I was lucky enough to get a tour of RAF Coningsby during my stay in England.  Already seeing the Typhoon demonstrate its capabilities at the Sunderland Airshow a week earlier; I was excited to get an up close look at the newest jet in the RAF's inventory.  

The first stop was a quick hanger tour.  Most of the Typhoons were going through their regular maintenance checks; for security reasons, pictures were limited.  We were given a chance to walk around one of the 29 (R) squadron's jets.  I originally thought that this was a relatively small plane, but it does have some size to it. 

We cut short our hanger tour, as there were two Typhoons landing soon.  We moved out to the ramp where we waited for the jets to arrive.  At the same time 2 Tornado F3's from AWC-FJ&W OEU were warming up their engines for a quick mission.  I was hoping to see the Jaguar or the new GR.9 Harrier but they stayed in their hanger all day.      

Finally, 2 Typhoons appeared overhead and did their breaks for separation.  After two missed approaches each, the pilots decided to call it a day, and they landed their jets.  ZJ808 was the first jet to taxi by; followed closely by ZJ806.  The ground crew quickly moved in, and before long all the pilots were headed towards their debriefing.  

After burning a 1GB memory card on the Typhoons and F.3's it was time to move on!  During the next section of the tour we were given presentations from some of the ground based units at Coningsby.  

Before leaving we visited the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based on station.  Seeing the Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancaster, and Dakota ranked just as high as seeing the modern jets.  All in all a great tour.  Definitely a highlight of the trip overseas.