RAF Alconbury USAF Air Tattoo 1992

[ST24]

1992 was a bit of a watershed year for military shows- post GW1 a lot of Air Forces began to shrink in size and many types, units and regulars were about to disappear - Phantom, Buccaneer, Victor, JP, UK based F-111s and A-10s, USAFE F-4s, Danish Drakens, Belgian Mirages Vs, Dutch NF-5s, French Mirage IIIEs amongst many others all had their heads on the blocks so to speak. On the plus side of course, WarPac had gone and the former enemy were beginning to bring their fabulous Soviet types over here to open up a new chapter in airshow history. That's another story though of course. Back to Alconbury in 1992, held in late August on a showery day, the "mini-Mildenhall" produced a very decent show with good RAF involvement and as ever, a good cross section of warbirds. USAFE had ended the solo A-10, F-15 & F-16 demos in 1991 and so a Ramstein F-16D and unmarked Soesterberg F-15A provided a few flypasts as did an F-4G and F-111F. The TR-1s had left in mid '91 but a pair of Beale based U-2Rs (TR-1s were redesignated as such) were present and the future, albeit very short lived new residents in the shape of the 39 SOG M/HC-130s and MH-53s provided a role demo. Foreign flyers were restricted to Belgian Alpha Jet and F-16, Dutch Grasshoppers team and a welcome appearance by the Moroccan Green March term with very smart support Skyservant. Static wise were Danish F-16s, German F-4F, German Navy Tonks, NATO E-3, Dutch F-16s, Alouette, Bo105, Norg F-16s, USN P-3 and USAr trio AH-1, AH-64 and UH-60.
One of the showers provided an opportunity to have a very neat tour of the AFRES C-5B…

[roughcutter]

Great set of shots from a much lamented place. What day did you pick (lucky beggar)? It pee'd down when I went there
MarkL

[Victor5]

Lots of variety there, very nice set

[ciaranchef]

Brilliant post and nicely described if I may say so,

[paddyboy]

No words

I was there with SWMBO

I think this was when SWMBO's blouse got covered in 'hot sauce' when she wanted extra on her burger

I did not laugh for long

I suffered ALL day for that

Bless her

Paddyboy

[ST24]

Thank you all for the very kind comments folks, much appreciated.

Great set of shots from a much lamented place. What day did you pick (lucky beggar)? It pee'd down when I went there
MarkL

D'y'know I almost forgot that it was a 2 day event in '92, even though the Saturday programe was much shorter. I went on the Sunday, and even though the show was fairly small beer with changeable weather it attracted nigh on 100k visitors.

[lincs_av8or]

A great post. I was there for a brief time on the Saturday, when the following shots were taken.

MC-130 - note the serial taped over to prevent idetification.

TR-1A

F-111F

UH-1N

AH-64A

UH-60A

[jg43]

SP Phantom all the way!

Great set

[DanBeeden]

Great set - some very nice artwork on the tail of the U-2. My Grandparents very kindly drove me up to the show from St Albans and we had a personal tour of the F-111F by a really friendly crew. Looking at the 'family+pilot' group photo I have at home, it has some artwork on the nose-gear door of Taz.

[MarkS]

Never did an Alconbury open day , wish I did now ! Great shots !
Ramstein F-16's never seemed to get about too much , either that or my memory is getting worse !
Cheers, Mark

[andrewn]

And here's a few of mine taken on the 23rd....

Avenger N6827C


Alouette III A-390


C-5A 69-0022


P-3C 158570


Canberra T17 WJ633/EF


A-10A 82-0650/WR


Harrier GR5 ZD461/01


Buccaneer S2B XX892

[paddyboy]

Hi Andrew

Love them all, apart from No. 2, obviously

'It's the Grasshoppers': time for a rush to the loo, beer tent, burger concession, or anywhere

Cheers

Paddyboy

[MarkL]

'It's the Grasshoppers': time for a rush to the loo, beer tent, burger concession, or anywhere

Out of order Paddy !! LOL.

What was their music ? I have it in my head it was 'It's a kind of magic' ?

[paddyboy]

No offence intended; it was just that, back in the day, in amongst all the heavy metal and 'burners at the 'Hall displays (which were unmissable), the words 'here are the Grasshoppers' uttered by the great Roger Hoefling, would trigger a stampede for the said venues

There are others who will confirm this

It was in no way meant to denigrate the performance of the pilots involved

Cheers

Paddyboy

[MarkL]

Paddy

You misinterpreted my reply :-))) I felt exactly the same hence the 'LOL' :-)

Was a brill show, remember it well.

Mark