Duxford Battle of Britain Air Show 22nd and 23rd September 2018.
Below we take a look at some of the aircraft displaying over the weekend.
The Spitfires.
All images courtesy of Neil Draper unless otherwise stated.
As people started arriving at Duxford early on Saturday morning the conditions were looking bleak, with low cloud and rain it looked as if the day was going to be a total wash out. With challenging conditions for the pilots, the show continued.
Sunday morning was not a lot better, in fact the show was delayed for some time while the front blew through, Apart from some of the older aircraft which departed Saturday evening it was the same flying program as Saturday.
The Royal Air Force was formed on April 1st 1918, after the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, making it the world's oldest independent air force. The centenary of the RAF was celebrated at Duxford with flying displays by the RAF with their Lancaster, Spitfire & Hurricane from the Battle of Britain Flight, F35 lightning and Tornado to name a few.
What better way to start a flying display and help celibrate 100 years since the formation of the RAF, with a flypast of sixteen Tiger Moth Byplanes forming a 100 in the sky. The Tiger Moth was used to train pilots for many years, and is still going strong being used for training new pilots and giving pleasure flights.
From some of the slowest aircraft to the Typhoon FGR2 displaying from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. No doubt one of the fastest and noisiest aircraft to be seen at Duxford this weekend. The Typhoon will soon be taking over from the Tornado and working alongside the new F35 Lightning.
Also at Duxford this weekend
The Jet trainers, a Vampire and two Jet Provest both types used as training aircraft in the early days of Jet flight.
Blenheim Flight. Consisting of the Bristol Blenheim and Hawker Hurricane Fighters.
Russian Front display
Four Buchons, 2018 is probably the first time for many years that four aircraft of this type have been seen overhead Duxford.
Image courtesy of Chris Cannon.
The Battle of Britain Flight from RAF Coningsby, one of the most popular displays at air shows, usually The Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane are usually flown as a three ship and then as singletons, that sound of six Merlin's and occasionally an odd Griffin engine reverberating around the sky, what more could you ask for.
617 Squadron Vignette, Lancaster, Tornado, F35.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the 617 squadron tribute, made up of a Tornado and F35 Lightning from RAF Marham and Lancaster from the Battle of Britain Flight from RAF Coningsby.
With the Tornado going out of service early in 2019 this was the last time this tribute would be flown. With the F35 the most recent type flown by 617 squadron and the Tornado and Lancaster previous types operated by the squadron it was nice to be able to see this bit of history at Duxford.
Flight Lieutenant Tim (Twigs) Dunlop, talks about his time flying the Lancaster and the experiance flying with the Tornado and F35.
Korean Flight. The Mig 15 paired with two Mustangs this was a rare sight to see these classic aircraft in formation together. A throw back to times gone bye
Sally B, B17 Flying Fortress, a long time performer at Duxford and the last remaining airworthy B-17 Flying Fortress left in Europe
The Catalina, another resident at Duxford is a firm favourite with visitors. This type aircraft used during World War 11 to rescue downed aircrew.
The Red Arrows, flying their nine Hawk T1 trainers, on one of their last UK flying displays of the year at the Duxford Battle of Britain Air Show. The team are based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, and as usual carried out their well polished routine for the watching crowds.
The Spitfire formation, Something Duxford, a former Spitfire base is famous for, large formations of Spitfires, Eighteen aircraft Saturday and Thirteen Sunday but what a way to close the show.
Bearing in mind the weather conditions most of Saturday and early Sunday, visitors to Duxford had an enjoyable time, spending a lot of their time in the tents in front of the hangars and viewing the many exhibits, particularly in Airspace, where the RAF 100 Exhibition Showcased developments from the RAF's industry partners.
On the whole a well planned show, with a good variation of aircraft and full marks to all the determined people who stepped up to make the show such a success.
Duxford The Battle of Britain Air Show
22nd and 23rd September 2017.
The Hurricane Formation Pilots Briefing.
Image courtesy of Chris Cannon.
For the Duxford Imperial War Museum section
Duxford Imperial War Museum website
The Battle of Britain Air Show 2017
The two-day show at IWM Duxford had a large line up, with most aircraft displaying, Including a few old favourites from Duxford and a variety of aircraft from around the country. The one exception was the welcome appearance of the Norwegian Historic display flight of the Mig 15 and pair of Vampires.
Most of the aircraft in the flying displays were also on static display and could be seen on the flight line walk before the show.
Saturday was overcast most of the day with an on crowd wind and light rain first thing in the morning, Sunday still had the on crowd wind but the sun did make an appearance for a while.
One of the high lights of the weekend was the chance to see six Hurricane aircraft flying together, something which had not been seen for many a year.
Always a favourite is a visit from the Battle of Britain Flight, the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane, the sound of the Merlin engines reverberating across the airfield would take some of the older generation back to wartime.
How often can you see nine Tiger Moth aircraft in formation, here we have them. The Tiger Moth, once used to train RAF pilots and still used regular at Duxford giving pleasure flights. This weekend nine aircraft graced the skies at Duxford with some slow but well-coordinated manoeuvers.
Now moving on to some of the faster fighters there were displays by the Fury and Nimrod.
Then the Curtis fighters, namely the Hawk 75 and the P40C.
