The aircraft operated from QinetiQ's Boscombe Down facility have always been distinctive. Either painted in the red, white and dark blue 'Raspberry Ripple' scheme of the QinetiQ run Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS) or operating an aircraft type not commonly used in the UK they always attract interest.

This was especially true when two Mil Mi-17 Hips in 'Raspberry Ripple' with UK military registrations broke cover. Photos of the Mi-17s operating on the....

Read the full article: Project CURIUM

RAF Shawbury is a combined storage and training facility located in Shrewsbury. It is the home to Aircraft Maintenance & Storage Unit, Central Air Traffic Control School and the Defence Helicopter Flying School.

 The Defence Helicopter Flying School (DHFS) is a tri-service unit made up from 660 Squadron Army Air Corp, 705 Naval Air Squadron and 60(R) Squadron RAF. Operated by FB Heliservices, a civilian contractor, the instructors are a mix of serving military pilots and....

Read the full article: RAF Shawbury Visit

When you read about the Eurofighter Typhoon you will read about Tranches, Blocks, Phase Enhancements, Change Proposals but what does it all mean?

 To understand the Typhoon programme you have to first look at a brief history of Typhoon.

 In 1979 British Aerospace and Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm produced a proposal to meet the needs of both the British RAF and West German Luftwaffe....

Read the full article: Eurofighter Typhoon Summary

When you go 'low leveling' in LFA 7 you can be sure of only two things. The first is the weather, the Snowdonian National Park with its valleys, hills and mountains has it's own micro-climate making it very hard for weather forecasters to predict what the next day will be like let alone two or three days ahead. This makes it even harder for photographers trying to pick a good day. It's over 300 miles, round trip, for me to go. You don't want to drive that far and stand in the rain or under a huge cloud but I have on more than a few occasions.

Read the full article: 19 Sqn in the Mach Loop

Originally slated for October 2009 the replacement of the Tornado F3 aircraft deployed to RAF Mount Pleasant, Falklands Islands was brought forward to 12th September 2009 as part of the MODs accelerated effort to withdraw the Tornado F3 from service.

Four Block 8 Typhoons will replace the four Tornado F3s currently assigned to RAF 1435 Flight. I expect the choice to use Block 8 airframes is to maximise the time......

Read the full article: Typhoons depart for the Falklands

This week at RAF Coningsby saw 3 Squadron and 29(R) Squadron taking part in a night flying exercise with the UK based USAF F-15E Strike Eagles and part of 17(R) Squadron heading to Corsica. With all this going on you would be mistaken in thinking Coningsby would have been quiet in the daytime.

Along with the locally based Typhoons two of the three 41 Squadron Harriers took to the sky. ZG510 as......

Read the full article: Pictures from RAF Coningsby

RAF Coningsby with its five squadrons and the BBMF is a busy airfield. It's responsible for QRA (South), training pilots to fly the Typhoon, operational evaluation for the Typhoon, developing the air to ground aspect of the Typhoon, fast jet and weapons operational evaluation (for the Tornado and Harrier) and the display flying from the BBMF and also the Typhoon display team.

Currently they are adopting the new Block 8 Typhoons......

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After months of negotiations the UK has signed the contract for the Tranche 3A Typhoon. The order of 40 Tranche 3A Typhoons represents 45% of the originally proposed number for this tranche and could be the last order placed by the UK as it has now fulfilled it's contractual obligation. The option for a Tranche 3B order isn't likely to be taken up due to the funding black hole in the MOD's budget. This would leave the RAF with a total of 160 Typhoons but that number includes the......

Read the full article: Block 8 Typhoons