Join us for a riveting CAF Warbird Tube webinar as we delve into the legacy of Imperial War Museum Duxford’s renowned air shows. For half a century, Duxford’s spectacular displays have narrated tales in the sky, spanning from the infancy of flight to the tumultuous days of World War II and the advancements of the Cold War era. We’re thrilled to welcome back esteemed author and aviation magazine editor Stephen Bridgewater, who will shed light on the profound impact of these shows in preserving and nurturing interest in aviation history across Europe. Don’t miss this insightful discussion on the evolution of Duxford’s air shows.
Hey everybody Welcome to CAF warber tube the show where we talk about World War II aviation history and so much more warber tube is produced by the commemorative Air Force the world’s largest flying Museum our mission is to educate Inspire and honor through flight and living history experiences the CAF
Began the warboard movement more than 65 years ago and thanks to the support of individuals like you we can continue to grow strong we hope you enjoyed this episode and now our host Steve bus thanks for watching and keep on Flying good evening and welcome to CAF warbird tube this is episode number 152 of War Bird tube and tonight we’re going to catch up with our friend Stephen Bridgewater and uh take a look at some images from the duckford air show it’s if you are worbert Enthusiast you’ve
Heard of duckford many of you have been there it’s on my bucket list and we’re going to find out more as they celebrate uh the 50th Anniversary which was actually last year so we’ll get into that in just a moment but before we get started please do us a favor if you
Haven’t already done so please take a second to like share or subscribe and follow us and if you’re a subscri subscriber that is on YouTube just click that Bell icon and you can get notifications of new episodes of warbird tube when they are posted now warber tube is made possible by the
Commemorative Air Force to find out more about the CIF our events our aircraft our local units or how you can join the the fun just visit our website at commemorative a force.org well right now let’s uh bring in our good friend Steph Bridgewater Stephen good to have you back here on the
Show good to see you again Steve how are you I’m doing well and before we get into the air shows because that’s always the fun part Let’s uh talk a little bit about uh about you how did how did you get involved in aviation and uh I know
You have a pretty exciting job right now that uh I’d like you to to share that information with our audience if you would well I guess the same as a lot of people F that I have to thank for where I am today I guess you I grew up with a
Love of airplanes you nobody really knows where that comes from there was no family history of Aviation um you know with parents or even grandparents you know both of my grandparents grandfathers were coal miners so during World War II they were what’s called in the UK retained occupation so they were
Down the mines they weren’t building airlanes the Armed Forces so there’s no history at all but I developed a love of airplanes and one of the very first air shows I went to was 1988 and it was the Douglas B wing of then the Confederate Air Force and to best of my knowledge
The only the CAF air show in the UK and I was exposed to these fantastic World War II airplanes that probably steered me for the career that I that I took so I’ve spent the last 25 years as an aviation magazine editor and author um
Took a bit of a career break to to work in a couple of Aeroplane museums um and I now work for the Royal aeronautical Society so I’m Deputy edor our magazine Aerospace U Royal aeronautical Society is the oldest Aerospace Society in the world um we actually formed in
1866 St would you believe so we predate the right Brothers by about half a century um so we were we were formed for what was then called the furtherment of aerology and I think aerology is a word that we really need to bring back into
The the modern lexic but we still do the same job today so we’re to look for new technologies to promote yeah obviously a big push toward sustainability at the moment AI is very topical of what we’re doing but in every field of Aerospace from we’ve got um specialist groups for
Everything from remotely piloted air vehicles so uavs drones Comm commercial aircraft military aircraft even human powered aircraft so imagine you the the cycling along using Pedal Power to turn a propeller we you know we we we’ve got the whole gamut but our real reason and my big passion in Aerospace is
Encouraging that next Generation in so we’ve got lots of stem and Outreach to explain to people that Aviation and not just piloting Aviation as an industry is a really cool thing to be part of you know and I think now of all the times it’s such an exciting
Time to go into Aerospace as a career whether you know we’re going back to the Moon we’re going onwards to Mars you know we’ve got the whole sustainability challenge we’ve got the Urban Air Mobility flying taxi Revolution just out of grasp at the moment but coming so you know when I
Speak to young people I say you this is you know forget your Formula 1 and NASCAR this is the peak of Technology that’s that’s my soap box I’m afraid very good well let’s uh let’s start off with a little bit of history of uh Duxford itself obviously Duxford is an Airfield
Predates the air shows and played quite a pivotal role in World War II well World War I and World War II and duckford was actually if I start my slides moving forward now hopefully you’ll see from here that but duckford actually formed as an Airfield in 1918
Um if I’m if hopefully you can all see my cursor here but you’ll see these hangers these the hangers that were being built they were called The Belfast hangers was the type of hanger that most Royal Air Force bases had at the time if we move forward so this was taken in
1918 if we move forward to today you these hangers are still here you know the Airfield I mean this photograph is probably about 10 or 15 years a lot of the Airfield infrastructure remains at and that’s I think what makes it such a special location not just the history which has