Another favourite at Duxford are the aircraft from the Great Warbirds Display team, who have been regular visitors at the air shows for several years, with their well-coordinated manoeuvers coupled with well-timed pyrotechnics make them a firm favourite.
Other aircraft depicting the Russian Front were a Buchon and a pair of Yak 3 aircraft intercepting the Buchon.
The only jet aircraft this weekend were the pair of Vampires and the Mig 15, these aircraft are based at North Weald in Essex when displaying in this country.
The heavy formation made up of the B17 Sally B and a pair of C-47 aircraft. Apart from the Lancaster these are some of the largest aircraft to operate from Duxford.
Another popular item at Duxford is the massed formation of Spitfires, with their formation flypasts and tail chases it really brings the skies alive around Duxford alive.
The finale was a flypast which included the Blenheim, Gladiator, three Spitfires and six Hurricanes, which brought a close to the last air show of the season at the IWM at Duxford.
Throughout the show the watching crows saw a sensational mix of aircraft, sometimes flying in combinations not normally seen, which kept the crowds entertained for the whole show.
All images courtesy of Bob Franklin.
The Battle of Britain Air Show 2015
The two day show was a sell out with the flight line walk being one of the main attractions, how often can you get this close to this many vintage aircraft and with excellent weather conditions over the whole weekend it was an absolute must for the photographers.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
The flying display started with a scramble, where two Hispano HA-112 Buchon aircraft and a Messerschmitt Bf 108 flew in as the instantly recognisable sound of an air raid siren was heard across the airfield. On the sound of a scramble bell, living history interpreters representing RAF fighter pilots ran to scramble as a Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire took off to intercept the German fighter aircraft.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
Duxford was blessed with six fighter aircraft from the Battle of Britain Flight (BBMF) four Spitfires and two Hurricanes, with five aircraft displaying on Saturday and all six on Sunday.
Image courtesy of Chris Cannon.
Image courtesy of Chris Cannon.
This was followed by a display by the world’s only airworthy Bristol Blenheim MK I flying with a pair Hawker Hurricane aircraft and a Sea Hurricane, this formation was probably unique to the Duxford air show.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
A number of 1930s aircraft represented the aircraft flown by the RAF at the outbreak of the Second World War, including a Hawker Nimrod Mark II and a de Havilland DH82A Tiger Moth.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
The mix of modern and vintage aircraft included a flypast by two F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft from RAF Lakenheath alongside two Mark I Spitfires and a short display from RAF Coningsby based aircraft a Eurofighter Typhoon accompanied by a Supermarine Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Flight.
Image courtesy of Richard Hall.
The changing tactics of the fighter pilots as the Battle of Britain developed were demonstrated by three North American Harvard aircraft. This type of aircraft was used to train fighter pilots during the World War 2 and in fact is still used as a stepping stone for converting pilots onto vintage fighters.
Image courtesy of Richard Hall.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
The vital importance of radar to the air defence of Great Britain was represented by a de Havilland DH87B Hornet Moth, a Calidus Autogyro, a Slingsby Kirby Kite, a Slingbsy Petrel and a Piper PA-18 Super Cub.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
15 Spitfire and two Sea fire aircraft took to the sky to represent the Duxford Big Wing, a fighter tactic that was the inspiration of Douglas Bader and Air Vice Marshal Trafford Leigh- Mallory, which showed the aircraft in formation and in tail chase displays.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
On Sunday as the show drew to a close, there was a special treat, which was all six BBMF fighters carrying out formation flypasts before forming up with the Red Arrows for one fly through , as the BBMF fighters departed back to Coningsby the Red Arrows closed the show with another of their world class displays.
Image courtesy of Bob Franklin.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
As usual it was a polished and well performed display from the Red Arrows and after all the years they have been displaying they still have the wow factor.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
Image courtesy of Stuart Thurtle.
Duxford The Battle of Britain Air Show - Saturday 4th September 2010
Duxford's Battle of Britain Saturday Air Show started off with brilliant sunshine and blues skies but gradually clouded over and turned into a dull day, but it didn't stop absolutely thousands of aviation enthusiasts packing Duxford's car parks to capacity. The air show started with the usual professional display from The Red Arrows, even though they were one aircraft short. Later in the afternoon the Bearcat, Sea Fury and Mustang, closely followed by the Harvard pair, carried out their displays.
Speeding things up slightly was the Belgian F-16 Fighting Falcon, which carried out a fast, tight and impressive display. Sally B, which is on good form this year, did several flypasts. Shortly after Sally B landed the crowds were treated to The Battle of Britain Flight's Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane. After splitting up to do solo displays the Lancaster returned back to Coningsby and the Spitfire and Hurricane landed and parked at the end of the row of Spitfires. One of the highlights of the afternoon was the Hurricane four-ship formation, the Hurricanes were joined by the Me 109 Buchon. Other aircraft doing displays were the Leopard Moth, Hornet Moth, Gladiator and Dragon Rapide.
As a fitting tribute to 19 Squadron (who operated Spitfires from Duxford during the war) the present day aircraft operated by 19 Squadron flew a five-ship formation of BAE Systems Hawks. Surely the highlight of the day was the sixteen-ship formation of Supermarine Spitfires, which carried out some extremely close formations and finished with an interesting tail-chase. The show was finished off by The Patrouille de France Display Team from the French Air Force, who carried out some stunning manoeuvres.
Images courtesy of Ross Cannon