The Duxford Air Show.

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Sharleen Reynolds
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1 The Duxford Air Show... Text: Pictures: Flying Legends 2011 Flying Legends is perhaps the best known warbirds airshow in Europe, Year for year it attracts unique participants besides firm favourites. In some cases aircraft are shipped over from the US just to participate in the display at Duxford. Duxford itself is an ideal location for such an event, being built during the first world war and serving as an active airfield until the sixties. In 1968 the film the Battle of Britain was partly filmed at Duxford. The Imperial War Museum took over the airfield and has been expanding their display space with a wide variety of exhibits. Several aircraft restauration companies and collections also have chosen Duxford as their home base. Most prominent of those is the fighter collection which together with the imperial war museum organizes the Flying Legends every year was no exception, with a few extraordinary items on display. I found it one of the best displays of the last few years. Unfortunately the weather was not very cooperative with lots of clouds on both days of the show. Fortunately there were only a few drops of rain, but the clouds tended to make photographing difficult as can be seen from some of the photos.. The magic number this year was 3 as there were 3 each of the Skyraiders, Buchons, Sea Fury, DC-3. The Boss The man behind Flying Legends, and the Fighter Collection is of course Stephen Grey who takes an active part in the display, normally displaying in his Bearcat during the time it takes to form up the Balbo that always concludes the display. Long may he continue to do so. Stephen Grey in his Bearcat (Photo Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat (Photo Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat (Photo Stephen Grey on the Wing of his Curtiss Hawk (Photo courtesy Urs The Flight line One of the most impressing sites when entering the airfield is the flight line which extends the whole length of the taxiway. For a small fee the public is permitted to enter on to the taxiway to be able to see the aircraft from close up. There is a gap between the taxiway and the aircraft, so nobody will obstruct the aircraft. A perfect opportunity to take pictures of the aircraft. Normally some reenactors provide a kind of guard between the crowd and the aircraft Publication from Page 1 from 8

2 The Flightline (Photo courtesy Urs (Photo Spitfires (Photo courtesy Urs Vought F4U-5N Corsair F-AZYS (Photo Reenactors on the Flight line (Photo Reenactors on the Flight line (Photo Hawker Sea Fury T.20 NX20MD (Photo Douglas AD-4 Skyraider F- AZHK(Photo courtesy Urs Hawker Nimrod (Photo courtesy Urs The Horsemen The only aerobatic team flying P-51 Mustangs took part for the second time after However, this time they brought their own aircraft over from the US. And during the training preceeding the two show days, they showed some real low flying. Down in the bushes so to speak. (Photo (Photo (Photo (Photo (Photo (Photo (Photo (Photo (Photo (Photo (Photo Publication from Page 2 from 8

3 The Flying Bulls The flying Bulls took part in the Flying Legends Airshow for the first (but hopefully not last) time. They brought over their rare P-38L Lightning, which had been bought from the Gardner Family in the US. It was known previously as white Lightning in the US airshow and racing circuit. The F4U-4 Corsair was previously flown by the Air Force of Honduras. After being brought back to the US it passed trough several owners until being bought by Sigi Angerer for the flying Bulls The Curtiss Hawks Flying for the first time at Legends was the rare P-40F with its Merlin instead of the Allison engine. Also displaying were the P-40B, the P-40N and the P-36 Curtiss P-36 Hawk (Photo Curtiss P-36 Hawk (Photo Curtiss P-40B (Photo courtesy Urs Curtiss P-40B (Photo courtesy Urs Curtiss P-40F Kittyhawk (Photo Curtiss P-40F Kittyhawk (Photo Curtiss P-40F Kittyhawk (Photo Curtiss P-40N Tomahawk (Photo Publication from Page 3 from 8

4 The Buchons For the first time since the filming of the Battle of Britain in 1968 there were again three Hispano Buchon taking to the air together. The Sea Fury It was nice to see three Sea Fury s in the Air at the same time. Hawker Sea Fury T.20 NX20MD (Picture Hawker Sea Fury T.20 NX20MD (Picture Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Picture Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Picture Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Picture Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Picture Hawker Sea Fury T.20 (Picture Hawker Sea Fury T.20 (Picture The new Thunderbolt On the flight line but not flying at Legends was the new P-47 Razorback. Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (Picture Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (Picture Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (Picture Publication from Page 4 from 8

5 Big beautiful Doll The P-51 crashed when the pilot had to bail out after a mid-air collision with a Skyraider D-FBBD (Picture courtesy Urs D-FBBD (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder ) D-FBBD (Picture courtesy Urs The Spitfires The most numerous aircraft at Flying Legends. On the Friday before the show, there was the chance to have a short glance of the new and unique Spitfire 1. This is the earliest Spitfire still in airworthy condition that has a combat record. Otherwise there were many different marks of Spitfires present at the show. Publication from Page 5 from 8

6 The flying display The flying part always starts a bit before 14:00 with a mass take off of all the Spitfires available so they are ready to begin at 14:00. And from then on it goes on without a break. One act after another. There is no time for a break. Thanks god the need to change the films during photographing is a thing of the past. At times you didn t know which direction to look first or which photo to take. The flying is done in such a way, that there are good photo opportunities. Boeing B-17B Fortress (Picture Boeing B-17B Fortress (Picture ) Boeing B-17B Fortress and a (Picture (Picture ) Vought F4U-5N Corsair (Picture ) Avro Lancaser (Picture courtesy Urs Avro Lancaster (Picture courtesy Urs Fairey Swordfish (Picture Fairey Swordfish (Picture courtesy Urs North American Harvard (Picture Junkers Ju-52-3M (Picture Formation of Mustang (Picture (Picture Publication from Page 6 from 8

7 (Picture (Picture ans a Douglas AD-4 Skyraider (Picture (Picture Douglad DC-3 (Picture courtesy Urs Douglad DC-3 (Picture courtesy Urs Douglad DC-3 (Picture courtesy Urs De Havilland Domine (Picture Flight of CASA Bouchon and Flight of Mustang and Sea Fury (Picture De Havilland Domine (Picture Flight of four Hawker Hind (Photo Flight of four Hawker Hind (Photo Hawker Hind (Photo courtesy Urs Fokker Dr-III (Photo courtesy Urs Fokker Dr-III and a Nieuport 17 (Photo Fokker Dr-III (Photo courtesy Urs Fokker Dr-III (Photo courtesy Urs Formation of Hawker Sea Fury (Photo (Picture Flight ob Douglas AD-4 Skyraider (Photo courtesy Urs Douglas AD-4 Skyraider (Photo Douglas AD-4 Skyraider (Photo Publication from Page 7 from 8

8 The Balbo At the end of the display all the aircraft take to the air for a mass formation flypast that is unique to Duxford. It is called the Balbo after the Italian General that flew to America with a Squadron of Savoia flying boats in the thirties. It looks and sounds great, but is difficult to take a picture of as can be seen. And so one can go forward and plan the visit for the next year. The Balbo (Picture courtesy Urs The Balbo (Picture courtesy Urs (Picture Morane Saulnier D.3801 (Picture The Balbo (Picture courtesy Urs. - last update 13. August 2011 Written 13. August Corrections, additions and remarks please send to the Webmaster Michael E. Fader - - If information from this site is used as source material please credit If this page does not have a navigational frame on the left, click HERE to see the rest of the website. - Publication from Page 8 from 8

RAF Waddington Airshow 2013

RAF Waddington Airshow 2013.. Text: Pictures: Urs Urs RAF Waddington is situated in the Heart of Bomber country just a few miles south of Lincoln. Built during WW1 and opened in 1916 the base has been