Mildenhall

[tomlinson 879]

I know there has been discussion about aircraft in the annals before but I can't find where, -any way - this may be old news but the USAF are to leave RAF Mildenhall in a year or three and it was announced on local news that there is to be a farewell air display sometime to come. Anyone who's ever been to one of these displays will know they are amongst the best in the country, so it's worth keeping an eye out for this event.

[TBI 2,351]

Yes, I remember a great display when we lived in Suffolk in the late seventies. I think it's main flying use in recent years has been the re-fuelling facility, now moving to Germany I think.

[darkazana 1,736]

I remember staying at the caravan club site there a few years ago. We arrived late and found a pitch, unhitched and started to set up as quietly as we could, all was going well, then one of their huge planes flew over causing a right racket, much to our amusement, which was when we decided that there really wasn't any point in trying to not disturb anyone else as if the planes were still flying.

[firbeck 860]

I think it's unlikely they'll have another airshow there, they've been talking about it since the shutters went up after 9/11, but quite frankly the place has been like an armed camp ever since, the viewing area was closed down and all the fences were obscured so you can hardly see a thing from outside. It's a similar story at Lakenheath, they've even shut down public access roads with no prior consultation, what the US wants, the US gets. At least Lakenheath retains it's viewing area, but with a sinister stream of troops in aviation glasses driving by in Hummers.

Incidentally, Mildenhall has always had it's tankers, transports and surveillance aircraft. This is currently boosted by a Special Forces unit flying Osprey tilt wing a/c.

[firbeck 860]

By the way, current US defence spending rules out airshows and very little participation in appearances generally. They also tend not to have display approved pilots based in Europe which means any appearances are strictly single fly-byes only or as quite often in the case of recent Duxford airshows, missing the airfield by a wide margin.

I attended most Mildenhall Airshows from 1977 to the final one, obtaining great photo's and video's of all types from the mighty SR-71 doing a low level high speed fuel dump and burn to incredible mass military set pieces on the ground and in the air. Latterly, things had got a bit flat with the phasing out and standardisation of front line aircraft, but that's the same for every military airshow these days. Fingers crossed that we may once again have that early morning barbecue breakfast of Polish sausage and iced Bud, served up by cheery and polite USAF ground crews, the air heavy with the tang of barbecue food and kerosene.

' Can you smell that.......it smells like.......... Victory!'