We left Seal Rocks this morning after a leisurely pack up and made our way down the coast towards Newcastle. Stephen flies in and out of the Newcastle airport for work quite frequently, which is right next to the RAAF military base (Royal Australian Air Force). He sometimes sees fighter jets fly over and thought the kids would like to see them, so we made our way there.

Right next to the RAAF base is Fighter World, a not-for-profit incorporated association that has been appointed by the History and Heritage Branch. Fighter World is dedicated to preserving the proud history of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) operations in the Newcastle and Hunter/New England regions.

Exhibited in two hangars, you can get up close to some of Australia’s most iconic fighter and training aircraft. There are more than 15 aircraft and replicas on display, including a hand built Sopwith Camel, the Australian designed Avon Sabre, the French lady, the Dassault Mirage III and the last Australian aircraft to shoot down an enemy jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, A77-851.

The collection also contains the first jet engine aeroplane built in Australia; the deHavilland Vampire A79-1 and their latest addition, the recently retired F/A-18A ‘Worimi’ Hornet.

Mac was excited because he bought a little plastic jet plane in the gift shop, and then soon discovered that that very same jet was in the first hangar – the mighty F-111C.

The kids were also able to sit in the cockpit of a Macchi jet trainer and a Mirage jet fighter. There were so many buttons and switches and gadgets – they loved it!

After checking out all of the aircraft indoors we made our way outside and were lucky enough to see a few different planes overhead. We had no idea, but we were there on the day that the F-22 Raptor, an American twin-engine all-weather stealth fighter aircraft, was making its debut in Williamstown. This was a major highlight for us all. It was incredible! I couldn’t get any good pictures of the jet in action using my phone camera, but I’ll get a few images off the Internet to give you an idea.