Singapore Airshow 2008

I checked; there were no Sky Girls. :(

Having visited the Singapore Airshow ‘08 on the 24th February, which was a Sunday, and promising to blog about it after my exams (Yeah I finished my last paper on Wednesday, hurrah!), I thought I’d try to do it without delay when it’s still pretty fresh in my memory. ^^;

 

Practically thousands queuing at Pasir Ris MRT for their shuttle bus.

 

More people.

 

Queuing up for the bus was nearly 2 hours.

Plenty of delays to go around, but not as bad as Saturday’s.

 

That guy holding up the blue sheet is a real gentleman,

shielding his family from the sun while getting baked himself.

 

Fly-by. The actual term for this manoeuvre escapes me.

 

The first flight performance was by Singapore’s very own Black Knights; it’s their first comeback after 8 years and also featuring a full squadron of F-16 Fighting Falcons. They don’t really look black to me though…

 

Mirror flying… Top Gun style?

 

Classic cupid manoeuvre but nonetheless awesome. Hmm where have I seen that before… Sky Gir-

 

Flight of the giant.

 

Before the A380 came on its solo flight, there were smatters of other aerobatic displays as well. There were the F/A-18 and F-16 from the USAF, the M-346 from Alenia Aermacchi and T-50 from the Korea Aerospace Industries. However I couldn’t get to snap them down cause they totally can’t be seen on my digital camera, a lousy Nixon Coolpix S3.

 

 

Some photographic footage of the graceful giant. A380s give me the feeling that humans made flying whales.

 

The RAAF Roulettes in a tight formation.

 

IMO, these quiet little planes had by far the best performance

for the flight displays. Even better than the Black Knights.

 

The RAAF Roulettes piloted the Pilatus PC-9 models, which were single-engine, low-wing tandem-seat turboprop training aircrafts. The other fliers, the F/A 18 and F-16 did pretty good as well. The more impressionable scenes were their low speed hover passes. You could almost feel the gasps from the onlookers. But IMO the F-22’s was more impressive ^^;

After the various performances, the focus turned to the static display. The military vehicles were the most prominent, at the front of the exhibition, with the Primus tank sticking out of the bunch with its Howitzer gun.

 

Your drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens!

 

AH-64 Apache Longbow from McDonnell Douglas.

 

The F-35 Lightning II, developed under the Joint Strike Fighter programme by the US and UK.

 

Initially I had not expected the F-35 to be included in the static displays. Personally I was expecting more of the F-15s and F-16s, and perhaps the F/A-18, so this came as a pleasant surprise when I investigated the sleek twin tail stabilisers that protruded from the crowd. The F-35, produced by Lockheed Martin, Nothrop Grumman, and BAE Systems under the JSF Programme, is a single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multi-role aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air-to-air combat. With Singapore in as a partner in the JSF Programme, we may be seeing the F-35 in our airforce… Perhaps after 2015.

 

Also in the photo is the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile(JASSM ), a high-precision stealth missile for use at stand-off ranges. The AGM-158A was developed by Lockheed Martin, which won them the JASSM contract in 1996.

 

The FireScout UAV by Northrop Grumman.

 

The Global Hawk UAV, also by Northrop Grumman.

 

USAF B1-B Lancer.

The American Lancer is a supersonic strategic bomber, and also the last of variable sweep-wing aircrafts to remain in the US military inventory after the F-14 Tomcats were retired from service in 2006.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon. RSAF’s if I’m not wrong.

 

USAF F-15 Strike Eagle.

 

USAF F/A- 18 Hornet.

 

The C-135, not sure if it’s the Stratotanker or the Stratolifter variant.

 

The C-130 Hercules.

 

From the left, the FireScout, the F-35, and the engines of the F-35.

 

Left two are photos of the Lancer( and the useful information board), and the C-135.

 

The following photos will be those of the tanks and combat vehicles from Singapore’s Ministry of Defence(MINDEF). I wanted to take close-ups of the A380, and several of the Gulfstream jets, but my camera’s batteries didn’t last. The C-130 Hercules was the last one =(

It seems that I’ve missed the Chinooks out on that day; I didn’t manage to spot it. What a waste.

 

Pegasus on the top; Light Strike Vehicle(LSV) below.

 

The Primus tank used in SAF. I was hoping to be able to see the Paladin Howitzer though.

 

Singapore’s very own Mortar Tracked Carrier.

 

Top-left, the newly received German-built Leopard 2A4 MBT. Top-right, the Bionix II,

and the Track Maintenance Task Vehicle at the bottom.

 

Hero of the day cleaning up the shit people left.

 

Despite a heavy schedule, I still feel that the Singapore Airshow was really worth all the trouble. However due to overwhelming response from the public, there was really really bad congestion and a lot of waiting. The queue for shuttle bus at Pasir Ris went twice around the MRT Station. It got much worse closer to noon. A 2 hour wait for a shuttle bus and approximately another 30 minutes on the bus itself, not to mention another delay in attempting to get through the congested road to the exhibition centre because an aircraft was on tow(?!). And it was worse on Saturday.

Fortunately I arrived minutes before the flight programme started, so I managed to catch the flight performance. Not to mention some home-made sushi to go along as well ^^;

Hours spent on editing the photos, resizing them to the current 800 x 600 resolutions, and uploading them one by one up onto WP so it took me much longer than I had expected. Especially when I’m researching the names of some aircrafts I’m not all too familiar with meanwhile. End up actual hours spent on the photos and post > hours spent in the airshow LOL

Processing of the photos are just some simple auto-leveling with Adobe CS2, and a few were leveled manually. Not very good at photography(especially while getting baked) with a hot(yeah the sun) camera, but I do hope you’d enjoy taking a look at these photos.

p.s. Sunburnt =/

p.p.s. ToHeart2 AnotherDays and Choukou Sennin Haruka official launch today! :3