Ref. 25783-28THIS year's Royal International Air Tattoo was a spectacular event, and went without a hitch - almost.

Around 200,000 people attended the show and a further 16,000 schoolchildren and cadets visited on the Friday.

Security was tight and armed police could be seen guarding all American aircraft, but no others.

The main concern then for the organisers was the weather, which despite being cloudy, was still warm with the rain staying away.

This year, the show managed to attract a varied array of aircraft, from a replica Wright Flyer from the Yorkshire Air Museum, to a German Tornado painted in bright orange and black tiger stripes, to a British Airways Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet which was the last display of the day as it took off for Heathrow.

There were a small number of disappointments for the enthusiasts though, after the rare French Hawkeye carrier-borne radar plane and a B-52 Bomber failed to show for their displays.

The display by the Eurofighter Typhoon was brought forward into the early afternoon, and might well have not taken place at all if it was not for the quick thinking of Eurofighter engineers after the aircraft suffered a hydraulic failure on landing on Friday.

Silencing the crowd was the awesome B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber which had flown non-stop from its base in Missouri. It made a single fly-over at the Gloucestershire base, before heading for RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk.

The huge range of things to do and see was echoed by visitors. Andrew Prynne, 39 brought his son, Toby, five, from Bournemouth.

He said: "I've been to the Air Tattoo for a number of years, but this one is a lot better than last year's and it seems a lot bigger too.

"I think highlights were the American B-1B bomber and Eurofighter, just because of the amount of noise they make."

John Mason, 60, from Reading brought his two grandchildren, Roma, eight, and Charlie, five, to the show. Mr Mason said: "There is a fantastic variety of aircraft and its great to see the Stealth fighter on the ground."

Charlie said: "I am having lots of fun. I really like the Stealth and really like the noise too."

The show was opened with a flypast by a biplane pulling a banner hailing 100 years of flight, before jet flights from Hungary, Belgium and Sweden took to the skies.

Then it was then the turn of the Utterly Butterly Barnstormers in their Boeing Stearmans biplanes to fly their first ever four-aircraft display. After the displays by aircraft from the Ocean Watch section of the show, it was the turn of the large jets to take to the skies.

First was the Boeing 757 of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. An aircraft more familiar for taking passengers on holiday to the Mediterranean, it astounded the crowd with tight turns, low flypasts and a fast zoom climb.

Joining the Kiwis, was an Airbus A330 airliner of the AirTanker consortium which is currently bidding for the Ministry of Defence's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft contract. The large aircraft showed off its agility with two Tornado fighters flying at its wingtips.

During the early afternoon the Red Arrows strutted their stuff through the skies with formation flying, but not before performing a unique flypast with an American F-117 Nighthawk Stealth fighter.

Later the Italian Il Freece Tricolori performed, with the crowd guided through the display by a rather enthusiastic commentator whose English become more Italian as the display went on.

That heralded the beginning of a small battle of the commentators as the East Coast A-10 Thunderbolt demonstration team took to the runway, the enthusiastic American was shouting out the aircraft capabilities as if he was trying to sell a car.

Air Tattoo 2004 takes place from July 16 to 18.