Duxford Airshow 2007

8th/9th September 2007

Leading the event over both days this year was the Royal Air Force aerobatic team The Red Arrows. seemingly ever present lower cloud base put pay to a full display on the Saturday, however this eventuality is catered for ad the Reds performed a flawless "flat" show. It's been a while since we've seen the Red Arrows so the show was fresh and new, and ceratinly had the "wow factor" again.

Sunday's show was slightly hampered by a bird strike on Red 7 flown by Flt Lt Paul "Pablo" O'Grady, who in the interests of safety immediately pulled the aircraft out of the formation to a safe altitude to check the jet over, sadly he departed back to Scampton and the show was finished by eight aircraft. Red 7 was part of the "Sycro Pair" famed for their opposition passes, so the Reds commentator told everyone to just imagine the missing aircraft, as his syncro partner did the low passes as a solo! We've since learned that the aircraft did not suffer any significant damage, and it's this "safety first" ethos that makes British air shows among the safest in the world.

The Reds were joined by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, who flew their Hurricane IIc and newly repainted Spitfire Mk Vb AB910 alongside Lancaster on both days.

One of the highlights of the show has to be the glider and tug routine flown by the Swift Display Team. Now I've been known to fly gliders in my time, but never attached to a very powerful Extra 300, which is normally associated with high energy aerobatic competitions. The Swift glider however is also build for aerobatics and unbelievably can actually fly faster than the Extra! The routine ends with the Swift cutting loose and performing a series of aerobatics including stall turns, and incredibly even flick rolls, before landing, finishing in it's parking slot! This act represented a fresh and amazing addition to this years show, and we hopefully look forward to seeing them back at DX in the future.

The F-86 Sabre broke new ground when entering service in the 1950's, and Golden Apple's F-86A is the only airworthy A model flying anywhere in the world. For this show she was joined by The Fighter Collection's recently aquired TF-51 "Miss Velma", which made for a very interesting formation of aircraft only one generation apart.

The RAF's helicopter force was represented by the mighty Chinook of No. 18 Sqn. This display is never tiresome, never boring, and always welcome wherever it's seen. The Chinook is a large machine, however like most helicopters it's extremely agile a point proved once more over the skies of Duxford.

There are certain types of historic aircraft that are less glamourous, and therefore don't have as much attention thrown on them. The Taylorcraft Auster and Piper Cub are two such machines, and yet their wartime success speaks for itself. It's often said that each of these two machines commanded more firepower than any bomber, as they flew over enemy lines spotting for allied artillery, it was therefore very nice to see two Cub's (L-4 Grasshopper in military guise) and an Auster fly a routine at this show.

Another great addition to the lineup was the WWI display team who along with the Real Aeroplane Company, performed a wonderful dogfight sequence with two Fokker DR.1 replicas a Nieuport 17, and a Sopwith Triplane.

Saturday's show saw a very nice formation made up of two Hawker Hunters and two Folland Gnats, something that used to be very common at DX. Sadly the last few years have seen a decline in classic jet operators performing at Duxford, and even less bringing the aircraft along for the ground static prior to the show. The Sunday saw only the two Hunters return to perform a series of fast fly by's, a mere shadow of the spirited performances flown by the late Mark Hanna in OFMC's Hunter a few years ago.

The show finale was made up of six Merlin engined Spitfires lead by John Romain in the LF.Vb JG891, with a Mk.Vb, Mk.Vc, two Tr.IX's and a Mk.IXb. After a series of low beat ups and a tight two ship sequence, they all re-formed to fly a six ship formation flypast.

Click the images below for a larger image.

Thanks as always to the marketing team at Duxford for their assistance.

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