Gone before you but you are genuinely walking in that history you’re walking on the same Turf that Douglas B walked you know the 78th Fighter Group when they came across in 1942 from America you know you can particularly around the rear side of the hangers very very
Little has changed there still the same road markings the same gas lamps it is like walking back I I’ve been with people who said they’ve done a great job of making this look real and the answer is they haven’t made it real it genuinely this is not a Disney theme
Part this is preserved as is and we’re so lucky to have this in the UK so we go from 1918 through to today the um the Airfield at duckford actually had one of its very first air shows in 1935 um so when um King George V had his silver jubilee celebrations
And the Fly pass took over took place over the uh over the those are three henden airlanes which you can see in the photograph there and there’s another one here between the hangers so those are the hangers that we saw on that photograph to start with uh so you’ve
Got two rows of two hangers there and a hanger in the middle this a fairy henden um so interwar bip plane twin engine bomber of the royal Air Force and these aircraft here and out there are AO shoters and that’s an aane we’ll come back to a little bit later on because an
Avoor took part in the very first modern air display which took place at duckford as you said earlier Steve 50 years ago last October so 1973 um but in the meantime duckford had a a vital role here in the UK as one of our Forefront Battlefront airfields
During the Battle of Britain this is an aircraft which was sorry a photograph that was taken during the battle um you can see the guys here with their May Weston waiting for the scramble um but of course that was a hurricane these are Spitfires these are the airanes that people generally associate
With duckford and these are genuine 19 Squadron airplanes these were the first split FES entered service with the Royal Air Force you can see the number 19 on the tail um this Photograph I don’t believe is ever been published this is from the Marshall Aerospace archive so Marshall’s is based at Cambridge
Probably well less than 10 miles away from duckford itself and Mar was um an Airfield that formed in the 1930s by by the Marshall family still going today and it’s um a C130 Hercules um renovation facility and maintenance facility for lots of airarms around the world uh including the US Marine Corp
Had a lot of c30s across to to Cambridge to be uh to be particularly modified rather than schedu of Maintenance but this Photograph was taken in 1938 at Cambridge at their opening party now duckford had just had first Spitfires these here from 19 Squadron so before they appeared for the public in
In front of the public at duckford they hopped over to Cambridge and that’s where this Photograph was taken so probably one of the very first well if not the first photograph of Spitfires at an air show so something particularly relevant for duckford is it’s the airplane that you really associate with
It it’s never a duckford air show unless it’s a Spitfire flying flying but that way nowadays but some more of the guys here just at rest I it’s perhaps easy to forget that a lot of the time during the battle you know there were very intense periods of of conflict but also immense
Periods of boredom you know these guys were sitting waiting for the Bell to ring you know you see they’ve got their pet dogs there and duckford has done a very good job of recreating a lot of these so they’ renovated some of the original buildings
And you get a real feel as to what it was like during that 1940 period during the height of the Battle of Britain but then when the bell did ring as you can see here there’s those hangers again in the background that we’ve seen on all the other photographs these are guys
Scrambling ready to go off meet the enemy coming over the English coast and this is where they were directed from this is 11 group this is the operations room at duckford this is where the Royal Observer Corp would radio in their sightings there would be hles coming in over there might
Be um M Smith Fighters seen over the wash the would be relayed and these guys here on the radio would be passing those messages on initially to the airfields so that the the crews would scramble and then once they were in the air vectoring Pilots towards their Bandits that were
Coming in um now that say is that duckford that photograph taken during the Battle of Britain in 1940 this photograph taken in December of last year the Ops room is still there you know the maps are still here it is a real time capsule and if you go to
Duckford please please go and see this it’s included in the admission cost a lot of people don’t realize it’s there but it’s behind some of the hangers just follow the room the signs of the operations room and I promise you it is the most atmospheric thing you can imagine
Um they’ve actually got audio that plays through here now and you can hear Fighters being scrambled the radio messages that would come through and also the Drone of the bombers flying over the top of duckford because of course duckford being an Airfield was a Target in itself luckily there wasn’t a huge
Amount of damage done to duckford other airfields fared a lot worse but duckford did come under attack and it was people like these that protected the Airfield and protect protected the south of of England um you may recognize the gentleman in the middle particularly from his stance that
Is the Royal Air Force’s perhaps most famous fighter ace of World War II that’s Douglas bar the so-called legless Ace uh B lost his legs in a flying accident before the war and uh went on got his license back and was flying Spitfires with artificial legs in the Battle of Britain in
1940 and anybody want to have a quick guess as to what that is before I tell you it’s a theat it’s a theat cr42 and it is taken that photograph is taken at Ducks why might an Italian airplane be at duckford you ask well after the Battle of Britain or during the Battle
