At the 2024 Singapore Air Show, I spent a lot of time watching flight performances. Unlike the performance style of the Zhuhai Air Show and Changchun Air Show in China, where the Chinese Air Force is the absolute protagonist, you can see aircraft performances from more countries at the Singapore Air Show, and different performance styles are intertwined, which looks more exciting. This time, in addition to the flight performances of China’s C919 aircraft and ARJ21 aircraft, air force flight performance teams from Singapore, India, Australia, Indonesia, and South Korea also brought wonderful flight performances.
Deep impression
This flight performance mainly includes the US military’s B-52H strategic bomber, the Singapore Air Force’s F-15S G and "Apache" joint flight performance, the South Korean Air Force T-50 special performance, the Indian Air Force KT-1 flight performance, the Indian Air Force Peacock Flight Performance Team Polaris Helicopter Performance, the Australian Air Force Roulette Flight Performance Team PC-21 Performance, and the Chinese Commercial KAR J21 and C919 flight performances. Of course, there are regrets. The F-35B hovering over the sea that used to appear at the Singapore Air Show did not appear at this air show. In addition, the US military’s F-22 did not appear at this air show.
As far as this flight show is concerned, there are three that impressed me the most:
One is the short-lived B-52H strategic bomber. The two B-52Hs of the US military only performed a pass-through flight on February 22 and never appeared again. I believe that many viewers did not see the live flight performance of the B-52H. Perhaps it was because there was only this one time that left a deeper impression on me: two eight-engine "big birds" slowly floated in the air and then slowly disappeared from my sight.
Maybe some people will say that there is nothing good about an old-fashioned aircraft like the B-52H. But in my opinion, the B-52H, a strategic bomber, can appear at the Singapore Air Show, which is a strategic deterrent in itself. I believe that many Chinese military enthusiasts have the same mentality as me. When they saw the B-52H flying through the Singapore Air Show, they must have thought about when China’s H-20 would be unveiled?
In fact, I was deeply impressed by the B-52H’s flight performance. On February 22, I happened to arrive at Singapore Changi Airport and was fortunate to see the B-52H’s flying through the field on the observation deck of Terminal 1. It flew from afar to in front of me and finally flew over my head. The only flight performance of the B-52H that I had the opportunity to see was a rare opportunity.
And the special correspondent of this magazine arrived at the air show early and took a high-definition picture of the B-52H flying through the field with a professional camera. From the high-definition picture, we can see that the vertical tail code of the B-52H flying over the field is MT. According to public information, the location of these two aircraft is Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, which deploys Minuteman-3 missiles and B-52H long-range strategic bombers.
It is a joint flight performance of F-15SG and AH-64D. Heavy fighters and armed helicopters, the speed difference between the two aircraft is so large, and they can actually perform a joint flight performance. It must be said that it is a kind of creativity. It is this creativity that left a deep impression on the audience.
The F-15SG and A H-64D in this flight performance both belong to the Singapore Air Force. At the same time, there is also an AH-64D of the Singapore Air Force in the static display area. After careful observation, I found that the static display of the AH-64D is equipped with a "Longbow" millimeter-wave radar (the ball on the top of the mast), while the AH-64D in the flight show does not have a "Longbow" millimeter-wave radar.
Due to the needs of the performance, there were many intersections during the joint flight performance of the F-15SG and the AH-64D, including horizontal intersections and vertical intersections. At the same time, jammers were launched, which was very exciting. I counted at the scene that the F-15SG had to launch at least four jammers in each flight performance, sometimes at the moment of intersection, sometimes during the turning process, and sometimes during the rolling process.
Compared to the F-15SG’s valiant movements, the AH-64D’s movements were too gentle. Except for the occasional high-angle climb and vertical nose-down dive, the other movements were mediocre. Even when launching jamming bombs, there was no exciting scene of the Z-20 spinning and firing bombs at the Zhuhai Air Show in China.
On the weekend day (formerly called the public day, this year it was renamed the weekend day because February 24 and 25 happened to be the weekend), the F-15SG and A H-64D had a joint flight show in the morning and afternoon. During each show, the audience was full.
It must be said that the weather in Singapore is really good, the blue sky and white clouds are like a tablecloth, making the flight show more real.
