Organisers of RIAT, the UK’s most well-known airshow, have introduced that the principle theme for subsequent 12 months’s occasion shall be ‘Fighter Meet’, celebrating over a century of air to air fight plane.
Scheduled for Seventeenth-Nineteenth July 2026, the Royal Worldwide Air Tattoo, or RIAT, is without doubt one of the highlights of the world’s airshow calendar and attracts shows from air arms all throughout the globe. It has, with a couple of interruptions as a result of airfield works, been held at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, because the mid Eighties.
Every year a lot of themes for every version of the airshow are chosen, with 2025’s primary occasion theme ‘Eyes within the Skies’ celebrating maritime patrol, search and rescue, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) plane.
To signify the theme, RIAT 2025 noticed a singular air show by a frontline-equipped U-2S Dragon Girl, the primary ever airshow look of a Royal Air Drive E-7A Wedgetail AEW1, and static appearances by a U.S. Air Drive RC-135V Rivet Joint, French Air and Area Drive E-3F Sentry, Spanish Air Drive Sikorsky HD.24 (S-76C), and lots of extra.
Subsequent 12 months’s occasion will have a good time air to air fighter plane all through historical past, with organisers coining the theme ‘Fighter Meet’. Whereas we’re nonetheless a means off from seeing an extended listing of confirmed contributors, fans can be sure you count on many show appearances from Typhoons, F-35 Lightning IIs, and F-16 Combating Falcons, together with a collection of Rafales, Mirages, Gripens, F/A-18 Hornets, F-15 Eagles, and MiG-29s. Many shall be hoping – no-one moreso than the RIAT organisers themselves – for uncommon visits from extra elusive sorts just like the F-22 Raptor, Su-27 Flanker, and F-4 Phantom.
Participation from the most recent fighters will virtually definitely profit from the presence of Farnborough Worldwide Airshow on the calendar. Farnborough is without doubt one of the aviation business’s key commerce occasions, held each two years on an alternating foundation with the Paris Air Present.
Historic illustration is bound to come back within the type of most of the UK and Europe’s airworthy warbirds, together with Supermarine Spitfires, P-51 Mustangs, and Hawker Hurricanes. Airworthy replicas of early fighters just like the Sopwith Camel and Fokker Dr.1 will virtually definitely seem in some kind, as will historic jet sorts nonetheless operated both by personal house owners or contractors just like the Hawker Hunter, Gloster Meteor, A-4 Skyhawk, and MiG-15. Eyes shall be on the participation listing for doable appearances from the Swedish Air Drive Historic Flight’s ever well-liked Saab Draken and Saab Viggen fighters, returning after a debut look in 2022.
Royal Flight
A secondary theme for RIAT 2026 – ‘Royal Flight’ – will mark 30 years because the airshow was granted its Royal standing by Queen Elizabeth II. This may showcase plane used for VIP transportation. The Royal Air Drive’s latest devoted VIP transport plane, the Dassault Envoy IV CC1, made its debut RIAT look in 2025 after changing two BAe 146 plane, and this may be the obvious plane to have attend – maybe forming a part of a flypast with the Royal Air Drive’s Crimson Arrows show group.
The theme might also see the attendance of the UK Authorities’s personal civilian chartered Airbus A321, which is operated by Titan Airways. Registered as G-GBNI, the present plane, development quantity 8830, previously carried the registration G-POWT. Oddly, and in contravention of regular UK plane registration guidelines, G-GBNI has in reality been carried by two completely different airframes, with the primary plane, development quantity 10238, now flying for Titan as G-OATW.
In the same paint scheme to the Envoy IVs and the A321 is the Royal Air Drive’s personal ZZ336, or ‘Vespina’, an A330 MRTT Voyager which was outfitted for a secondary position offering VIP transport. Although much less generally used for this goal now different plane can be found, it stays in service with the distinctive paint scheme and is frequently seen working in its tanker position over the UK, and could be an ideal match for the Royal Flight theme whereas additionally showcasing one of many RAF’s most seen plane sorts and capabilities.
Plane from the various European VIP fleets will undoubtedly lead to Fairford resembling an airport internet hosting arrivals for a world convention. Sorts in service throughout Europe embody many variants of Airbus A320 and Dassault Falcon, together with Boeing 737s, Gulfstreams, Airbus A310s, A330s, and A350s.
Europe-based U.S. army VIP plane within the type of a C-21 or C-37 might attend – in reality, it isn’t unprecedented for one in all these plane to slide in in the course of the weekend if any senior U.S. army personnel are attending the occasion itself – although many will hope for organisers to drag a figurative rabbit from the hat and obtain an abroad look by one of many 89th Airlift Wing’s well-known VIP-schemed C-32s or C-40s.
A @usairforce Gulfstream C-37B registered 06-0500 touchdown at RAF Fairford earlier than the flying show began on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/nztthJyq7X
— DanteMan (@EGLLSpotter) July 22, 2024
RIAT 2022 was thought-about an important 12 months for the present in some ways, however one main star attraction was the primary ever worldwide airshow look by a Boeing E-4B Nightwatch. Although its position extends fairly past merely VIP transport, it might definitely fall throughout the theme’s remit and assure satisfaction from many aviation fans if a repeat go to may very well be achieved.
As RIAT’s organisers reiterate yearly, the method for ‘reserving’ plane to attend the airshow is extremely advanced. VIP plane, as a result of their very nature, shall be probably the most prized and carefully guarded plane within the inventories of many air forces, and never a sort that’s routinely prime of the listing for airshows. These at Douglas Bader Home, RIAT’s year-round workplace handle, will definitely have their work lower out for them with this theme, however we’re excited to see what magic they will carry out.
