Memorable Airshows!

Seawings 2000 and anything with XH558

XH 558 VULCAN…

Just wait till the Vulcan reaches for the Sky next year, memorable will be an understatement… :diablo: :diablo: :diablo: 😀
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RAY HANNAS SPITFIRE

Another memorable display was back in the 70’s in my younger days. Once again it was the Denham Airshow, however this time I wasn’t at the show. This time I was taking a walk over some fields, with my friends in Harefield. As we walked across the fields suddenly this Spitfire roared up into the Sky, climbing up and up eventually going into a loop and then diving and rolling. Too see this from where we were was absolutely fantastic, Harefield is quite close to Denham. To see that Spitfire doing those aerobatics over the countryside made this a moment too remember. Real second world war stuff.

Duxford, May 1998. Standing by the railings having slunk in amongst everyone standing there, camcorder in hand, and managing to revel in the sight and sound of MANY Merlins and Griffons starting up as the various Spitfires started up, taxied past, and took off for the 60th anniversary of the Spitfire entering RAF service…. 😀

East Fortune, July 1998. Watching Hanna father and son dogfighting in MH434 and Buchon G-BOML respectively – something special, that! 😀

Duxford, September 2000. The mass flypast of Spitfires and Hurricanes commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. 🙂

East Fortune, June 2004. Bf108 G-ETME buzzing the airfield to the explosions of pyros on the ground, and putting on a lovely display. The first time I’d ever seen a ‘108 in the flesh – it had been on my “to see” list for years! 🙂

Farnboro F15 EAGLE

Another memorable Airshow was Farnboro back in the late 70’s, when a mate of mine invited me to go along with him, too see the first F15 flying display in G.B.
At the time it was quite something too see a new USAF plane at Farnboro . We certainly were impressed by its performance.

Mildenhall back in the 80’s, and another memorable F15. During the afternoon the commentator explained that an F15 was due too land, having just flown non stop across the Atlantic, from the U.S.A. Sure enough it came in too land, what was also interesting was it’s colour scheme, which was Olive Green. Large fuel tanks were positioned under each wing.

Finally the West Coast Demonstration team put on a memorable display at Fairford one year with 2 F15’s.

I have certainly enjoyed those memorable Airshows. 🙂

I don’t suppose the pilot or his family thought it was “a classic” or even slightly humourous as it was fatal.

Sorry about my comments on this one ,as I missread the text . I missed the fact that the situation proved fatal for the Pilot, I assumed he managed to get out before the seat went up. Just proves I need to make sure I read things properly before I make comments. Appologies on that one.

My best airshow memory is from my childhood up the hill overlooking Hurn watching XH558.

She did a flyby of the hill with her bomb bay open……priceless!

Whaaaat a classic 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 :diablo:

I don’t suppose the pilot or his family thought it was “a classic” or even slightly humourous as it was fatal.

My most memorable moment at an airshow was in 1975 (or 76) when I was part of the “Cranwell Poachers” Groundcrew. The show was at Yeovilton and we had been on earlier with our Jet Provost display and having wrapped the jets up we were relaxing on a wing, “tinny” in hand.
Following the Harrier display, the pilot taxied into his parking slot directly in front of us to the adulation of the crowd. He started to get out off the cockpit when suddenly there was an almighty “Whoosh” and brilliant light! The shock was something else and an underpant change was nearly on the cards! The sight was surreal – the seat,the parachute and pilot just seemed to float apart and came crashing to the ground. It would appear, that as he was getting out, he forgot his seat pan pin on the seat and he had put his foot through the handle which pulled it enough to set it off. It was certainly one to remember!

Ok then, Farnboro back in the 80’s. They had a Ski jump installed on the Airfield too demonstrate the Harrier’s launch from a Warship e.g. HMS Arkroyal. Not only that though, approx 4 or it may have been that magic 5 Harriers did a mass Hover over the Runway, and I can assure you it was very very noisy, in fact I had too cover my Ears, and thats unusual for me. That was the only occasion I have seen so many Harriers flying together, best Harrier demo I have ever seen. Also notable at the time was another Farnboro when an F18 Hornet had a flame out as he left the runway. The commentator did say that the Hornet had problems and would have too land, which he did. On the following Monday I heard on the T.V. news that a Hornet leaving Farnboro had crashed into a field, fortunately the Pilot ejected. memorable and exciting times back in the 80’s.
At Mildenhall I have seen a Tornado blow out a Tyre, doing one of those short landings.
Another interesting one was when an F111 at Lakenheath I think, did a fast flypast with wings swept fully back, but as it approached it started to climb gradually and seemed to be flying slightly away from us. This gave the most peculiar impression that the F111 appeared to be shrinking in size. Now I will never forget that, because it was so unusual.

