Show Report
1999 Air Fair
Biggin Hill
| Date | June 1999 |
| Weather | I attended on the Saturday which was bright and sunny all day. |
| Positive Points | A good well balanced display including a genuine 'star' item, the Russian Test Pilots Duo flying their colourful Sukhoi SU-27 Flankers. |
| Negative Points | Not much really, thoroughly enjoyable. |
| Highlights | Russian Test Pilots Duo, Belgian Air Force F-16A, DAS Air Cargo DC-10, Canberra B2, Sea Harrier T8N |
| Other comment | A good show with a relaxed atmosphere. |
The Red Arrows only rarely formate with other aircraft, on this occasion with a Hawker Hunter T7 to mark the 35th Anniversary of the team's first public display.
The Red Arrows flew the Folland Gnat T1 from 1965 through to 1980 when replaced by the team's current mount, the British Aerospace Hawk. This example is representative of one of the team's aircraft.
A beautiful shot in perfect conditions of the Red Arrows in 'Concorde' formation.
Shows at Biggin Hill are famous for their Warbird content. The 1999 show saw one of the first appearances of the Brietling Fighter Team.
How low can you go! Anatoly Kovochur, the famous Russian test pilot performs a very low fast pass after completing the display by the Test Pilots Duo.
Later in the day, he returned to the air to give a breathtaking solo demonstration.
It was nice to see this immaculate Canberra B2 take to the air, in fact giving a stunning display. What a pity the Canberra was not often seen performing like this in its RAF service days, certainly the latter ones anyway. In this modern era, it's interesting to see how agile some of the early jets like this actually were.
The Royal Navy decided to display the two seat Sea Harrier T4N which made a nice change from the more usual F/A2 single seat version. The aircraft looks very attractive in its gloss black scheme complete with full 899 NAS markings.