50 Days To SG50

It’s 50 days from today that we’ll be celebrating Singapore’s 50th National Day. It’s a big day for Singapore. We’re inundated by all manner of things related SG50, as well as things that are only the most remotely related by the furthest stretch of imagination. I was also considering doing some SG50 photo-a-day campaign, but alas I decided against adding to SG50 hype.

The RSAF is mounting their most ambitious display of flying assets at this year’s National Day Parade. I’m sure you’ve already heard plenty of aircraft flying overheads on various days, as well as a number of evenings. You might also have heard that they are going to mark SG50 with, for the first time, 50 aircrafts at the parade.

This is quite a feat, and it really involves quite a lot of logistics. For starters, consider the launching of 50 aircrafts at one go. You know that aircrafts don’t take off in parallel. Even if multiple airbases are involved in the launching of the aircraft, this is still going to take some time.

Furthermore, consider that all the aircraft need to form up somewhere in preparation for the actual NDP display. These are aircraft. It’s not like they can park somewhere and wait for the rest of the troupe to catch up. They basically need to fly in a holding pattern somewhere else, and in a coordinated manner so as to be at the right place at the right time.

Singapore’s airspace is also immensely small. How do you keep 50 aircrafts moving through our small island, where timing is of the essence, and still keep other air traffic moving?

I wonder if Malaysia would feel intimidated to have so many of RSAF’s assets in the air at one go. It’s not just about having 50 aircrafts to show, but also the capability to launch and operate them.