Royzee617The Dutch!
One puzzling thing about MAF was the relative presence of the US armed forces. While they always turned up with a showstopper like the C5, B2, SR71, TR-1 etc often their fighters were best shown off in the hands of the non-Americans.
For example the Dutch AF which used to show off the NF-5A very well then switched to the F16. Superb.
They also had the French Alouette choppers in their team The Grasshoppers who were vg too. But the best of the lot was always the F27 Troopship. Stunning aerial antics in such an unlikely machine. I have a video of it somewhere. Somehow doubt they’d let anyone do that these days. Mind you the Swedish AF Herk was almost as much fun (or the Transall) but without smoke and the engine off routine.
Meanwhile, you can watch my clip of the MiG 29 on YT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJBQ5r3WTC0
Royzee617Yonks of fun
Indeed it is sad. I have great memories of MAF. Went there in the early 80s and as many times as I could thereafter. Have some vids I have posted on LV and YT etc with more to come.
Some things I am glad I missed – the crashes especially. Somehow we must have gone on the right day – the Sat maybe when the crashes were on the Sunday. I have a recollection of the TurboMentor on a damp Saturday but I didn’t know the FT had a crash there.
The smell was always a memory jerker – some weird mix of kerosene and burgers.
My son being more interested in running around the legs of inflatable dino. Me giving in to his pleas to take him down the helter skelter, taking the skin off my forearms and getting nowt for it from the SJA. The sometimes appalling traffic control in and out. Hours spent in queues in the heat or damp. Yes the weather was most memorable – absolutely dreadful I recall on the penultimate AF. Even when it was sunny it was a pain trying to stare into the sun and get a good pic and not wreck the camcorder.
My very first airshow with a camcorder. Not mine, we’d finagled a rich mate along and he let me have a go filming the Lightning with its weird single engine reheat blips.
The Victor flypast with hoses trailing leaving a paraffin fog behind it. A C130 water bomber letting go. Our first glimpse of the F117. My first sight of a B52 tail high blasting off. Missing it flying in formation with the Vulcan. The seemingly endless C130 set pieces. A10s shooting up dummy tanks. A P51 and F15 in formation. A Czech MiG 29 tailslide. Turkish Stars. The Avro ‘car park’ with the Shack and Vulcan. Walking the miles to see the latter. The mighty SR71 up close and blasting off. The French Jag team. A red CF 104 from the Redskins. My first and only F14 display. The amazing German Super Jolly. My only FB111 and plenty of F111Fs. I could go on all night… fingers crossed someone up high takes pity on us and turns back the clock.
Royzee617MAM here we come!
Sounds good… sorry about my choice of language, I just meant smaller than Duxford in a nice way not to be in any way less important. You guys do a great job and away from the politics that bedevil the ‘names’.
I don’t think I have been to MAM tho I have been to several other UK museums over the years, all the obvious ones like Cosford and Hendon etc. We even went to Cosford on the way back from our honeymoon… so you can see I used to be keen.
So there is a a Kaman Huskie chopper still in the UK – would love to see one of those again.
I like the Hun because it was the first Wild Weasel. Though I like anything with stars n stripes on it more or less, I love Brit and other origin planes just as much. So long as they have a big engine! I recall seeing the Hun when I was a kid and being mightily impressed with the racket it made. Must have been at UH and they had various types doing a run through with burners blazing. One year they had the Thunderbirds – what a nice surprise seeing a formation take-off of those F4s. First time I saw the F4 though was at RAF Henlow. Had been reading about them in Flying Review Intnl that week and here were several of the beasties popping by as part of another airshow at Mildenhall. They screamed over once and then put their noses up and blasted vertically into the clouds and were off.
Royzee617Huns agogo
Likely the UK has a surfeit of Huns;)
At least one of the smaller museums has/had one (Coventry, NEAM?) and I recall seeing one in the 90s that was actually flying out of Hurn.
