Cold War Jets at RAF Bruntingthorpe

Yesterday I decided to head out to RAF Bruntingthorpe, with a friend of mine, to visit a Cold War Jets open day. Partly I wanted get a bit of inspiration for my Cold War jet goal which I've set myself for the next year as well as see the jets in action. The day features various jets from the era doing taxi runs along the runway at Bruntingthorpe, but no take-offs, so that spectators can get much closer to the aircraft than they would at a normal air show.

As we'd arrived their early we were able to get out onto the runway where a couple of the larger aircraft, a Handley Page Victor, a Hawker Siddeley Nimrod and an English Electric Canberra were getting ready for their runs. The Victor has become famous locally, after an accidental take off back in 2009 so I grabbed a few quick photos before heading over to the Canberra.

Handley Page Victor

The crew of the Canberra were kind enough to let me grab a few photos of the cockpit through the entry door, hopefully they'll prove to be useful should I decide to model one at some point in the future.

English Electric Canberra

Next up was the Blackburn Buccaneer, since my last visit the collection seems to have acquired a few more which was good to see, including one in a Gulf War (the 1990's) desert camouflage scheme which of course was the last time the RAF Buccaneers were used in combat.


But of course, the highlight of this show are the two English Electric Lightnings that are based here which I've written about before. With the new releases from Airfix the Lightning is currently high on my wish list when it comes choosing a Cold War aircraft to build. I have to confess my photographs are better on my previous post so I'll leave you with a short video.

It's a lot louder than the video makes out, you might be able to tell from the reaction of the people in the crowd!

Cold War Jets Open Day - RAF Bruntingthorpe (25th August 2013)

Here are few pictures I took at last year's Cold War Jets open day at the RAF Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire. It was this event that renewed my interest in Cold War era jets and I can highly recommend that you take a visit to this year's event.

The event involves various jets, trainers, fighters, bombers, making full power taxi runs along the runways, but no take-offs. This means spectators are allowed closer to the aircraft as they are moving.

RAF Bruntingthorpe is also home to the Lightning Preservation group who have restored two of last English Electric lightning to fly, at least one of these should be taxiing on the day.

In this case I was allowed on the taxiway as this Canberra approached!

So if you get the chance check it out, just don't forget your ear plugs! For more information about the open day click here and for the Lightning Preservation Group click here.

So why am I writing about this event? Well this was moment that I first thought about trying to build model aircraft again, and yes, I do have a Lightning kit in my stash waiting to be built (2 actually...)!