It's official next year's Royal International Air Tattoo will again be held at the RAF's front-line Harrier base at Cottesmore in Rutland.

The two-day event will take place there because work will still not have been completed upgrading the runway at its home base of RAF Fairford.

The decision to use the Rutland base for the second year year running has now been sanctioned by senior Royal Air Force chiefs.

And Group Capt David Walker, station commander at RAF Cottesmore, was delighted that RIAT would be returning to Cottesmore.

"We look forward greatly to once again working as a team with the RIAT organisation, the emergency services, county and parish councils and the many other agencies that come together to stage a spectacular weekend of aviation," he said.

This year's Tattoo at Rutland failed to attract as many people as Fairford usually does but this was blamed on poor weather.

RIAT 2001 will take place on Saturday and Sunday, July 28-29, said spokeswoman Patti Heady.

"This will be the Tattoo's 30th anniversary and we shall be looking back three decades to the first Tattoo at North Weald in 1971," she said.

"The weekend will also pay tribute to women in aviation. It was on August 29, 1911, that Hilda Hewlett became Britain's first aviatrix a feat that will be commemorated by women pilots and the flight and ground crews at the Tattoo.

"The operating theme for participating aircrew from around the world is Training 2001, giving prominence to hi-tech training as the driving force behind modern air power."

RIAT director Paul Bowen said: "RAF Cottesmore is an excellent venue and 2001 will be a classic Tattoo featuring all-time stars from the Lancaster bomber that first flew 60 years ago to 21st century Stealth technology."

It is understood that the runway resurfacing work at RAF Fairford will not be completed until late spring 2002.

The £70m project to upgrade the runway and other facilities on the base is being carried out by Nato.

When the work is completed the American Air Force plans to continue using the RAF station for forward training purposes, exercises and as a launch pad for its heavy bombers in the event of future conflicts such as the recent Kosovo crisis.