Farnborough Airshow 2014: Vulcan, Wingwalkers and the Red Arrows

Farnborough is a curious mixture: part aerospace trade fair, part public summer airshow, part runway theatre.

I went on the public Saturday in July 2014. The day had a bit of everything: the Avro Vulcan, the Breitling Wingwalkers, the Red Arrows, fast jets, helicopters, large transport aircraft and a handful of older machines that looked as if they had arrived from a different century by mistake.

On the Ground

Before the flying display, the static line was already worth the visit. Farnborough is good at scale. One minute you are standing beside a biplane used for wingwalking; a few steps later there is a military helicopter, then an Airbus A400M large enough to make the crowd look like measuring marks.

The trade-show side of Farnborough gives the public day a slightly odd texture. Some aircraft are there to perform. Some are there to be sold. Some are there simply to be stared at.

The Vulcan

The most memorable sight was the Vulcan.

At the time, XH558 already felt like one of those aircraft you should not postpone seeing. It was the last airworthy Vulcan, and although it still had one more display season ahead, its final flight came the following year, on 28 October 2015.

That makes the 2014 photos feel heavier now. The Vulcan was not just another display aircraft. It was a Cold War shape made briefly alive again: huge, triangular, loud and strangely graceful once it was in the air.

Wingwalkers, Smoke and Fast Jets

The Breitling Wingwalkers brought the opposite mood: orange biplanes, smoke trails and the cheerful absurdity of people standing on wings because apparently flying inside the aircraft was too ordinary.

Then the pace changed again. Fast jets took over the runway, trading elegance for noise and heat. Airshows have a particular rhythm that photographs only partly capture: the long pause, the distant dot, the sudden arrival, the crowd turning as one body, the sound arriving a fraction late.

Red, White and Blue

The Red Arrows are almost impossible to photograph badly, which is kind of them. Their 2014 display had extra weight because it was their fiftieth display season, and the smoke trails made the sky look briefly designed rather than accidental.

The older aircraft were quieter, but in some ways more interesting to watch. Polished metal, rounded fuselages and slow formation passes have a different kind of drama. They do not overwhelm the crowd; they let you look.

A Day of Contrasts

That was the pleasure of Farnborough in 2014: the contrasts kept arriving.

One moment it was a business event full of polished hardware and corporate chalets. The next it was wingwalkers, smoke, old aircraft and the impossible shape of the Vulcan crossing the sky.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.