is not to be missed!

This week we confirm a large contingent of aircraft from our loyal supporters, the German Air Force. We're especially excited with their contribution to our SKYTANKER23 theme in the flying display programme, with an A400M performing a simulated air-to-air refuelling flypast with a pair of Tornados! The Tornados will then showcase their impressive ability to perform 'Buddy Buddy' refuelling with another special flypast. In addition, we welcome CH-53G, H145M & EF2000 for static displays.

Finally this week, we add a small number of civilian aircraft to our static displays, including an Vans RV-12 used for research projects by Southampton University.

Next week we hope to be able to announce additional contributions to RIAT from the Royal Air Force, some of them being aircraft types you'll be able to see flying over London in the Coronation Flypast this weekend.

[thevulcan]

Tornados in the flying display hopefully operating from Fairford

[Kurnass]

Nice to see the Turkish Stars again. And they usually have some nice support aircraft too (c-130 or A400)

[reaper493]

Lets hope the traditional commentary is still the same.

Handsome pilots anyone?

[James Cutting]

That's a cracking update!! Shaping up tp be a belter of a show again

Indian Air Force now flashing yellow too

[Gary]

Lets hope the traditional commentary is still the same.

Handsome pilots anyone?

Commentary was still over the top but scaled back when I saw them at Sanicole last year from memory. They were pretty good too

Great update from the Germans too. The Tornados and having the CH-53 back

[slogen51]

Got my tickets for the Sunday. First went to Greenham Common in 1976. Makes me wonder how did we survive without the internet but we did!

Basically you turned up and filled your boots ( before spilling your drink in the beer tent when the the Canadian star fighters came over the crowd line from seemingly nowhere)

The HEER CH-53G is a fine addition - it is looking good

[Discodaz]

another brilliant update. Turkish stars is a first for me, so very excited about that.

German tornados simulated refuelling......

Daz

[James Cutting]

Nighthawke at the minute yes it’s still looking poor & I’m considering saving myself best part of a grand! Although if there are some good updates it’ll be like the 2019 show which I thought was great!

[jasonT1981]

Absolutely incredible update. I had been hoping to see Turkish Stars for a long time.

Add in 2 flying Tornados makes this one of the best updates this year.

Shaping up to be an incredible RIAT this summer. 2 Tornados, a Harrier, Me262 and F5s in the flying

[milaviation]

Another beauty of an update today, especially the TuAF Turkish Stars, that’s a display team I need

Hope the Indians can bring an IL78 tanker with fighters (hopefully Su30’s but I’m probably dreaming )