Typhoons in Suburbia

Davidth88

Some great photos here of the Typoons landing at RAF Northolt.

I used to go down that road to school everyday , was always fun when something like a Herc was coming in ( or in my day the occasional Argosy !!)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/9241731/Exercise-Olympic-Guardian-RAF-Typhoon-jets-and-Rapier-missiles-in-London.html

This is real suburbia for those who don't know it , and if you went about 600m back down the road photographed you would end up at the HQ of the London GAA ( Ruislip GAA ) , this used to be the QPR training ground when I was growing up .... ( STan Bowles /Rodney Marsh etc ).

We used to see Spitfires there every Sept ( for Battle of Britain day etc ) but they were the only fighters .


Edit , this is google maps of the location , which is where there used to be a special spotting enclosure !

http://maps.google.ie/maps?q=Eastcote,+United+Kingdom&hl=en&ll=51.554921,-0.404885&spn=0.022334,0.038581&sll=53.401034,-8.307638&sspn=10.925305,19.753418&oq=eastcote&hnear=Eastcote,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=51.554921,-0.404885&panoid=5tAMzQuE2e5rMiRgqvq1Jw&cbp=12,315,,0,0

bwatson

Those photographs do a great job of emphasizing just how urban the area around RAF Northolt is!

I can't imagine the population of London will take well at all to fast jets banking in the skies above them over the next few days. In general the British have become an incredibly demilitarized society - in most parts of the UK you would be completely unaware that the military even existed. For my money thats a bit of a negative but it will be good to see a little bit of what the RAF and the Navy is about over the skies of the capital. Far from being disconcerting, I hope Londoners find it an enlightening and reassuring exercise.

Davidth88

bwatson wrote: »

Those photographs do a great job of emphasizing just how urban the area around RAF Northolt is!

Indeed , this would be like having Typhoons landing at an base in the centre of Dundrum or somewhere like that.

My brother lives about 1 mile from Northolt , he said that he thought there was an earthquake when they took off, his flat shook .

Where I grew up we could clearly hear the HS125's of 32 sq take off , so I can imagine how loud this would be.

bwatson

There was some fast jet activity today for what must have been the first part of Exercise "Olympic Guardian". The characteristic high pitched "scream" of the Typhoon was great to hear over London (and as unfamiliar an occurance as it is, on the street people still seemed either oblivious or very much disinterested).