VE day ann. - May 2005
The first major air show of the year, Duxford's VE Day Anniversary air show, was a glamorous and interesting event full of colour and interest. However, away from the good sides of the air show, there were several bad points which I have to turn to first. Duxford's flying flagship, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B, has been grounded because of a new insurance regulation imposed by the European Union; Duxford had no choice but to ground the legendry WWII bomber until they find the extra £1,000 per flying hour which they need to fly Sally B. Secondly, the weather wasn't its best, so it dampened the day's spirits. However, it was still a great event, and the aircraft which displayed were still worth the journey time alone.
The VE day anniversary was extremely lucky to feature the only surviving airworthy Hawker Hurricane which flew at the Battle of Britain. Hurricane Mk. I, R4118 shot down 5 enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain and was discovered rotting in India in 1992 by Peter Vacher. He managed, after much tackling with the Indian Government, for R4118 to be bought back to Britain so that restoration work could commence. R4118 was delivered new to 607 squadron on 17th August 1940. It was damaged on 22nd October 1940, but was rebuilt and put back into active service. It was later shipped out to India to be used as a training aircraft, however this never happened and it was left to rot as a instructional airframe at a Indian University.
The VE day anniversary air show reunited R4118 with one of its pilots. Wing Commander Bob Foster. In this very aircraft he damaged two Junkers Ju88s and shared the task of shooting down another Ju88 with another aircraft.
The restoration work has only just been completed, and made its debut at Duxford's VE day anniversary air show. The star of the show was much welcomed, and I was glad to have attended this event which featured such a rare and heroic example of a Hurricane. R4118 flew in association with another rare Hawker Hurricane.
As I said, the weather had a negative effect on the day's events. The pair of Yak Yakovlev C11 didn't fly together, however one went solo. The Utterly Butterly Barnstormers display team appeared. I think that it must have been the fourth or fifth time which I had seen them at an air show, but nonetheless they were still the world famous display team which also is the only to fly Boeing Stearman aircraft with wing walkers I believe. Their flying was restricted because of the high crosswinds at Duxford.
The RCAF's Canadair (Lockheed) T-33AN 'Silver Star' took to the skies to present us with an successful example of a variant of Lockheed's F-80 'Shooting Star.' Powered by a Canadian built Rolls-Royce Nene 10 Turbojet, it is still used today all over the world, not just in Canada as a jet trainer but also displaying at air shows. The much loved favourite was much welcomed at Duxford.
One thing I have seen at Duxford is that the first air show of the year always features more Helicopters than the following air shows through the season. The Duxford D-day Air show, which was the first of the season at Duxford in 2004, however didn't feature many. The VE day air show featured an Augusta-Westland Merlin EH101. This is currently the most advanced helicopter in service with the Royal Air Force. The Army Air Corps provided a temporary two ship demonstration from the Blue Eagles with a solo Lynx AH7 and Gazelle AH1. The Gazelle was built after an Anglo-French venture between Aerospatiale and Westland. There were four versions of the Gazelle which served in the British Forces and was also used for communication/personnel duties; however it was used for anti tank and support roles.
With Sally B being grounded, there was a absence of heavy World War Two bombers from the flight line up, however the BBMF's Lancaster Hurricane IIc and Spitfire PR19 were to be present at the air show, or so we thought. They were grounded on Saturday because of the crosswinds which battered RAF Conningsby as well as Duxford. On Sunday they flew, but performed a limited display because of the rain. I however did not attend Sunday's air show.
The Fighter Collection provided several aircraft, notably the P-47 Thunderbolt 'No Guts, No Glory' and the North American Harvard. OFMC's P-51D Mustang 'Ferocious Frankie', which is another Duxford regular appeared and teamed up with the P-47. They also provided the classic FG-1D Corsair, F6F Hellcat and FM-2 Wildcat as well as the P-40M Kittyhawk. All performed excellent displays given then at times adverse weather conditions.
The North American Harvard is probably known as the best training aircraft of all time. Its rugged airframe and high maneuverability made it an ideal aerobatics aircraft. The Harvard's unforgettable characteristics were displayed in its display at Duxford. The dark, yet atmospheric skies of Saturday made the ideal place for TFC's Harvard to fly, however better weather would have been nice. The winds caused a bit of a problem in the same way that it did with the other displays.
The air show was full of aircraft of different types and from different backgrounds. The RAF provided a Hawk T11 from 100 squadron. As much as I had seen this before, I still have to say that I admire its design and success amongst all else. One of the World's most successful display jets took to the skies to embrace us with its slow speed (when compared to the likes of the Tornado GR4) but everlasting beauty.
The newly released Tornado GR4 was a massive highlight of the air show as well as wrapping up the air show on Saturday. With a top speed of over 1,452mph, its speed and versatility gripped the crowd as it performed ever increasing sophisticated maneuverability. Some new, the maneuvers that the GR4 performed surprised us all. I knew what Panavia's finest could do, but seeing it in the flesh once more, all the aircraft at Duxford in fact, bring back the reason why I am fascinated with aircraft.
Sunday, I am told, was a bit more successful in terms of the flight programme. Displaying on both days was the newly restored Dragon Rapide G-AGJG while winds halted the participation of the Beech C-45 Expeditor to just Sunday.
Although the weather consisted rather of a mixed variety of hail, rain, wind and sunshine, it didn't let the day be spoilt. However, it was sad to see some of Britain's favorite air show examples be grounded and miss what turned out to be one of the UK's most successful air shows of the start of the 2005 air shows season.
I have always wanted to improve my air show photography. At present, I have a 5MP Kodak 'point and shoot' type camera. Now this isn't ideal for decent air show photography so I am looking into getting a SLR, namely a Canon EOS 350D. However, if I ever get one will be another story. :(