The third is the performance of the "Polaris" helicopter of the Indian Air Force’s "Peacock" flight demonstration team. The Indian Air Force’s "Peacock" flight demonstration team used four Indian-made "Polaris" helicopters with bright paint and peacock patterns on the fuselage as performance aircraft.
To be honest, this is the first time I have seen a helicopter formation flight performance. Maybe it’s because I haven’t seen it often, but I was very impressed. Especially the moment of two-aircraft and four-aircraft collision is very exciting. After all, for a slow-moving aircraft like a helicopter, especially with a rotor, if the spacing is not maintained well, it is really possible to collide in the air. And the special correspondent of this magazine directly called the Indian Air Force’s "Peacock" flight demonstration team the Bollywood in the sky, with magical BGM, curry-flavored English live commentary, and the flight performance is very much like Bollywood, where people dance at the slightest disagreement.
Other flight performances
After talking about three impressive flight performances, let’s take a look at other flight performances.
The South Korean Air Force’s "Black Hawk" flight demonstration team, everyone should have heard of this. There have been many debates on the Internet before. The main reason is that every time they go to the Singapore or Malaysia Air Show, they have to stop at Taiwan Island. Although there is nothing wrong with it on the surface, it is reasonable and legal, but who can understand the little tricks in secret? It can only be said that the behavior is very Korean. @ @@25
The "Black Hawk" flight demonstration team uses the T-50 advanced trainer jointly developed by South Korea’s KAI Company and the United States’ Lockheed Martin Company as a performance aircraft. It adopts an 8-plane formation and its performance style fully imitates the US "Thunderbirds" flight demonstration team. The formation is dense and the movements are compact, supplemented by dynamic music. The on-site effect is still very good. The rhythm of the commentary and background music is very appropriate to the performance in the air, especially after the performance, the planes pass through the air one by one, introducing the names and positions of the pilots, which is full of ritual. Compared with other flight demonstration teams, the shortcomings of the "Black Hawk" flight demonstration team are also obvious. First, it uses solid colored smoke, which is dense and dense. The time it stays in the air is not as long as liquid colored smoke. Secondly, the slow speed performance of the T-50 advanced trainer is poor, and the "slow flying" ability is insufficient.
Then let’s take a look at the flight displays of several large aircraft, including the Singapore Air Force A330MRTT take-off and pass, my country’s C919 overseas first flight, and Airbus A350-1000 demonstration. Among them, the A330MRTT is military and belongs to a multi-purpose tanker, which has both hose refueling and hard pipe refueling.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the C919 from China". At the opening ceremony of the 2024 Singapore Air Show, the C919 made its overseas debut, which is of great significance: from the successful test flight, obtaining airworthiness certificates, starting commercial operations, to appearing at foreign air shows, and seeking to layout overseas markets, China’s large aircraft industry chain has been formed.
Not only that, after participating in the Singapore Air Show, C919 also started a demonstration flight in Southeast Asia. According to the arrangement, in the next two weeks, the C919 aircraft will carry out demonstration flights in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia, mainly to verify the adaptability of domestic commercial aircraft to the airports and routes of the five Southeast Asian countries, the adaptability of airport ground service equipment, the applicability of special flight procedures, and the economy of route payload, showing the good performance of the aircraft and laying the foundation for the subsequent development of the Southeast Asian market.
The Airbus A350-1000 demonstration is also worth mentioning, The Airbus A350-1000 is Airbus’ largest and most powerful twin-engine wide-body aircraft to date, and is also one of the most fuel-efficient large wide-body aircraft in the world today. This air show was the first to use sustainable aviation fuel for flight performances.
In addition, my country’s ARJ21 civil aircraft also lowered its landing gear for a demonstration, which was flexible and agile.
Finally, let’s talk about the flight performances of the Australian Air Force and the Indonesian Air Force. The Royal Australian Air Force’s "Roulette" flight performance team used 6 Pilatus PC-21 training aircraft to perform a wonderful flight performance. Although it was not as imposing as a jet aircraft, the flight movements were more delicate and the viewing experience was very good. The Indonesian Air Force’s "Cupid" flight performance team also presented 11 sets of wonderful movements to the audience, including hearts, arrows, eagle turning arrows, snakes, and five-card cycles.
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