The HARRIER was a great British development, brilliant idea, at a wonderfull time in our history. Those certainly were our glory days………..

We (my brother and my son) reguarly attended the Fighter meets, Great Warbirds, Mildenhall and Biggin Hill.
There was one occasion at West Malling when it was raining and murky. Some determined open cockpit types flew but not a lot else made it. Then out of the murk Sally B appeared which cheered us up and I just admired the dedication of the pilot who just did not want to dissapoint.

The Croughton Thunderchief came from Upper Heyford. The Lakenheath one was at one point rumoured to be going to Duxford, but in the end it was scrapped.

concorde

Now that Concorde is no longer with us, here follows some memorable moments when I saw Concorde.

1. In the good old Farnborough Airshow days, Concorde would nearly always put in an appearence and the Crowd loved it.

2. Mildenhall back in the 80’s I saw Concorde do a touch and go , which was the first time I saw Concorde at Mildenhall. Absolutely mind blowing , I was standing real close to the Runway as it flew past. :diablo: 😀

3. My job used to be servicing TV’s in Hotels. On one occasion as I was working in a Hotel room next to the main runway at heathrow. I heard an approaching plane,I quickly made my way to the window. Looking out onto a snow covered ground, I could see Concorde flying real low just above the runway with its Reheat glowing on the Snow. Wow, that was a fantastic sight as it went past the window. :diablo: 😀

4. As the last days of Concorde’s career approached I was lucky enough to see it fly across the M25 , real low during the evening Rushhour. It was dark and I had a fab view of its reheat( shortish wispy Blue Reheat). Now whats unique about this experience is that I could see two modes of Transport simultaneously, Concorde and the M25 Traffic. Just as well I didn’t crash the Van , with all the excitement. :diablo:

5. Whenever Concorde would leave Heathrow, the noise was mind blowing with that Reheat, truly miss that experience.

Ok so its not Military, however Concorde was in a class of its own. AAAAAAhhhh memories are made of this. 😀 🙂

Finally The Red Arrows were great to watch as they flew low across roads at the Farnborough Airshow, heading towards the crowd. Bet they don’t do that anymore.

Happy days of old.

Lakenheath Airshows

On the subject of Lakenheath, I can remember one particular show for the following reasons.
I found that the best place to spend the day was at the far right hand end near some large buildings, can’t remember what they were though. Managed to get a good view of the aircraft preparing to take off. One particular one was the F16 which seemed to spend a heck of a long time with engine running , awaiting take off for its display. I spent just as long gawping at it and listening to that lovely distinctive F16 jet sound. The weather that day was short heavy Thundery showers, and I noticed that the F16’s air intake was sucking up rain water from the ground. Now how many of you out there can say they have seen that, well I have ,so there. 😀
Equally memorable was watching 5 Phantoms ( think it was 5 ) slowly rolling past us ,really close with canopy’s open and the Pilots waving at us, as we waved back at them. 😀 Then eventually watching them thundering along the Runway and doing a missing man display.
Finally, you have to hand it to the Americans, that they do it with style. Their Uniform looks great, and that includes those lovely looking USAF girls. Without any doubt, those USAF Airshow days in Suffolk I will remember as HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY DAYS. Thanks to the UNITED STATES AIR FORCE TO EUROPE, you made my day. Its a pity that in a few years time , the Cold War would end. Things dont always change for the better. 🙁

We (being the Midland Air Museum) look after and maintain an F105D Thud that is a gate guard at RAF Croughton near Newbury along with an F100 Super Sabre.

The Thud is a big jet and we are hoping that the US boys will finally hand it over to the museum pretty soon :rolleyes: fingers crossed, but I feel they may say no and scrap it!!

Would that be the same Thud that was parked for a time near the Lakenheath weapons store a few years ago.

