A.380 at Wirral Show

Surprise of the year the most talked about aircraft of the aviation world turns up at a tiny show at a place most of the country does'nt know exists.If I may explain the Wirral is a tiny peninsula bordered to the the north by the River Mersey and the City of Liverpool to the South by the River Dee and the country of Wales and to the west by the Irish sea,but 25 miles away is the Broughton factory where Airbus Industrie manufacture the wings for the A.380 along with the wings for the rest of the Airbus family.A lot of the workforce from Broughton live on the Wirral or within short driving distance of the Wirral so Airbus decided it would be a great opportunity to show the aircraft off to a large percentage of the local workforce,I have quite a few friends who work at the factory and they tipped me off earlier in the week that weather permitting the aircraft would perform its full Farnborough display at the show thankfully the skies were mainly blue on Saturday afternoon and right on time the aircraft appeared having already visited Manchester and Liverpool Airports (visits to RIAT and the Goodwood festival of speed sadly cancelled due to the extreme weather) on the way anyone going to the forthcoming Farnborough Airshow is in for a treat as Pilot Paul Chandler showed the plane off expertly.It is the second time I have seen F-WWDD ( she visited the Broughton factory in May 2006) and I am still amazed at not only how quiet it is but the low speed the pilot can display the aircraft at.The only sour note to the afternoon was the cancellation of RIAT due to appalling weather conditions yet no more than a 140 miles north of Fairford we basked in sunshine I can't begin to imagine the disappointment of all those who annually look forward to their weekend at RIAT but I feel even more sorry for those who travelled from overseas to see their weekend washed out.
So that is why a backwater like The Wirral got a superstar of aviation world a bit like a village pub getting Frank Sinatra at their Karaoke night.