Barton Airshow

I was there in 1984! It was cvalled the Barton ‘ITT’ Airshow. Dunno who ‘ITT’ are though! I remember seeing the JU52 and a Hurricane doing a mock attack on it. There is a picture of me stood under the wing somewhere. Also that year a Tornado GR1 had to divert to Manchester airport with a major hydraulic problem.

I remember going into the cockpit section of a Vulcan which you entered from the side (was it cosfords example (B1)?) and then the real thing came and did an awesome display! It was’nt camouflaged underneath so does anyone know which Vulcan this was?

Paul

I know sadly the Bae Mosquito RR299 was lost there in 1996, I thought it was a families day Airshow in 1996 but could be wrong, Unfortunatly i never managed to see a show there.

Hi Eddy.

The Barton Airshow as you call it was actually called the “Manchester Air Show”. It was organised by the resident Lancashire Aero Club. The title “Manchester Air Show” was applied in 1976, and the last of these events was held in May 1994. Why did it stop? Well, as with all things the key factor was money – the Lancs Aero Club just couldn’t keep pace with affording the ever-increasing charges associated with putting on major air displays.

There are absolutely no plans to resurrect the show at all – they simply couldn’t afford it in this day and age. Also, there’s a lot of uncertainty over the future of Barton Airfield itself, so there’s absolutely no question of any air displays (even small ones) being staged.

As you say a guy called Clive Barron was the display director for this show, who was aided and abetted by a number of volunteers from the Lancs Aero Club. Two Air Traffic Controllers from Manchester, Tony Brown and Paul Eite, were drafted into the event to help run the operational side of things.

It really was a fantastic show in it’s day (did you ever attend?). The small, all-grass airfield gave it a certain ‘garden party’ and ‘country fair’ atmosphere even though it was actually a very well-organised event. The event built up a great reputation for the smooth running of its flying display, with one item following on from the next – no mean feat in the busy airspace around Manchester, and testament to the ATC team.

The event really did attract the cream of the crop as far as aircraft participants were concerned – down the years all these aircraft and items appeared: Red Arrows (four times – 1976, 1982, 1985 and 1994), BBMF, Falcons Paras, Tornado GR1, Tornado F3, Jaguar, Phantom, GR3, Sea Harrier, Tucano, Hawk, Bulldog, C130 Hercules, Vulcan, Shackleton, Whirlwind, Met Flight Hercules (the famous ‘Snoopy’ from Boscombe Down), E3 Sentry (both NATO and RAF), RN Sea King, RN Lynx, RN Sharks Gazelle team, USAF Starlifter, A10 Thunderbolt, F-111, F-5 Tiger, DC-3 Dakota, Tiger Moth, Hornet Moth, Sea Fury, Bearcat, Mustangs, Spitfires, P40 Kittyhawk, Marlboro/Toyota aerobatic teams, Richard Goode (Pitts Special/Pace Spirit/Sukhoi 26), Brian Lecomber Pitts Special/Extra 230, Fokker Triplane, Junkers Ju 52, Mosquito, Miles Messenger, Harvard Formation Team/Radial Pair, Grumman Ag-Cat, Boeing 757, BAC 1-11 and even Concorde!! And there’s much, much else I’ve not mentioned here that appeared besides.

There’s so many good memories and stories from those events that I could regale – the touch and go of Air Atlantique’s DC-3 in 1982, the Junkers 52 taking off from Barton in ’84, Concorde sweeping low over the airfield in ’88, the display Harrier blasting a field of carrots away on the far side of the airfield, a zero-feet flypast over the airfield on press day by the Mosquito in ’84, Brian Lecomber bringing the airfield to a halt with his impromptu arrival aerobatics display in his Stampe…

Hope all this helps! 🙂