17.07.2006 - 9:47 p.m.

It�s summer again so we went to the Fairford airshow, the sun was merciless, the temperature was rising until it was so rose that everyone burnt, from all around could be heard the smell of cooking flesh, the aircraft were amazing (again) and in particular, this one,

This really put on the most incredible display, if you like aircraft, you�ll be foolish to miss it

never before have I seen an aircraft do the things this one can do, if I hadn�t have seen it with my own eyes I wouldn�t have believed myself if I�d told me what it had done, I will be buying the RIAT dvd 2006 precisely to see again with the benefit of a clear view from a shiny tv camera what the plane was actually doing while he was motionless in the air, standing on his own engine thrust and doing little backflips as he slowly climbed into the skies�.

Apart from that and the osprey, the only other thing to move me ( as it does every year ) is the B1 Lancer, which was categorically the loudest thing present, and caused me to well up in the eyes with it�s noise and presence as it roared down the runway on takeoff, such a thing of utter, sublime beauty and no cnd waving, patchouli smelling, peace loving, bastard will ever make me think otherwise.

J and I also came to the final judgement that children and airshows do not mix. We had two with us and despite being all �oh I love aeroplanes me� and �I really want to come� spent the whole time not watching the aircraft, moaning, not drinking water and then complaining they felt heatsick, and pestering J to buy pointless tat that children everywhere think is really cool.

Next year it will be just adults, we�ll get there stupidly early, get a spot right in the middle and right at the front, make a little camp and sit there the whole day watching the show. J will probably have a little sleep, i�ll probably have a couple of reefers, we�ll have our insides shaken to jelly and we�ll stay for the whole show am to pm. After, I fancy we�ll stop at a nice looking pub on the way home and have a civilised meal without chicken nuggets and coke and mess and noise and we�ll get home completely satisfied and mostly deaf.

As I meandered back to the car ( J and the sprouts had gone on ahead, I was holding out for the B52 which didn�t fly in the end ) the path back to the car-park snaked past the prep area for the flying planes, and as I was going past the canberra was spooling up for his display, on realising this I ( and about eighty other people ) stopped to watch and take photos, being this close was almost too much to bear, the shriek from the front of the engines was louder than the roar from the back, although with the application of digital earmuffs the noise dropped to almost nothing, I spent a few minutes putting my fingers in and out of my ears just to see how much noise was cut out and it was impressive, I�ll be growing a pair of fingers in a lab and mounting them on a headband, because they work better than any ear defenders I�ve ever worn.

A piece of english aviation history, the Lighting�s are gone, the Vulcan is still a million pounds away from being airworthy and the Vampires and Hunters don�t fly so much these days, it was nice to see the Canberra still doing it�s thing.

(i've subsequently found out that the Canberra will no longer be doing it's thing as it's being retired next month by the RAF, there are a couple in private hands and i hope they keep coming back to airshows)

I was covered all day except for my face which is now really red, almost richard madeley red, but not quite sunburnt which I�m glad of, there�s not much worse than a sunburnt face ( except for everything that is worse, like ebola and reality tv ) and I�m slapping on the aftersun daily to try and maintain control, otherwise J is likely to try and pick off all the peeling skin, which would probably leave me with no face in the end.