FOTIA visit to Draken Europe 14 June 2024
Our third visit in a week, this time to our home base and Draken Europe with their Falcon 20’s and L159E ALCA’s or also known as Honey Badgers. Eighteen of us were invited in to see how the operation works, what they do when out flying, a look inside the hangars and a sit in a Falcon 20. Firstly an excellent briefing from Ben (famous on YouTube as Plane Old Ben), a based pilot detailing how the missions are carried out from early planning to the actual flying as well as a bit of history on Draken itself.
We first had our Falcons delivered in 1995 when they were owned by Cobham Ltd and flew under the banner of FR Aviation before renaming it Cobham Aviation Services. In September 2020 Draken International purchased the company and renamed it Draken Europe. Draken International operate a fleet of around 150 aircraft, in addition to the 15 Falcon 20 and 23 L159 they have 13 A4 Skyhawk’s, 21 Mirage F1’s, 25 Mig-21’s, 12 Atlas Cheetah’s and 24 F16’s although it is unlikely we will see any other types at Teesside for the foreseeable future.
After the briefing we split into two groups, with one group spending time in the Falcon hangar having a good look around and a sit inside G-FRAU while the other group went to have a look at the L159’s. G-DKNA which has the three tone colour scheme was used by the Draken “boss” in the USA as his”private jet”, it’s not planned to change the scheme. Two additional L159’s (G-DKNI and G-DKNJ) that spent a short time here in containers are stored at Bournemouth and will eventually come here as and when required. They are also confident the based L159 fleet will grow in future.
All in all another brilliant visit with an invite from them to come back again, the trip was one of a number regularly organized by the group, including a recent visit to the Newcastle College Aviation Academy and RAF Leeming well worth the £12 annual subs click here to look at membership.