Of Britain really we started to amass examples of enemy aircra um that is a fat cr42 one of the few Italian aircraft that were downed in the UK dur in the Battle of Britain so don’t forget it wasn’t just the Germans that were attacking the mainland of the
United Kingdom and Great Britain it was the Italians as well so that’s a cr42 which force landed in the UK it along with a variety of other aircraft were taken to duckford for the enemy aircraft flight and this is where we would evaluate the aircraft fly them test them
Sometimes fly them against our own fighters to um to to really see what the performance was later on this facility moved from duckford it went to an Airfield called colly Weston which was probably about half an hour to the north um and yeah a remarkable series of flights and that were done with
Everything from Fighters and bombers and transports and anything that we could really get our hands on and and later in the war these aircraft were torned around particularly to United States Army Air Force bases to actually take a me Smith 109 or whatever the latest fighter or WF 190 that we’ caught
That we’ managed get an example of take them to the crews and show them up close what this aircraft looked like and explain its capabilities so a vital part of Duck’s history there um as is this one of the royal AES only P39 Eric cobras we didn’t have many Eric
Cobras the Royal Air Force didn’t rate it as a type uh but they were tested at duckford uh as part of the uh of the flight there that was looking at um yeah way of um experimenting with different types of aerial Warfare so uh again the
The era Cobra one a rare type which just appeared at duckford both in in warbird terms in more recent years thanks to the fighter collection and here back in the in the 1940s takes us now to 1942 the queen time welcoming and friendly Invasion on this occasion this was the arrival of the
United States Army Air Force in 194 42 78 th the Black and White Checks checked noses P 47s synonymous with duckford um a color shot there from the emperial war Museum’s archives um the American Air museum at duckford has an an amazing archive which is online if you if you’re
Looking particularly For Crews histories of aircraft history of members the American Air Force Museum in Britain is a remarkable asset these are some of the photographs that hold um and of course as well as Thunderbolts the iconic P-51 um they sweet and lovely another 78th Fighter Group aerplane um another photograph taken at
Duckford so remarkable history that carried on after the war so here we’ve got Hawker Hunter perhaps the fire of the jet age here in the UK contemporary I guess with the f86 saber in the US um you know there the old a if if it looks right it
Flies right and the hunter really did look right and remarkable aerplane this is a duckford based aane you just see some of the Airfield off to the right there um see Morin again duckford there are those iconic hangers again in the background those Belfast hangers this airplane a gluster javelin an
All-weather fighter from the Royal Air Force in the 1950s big delta wing and a Delta tail um often was nicknamed The Flying flat eye and if you imagine the that you you smooth your clothes with this is um the uh the look of the javelin from above with that delta wing
And the almost the handle of the tail was nicknamed the uh the flying flat iron um so those were the last airplanes that were based at duckford so obviously it had transferred back to the Royal Air Force from the United States Army Air Force at the end of the war hunters and
Javelins and then it eventually passed into the hands of the Imperial War Museum but if we look at this Photograph here so this was taken in the 1970s so there are those hangers again two and two these are some new hangers that have been put up to
Accommodate some of the um the the war bir the modern day war Birds got the road now in place that’s the M11 Motorway and the roundabout there which goes over the M11 Motorway that Motorway actually cut the Airfield in half so that you can see here was one
Of the last aircraft to land um before that before that was done but what I want you to look at here is this area here that airplane you’re not sure whether you can see is actually tsr2 which was a prototype 1960s airplane here in the UK for the Royal Air Force
But the reason I’m pointing area there is as you can see we’ve lost a hanger what happened in 1968 the filming of the Battle of Britain took place the movie The Battle of Britain took place at duckford and in doing so they blew up that hanger The Hanger the Airfield had pretty much
Escaped World War Two without any major damage however a film crew in 1968 managed to blow up one of the hangers and that space is still there today here you can see one of the Cara 211s the the Spanish license built high call 111s also some of the Hispano buan
And hul hurricane there and a splitfire and that there is duckford control tower this Photograph was taken during filming in 1968 ready for the film to come out in 1969 if you’ve seen the movie Battle of Britain you may remember the opening scenes um the French shadow that was
Actually built at duckford for the filming wasn’t a genuine French chatau I say they built it they kind of built half a shadow as you can see there um but I think this takes the history of duckford about step further so we’ve had the first world war in 1918 when the
When the Airfield was built we had the interwar period where it was home to we saw King George the 5th silver silver jubilee we’ve seen the wartime years we’ve seen the post-war years there with the javelin and the Hunter and now we come into that period of the 60s where
It’s being used as a film set at that point duckford really was left to wreck and ruin um the Air Force didn’t need it the film crew didn’t need it anymore at one point duford Airfield was going to be turned into a prison camp you know it was a big expanse of of
Area um but luckily the Imperial War Museum decided that this would be the ideal Outpost for some of its collection of airplanes in the early days there was no real thought given to flying planes from duckford in the way that we do now as War Birds it was more about having
