It was a 4.40am start for the Wilkinson family. They packed their car with gear you might take on a trip to the seaside – folding chairs, blankets, a picnic. But instead of heading to the coast, they drove 80 miles from their home in Hampshire to Gloucestershire and set up camp close to the perimeter fence of RAF Fairford to watch American warplanes take off and land.
“It’s definitely cheaper than a trip to a theme park,” said Jonathan Wilkinson, who was there with wife, Katie, and three sons, aged seven to 12. “The sights and sounds are impressive. But it’s a bittersweet thing. These planes are only here because of war. We have to keep that in mind.”
The biggest fan in the family was the oldest boy, Josh, who wore a Red Arrows cap and said he liked planes because his grandad was in the RAF. “I love the noise of them. They are so cool.” Katie Wilkinson was enjoying the community spirit. “Everyone is friendly and welcoming,” she said.
A bank holiday jaunt in the Cotswolds is probably most closely associated with a visit to a picture postcard village and, perhaps, a cup of tea and slice of cake. But hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people on Monday opted instead for the fringes of the RAF base, where American planes are flying missions to Iran.
Cam Dell, a welder from Leeds, West Yorkshire, had left home at 10.30pm on Sunday and driven almost 200 miles to arrive at Fairford at 2.45am. He had heard the roar of engines being tested at 3.30am as he huddled in his car for warmth.
When day broke he and scores of others set up stepladders, the better to see over the security fence, and waited for the planes to fly. “I know it’s not a normal thing to do,” he said. “But these are not normal times, are they?”
Ollie, 20, was there with a bunch of friends from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, 140 miles away. “You never know when a plane is taking off or landing,” he said. “It’s a waiting game.”
A few hours after dawn, their patience was rewarded as the scanners some of the spotters were carrying picked up the sound of American air traffic controllers giving the go-head for take-off. After a flurry of activity on the airfield, two B-1 Lancer bombers soared with a roar and headed south, followed shortly by a U-2 reconnaissance plane.
Peace returned. A man who had bought his seven-year-old daughter along, and made sure she kept her ear protectors on as the planes flew away, told her they could now go the park.
Groups of cyclists, runners and dog walkers came past. A swallow whizzed by and a skylark took off into the blue sky with a sweeter sound than the US planes. The waiting recommenced.
There have been complaints from some local people that the planespotters are clogging up roads, and Gloucestershire police have said they will keep the situation under review. Ministry of Defence police vehicles did laps of the base and occasionally asked people to move poorly parked cars but there was no tension.
Robert, who said he was in his 70s, had driven his van to within a short distance of the airfield, then cycled the rest of the way with his sandwiches and binoculars. “I don’t want to cause any trouble,” he said. “I’m interested in the mechanics of the planes rather than the destruction they can cause.”
Some people caught Ubers to the site, including a group of sightseers from the US who had spent Saturday in Bath and opted for Fairford on Saturday rather than the more conventional delights of Bourton-on-the-Water or Stow-on-the-Wold.
Later in the day, someone yelled “incoming!” and the cameras and binoculars turned to the south. Three B-1s, believed to have set off from Fairford for Iran on Sunday morning, hoved into view and within moments had touched down.
Sally, 59, from Hampshire, agreed that it was a bittersweet sort of day out. Her father worked in the aircraft industry, so planes were in her blood. “I can’t help but be drawn to them, especially the B-1s and B-52s, which for me are cold war big beasts,” she said. “But the thought of what they are doing gives me the ick, as the kids might say. We must never forget that.”