Queer that the Duxford one is ex-French. I didn’t realise they had the F100. I saw that and dislike it being hung up in the air. Would like to get a closer look.
Royzee617Sled and a Thud then
Can you drive past the Croughton gate guardians? Be nice to see these birds and take a snap or two. I recall Lakenheath had an F100 at one time near the gate.
I wonder what the schedule is for the Duxford F105 to be restored? It’ be a bit of a squeeze getting that mighty beast in the USAF hangar methinks, let’s hope they don’t hang it from the roof, will need some strong wires!
Shows the jocks had a SOH calling the Thud a glider… sure I read they advise hitting the silk when the engine quits, glides like a brick. Or is that some kind of ‘racist’ Polack joke…?
Don’t get me wrong but it seems odd to put a Thud in the Duxford USAF hangar exhibition. After all there are more deserving planes to represent European USAF hardware. Then again the Buff was never permanently stationed over here. How about a Hun? Or better still a Voodoo since there are other Huns around the UK. Be nice to have a KC135 too some time. Or one of those cute Kaman twin rotor choppers we used to see yonks ago. I remember as a kid hearing this beastie ages before it came in view. When we went to UH Open Day they did a demo with one putting out a petrol fire. Amazing. Another memorable sight was running out the house wondering what the racket was an three planes in close formation thundered over: a KC-97 towing a couple of Huns (I think). We had Voodoos over all the time too. Later on there was the humble Shorts ‘Flying Shoebox’ ferrying engines and parts between USAFE stations methinks.
Then probably the most memorable of all was in the 80s when Eldorado Canyon was on. We were out in the garden and saw some unusual planes way high heading west. They were several tankers ‘towing’ F111s. Odd we thought at the time – all the fuss in the news but they were going the wrong way so it must have been an exercise we thought. How wrong we were when we saw the news the next day. The Vaarks that had done for Tripoli had flown over our house! No doubt they were carrying live ordnance at other times but this time it was definitely for real.
These days we are lucky to see much at all – the odd Puma, stuff going into Cranfield etc, boring really when we used to see F111s etc all the time. A bit like the airshow scene but I will save that for another thread.
Royzee617Cheers chaps!
Thanks for the nice pics!
Might post some of mine as and when. Took the first step with the camcorder footage this soggy morning. Glad we went to D on Sat.
That gate guardian sounds inappropriate. I don’t recall any Thuds being based in the UK let alone at UH or neighbouring Croughton. They should have used the BDRU F4 instead coz I am sure there were Rhinos at UH sometime. Maybe they could not find a Voodoo or Vaark. Still, better that they saved it rather than scrapped it. Seems odd to me to ship a Thud from the Boneyard and then let it sit in bits. WHat was it? another F? Must be coz it is a single seater I think… must look at the vid again.
Another thing that struck me when wandering D and then coming back and reading the thread on here about Bruntingthorpe, why not just taxi Sally B etc if the insurance etc is too high for flying her? Then at least we get some movement and of course the wonderful sounds. Someone is missing something here. Fans will still pay money for this sort of low-level airshow as evinced by Bruntingthorpe etc. Better than them just being immobile and silent.
Royzee617Cheers chaps!
Thanks for the nice pics!
Might post some of mine as and when. Took the first step with the camcorder footage this soggy morning. Glad we went to D on Sat.
That gate guardian sounds inappropriate. I don’t recall any Thuds being based in the UK let alone at UH or neighbouring Croughton. They should have used the BDRU F4 instead coz I am sure there were Rhinos at UH sometime. Maybe they could not find a Voodoo or Vaark. Still, better that they saved it rather than scrapped it. Seems odd to me to ship a Thud from the Boneyard and then let it sit in bits. WHat was it? another F? Must be coz it is a single seater I think… must look at the vid again.
