no air exclusion here today

I saw a few different shaped planes today coincident with London getting its temporary air exclusion zone ahead of the Olympics.

The controversial tower block mounted anti-aircraft missiles are also being deployed as a further statement towards any potential trouble makers.

I'm not quite sure how a rocket launcher over the capital would work actually, in terms of detonating anything over the London skyline.

But the planes I saw today were pretty varied, from an American configured A400M Airbus, to a South Korean T50 jet and the noisy and incredibly manoeuvrable F/A 18 Super Hornet.

Yes, I had strayed into the muddy fields of Farnborough, ahead of this weekend's air show. It was fascinating to see planes being used as exhibits (like the RAF Vulcan below), then somewhat implausibly being towed onto a runway and doing a turn in the air.

Although this wasn't a main 'public' day, there was a wide variety of hardware in the sky, including some, like this Marine Corp Osprey which didn't look as if it was ever really intended to fly.

And not forgetting the extensive selection of historical planes spread around the aerodrome.

But I'll finish this short extract from my currently unsorted snapshots with another picture of the earthshaking Vulcan, this time, glinting in the sky and a link to my own mini air show pictures