Latinbear

A great idea and a lovely tribute to a bunch of very brave men.

Fantastic images Andy and some great hauls too! How did you fit all the bags in the van as the shopping accumulated throughout the course of the trip 🤭? I think I need to drop Stefan a message about next year's trip.

Great photos, thank you. Rubbing down and preparing the surface is just the most tedious job when it comes to decorating.

Can't answer your question, sorry. but thank you for posting this great clip! Would love to have seen this for real.

Thanks Andy, much appreciated! It was nice to visit somewhere a bit different and experience a show that we wouldn't ordinarily get to see. How was Japan? I am very envious of some of the model shop and aircraft images that have been posted!

Well, that is something I've not seen before! What an amazing kit and the sound effects are brilliant!

Excellent job!

Superb piece of work!

Very nice, love the paint scheme!

I don't recall seeing a board in front of the helicopter but according to this photographer it's a Westland product. Royal Saudi Air Force Westland WS-61 Sea King-HC.4 120 – v1images Aviation Media

Thank you, it's a Caproni CA-100.

Thank you AD! Suffice to say there was a lot of excitement in the group when it was discovered that the A10C would be displaying! You are indeed correct about the home base for the A10Cs related to the show but the unanswered question was where they were based while on deployment to the Middle East. Questions about the local basing of the F-16C and the UH60 were also met with temporary memory loss! 😁 As you got the home base correct, can you guess the squadron? 😎

Thank you for the kind comments gents - much appreciated!

Thank you for the kind words Mark. It was the prospect of visiting this event in a country that as you rightly observe doesn't figure highly in the aviation enthusiast community that appealed. The Chinese team was a first for me and while I don't know what their normal smoke colours are, the choice of white and green reflected their presence in Saudi Arabia. You may have seen the flags on the side of the aircraft which shows the countries they have displayed in.

Thank you Vulture 1. Yes, it was a very interesting event to attend not least wandering the halls and talking to exhibitors on the various stands. It was also great to be able to wander around the aircraft talking to the crews. I've seen RAF A400M's in the this country at numerous shows and been in the hold but I had to go to Saudi to enable me to climb into the cockpit! (which was powered up too). I decided to emphasise the Chinese team in the images posted as we've had the Hawks and Stars both display in the UK but I felt the Chinese had particular rarity value. Qatar sent an NH90 and Brazil sent a C390 as well.

The group decided to take a day off from the World Defense Show to visit the RSAF museum in central Riyadh and track down a new airbase out in the desert that housed PC-21s and doesn't feature on Google Maps. However, it does show on Maps,me. Suffice to say that we couldn't really get anywhere close to the base let alone see any flying but it was worth giving it a go. The RSAF Museum was a different story. Open from 4-9pm each day we decided to chance it and arrived at 10.15am and were let in! There was no charge. Much to our relief the two parties of school children present soon disappeared and we had the place to ourselves. This is a nice museum and for anybody visiting Riyadh it is certainly worth spending some time in. Uber operates in Riyadh too! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 14. 15. 16. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. This poor old ADV is dumped around the back of the museum. 33. Not part of the museum this Apache was snapped from a moving car outside the impressive HQ of the Royal Saudi Land Forces. That's it, thanks for looking.

Earlier this month I travelled with Netherlands based aviation tour company 4Aviation to Riyadh for the World Defense Show 2024. First held in 2022 the show is located at a huge purpose built exhibition centre some 55 miles north of the capital. The venue also has an 8,000 foot runway attached. Unlike the inaugural show which was interrupted by a severe sandstorm this year's show was blessed with blue skies and temperatures in the early-mid 20s. To offer a sense of scale there were some 770 exhibitors from around 75 countries ranging from the largest contractors to the smallest offering literally everything you could possibly want to conventionally equip a military from heavy armour to weapons systems, small arms, ships, uniforms, bridging systems, rations, munitions, drones by the hundreds and space and cyber warfare . I believe there were around 100,000 visitors across the four days the show ran for. Each morning there was a land warfare demonstration for around 30 minutes with the airshow taking place in mid-afternoon for a couple of hours. In addition to the Saudi Hawks, the Turkish Stars and the August 1st team from the People's Republic of China with their J10s were also present. Pakistan sent three JF17 Thunders and the home team contributed a Typhoon to the display. The French Rafale flew on day one and then left. 1. The show was protected by a couple of batteries of Patriots. Mortar anti-drone systems were also present. Incidentally, Patriots are also deployed to protect King Khalid International Airport. 2. The USAF deployed this Middle East temporarily based Lakenheath Strike Eagle along with an A-10C, E-11, F-16C, Blackhawk and a couple of C-130s. 3. The Poseidon flew through on day one only. A USAF F-16C flew three passes each day from another base. 4. The USAF flew in their CONUS based demonstration pilot although she flew the demo aircraft from elsewhere which she declined to name! 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. The Stars were supported by this Hercules and an A-400M. 10. 11. 12. This Leanardo Wildcat was flown in by an RAF A400M. 13. 14. 15. Unfortunately, the RSAF F-15SA didn't fly. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Towards the end of the week the Saudi Hawks and the Turkish Stars put up this joint flypast. 22. 23.. 24. Former Red Arrow Mike Ling flew the RSAF photographer in the photo Hawk. 25. The future. New aircraft and new colour scheme. The Hawk Mk165 will replace the team's current aircraft. 26. 27. 28. Saudi Typhoon. 28. 29. 29. 30. 31. After landing the Chinese pilots formed up and then marched off. 32. After finishing their display the team organised three aircraft as shown and gathered for a group picture. As two of us trained our lenses on them, their photographers were doing the same to us hence we made sure our photo badges were turned around! Saudi Typhoon displaying overhead. 33. 34. A the final afternoon of the show progressed there was a definite feel of it coming to an end with drop tanks being fitted to the J10s and the Turkish F5s in preparation for their flights home. 35. That's it, thanks for looking

Great set of pictures and write up too - thanks Mark. I hadn't realised the Honey Badger was such an improvement over the old Hawks. Perhaps as the new aggressors get established we'll hear some accounts of what they are like to go up against.

The new lens looks like it's performing well. Pleased with it?

Superb! Beautifully done.

It's always a pleasure to see your superb creations. A wonderful piece of work and very nicely photographed too!

Wow! What an amazing build. That is a class bit of work.

Very nice indeed! The more I read about the F-35 the more it intrigues me. Your post and others have been very helpful in making it clear that painting these aircraft is not as straightforward as it might seem!

A very nice set of shots and thanks for sharing. There's something about that pink Spitfire that I can't get my head around.

Chris Shores published three volumes on the Mediterranean Air War in the mid-1970s under the Ian Allan banner. A reasonable number of photos in each albeit they are mainly text. They are not that rare and so shouldn't cost that much in second hand bookshops.