Another thing that struck me when wandering D and then coming back and reading the thread on here about Bruntingthorpe, why not just taxi Sally B etc if the insurance etc is too high for flying her? Then at least we get some movement and of course the wonderful sounds. Someone is missing something here. Fans will still pay money for this sort of low-level airshow as evinced by Bruntingthorpe etc. Better than them just being immobile and silent.
Royzee617ah-hah
That explains it – last time I went in the ‘Superhangar’ as was it went all the way to the front, but I now recall that to the right as you go in there’s another section (opposite the Polaris missile on a trailer).
Sadly the Airspace hanagar is not finished yet and they had the stairs closed off so you could not go up to the gallery boo hoo. Prob you could have looked down on the Victor then.
Yonks ago I recall them stripping and respraying the B52 in the Superhangar. Fascinating, I have some movies of that somwhere…
Royzee617Now you see it…
As I said we walked through all the hangars and as far as I recall none were closed off. OK the back of the hangars were inaccessible but you could see, for example, a Heinkel III (ex Spanish AF I suppose) under restoration at the back of one. So they must have pulled some kind of partition across floor to ceiling but I don’t think so.
Indeed it is sad to see the Thud in bits. It is almost unrecognisable. Sad to hear it is a long term project. But I can recall the Beaufighter in bits 4 years ago and though it looks great it is still a way off flying or static condition.
The only Thud I ever saw in the UK was the BDRU example at Upper Heyford. Dunno if that’s the same one at Duxford or if not what happened to it. I have a pic of it somewhere – the dingbats posed it next to the funfair which made getting a good pic impossible. I love that plane and yonks ago was privileged to chat to a USAF Wild Weasel pilot when I was on a US trip. Bravest of the brave!
Royzee617Phew!
We went through all the hangars and still did not see it… how do you hide a beast as big as a Victor in these 30’s vintage hangars?
Other nice warbirds on show were the dismantled Thud, a pristine FW190 in flyable condition which someone told us has a Russian engine in it, no BMW radials available, but it has to be certified somehow before they let them fly it. Dunno how it got there… a crate?
The USAF (?) markings Catalina was teasing us, several engine runs and then finally at about 4.30 she took off. Then came back for a few flypasts and a circle or two as we were leaving and after the batteries on my camcorder had expired! Grrr.
Other flying came from the ‘Red Sparrows’ pair of Chipmunks who looked to be rehearsing their airshow routine. The T28 Trojan arrived dropped off the back seater and then took off for an impromptu airshow – lovely sound.
I filmed a lot of of the action and around the museum so look out for this on Live Video or You Tube or maybe Veoh.
Royzee617numbers
That number used to be one, now I’m worried it’s zero…
Royzee617I agree we should be grateful but it is hardly justification for the enormous sums of money spent on fighter development just in case the yanks don’t help.
That Sea Fury was also FAA not RAF.
Royzee617Cheers!
Thought so.
Not exactly a roll of honour within the RAF is it? Or is that proof of deterrence?
Doesn’t exactly justify the expense of something like Typhoon though IMO.
Royzee617I remember Jeff from his Ju 52 air displays…. one of the highlights for me though was meeting the guy. We were reurning from California and there he was large as life and I do mean large! at the baggage carousel at Heathrow. A very pleasant fellow who was happy to talk until we got our bags. In contrast on the way over I tried to talk to that humourless git Loudon Wainwright III…
Can’t recall much of the chat except that he had been sorting out the planes for Empire of the Sun.
I saw the Mitchells Fly in IMC on TV ages ago. Great doc but almost unbelievable that they made it. And all for such a soppy film.
Royzee617I have been to Finmere a few times over the years but didn’t know it had bunkers. Little sign of them these days. The runway(s) are still there and get used from time to time. They have had a flying club rally meeting over the years. In the 1980s they even had Sally B do a flypast – I have a pic of that somewhere. Most times it was much more modest – a few spam cans and Tiger Moths. Best of luck.
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