Hanger facilities for some of the the large aircraft that the Imperial War Museum was now collecting so the Imperial War Museum was formed after the first world war um headquartered at lamth in central London some of you may have been to ywm Imperial War Museum in Lamberth uh again a remarkable facility
But not a big building so once you’ve started to collect a number of airplanes they needed to go somewhere and duckford was the place that they went and so we come to October the 14th 1973 the first of what we would call the modern day duckford air shows so
Duckford on a general year were up until recently we have about three hour shows a year that the two-day show in May one in September one in October and then also the flying Legends event which took place in July recent years that’s changed there are now two major air
Shows and also a series of flying days which are smaller afternoon flying but back in 1973 this was the only event took place October 1973 so what did we have in the flying display I say we I wasn’t there duckford 1992 was my first Duxford um so this
Took place in 73 I wasn’t born till 75 so I’m going here on I’ve gained from various people including some photographs you’ll see shortly from Gordon Riley who’s very kindly allowed me to share them with you but this is a copy of the flying program for that show in
1973 so AO Lancaster what was then the RS now the Royal Air Force has Battle of Britain Memorial flight they also bought a Spitfire in a hurricane English electric Cambra still in service with the Royal Air Force at the time a hunting personal provest that’s the Piston powered provest shuttle with
Collection airplane uh a C130 Hercules from the Air Force a choor um what else have we got over here we got a deav and Dove that was part of the civil aviation Authority so that was an airplane that was used by the ca R equivalent of the FAA in the US and it
Was used for calibrating radar approaches and approach AIDS a Dakota it’s not an air show without a DC3 or a c47 is it uh Hunter quite AP SE as the hunter was the last last jet fighter to to be served to serve at duckford uh unfortunately the Gladiator
Didn’t turn out we’ lost a gladiator from The shuttleworth Collection didn’t turn up on the day that’s on the a planes that that went Tech as we say um Vias vity Royal Air Force um transport airplane also used a lot for training multi-engine Crews that was in
The flying display and then the uh what would later become the Fleet air arm historic flight so this is our Royal n the flight within the Royal Navy nowadays called a charity called Navy Wings they bought along their fairy Swordfish the bip plane also a hawk of Sea Fury and a fairy
Firefly and then an aerplane that we’ve longed to see for many years the the havin mosquito airplane which is now making a comeback thanks to our friends down in New Zealand um the the last flying mosquito in the UK play uh took part in the a at duckford also some
Gliding um Westland Scout helicopter that’s from the the Army Air so it’s interesting we’ve got representation here from the Royal Air Force the Royal Navy and the Army Air so the three main Services here in the UK oh those are the aircraft that we had so look now at which ones we’ve still
Got around 50 years later so the AO choor that was on the list there from the shutle withth collection and then miles maest they’re both still with the shuttleworth collection peral provest that airplane at the time belonged the shuttle collection it’s been sold uh it’s longer flown shuttle with
Collection have a different Prov now but the one that came first air show has been sold and is now a static exhibit battle Britain Memorial flight they bought their splitfire mark five one of their Mark two hurricans the Lancaster all of those surviving airplanes uh the swordfish that’s still
Around unfortunately the fleet aarm have lost both the Sea Fury and the Firefly uh the Firefly tragically in in a a fatal accident at duckford um the Sea Fury luckily in a an interesting incident with John Bey actually with that Sea Fury and that he had one wheel
Up and one wheel down so he got the problem with the aircraft and the the pilots operating notes for the Sea Fury say if you’re in that situation you bail out so he took the airplane out over the North Sea and successfully bailed out um the musos um again sadly lost we lost
That airplane in the UK in 1996 uh the Dakota that was there is still around uh it’s in Colombia so it was a bit of a long way to bring that one back for the air show I guess we can perhaps let them off on that one and the
Deavin dove um that flew in the flying display which she scrapped in 1983 at that point doves were common airplanes they there weren’t many airfields in the UK that weren’t littered with d and doves um so that was our our war Birds uh what about the military
Airplanes well there was a the Gloster meteor that took place took part in the uh in the show on static display uh that’s now on static display at Liverpool’s John lenon Airport uh The Varsity that’s static display the nose of that aircraft has been kept that’s at the South Yorkshire
Air Museum uh the camber that took place in the flying display was written off in an accident luckily a non-fatal accident in 1978 the hunter is still around that’s being restored to static in a museum in suffk uh the WASP there was a wasp from the uh helicopter from the fleet a on
That took part in the flying display and fittingly it’s now on display at duckford which I think is great um the two Scouts so the was and Scout very very similar helicopters the way to tell them a part is the Scout the Army’s aircraft had a skid undercarriage
Whereas the WASP had wheel underc carriage for landing on the aircraft carrier got what I would refer to a shopping trolley wheel so cast around so you can move it around on on the deck uh the Hercules the C130 that aircraft um was retired by the Royal Air Force sent
Back to Martin in the US and was eventually scrapped in 2001 that airplane’s not around and of the jet proests one was written off in a again Lu non-fatal midair collision and the other two are still around but not flying so in terms of airplanes that could come
