Koksijde International

As mentioned above, one element of this years show was the celebration of the F-16 Fighting Falcon being in service with the Belgian Air Component for thirty years. As well as Belgian F-16's being on display, aircraft from Denmark, Norway, Greece, The Netherlands and U.S.A took part in the event and the line up of aircraft had its own corner of the field for the day. As well as the aircraft on view, many squadrons had stands from where lots of items were on sale for the discerning enthusiast to spend their hard earned Euro's!

Belgian Air Component 31 Squadron (Tigers) F-16A from Kleine Brogel

You can always rely on the Royal Netherlands Air Force to be in attendance at any show, bringing two F-16's for the anniversary event.

Both were 311 Squadron machines from Volkel Air Base.

The Royal Danish Air Force had two aircraft in the F-16 line up, E-016 and this two-seater ET-612

The United States Air Force also bought along two F-16C aircraft from Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.

One was from the 22nd Fighter Squadron and one was from the 23rd Fighter Squadron, both of which belong to the 52nd Fighter Wing.

This F-16 Fighting Falcon (left) displayed a commemorative scheme for the show, but was clearly a non-serviceable example. Devoid of any serial it is presumably one of the early model Fighting Falcons delivered to the then Belgian Air Force back in the late '70's or early '80's and not put through the Mid Life Update (MLU) programme.

The now familiar Belgian Air Component Fighting Falcon display was as always presented with much enthusiasm. With the skies above Koksijde being somewhat cloudy at times there was enough moisture around to cause plenty of vapour trails from the F-16's tight turns. However as always the most enjoyable part is the numerous flares being 'popped' whilst turning and burning.

As mentioned previously the sun at Koksijde is a real problem and by lunchtime you are virtually shooting into the sun. So instead of showing various shots of unidentifiable aircraft we will move on the the static area, which in itself had some interesting aircraft to view.

Sadly the Croatian Air Force Antonov An-32 returned home after providing support for the PC-9 display team. An aircraft not often seen this far west, it would have been nice to have added it to the static, as it would have been with the Polish CASA 295 and Morrocan CASA 235 that were both left over the far side of the airfield after having provided support for their display aircraft. Why organisers don't make these aircraft part of the show baffles me, they are often of more interest to people than some of the other aircraft available for viewing.

One of the most welcome sights was this Spanish Air Force Northrop SF-5B(M) Freedom Fighter from ALA.23 at Talavera

Not long ago Tornado variants were in the majority at most European airshows.

With the rise of the Eurofighter and other more modern airframes the Tornado is gradually decreasing in numbers.

As with Phantom's and Starfighter's it won't be long before we wish for a Tornado to be on the list of aircraft due to be present

Armee De L'Air Alphajet from EAC.314 based at Tours

Another French Air Force aircraft was this Dassault Mirage 2000D from Nancy/Ochey Air Base

Belgian Federale Police MD.520N serialed G-14 is based at Brussels/Melsbroek

This Austrian Air Force Saab 105OE was delivered back in 1970. You'd never guess it had seen nearly 40 years service

French Navy Aerospatiale SA.365N Dauphin from 35 Flotille

Belgian Air Component SIAI-Marchetti SF.260D serial ST40 in the static park

Saab JAS.39D Gripen from the 59th TFW based at Kecskemet with the Hungarian Air Force

Providing support for the two Hungarian Gripen's was this Antonov An-26