RAF Waddington International Airshow 2007
The RAF Waddington International Airshow is the RAF’s premier event of the year. As such it is always a highly anticipated affair. This year saw the UK airshow debut of the Indian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MKI multi role fighters and their support Il-76 and Il-78 aircraft. They were in the UK for Exercise Indra Dhanush, a joint exercise with the RAF. Sadly though, the extremely wet weather intervened seriously affecting Saturdays flying displays and eventually leading to the cancellation of the Second day altogether.
The Indian Air Force were not the only unusual aircraft taking part in the flying displays. BAE Systems also sent a Nimrod MRA4 for a series of flypasts and QinetiQ presented one of the last airworthy SEPECAT Jaguar GR3s on the military register.
Saturday’s flying display endured low clouds and spells of rain throughout the day. However, the rain did not stop overnight and only started to clear by early Sunday morning. By then, Lincolnshire’s emergency services were overwhelmed responding to various emergencies such as flooding the resulted from the rain forcing the cancellation of the airshow.
All photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK.