Back for the 50th Anniversary a little bit limited so move on static display number of aircraft this was the fledgling imp wall Museum so this is the first airplanes they started to collect at duckford as part of what would now become the massive five hangers full of aeroplanes that you
See when you come to duckford interestingly there austr op1 Shackleton is still there this prototype beagle pup and vampires Venom cix and another Dove and a P-51 Mustang uh that airplane um was restored at duckford there it is um and that was restored to go back down
To London and spent the subsequent 45 years hanging from the roof of the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth in London painted 7 Fighter Group scheme that aircraft in the last few years has returned to duckford and now hangs from the ceiling within the American Air Museum um so that’s an
Aane come full circle and I think just in black and white it’s quite an atmospheric photograph it could could be taken in 1944 with those hanger doors you know those original 1940s hanger doors in the background so these are photographs taken by Gordon Riley Gordon’s allowed
Me to share these with you today uh that’s an airplane that flew in for static display um that was the last airworthy Gloucester Javelin so again we talk about the Hunter and the javelin being the last two operational types to fly from Royal Air Force duford as was
Um that as you can see was not an operational Javelin that was an airplane that was used by the aircraft and armaments experimental establishment at bosam down in the southwest of the country uh on Trials work which is why it’s in that garish red and white scheme
And satisfyingly that airplane now is at duckford as well so if you walk into h of four at duckford you will see xh 897 that red and white Javelin not the prettiest aerplane but certainly uses character um that is the fery ganet uh again a Fleet air arm
Aerplane of the 1950s and 60s uh that’s an aeroplane which had just flown into duck for the Imperial War Museum just before the first air show it’s still there it’s in hanger three um if you ever see the ganet up close from the front and I know there’s a one example
Which has flown in the US relatively recently came into EAA Oshkosh probably about 10 years ago it’s got the most remarkable Wing folding which looks like a venetian blind with a concer of of wings um obviously to get it below deck on the carrier the ganet is a big
Airplane and a twin engin airplane so that’s the reason it’s got these these cont rotating propellers on the front it’s got um the um Armstrong cly BR Mamba double Mamba engine um so the beauty of this is once the aircraft was off the carrier it could shut down one
Engine feather one of these propellers and therefore increase its endurance and uh and it this was a submarine hunting aerplane originally so um perhaps one of those airplanes which is perhaps typically British should we say more character than than um than prettiness uh that’s the oua aop 9 again which just
Formed part of the uh the Imperial War Museum collection now this is inside one of those Belfast hangers you can see on the top here the truss work the wooden trusses and if you walk into the hangas today you’ll still see that that unusual structure um this was one of the later
Marks of Oster the Oster was designed in the uh the early 40s as an Airborne observation aircraft what we called an Airborne observation post an aop aircraft here in the UK so the equivalent of the L for grasshopper in the US uh this is a much later version
Um you big powerpull Flaps in a big engine this is an airplane that can get in and out of short strips fly very very slowly and still a relatively popular airplane private Pilots today although age is C catching up with it I’m going to take a guess at there being probably
Less than 10 aop NS left flying in the world lost meia f8 an aerplane that flew from duckford just in the postwar Years WK 991 was one of those airplanes and it is now at duckford you can see that aerplane again in hanger 4 but here photographed 50 years
Ago another arlane which is typically British so this is the uh the Prototype of the beagle 206x which was the perhaps the most advanced variant of the beagle basset so beagle aircraft was a light aircraft manufactur here in the UK postwar years um in a way a development
Of the company which saw the aop 9 a few minutes ago so the um the company built the single engine pup which we’ll see shortly and also the twin engined beagle basset now the Basset was a heavy aerplane this was designed to compete with the Cessna 310s Piper Aztecs of
This world but it was Heavy you it was a really really heavy aerplane and it was over speed um I once saw some design documentation for the because although it was marketed as to the civilian Market it was designed as a military crew transport for the vforce
So the vforce in the UK was the Vulcan the Victor and theant are V bombers that were designed to carry our nuclear deterrent so B52 era um and this was designed as an airplane to take the vom bomber cruise to the dispersed airfields and the uh the door aperture
Which sadly you can’t see on here because it’s got this tarpor over it the the I’ve seen paperwork which say the door aperture was designed to allow access for a royal Air Force officer full ceremonial mess complete with ceremonial sword which meant the airplane was completely over engineered
For probably 1% of its actual need and so needless to say the Basset was not the most um successful of British airplanes but one of the loveliest to fly this is the Beagle P this is actually the Prototype beagle pup golf alpha Victor Delta Fox TRS obviously all
British aircraft have the G as the suffix suffix for their registration this was the very first beagle pup um beautiful red and white airplane in the last five or so years this airplane has been restored to fly and is now based at to Weston down in the of the UK um and
Great to see the interest in that 1960s era of aircraft reemerging with there are a number of Eagle pups around it’s an aane I’ve flown myself lovely airplane again generally underpowered over weight um it’s a two-seater you could technically it’s a four- seater but it’s a two-seater um it was never going to
Compete the CER 172s of this world um but it’s a pretty airplane and it’s beautiful to fly and later went on to become the Bulldog so there was an aerobatic version of this when beagle went into bankruptcy filed for the equivalent of chapter 11 the rights were bought by Scottish Aviation and turned
Into the Scottish Aviation Bulldog which is a trainer that the Royal Air Force used for a long time a DC3 uh c47 uh this is an ex-royal Air Force aerplane that actually being restored at duckford at the air show to again you see that beautiful wooden ceiling in the Belfast truss hanger this
Is golf alpha November Alpha Fox an airplane that I became closely associated with later in its life so I’ll talk about a bit later on also at duckford 50 years ago in 1973 was this splitfire it’s a splitfire mark 5 its registration is AR 501 and the the real enthusiasts amongst you may
Know that is the shuttleworth collection Spitfire a mark five an early mark five it it had flown in the Battle of written movie in the 1960s so late 60s and was now at duckford being fully renovated fully restored by volunteers from duckford and the shuttleworth collection ready to
Return to the air and go back to where it was based at Old Warden shuttle withth collection that airplane has been a stol WS of the British Air Show scene for the last 50 years spent the last probably just short of a decade being restored again at duckford at sorry at Old Warden
Now a regular again at the shuttle with collection interesting history on this this airplane it was built by the Westland airplane company flew with a number of squadrons mostly Czech crude squadrons during World War II and in amongst its history this airplane actually escorted the Memphis Bell on
One of its missions so that great example again of that camaraderie and um assistance between royal Air Force in United States Air Force or Army Air Force Crews so a really really historic airplane there and seen at duckford in 1973 this is another airplane that had just arrived for the fledgling a war
Museum not a youngers 52 it’s actually a Portuguese licensed built version which I’m not going to try and pronounce um but it is effectively at ju52 built under license that Aeroplane now resides in Poland at the Polish national Aerospace Museum in krov um that airplane restored at duckford into
Immaculate condition and later sold on to Poland now that might look like a boat it’s not it’s an aerplane it’s a miles Magister so the miles Magister monoplane World War II trainer I think uh Fairchild pt9 that sort of so uh twit and tandem cockpit open cockpit
Low monoplane that’s a plane as you can see was being actively restored at duckford on that the day of that first air show in 1973 and a deav and Dove we spoke earlier about the dove which flew in the flying display from the civil aviation unit this is a similar airplane um this
Airplane had recently donated to duckford the Imperial War Museum this airplane now hangs from the ceiling of hanger One the airspace hanger in these markings although don’t believe everything you see in photographs this as it says on the tale is go alpha lima Fox trop Tango it is not actually the
Airplane in at the Imperial War Museum is Fox uniform and for some reason this has got a different Rudder on it um I’m yet to find out the reasoning for that I’m guessing probably it was swapped because it was a more serviceable run than the one that was on the original
Fox Tango um but um a good example there of research and don’t necessarily believe see in photographs so that was 50 years ago we fast forward now 50 years to last October so October the 14th 2023 exactly 50 years as we say here we’re big
Cricket fans in the UK we say 50 not out the good Innings is 50 not out and duckford have managed 50 years of air shows remarkable air shows I could speak for a week on the impact that duckford has had on the UK Air Show scene from
From flying Legends to some of the early War Bird displays we haven’t got time to do that so I’m going to look at having looked at the very first ducks for their show we’ll look at the most recent duckford Air Show which was fittingly enough the 50th
Anniversary this is the look down the flight line you can see the PB Catalina there uh this is the super hanger as was it’s now the airspace hanger home to British and Commonwealth airlanes and also a restoration facility on the end so this is a view inside that
Hanger um what have we got here Arro Vulcan gives you probably some idea of size as to how big this facility is that’s an English electric CRA hanging from the ceiling there’s a mosquito over here on the right hand side the unmistakable shape of Concord one of the pre-production Concords and
This airplane perhaps one of the most controversial in the UK aviation history this is the tsr2 tactical strike and reconnaissance aircraft design number two aircraft designed in the 1950s and scrapped by the government rightly or wrongly there are pros and cons some people will say that it was the greatest
Aerplane we never had some people will claim that it was a white elephant um I think irrespective everyone can agree that it was a beautiful aane uh this was scrapped because the Royal Air Force was intending to buy the F-111 in instead that airplane didn’t happen so there was a significant capability or
That acquisition didn’t happen rather so there was a significant capab capability Gap until we eventually got an airplane that could replace the tsr2 so that is the airspace hanger this I think this might be an airplane that CAF recognized this is the only b29 exhibited in the UK and in Europe uh
This is in the American Air Museum so um back in the late 1990s money was raised U to create the American Air Museum this stunning you see the concrete building here with a big glass Frontage it’s a teardrop shaped um building that was designed around a B-52 so you just see the tail
There of the B-52 um so classic World War II airplanes uh P-51 p47 hanging from the ceiling you can see here a c47 hanging from the ceiling a U2 SR71 it really is one of the most incredible display hangers in any a PL Museum anywhere in the world um
And I say that as somebody who’s look been lucky to travel extensively there are some very good museums around the world and I think this is one of the best laid out and best thought through display areas that I’ve been to you can get very close to the airanes and the exhibits talk
Talk of the personal history behind not just that airframe but the aircraft in general so there’s lots of social history that goes with it including a section of the Berlin war and which really puts the Cold War into context and in terms of context outside the hanger as you walk up around that
Beautiful concrete Dome there is this stunning glass memorial and each one of the Ares represents an aircraft lost flown by amican Crews from British soil during World War II and it is an incredibly sobering and thought-provoking Memorial when you think how many crew were on each of these airplanes and this wall
This glass wall goes on and on and on and on and I think it’s something when I’m taking people to the museum for the first time that I always stop and point out the relevance of it is just a an incredible provoking and tasteful not even exhibit it’s a piece
Of artwork it really is so we’ll look at the S show now if you had told anybody in 1973 at that duckford air show that very first duckford air show that there would be a hawker Tempest at the Airfield 50 years later I think they would have laughed
I think if you had said this to anybody five years ago they probably would have laughed this has probably been one of the most eagerly anticipated aircraft restorations in UK warbird history um The Tempest one of the most advanced piston engine fighters ever to come out of the
United Kingdom Forerunner of the Sea Fury which you probably will be aware of um didn’t have extensive service in the UK uh it came in towards the end of World War II and was rapidly overtaken by the early jet aircraft so a number of aircraft were gifted to the Indian Air
Force these were aircraft that were already out in India they’ been out there as part of the Pacific Campaign and um these aircraft were flown brly by the Indians and then became Airfield decoys and in the 1970s a Founder warbird collector in the UK by the name of Doug Arnold warbirds
Of Great Britain collected a number of these aircraft and brought them back to the UK it’s taken from the 1970s until September of last year to get one of these aircraft airworthy but bring a number of false starts or a number of restoration projects around the world
Certain there one in Canada which is very close to now um but this is almost the Holy Grail of British warbirds and it flew just in time to appear on static display at the th anniversary Ducks Air Show so I think for many people this was one of
The highlights of the day if not the highlight of the day it had only flown once it hadn’t finished its flight test um campaign so it wasn’t able to fly in the display but we’re looking forward to seeing this Aeroplane apply at British air shows this year um and it’s it
Really is a dream come true for for Aviation enthusiasts the view of what is simply a stunning airplane um it’s an airplane I think which just says power you know it’s got Bristol Centaurus engine so a sleeve valve radial engine a very complicated engine um and although it
Looks similar to the Sea Fury it’s my understanding having spoken to some of the team involved in rebuilding it it’s a very very very different Beast more in common with the Haw of typhoon than the later Sea Fury so Hawker aerplane you know the end of the the Hawker piston engine fighter
Lineage before you went on to the the early Jets so the the Hawker um well ultimately you’d move onto the hunter um but the Seahawk onto the hunter so at the end of the Piston poers the Hawkers now we look at the start of that Hawker powered fighter lineage and
Again we talked about the splitfire we talked about the Hawker Hunter maybe being the splitfire the jet age I perhaps go as far as saying that the Haw of Fury the Spitfire of that interwar glorious silver winged fighter days um a beautiful airplane uh powered by the um Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine so
In many ways a forerunner of the Merlin uh this airplane was stored by Guy Black’s collection AO vintage operated by his historic aircraft Corporation at duckford um been out of the air now for the last five six years with extensive work didn’t fly in the flying display
But did fly before the air show on an air test on that 50th Anniversary show and uh the chance there to see a Haw of Fury and a Haw of Tempest to alongside each other at the 50th Anniversary duckford air show was gold Aviation gold it really
Was so what did we have in the flying display Sun as you can see one of the down sides of duckford as an air show venue for most of the day particularly when you get into that September October period you are shooting into sun so you have a number of silhouetted
Airplanes there are ways and means to get around this um you can make it black and white yeah various effects but as you saw there a hook a hurricane and two Spitfires aircraft that are synonymous with duckford synonymous with duckford air shows and perhaps only fitting that they opened that 50th Anniversary air
Show two mark one Spitfires as well um so they are a playing off to our right here a relatively new restoration for Dan Frey kins kamanche Fighters based here in the UK at duckford this one up here split fire Mark 1A and one of the earliest Restorations of FS again owned
Nowadays by Kami Fighters Dan freakin based at duckford but that airplane has been flying at British air shows 60s in a number of uh color schemes through a number of operators and although the duckford air show in October last year was marking 50 years of duckford air shows for me think it
Was important to look back at the almost 50 years of warbird shows and to have that aerplane which AR 213 on display I think was a a very clever move by the organizers and a very apt an appropriate thing to see like any air show it’s not just
Warbirds this is Diana Britain fing her cap 232 um so Avon mudri airplane a French uh aerobatic a number of those fing in the US I’m sure you’ve seen in the Oshkosh and various di Britain one of our leading aerobatics I guess you’d say almost the equivalent of Patty wac staff in terms
