Andy,

Well done to all involved, one more family finally have the answers to years of uncertainty…

…and one more of the brave lads has belatedly been given the honour and respect he deserves.

I can’t begin to imagine how you must feel, but I sense your humility will always lead you to say you have done very little compared to the sacrifice made by those ‘missing’ aircrew you help to find.

The nation owes you and your colleagues a big thank you for your ongoing efforts to help reduce the list of the “missing” one name at a time.

Paul

– but even if we had used the car I don’t think there were any problems as far as i could see

It is often a bit of a bun-fight getting off the airfield as flows within the parking areas are left to the motorists themsleves (never enough marshals), and you always find some idiots who ignore those forming orderly queues and try to force their way in as close to the exit gate as possible :rolleyes:.

However, once through the gate and onto the perimeter road, traffic flows are very good – no doubt the policy of only allowing left-turns onto the dual carriageway A27 helps as there is no need to stop the flow to allow “right turns” across the A27 passing traffic. Likewise people parked in the offsite carparks to the south of the railway have a controlled “left turn only” exit, which also stops them trying to turn left (across the single carriageway A259). Fortunately positioning of traffic roundabouts on A27 and A259 facilitates a better exit flow than might otherwise be the case if traffic had to turn right across passing traffic on both roads.

(I seem to remember airshows at Boscombe down had similarly good exit flows due to “left turn only” exit onto the A303 dual carriageway?)

Although some people have to head in the wrong direction initially as they leave Shoreham (myself included), it is clear that the benefit of good traffic flow out of the venue is worth the mile or so “long way round” via the next roundabout.

Back onto the subject of “lost aishows” as per thread title, in the 70’s (and perhaps 80’s?) a number of relatively small airfields also had pretty impressive annual airshows – Fairoaks ran shows for a few years, and Goodwood likewise.

The Goodwood shows usually attracted the RAF display acts of the period (Jet Provost team – Red Pelicans, Macaws etc, Phantom, Lightning) as “non landing” items, with a mix of historic and GA types in the program too. They even used to attract the Red Arrows some years. In some ways the Shoreham show reminds me of the Goodwood shows.

Fairoaks was perhaps more constrained by the proximity of Heathrow airspace, and I don’t remember any fast jets appearing, usually historic pistons, GA/aerobatic types and the Tiger Club type acts.

Booker (aka Wycombe Airpark) also held a few shows, “Sally B” was a surprise appearence at one of them just after she had first arrived in UK.

As has been mentioned, ever longer displays, and the move towards ever larger “family focussed” events (aka funfairs, double glazng, car sales etc) were once seen as the way forward by organisers and smaller events fell by the wayside. But perhaps some headline events simply grew so large as to be unmanageable, and as ever more legislation tended to impact upon their approach. Poor visitor experience (esp. traffic chaos and security “bag checks”) and the contraction of many Western airforces (none more so than the RAF!)has perhaps seen the public start to get fed up with the mega-long approach given the lack of variety of aircraft types now available for booking?

Personally, shows like (R)IAT seemed to focus more on the length of their flying display rather than the “quality” of the display – six hour flying displays are fine, but there are only so many times I want to watch F16s perform in one day! Especially if I know I am going to have to face a two hour traffic jam to get out afterwards.

In recent years some of the new(er) show venues seem to have spotted the niche, and have started to meet the need – Breighton, Rougham, Woodchurch, Damyns Hall etc

Fewer, but “more varied”, acts and easier entry and exit win every time for me these days. I haven’t been to RIAT for years, and to be honest I don’t really miss it even though I’ve never seen an F22.

Shoreham is perhaps running the risk of outgrowing itself too I fear, the flying display has got a little predictable, though the unique backdrop does give it a unique flavour, and crowd size seems to be self limiting due to parking space. Maybe Shoreham has taken on some of the mantle of the Biggin Hill shows?

Personally I’d rather see more smaller shows as candidates for my entrance fee than fewer “mega-shows”, but yes I agree, some of the former shows with unique atmospheres such as Mildenhall are much missed.

Paul F

Hi Orion,

Nice photos.

“A friend and I visited Duxford today, a very deserted Duxford – really odd!” – Yes, I was there mid morniing on Friday 20th Jan, and it was really eerie at times being the only person wandering round.

There were a few other visitors around, but few seemed to venture far beyond the “Airspace” hangar – though the inclement weather probably put them off venturing too far.

However, it did mean I could take photos without worrying about people getting in the way! Yes, I agree light levels are poor/variable in the hangars, esp on a gloomy day if/when all doors are closed – I resorted to racking the camera ASA up fairly high myself (as flash only lights a very small area, so doesn’t work too well except as a “fill-in” to lift a few heavy shadows etc.).

Its a few years since I was last there and it was good to see the Beaufighter coming along, and the CR42.

Paul F

The Aichi type number caught me out, not the Wellesley….. 14 right, but missed his G K questions…..
To be honest I was waiting for some real tough questions and they never really came….