GROUNDED: No F-35 In The Skies Over Swindon 

Jet debut at Air Tattoo cancelled

 

The star attraction at this year's Air Tattoo at nearby RAF Fairford will now unfortunately not fly after safety concerns meant all new F-35s have been grounded.

 

The F-35 is Britain’s next generation jet fighter, and was due to make its international air show debut at RIAT this weekend.

 

 

The cancellation is due to an engine fire during takeoff in a development aircraft in the US last month, with investigations to the cause still on-going.

 

Air Tattoo Chief Executive Tim Prince said the decision was a great disappointment given the amount of planning that had gone into bringing the aircraft over for the event.

He said: "It's not unusual for there to be delays in the development programme of any new military aircraft, and the Air Tattoo has been working closely with teams from Lockheed Martin, the US Marine Corps, Department of Defence and MoD to ensure the aircraft touched down at RAF Fairford for the Air Tattoo.

 

"Unfortunately we've simply run out of time."

 

   

Red Arrows 50th

 

"Fortunately, the F-35B is only one of more than 200 exciting aircraft representing 33 air arms from 27 countries around the globe that will be taking part in RIAT 2014, which begins tomorrow (Friday, July 11)," Mr Prince added. 

 

"We are looking forward to staging the UK's biggest celebrations marking the RAF Red Arrows 50th display season at the world's largest military airshow." 

 

Pictures by Calyx.