The F15E-Strike Eagle, The F16 Fighting Falcon, The F5 Tiger; just to name a few of the many different types of fighters possessed by the Royal Singapore Air Force.
Snaking our way through the bustling crowd, I made my way towards the planes on display, oblivious to my surroundings, my friends, in hot pursuit. Just seeing the nose and cockpit of the plane made me gasp in awe. The aerodynamic body of the plane- perfect for swooping, diving and chasing enemy craft. Armed with machine guns, heat-missiles and sidewinders, the F16 Fighting Falcon was a fearsome sight. This was my favourite plane Singapore possessed. Personally, I disliked the F15 because of its big, fat nose. I could imagine myself seated in the cockpit. The glass lid shutting above my head. The feeling of take off, and if during war, arming the deadly weapons on the wings of the plane, and pulling the trigger, sending missiles crashing into the enemy craft's engine, gaining yet another victory.
I snapped back into the present. Desperately trying to get a few good shots of the plane, I captured picture after picture of the plane at different angles like there was no tomorrow.
The Royal Rangers together with me headed on, past the planes and onto the helicopters. Of course the first thing that caught my attention was the Apache- Singapore's latest helicopter model. I focused on the weapons: hellfires, machine guns, missile launchers and rocket launchers. Above the intimidating rotors, was a dome- a radar.
A pity the open house was so crowded. If not, we could have had a chance to try out the simulator and sit in the cockpit of the helicopters and jet fighters. As we neared the runway, we saw the anti-air craft artillery weapons and trucks armed with Service to Air Missiles(SAM) and rockets.
Finally, came the moment we were all waiting for; the Air Show.
(part of this story did not actually happen in real life)
The sound was deafening. Four F16's were on a mission- to attack and destroy a pair of unidentified potentially dangerous aircraft. Thundering down the runway at a breakneck speed, one by one, the fighters took off. As they disappeared behind a building, two F15's came into view, twisting and turning, before increasing altitude. A dogfight would be occurring soon- an air to air combat! Suddenly, the F16's dropped out of a cloud. They had executed a hundred and eighty degrees turn and were in hot pursuit of the intruders. All of a sudden, the sky lit up. Black smoke covered part of the sky. A little black speck in the sky flew upwards, and a parachute burst open. Five planes emerged from the smoke. The intruders were down by a plane. In a desperate attempt to shake off his pursuers, the enemy pilot pulled the plane upwards, spiralling as he went. The F16's split up. Two chased the enemy, while the other two headed off into the horizon. The combat was hidden by a blanket of black smoke and dust. But we could hear the action. The sound was twice as loud. As the smoke cleared, we could see the remains of three planes. The RSAF had won, with only one casualty. The remaining three fighters landed safely.
This fictious story was birthed from my experience at the RSAF Open House air show.
