Was anyone at the 1977 Mildenhall air show. It was the best air show I ever saw. Several air teams did their thing. More different aircraft than I ever saw at the same time at the same place. The SR-71 did a fly by. I was there TDY from Little Rock AFB, USA. Fantastic time in England, loved it.
By: Firebird - 13th March 2014 at 21:54
Couldn’t have been far off that date. It was from “Little Rock Arkansas”, I have a slide somewhere.
B-58 was retired in 1970.
By: jack windsor - 13th March 2014 at 21:48
A great day, sadly never now to be repeated…
Can, remember my first year 1977/78 I think,but the first 5 or 6 years I went on train Crewe at 0030 to London, then London to Ely, Ely to Shippea hill then what looked like a sponsored walk to the base…head for the water tower!. Burgers and a Bud or 2 then home around midnight, used to go with a good mate sadly passed away a couple of years back, used to take it in turns to have a kip so we did,nt miss our station.
Then by car start off about 0530 call round to see what was at the heath, then to the show, home by a respectable 10pm…
those were the days, i,m glad I,d got the aviation bug in those times, as a aside called at the hall one year and on the walk from Shippea hill watching a SR.71 doing touch and goes.
thanks for stirring up the memories…
regards
jack…
By: AlanR - 13th March 2014 at 21:39
I don’t think you’d have seen a B-58 in 1976.
Couldn’t have been far off that date. It was from “Little Rock Arkansas”, I have a slide somewhere.
By: GrahamSimons - 13th March 2014 at 20:16
Cannot seperate memories of individual shows… they all run into each other…. but here goes…
3am start in the morning to be on-base by 5am through the main gate to set up the stall… queues at the Beck Row gate for everyone else to be let in… Swarms of animated stepladders rushing to get the best spot… Burghers, smoke and the smell of BBQ, two cash tills to take UK and US currency…. flying starting around 10am… and 30 minutes or so between acts. Karo Ass, Fricci Tricolori, The Reds, Patouile de France… Thunderbirds – ALL on the same bill! Women Peace Campaigners trying to block the gates…. Renting Slitz beer…. Roger Hoefling’s commentaries…. MPs linking hands to get everyone off base the moment the flying stopped…. STILL being in the queue trying to get out at 10pm… SR.71 going 30 miles away just to make a 180…. EC-121s on the ground…. Alconbury F-4s setting off car alarms with their shock waves (that may have been the 1980s)… Always on a May bank holiday so they could clear up and depart on the monday….The crews/company reps were giving out YC-14 and YC-15 pinbadges from the back of their aircraft… still got some somewhere!
By: Mike J - 13th March 2014 at 19:24
I don’t think you’d have seen a B-58 in 1976.
By: AlanR - 13th March 2014 at 19:17
It used to be our annual pilgrimage. Go up to my parents in Watton on Friday. Up early Saturday, get the park & ride from
Lakenheath (in later years), and be on base by about 10am. One smell of the BBQ’ed burgers any you knew you’d arrived.
I wasn’t there in 1977, but went for the 200th anniversary of independence in 1976. That was the first time I saw a
B-52 and B-58. Although didn’t see either flying. The Syd Lawrence Orchestra were playing in the opened nose of a C-5.
(I’m sure it was the same year ?)
I used to go to most of the US open days. The people there were so friendly, and you didn’t feel as if you were being ripped
off, either by the entrance money or the cost of the food.
By: charliehunt - 13th March 2014 at 18:07
Great memories as already posted – I think there was a campaign to bring it back a few years ago but sadly it never materialised. In any case I don’t think you could reproduce those great shows of the 70s.
By: zipper - 13th March 2014 at 17:54
It was also H. M Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee year.
Probably the best of the Mildenhall shows, with many protoypes enroute to Paris. Then there was the SR 71 crew, including the late J T Vida, in their immaculate uniforms. I wonder how many programmes they signed that day?
Who can ever forget all those burger stalls run by the different units on base? Their friendly banter and those burgers!
A thoroughly enjoyable day, as were all the Mildenhall shows, thanks to our American cousins.
By: Mike J - 13th March 2014 at 17:13
I was there, it certainly was a great year. The A-10, YF-16, YC-14 and YC-15 all displayed there, on their way to the Paris Air Show the following week.
Sadly the A-10 crashed fatally during its demo at Paris a few days later. 🙁
By: WebPilot - 13th March 2014 at 17:10
Yes, we went almost every year. The best airshows ever, a taste of small town America in East Anglia and the best BBQ burgers ever. A sadly missed event.
By: Ken Shabby - 13th March 2014 at 17:04
Yes living not far away it was an annual pilgrimage for us as youngsters. Me and my friends would have pedalled there! I remember it as the year the USAF brought over the YC-14 and YC-15 which were dukeing it out at the time. Boeing lost but then won when it took over McD-D! A much-missed event.
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March 13, 2014 at 4:32 pm