The Best Airshow Airfield Attack

Dayton 2003, the “wall of fire” was the follow-up to this attack

Kemble 50th hunter show

The best airfield attack sequence I have seen was at kemble for the hunter show,when the two swiss huters,one of them was the papyrus aircraft,did a simulated high/low attack,with one of the aicraft disappered into the valley behind the hangers and then did a pop up bomb attack on the control tower!It certianly showed that the pilots were very experienced on the hunter and with low level combat flying.Unfortunatly the cameras that filmed that part of the show failed so it is not on the video!

It wasn’t an airfield attack, but the last couple of years at southport the beach has been well shaken up by a few Harrier Gr7’s and last year by a tornado as well with the help of a couple of lynx and a Chinook. The Cannon runs were particuarly impressive.:)

I didn’t go to it, but I do recall seeing posters all around the Elstree area advertising the Battle Attack Air Show many years ago. I’m guessing it would have been about 1980. Would be nice if anyone here had been to that and got some photos…. 😉

I just hope that most mock airfield attacks are better than the only one I have seen. That was in 1990 at the Valiant Air Command show at Tico. The Bombers were the Collings B-24, 2 B-25’s and 2 A26, Tracker and a C-1119G in a long line astern. The explosions seem to happern while the aircraft was about a 1/4 of a mile away! The Perl Harbour dogfight wasn’t much better Fuji KM2’s(licence built moded T-34’s) being chased by US T-34’s!!
Still a excellent show, unrestricted airside access in the morning. Sat in the cockpit of the B-25 and an A-26! Only 3 P51’s but the flying Panther and Grumman Duck were excellent

Originally posted by Dez
Not the best but certainly the most memorable!

I think it was Elvington last year (Great Show) and the Red Bull Sea Vixen done a simulated attack… some story about an oil tanker that runaground years ago… display pilot who was flying the Sea Vixen did so back then…

any way the explosion happened before the Sea Vixen had made its pass 😀 i did chuckle…

Shows how quick a ‘Vixen is. 🙂

That would be the Torrey Canyon, I assume. Ran aground somewhere off Lands End. IIRC, it was Buccs that tried to blow it up.

Albert Ross – small world! Yes, Upavon was great, and for the fans of rare aeroplanes amongst you, the Fulmar flew in the display too.

Not the best but certainly the most memorable!

I think it was Elvington last year (Great Show) and the Red Bull Sea Vixen done a simulated attack… some story about an oil tanker that runaground years ago… display pilot who was flying the Sea Vixen did so back then…

any way the explosion happened before the Sea Vixen had made its pass 😀 i did chuckle…

Originally posted by turbo_NZ

……Me’s wondering if they could put .50 cals in the wings and Mark 82’s on the RNZAF Red Checkers Air Trainers….:D [/B]

My old nextdoor neighbour while I grew up was Pat Monk, the chief designer for New Zealand Aerospace Industries. A totaly interesting guy, he worked on everything from Concorde to TSR-2 to airships to hovercrafts to Slingsby gliders to Boeing airliners in his career. He also worked at Woomera in the 1950’s.

Anyway, he designed the CT4 Airtrainer. Most books and people will try to tell you it is an Australian design, from the Victa lawnmower factory. Total rubbish. The original Airtourer was from Victa. The rights were bought by NZAI and Pat developed it into a more powerful beast Using the knowledge from this, he came up with a very different design, that was aesthetically similar, the CT4. Put the two planes together and they’re very different indeed (I know, I worked with them both at Wigram).

Anyway, one day he showed me some of his old drawings where in the 1970’s he was attempting to develop the CT4 to make it more marketable. The owners of NZAI was by then Air NZ who were uninterested. But these drawings clearly showed he intended the turbo powered version in the 1970’s, and also he planned to fit hardware points to them for training with bombs and rockets. One drawing had a rocket pod under each wing, the type used on US Iroquios in the movies. Sadly these never happened then, and it was 1991 before the first turbo CT4 flew, long after he’d left the company – and someone else claimed the idea. Now our RNZAF CT4E’s are turbo powered, though they don’t carry guns yet.

For the record, Pat also did a lot of work developing the Fletcher, originally a US design, and he then redesigned the plane much like he did with the Airtrainer, and invented the awesome Cresco. Now they definately have been known to cary guns and bombs, and would be great and cheap for the RNZAF – and they could contract out ag work too.

Originally posted by turbo_NZ

……Me’s wondering if they could put .50 cals in the wings and Mark 82’s on the RNZAF Red Checkers Air Trainers….:D [/B]

My old nextdoor neighbour while I grew up was Pat Monk, the chief designer for New Zealand Aerospace Industries. A totaly interesting guy, he worked on everything from Concorde to TSR-2 to airships to hovercrafts to Slingsby gliders to Boeing airliners in his career. He also worked at Woomera in the 1950’s.

Anyway, he designed the CT4 Airtrainer. Most books and people will try to tell you it is an Australian design, from the Victa lawnmower factory. Total rubbish. The original Airtourer was from Victa. The rights were bought by NZAI and Pat developed it into a more powerful beast Using the knowledge from this, he came up with a very different design, that was aesthetically similar, the CT4. Put the two planes together and they’re very different indeed (I know, I worked with them both at Wigram).

