Farnborough 2012 airshow preview
Farnborough international 2012 will take place between July 9th and 15th at Farnborough airport Hampshire. The airport is currently owned and operated by TAG aviation as Londons main Executive airport.
As ever this is primerially a trade show for the aerospace industry with the public being allowed in on the weekend.
This guide is a personal view and not connected with the airshow in any way.The official website is WWW.FARNBOROUGH.com which will provide further information
Getting here
Farnborough is located 35miles South West of London and is very easy to get to.
By rail
There are frequent fast trains from London Waterloo and Southampton that call at Farnborough main station from where buses run to the show.
There is also a rail service from Reading and Gatwick airport via Guildford with these trains stopping at North Camp station from where a shuttle bus will also run
Farnborugh is also close to the M3 London-Southampton motorway as is acessable by both junctions 4 and 4a and the airshow is well signposted from both.
by air>
By scheduled flight Heathrow,Gatwick and Southampton airports are easily acessable. Luton and Stansted airports will require travelling into London to get a connection.
For those with the money there are limited slots at Farnborugh for private aircraft, contact TAG Aviation. There is also a helicopter service from London Battersea heliport.
For smaller aircraft Blackbushe airport is only 5 miles away.
Whats Farnborugh like?
Farnborough is a town of around 60,000 people with the towns of Fleet,Camberley and Aldershot very ajacent.The airport has always been intergral to the town both in its former military role and current civil role.
Farnborugh town center is very ajacent to the show site and can offer accomidation and limited entertainment. There are several hotels ranging from the 5* 'Aviator' ajacent to
the show site to the Travellodge motel in the town center. Sadly Farnborough town center is suffering a protracted redevelopment and one day it will be a interesting place to
spend a evening after the show. Sadly now is not that time so if you are looking for some post show nightlife get a hotel in London and use the train!
At the show
Arrivals for the show will commence on Monday 2nd July and will finish on Sunday 8th. During this week each aircraft that will participate in the flying display
will undertake practicse displays and have these displays approved by the flying control comittie.
The show will open on Monday 9th July at 09:00 and will feature flying in the afternoon. Trade tickets can be purchased on the day or in advance from the website.
The Saturday and Sunday will see the show open to the public
There is a large outdoor static display of aircraft as well as indoor exhibition halls. the static starts at the eastern
and of the site near the main entrance.The area nearest the entrance will see the aircraft from Finmeccia Group featuring
Agusta-Westland, Aleina, Aermacchi and ATR military. Following this is the large aircraft park dominated by the A380
and perhaps the Boeing 787. This leads down to the crowd line and the rest of the static runs west from here.
The US Military presence will be on the oval part of the old taxiway along with other aircraft.
The static will finish with the business aircraft park on Monday-Wednesday. This area will be occupied by diffrent aircraft during the public weekend.
The exhibition area is sited on the side of a hill overlooking the airfield, giving excellent views. There are four main halls as well as other exhibition space spread amoungst the static areas.
For the first time these halls will be closed on the public weekend. During the trade week they contain aerospace exhibitors large, and small and is always excellent for 'freebees'.
The afternoon flying display takes place each day and varies from day to day. A list for each day will appear on the official website. The fast jets are grouped toughter due to airspace restrictions.
The display line is further than some airshows but the crod line is very close to the runway.
Viewing from outside
More than half of the airport is surrounded by housing and industry so there are plenty of oppurtunites for viewing the flying from outside. Some of the key places
can be found by looking at the viewing page on this site.
Other spots are the following
Elles Road- area next to TAG main gate , no where to park, lots of locals use this so gets very busy.
Town center multistory car park- many aircraft fly over head while turning finals
Cove playing fields- located behind the Monkey Puzzle pub off Southwood Road , again aircraft overhead during the display
Southwood playing fields- further up this road opposite Nokia offices- further away but good general view
if anybody has any questions mail me at rob.belcher@ntlworld.com. Have a great show!