Duxford 2004 Airshow
The two day event at Duxford , near Cambridge held on 6th and 7th of September 2004, started with a bang - clear skies, crowds of people, an extremely impressive display lineup and of course, the Red Arrows.
The 1st day, which I did not attend, was, according to the news, the busiest that Duxford had been for a long time. At Legends, the weather hadn't been perfect so some people stayed at home. However, the first day of the 2004 Airshow was crowded - the perfect weather had bought so many people out. With an excellent lineup, it was hard for people to stay away.
Anyway, the second day was much like the first. With the same lineup, and the Red Arrows appearing, it just had to be better. It was, with the Utterly Butterly Barnstormers Aerosuperbatics team opening the show. This was the third time that I had seen the Utterly Butterfly Wing walkers. First I saw them at the 2003 Centenary of flight Airshow, in September 2003, then at the Clacton Airshow and then at the 2004 Airshow. However, having seen them as many times, I still wasn't disappointed. They performed an excellent display, as display teams always do, or so in my opinion.
The next few hours were as enjoyable as they could be. The F-86 Sabre, together with the Jet Provest took to the skies, presenting us with a first hand of how capable these aircraft really are. So did two BAe Hawk Jets, the same as the Red Arrows use. A remarkable fly past by a BAe Nimrod and three Tornado F3's afterwards really bought a shine to the afternoons entertainment. After the Tornado F3's, two Sepecat Jaguar GR.3A jets also performed a fly past and gripped the crowd.
The Flight line walk, which I went on to capture some good photos of the display lineup is great value for money, as it is only £3 and you get full access to the "airside" part of Duxford (where the runways are) to get close up to the lineup. I managed to get a beautiful of the two BAe Hawks on offer!
A fine selection of helicopters also turned out for the show, a Boeing Vertol Chinook HC.2, Westland Sea King and a Westland Lynx appeared and demonstrated it's capabilities. I managed to get a very nice photo of the Sea King taking off 30 feet in front of me, whilst I was still on the flight line walk. It was going somewhere or other, but I never gathered where! Anyway, it returned an hour later and soon departed again (then came back!) The Lynx was demonstrated quite early on, and was an excellent display piece because it was smaller than the Chinook and Sea King. Because it was smaller, it could maneuvered faster and tighter than it's two counterparts.
We thought that the Chinook wasn't going to fly because of the tight 4.50PM time slot it had been allocated. The Red Arrows announced that they would be slightly early, at 4.55PM, so the Chinook didn't fly until after the Red Arrows had finished their part and flown back to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire where they are based. This meant that the show went slightly over it's 5PM close time, but no one really minded.
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight appeared at the show and performed their display using a Supermarine Spitfire (II/V/IX/XIX), Avro Lancaster B.1 and a recently repaired Hawker Hurricane IIC. The Hurricane wasn't present at the Clacton Airshow when the BBMF performed a fly past because it was still being repaired at the time. It suffered a broken nose wheel after a landing accident at the D-Day Anniversary Airshow back in June.
Sally B took to the skies in mid afternoon, just before the cats - Grumman Wildcat, Tigercat, Hellcat and Bearcat were present at the show. However, the star of the show was a Boeing 757 - 200 which belongs to DHL and performed a fly past. This is only the second time that a Jumbo Jet has appeared at a Duxford Airshow, the first was last September at the Centenary of Flight Airshow.
>Two North American Harvard's and two North American T-28 Trojan performed a group display. This was interesting, because I had never heard of the T-28 Trojan or Harvard before going to the 2004 Airshow. Anyway, the were impressive aircraft. The T-28 is rather small, but is still quite powerful and was used as a Military trainer for the US Army after World War Two. The US Army was looking for a replacement for the old T-6 Texan at the time and had the T-28b built by North American. The US Army was so impressed by the T-28's first flight on September 26, 1949 that they had 226 ordered immediately.
The Trojan, as it became known, had a frame less canopy and a Wright R-1300 engine that, when combined, gave it a top speed that often exceeded 280 mph. First orders of 266 planes in 1950 eventually grew to 1,194. After it became evident that the Air Force had found a very successful design, the United Sates Navy and Marine Corps adopted it as well. Two years later, 489 standardized versions (T-28Bs) were ordered by the Navy, mainly differing from the T-28A in its use of the more-powerful Wright R-1820-86 engine. Following this, 299 T-28Cs were produced, which were fitted with an arrester gear for carrier-deck landing training.
The 60th Anniversary of the sinking of the Tirpitz was commemorated by the Battle of Britain memorial flight's Avro Lancaster flying in formation with two Tornado GR4s.
It was a great day out and a excellent display of many different eras of Aircraft (like Flying Legends) With the Red Arrows and Utterly Butterly Barnstormers, it was even better.
