X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Farnborough Airshow


Beagle Airedale

A single Airedale, the prototype (registration G-ARKE) was refitted with a Rolls-Royce-built Continental GO-300 so that it could be part of the SBAC Display at the 1961 Farnborough Airshow, as the standard Airedale was not eligible on account of its US-built engine.

British Aerospace EAP

In 1982, British Aerospace (BAe) exhibited a mockup of the Agile Combat Aircraft (ACA) at the Farnborough Airshow as well as the Paris Air Show in May 1983.

Crescent wing

The Victor had good handling and excellent performance, along with favourable slow speed flight characteristics and has been described as an agile aircraft, atypical for a large bomber aircraft; in 1958, a Victor had performed several loops and a barrel roll during practices for a display flight at Farnborough Airshow.

Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne

The second prototype, basically similar to the first but with more comfortable interior furnishings befitting its role as a passenger demonstrator, was flying by the time of the next SBAC Display, in September 1948, at Farnborough.


807 Naval Air Squadron

In September 1959 the squadron performed in front of thousands of spectators at Farnborough Airshow with a display of formation aerobatics.

Darrell Cornell

His display performances flying the F-20 in Paris, France (Le Bourget 1983) and Farnborough, England in 1984 are remembered by many as some of the finest ever performed at these airshows.

Roland Falk

During the 1955 Farnborough Airshow he barrel-rolled a Vulcan at the top of the post-take-off climb, although safe it was a spectacular manoeuvre in an aircraft weighing 69 tons and with a 99-foot wingspan.

Short Sturgeon

Two prototypes ordered with the first flying on 12 August 1950 and then demonstrated at the 1950 Society of British Aerospace Companies' (SBAC) Farnborough Airshow; the second example was completed but never flown.


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