Rafale picture of the Day 2

 A nice aerial view of the tarmac of the BA125 Istres Air Base, south of France, during the  last "summer defence universities" of the french armed Forces. 5 Rafale were present at the fair.

As it is the base of the french flight test center (CEV) it is therefore the nest of most of the french fighters prototypes : The Rafale A demonstrator took off this runway for its first flight on July, 4th, 1986.
The Istres Air base is also famous because it is one of the alternative airfields cleared to receive the US space shuttle (with a length of 5,000 m it is the longest runway in Europe)