Anyway, one day he showed me some of his old drawings where in the 1970’s he was attempting to develop the CT4 to make it more marketable. The owners of NZAI was by then Air NZ who were uninterested. But these drawings clearly showed he intended the turbo powered version in the 1970’s, and also he planned to fit hardware points to them for training with bombs and rockets. One drawing had a rocket pod under each wing, the type used on US Iroquios in the movies. Sadly these never happened then, and it was 1991 before the first turbo CT4 flew, long after he’d left the company – and someone else claimed the idea. Now our RNZAF CT4E’s are turbo powered, though they don’t carry guns yet.

For the record, Pat also did a lot of work developing the Fletcher, originally a US design, and he then redesigned the plane much like he did with the Airtrainer, and invented the awesome Cresco. Now they definately have been known to cary guns and bombs, and would be great and cheap for the RNZAF – and they could contract out ag work too.

I always liked the ‘real’ base attacks you’d occasionally get when operational spotting. I remember one day at Wildenrath in or around 1990 during a Central Enterprise-exercise. Seven base attacks in one day, starting off with 12 F-111s, then a combined one with 8 German Alpha Jets, 8 French Mirage Vs and then two German RF-4Es, all sorts of F-16s…

The Swedes also occasionally lighten up their airshows with live firing. At Söderhamn in 1996 i was unfortunately wandering through the forests on the base heading towards some of the dump areas, and the place where those Saab 105s fired their rockets at was just a bit too close for comfort.

Cazaux also has regular live firing on the ranges on the base itself. It’s really weird to see your beer belly jiggle with the shockwave of a pair of 1000lbs bombs dropped by RAF Tornados, about one and a half kilometre away.

Yes Dave, I remember the Mark and Ray Hanna duo at WOW 1992….absolutely breathtakingly precise flying which we unfortunately will never see again.:(

The Skyhawks streaking across the runway at nearly 500 knots with pyros were a sight to see and hear….you Northern Hemisphere people don’t know how lucky you are being able to see a bonafide strike force simulating.

……Me’s wondering if they could put .50 cals in the wings and Mark 82’s on the RNZAF Red Checkers Air Trainers….:D

Originally posted by Steve Bond
Going back longer than I care to remember, the brilliant 50 Years of Military Flying show at Upavon in June 1962 had a great airfield attack sequence.

The attackers were West Raynham wing Hunters (1 and 54 Squadrons), which used the natural arena at Upavon to greatf effect. “Friendly troops” arrived in Beverleys and Twin Pioneers, vehicles slung under Belvederes, while FAC-type work (although it wasn’t called that then, came courtesy of Whirlwinds.

I was just about to mention that myself, as I was there also! Fantastic display and first public showing of the Hawker P.1127 prototype. 😉

That’d be the famous wall of fire then! 😀

Dave – I can only hope that the Real Aeroplane Co do something similar! 🙂

Boom….

Great photo Daz. That reminds me of something a little off-topic, but have any of you seen any of the Byron Originals videos? Byron Originals is, or at least was in the 1980’s, not sure now, a manufacturer of kitset flying model airplanes. My Dad used to be into flying R/C models and he had a couple of their videos that featured an annual 1/5th scale airshow, or more appropriately, a 1/5th all out war!

They must have put 10’s of 1000’s of dollars into each airshow, which were spectacular. They’d have about 20 1/5 scale Zeros, 20 Mustangs, and other things like P47’s too. Each had it’s own flyer and they’d dog fight over a model village or Pacific Island (different setting each year, as they were usually blown up. One was complete with a 1/5th aircraft carrier that the Zero’s took off from!).

One year they had a load of 1/5th scale B25’s that did a bombing raid too. And of course at the end of the biggest Pacific battle I saw, a 1/5th B29 flew over and dropped a single bomb, with a huge mushroom cloud. I am sure they were fully inspired by the Confederate Air Force shows Paulc mentioned. I just thought I’d say this in case you ever get a chance, watch the Byron Originals videos. They are brilliantly done and well filmed too. Almost as good as a real airshow, and with heaps more destruction – the Zeroes were all fitted with explosive devices!

Daz, I am proud to say I did see Mark and Ray Hanna’s routine once, when they came to Wanaka in 1992, stunning. That was in their Buchon and Sir Tim’s Spitfire. I saw them in 1993 do a very similar routine in Sir Tim’s P40K and Zero replica, at the Auckland International Airshow at Mangere. That too was awesome. I have some photos somewhere, should try to find them.

The old RNZAF skyhawks used to put in a good display attacking the airfield occasionally. I miss them. I saw them all last month tucked away in a hangar at Woodbourne, so we still have them for the time being. Come on snap election – reverse their sale!

Cheers
Dave

Going back longer than I care to remember, the brilliant 50 Years of Military Flying show at Upavon in June 1962 had a great airfield attack sequence.

The attackers were West Raynham wing Hunters (1 and 54 Squadrons), which used the natural arena at Upavon to greatf effect. “Friendly troops” arrived in Beverleys and Twin Pioneers, vehicles slung under Belvederes, while FAC-type work (although it wasn’t called that then, came courtesy of Whirlwinds.

Like this….

Try the Confederate Air Force show at Midland (tx) – the reinactments of various aerial elements of WW2 starting with Pearl Harbour and ending with Hiroshima are well worth seeing.

Not a simulated airfield attack, but a simulated dogfight between OFMC’s Spitfire and the much-lamented Buchon, flown by father and son Hanna at East Fortune five years ago…

AWESOME! 🙂