Saturday's Show has been cancelled due to the unusually high rainfall leading to the showground and car parks becomng waterlogged. A decision on Sunday's show will be made at 4pm on Saturday.

The final day of prepartations for the Royal International Air Tattoo was a busy one for all at RAF Fairford as the big "Colour Presentation parade took place today. We'll be looking at that in more detail in the final review when it's published. away from that there were still a few arrivals and final rehearsals for the weekend's big event. Paul Johnson/Flightline UK reports. All photography copyright of the Author.

Much of the day's events revolved around the Queen's Colours Parade today. The rain mostly held off of the big occasion except for the last part of the parade which ended in a huge downpour. The flypast too looked in jeopardy but thankfully the showers stayed away for the flypast and subsequent mini displays held for the television cameras.

Friday is traditionally a quieter days for arrivals with the last drips and draps dropping over the threshold. Main arrivals tody came from France with a colourful Mirage F1 and the Patrouille De France.

Much of the day (and running well in to the evening) saw display rehearsals. Star amongst which was undoubtely the F-22A Raptor. This is no ordinary fast jet display with Major Max Moga fully demonstrating the extreme agility of the jet at some very slow speeds and unusual angles of attack.

Arrivals at 1800L

• Army Air Corps Islander AL1
• Patrouille de France
• EMBRAER Legacy
• Army Air Corps Apache AH1
• Army Air Corps Lynx AH7
• Italian AF Tornado IDS
• FRA Falcon 20ECM x 2
• French Air Force C-160R
• Austrian Air Force C-130K
• Belgian Sea King
• Hawker Hunter F58
• RAF Tornado F3 x 2
• RAF Red Arrows
• A310MRTT (displayed - departed)
• RAF E-3D
• RAF Sentinal R1
• Breitling Jet Team