Here you go, a couple of shots from the 60’s, the first at Cottesmore in formation with F100’s the next at Waddington, yes they were noisy beasts.
I can’t find my Thunderchief picture, weren’t they phased out from Wethersfield and replaced by the F100 in the early 60’s and where were Voodoos based.

Thanks Pete, those Pics look great, you certainly must have quite a collection of airshow photo’s. It’s great to see the Voodoo on here.

Pete,

Thunderchiefs (i.e. F-105s) were never based in the UK. I guess you are thinking of the F-84 Thunderjet, which certainly was at Wethersfield with the 20th TFW before the F-100.

We (being the Midland Air Museum) look after and maintain an F105D Thud that is a gate guard at RAF Croughton near Newbury along with an F100 Super Sabre.

The Thud is a big jet and we are hoping that the US boys will finally hand it over to the museum pretty soon :rolleyes: fingers crossed, but I feel they may say no and scrap it!!

The one that will always stick in my mind is probaby my first. This was back in the days when you could literally stand at the runway edge, and aeroplanes actually flew OVER you!

A lightning came down the runway at what seemed like 15 foot off the ground, pulled back and went vertical. As he passed there was a faint whistle – then came the ROAR!

As a young lad that was the best magic I had ever seen!

The other thing that sticks in my addled mind is seeing the Vulcan. Even as a kid I thought it was a very scary bird to see in the sky – I was very glad he was on our side! When those bomb doors opened… shudder. I remember being absolutely amazed that something so large could fly so slow and yet still pull the most amazing turns. Fan-bloody-tastic!
wv838

In recent years, the Jaguar has been a regular at the Southport air show. Now most aircraft come down the coast from Blackpool and you’ll see the crowd craning to see them come in. The Jaguar pilot has other ideas… I’ve had a lot of fun in recent years watching the crowd gawping to see him come down the coast – only to have him come from inland – behind them. Of course he does this on full re-heat and it’s rather amusing to see several thousand people all jump at once as he appears overhead 🙂

No matter how many times I see _any_ aircraft take off, I still think “wow!”.

Roy.

Roy

I know exactly what you mean about the Lightning, its a shame we dont see them anymore.Unfortunately Buntingford is a bit far for me to go and see the only Lightnings left in G.B.I think the Government should finance a scheme to make the Lightning airworthy again, after all it protected us from the Russian bombers.It should be up there with the Lancaster ,Hurricane and Spitfire.We should not forget the Vulcan either, it played an important part in the cold war.When I saw the Vulcan climbing into the sky after take off, it always gave me the impression of a huge Moth with those huge Delta wings and light and dark grey camoflague.An unforgetable sight, which I hope will return to the airshow scene, hopefully next year. Sadly the RAF is not as large as it used to be, as I said in one of my earlier posts, the ending of the cold war has had far reaching implications. The downsizing of air power being one of them. Without stating the obvious, the RAF has served us well. Lets not forget that.

The one that will always stick in my mind is probaby my first. This was back in the days when you could literally stand at the runway edge, and aeroplanes actually flew OVER you!

A lightning came down the runway at what seemed like 15 foot off the ground, pulled back and went vertical. As he passed there was a faint whistle – then came the ROAR!

As a young lad that was the best magic I had ever seen!

The other thing that sticks in my addled mind is seeing the Vulcan. Even as a kid I thought it was a very scary bird to see in the sky – I was very glad he was on our side! When those bomb doors opened… shudder. I remember being absolutely amazed that something so large could fly so slow and yet still pull the most amazing turns. Fan-bloody-tastic!

In recent years, the Jaguar has been a regular at the Southport air show. Now most aircraft come down the coast from Blackpool and you’ll see the crowd craning to see them come in. The Jaguar pilot has other ideas… I’ve had a lot of fun in recent years watching the crowd gawping to see him come down the coast – only to have him come from inland – behind them. Of course he does this on full re-heat and it’s rather amusing to see several thousand people all jump at once as he appears overhead 🙂

No matter how many times I see _any_ aircraft take off, I still think “wow!”.

Roy.

Pete,

Thunderchiefs (i.e. F-105s) were never based in the UK. I guess you are thinking of the F-84 Thunderjet, which certainly was at Wethersfield with the 20th TFW before the F-100.