For this week’s blog post counting down to the 2014 Farnborough Airshow, we take a look at the show’s connection with supersonic aircraft – where world leading innovation in the field of both supersonic commercial and military aerospace have touched down at Farnborough.
Concorde
Concorde has a unique history with the Farnborough Airshow – it was a meeting between the heads of BAC and Aerospatiale in the late 1950’s which spawned the idea of developing a supersonic airliner, and, as noted in my blog a few weeks ago, Concorde’s concepts were shown to exhibition audiences for the first time in 1962. The aircraft finally displayed at the show in 1970, performed a ‘touch and go’ in 1974 and was on full static display in 1976.
Concorde in 1976 at Farnborough
The aircraft also shared its Silver Jubilee with the Airshow by landing at Farnborough in 1994, as this small news clip below details:
http://youtu.be/nncHxAh1Qgo
SR-71
The SR-71 was one of the most iconic aircraft in aerospace history. The long range reconnaissance aircraft was capable of flying at 80,000 feet, reaching Mach 3+ and, if required, could outfly surface to air missiles. The SR71 was one of the first international aircraft to attend the airshow in 1974 and its appearance saw it set the fastest ever time for a transatlantic flight – only 1 hour 55 minutes.
The record breaking flight attempt was filmed for a US promotional video which can be viewed below. The video outlines in detail the decision taken to visit Farnborough (1 minute 10 secs) preparations for the flight, and images of the aircraft giving a flyby and landing at the show in 1974 (from 3 mins 57 secs – including cheesy music!)
Tupolev Tu-22M
The first supersonic bomber to enter production by the Soviet Union, the Tupolev Tu-22 ‘Backfire’, visited the Farnborough Airshow in 1992. Whilst perhaps not as iconic or as fast as either Concorde or the SR71 respectively, the aircrafts sheer size, shape, noise and display presence made it one of the highlights of the show that year. The aircraft’s full display can be viewed below:
