{"id":516301,"date":"2026-04-06T18:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/516301\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:50:11","slug":"a-bittersweet-thrill-daytrippers-watch-us-warplanes-in-action-at-raf-fairford-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/516301\/","title":{"rendered":"A bittersweet thrill: daytrippers watch US warplanes in action at RAF Fairford | Military"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u2013 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely cheaper than a trip to a theme park,\u201d said Jonathan Wilkinson, who was there with wife, Katie, and three sons, aged seven to 12. \u201cThe sights and sounds are impressive. But it\u2019s a bittersweet thing. These planes are only here because of war. We have to keep that in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest fan in the family was the oldest boy, Josh, who wore a Red Arrows<\/a> cap and said he liked planes because his grandad was in the RAF. \u201cI love the noise of them. They are so cool.\u201d Katie Wilkinson was enjoying the community spirit. \u201cEveryone is friendly and welcoming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Katie and Jonathan Wilkinson and their sons Josh, 12, Archie, 10, and Zach, seven. Photograph: Andrew Fox\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI know it\u2019s not a normal thing to do,\u201d he said. \u201cBut these are not normal times, are they?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PlanePlane spotters watch American jets at RAF Fairford \u2013 loop<\/p>\n

Ollie, 20, was there with a bunch of friends from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, 140 miles away. \u201cYou never know when a plane is taking off or landing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a waiting game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Some local people have said planespotters are clogging up roads. Photograph: Andrew Fox\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

There have been complaints from some local people that the planespotters are clogging up roads<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI don\u2019t want to cause any trouble,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m interested in the mechanics of the planes rather than the destruction they can cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Wilkinson gets a closer look. Photograph: Andrew Fox\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Later in the day, someone yelled \u201cincoming!\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI can\u2019t help but be drawn to them, especially the B-1s and B-52s, which for me are cold war big beasts,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the thought of what they are doing gives me the ick, as the kids might say. We must never forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a 4.40am start for the Wilkinson family. They packed their car with gear you might take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-516301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}