Of um Fame amongst the aviation Community here in the UK not an original Aeroplane sadly um no original fckr ones left in air worthy condition or at all um but this Aeroplane replica FL by and owned by Paul Ford based at duckford um this sah remains a relatively newly built
Replica uh but painted of course in the markings of the Red Baron Manfred B Rook hoffen perhaps the most famous fighter pilot of World War I certainly most famous German fighter pilot of World War I and again for me I don’t know whether this was the deliberate inclusion in the
Flying display but this harked back to an aane that flew in the early days of duckford in the 80s uh a replica flown by Robin Bose um and Robin sadly no longer with us but to have this airlane there certainly for those of us that remember those those duckford air
Show of the the 80s 90s period was a a really special thing to see um and um you know a beautifully flown display as well and again an airplane type synonymous with duckford air shows the um Consolidated PB 58 Catalina this is actually a Canadian viers aerplane a
Cano um operated by a group a Syndicate that are based at duckford um so this airplane flying in the markings of United States Army Air Force Catalina that was used in the SC rescue role um it’s got noart on the side of the fuselage there it’s called
Miss pickup um the only PB Catalina flying in Europe now and again there has been a c based at duckford since the I’m going to say about 1985 I think the first Catalina arrived and an aeroplane which if you’re going to Mark 50 years of duckford air shows it’s really
Important that you have a pby now this is an aerplane type which flew in that first display 50 years ago in 1973 this is a jet prust so we talked earlier about piston provest this was the jet provest which was um the the evolution of the uh the Piston radial
Powered airplane so had the radial had an engine called the leonides an Alvis Leon engine on the front uh That Was Then converted into a jet powered tricycle undercarriage jet provest this was the later mark this is the mark five so a pressurized canopy tip tanks and
This was the sort of airplane that was flown at the first display by one of the um the Royal Air Force display teams of the day so this is privately owned example now flown the display tell by the yellow helmet there that it’s Chris Hees exral Air Force
Pilot now flies the majority of the UK’s classic Jets so A fitting airplane and the first example we’ve seen of an airplane type which flew in that display in 1973 now duford has always was been good at introducing new pilots to display flying I think that photograph is a bit
Over blown it looks a bit blurry there I apologize for that it looked fine on the smaller screen um these airplanes are tailor monoplanes a classic British home built aerplane and it they are being flown as part of what’s called team mono and they are flown by Ben Gilmore and Bruce bug us
Who are which believe 21 years of old this was their first season as display pilots and as somebody who’s been going to duckford for many years now I’ve seen a number of pilots make their first displays at duckford and then go on to great great things you know we think of
The uh you the late great Mark Hannah Richard Grace Dave piston number of people who are familiar now as War Bird Pilots that cut their teeth on small airplanes flying their first displays at duckford so it’s great to see in the 50th Anniversary it’s great to see
Duckford not just tipping the hat back at those Pilots who’ve come through before but also providing opportunities for that next generation of what we call Tyro display Pilots so new display pilots in their first season now you may remember I showed you this Photograph what feels like a
Lifetime ago now it’s probably about 20 minutes ago uh this is golf alpha November Alpha Fox c47 Dakota Sky Train goon bird call it what you will that aerplane was being restored at duckford in 1973 that’s where it is seen it would later return to airworthy condition and
Later joined the Air atlantique company and this is where I crossed paths with the airplane so in addition to being an air space journalist I’ve spent a number of years working for erat lantique um with its historic flight setting up a couple of museums and being lucky enough
To fly in a number of their aircraft including Gulf Alpha November Alpha FOX NOW the a atlanti classic flight disbanded a few years ago our founder and Patron retired the aircraft was sold and GTH golf alpha November Alpha Fox that you see here still flies and here
She is at Dr XF for 50 years later taking to the air in the markings of a royal Air Force D-Day airplane the D-Day Stripes this airplane didn’t fly in D-Day um the original airplane it although it did fly in the Berlin airlift um so it’s now owned by a
Company at North wield um AA Heritage um who are using it for a number of purposes including flights this year this airplane will be flying over the beaches as part of the dtas over D-Day dtas to Norway Dakotas to D-Day um trip which I know CAF is very very involved
In and we are very grateful for you for doing it so ganf is owned by the same organization which own a number of two seat and single seat Spitfires they are one of the Pioneers in this country of the two seat rides campaign with Spitfire you can pay your hard-earned
Money and have your flight of a lifetime in a splitfire not this one this is this is a single cater uh being flown by Charlie Brown um who’s now got more than a thousand hours flying Spitfires and this is TD 314 which is a mark 9 splitfire um but flew a lovely peirs
Display on the day last October with the very historic Dakota excuse me that flown 50 years to the day at the same show not the only splitfire at duckford pleased to say we’d seen the two Mark ones earlier and we’ve just seen a mark 9 this aerplane a mark 19 so the most
Advanced variant of the splitfire currently flying there are projects underway to restore later examples but at the moment the mark 19 the uh the Pinnacle of uh Spitfire development that’s in the air this aane as can see on the nose it’s owned by Rolls-Royce the AO engine company although it is previously an
Aircraft operated by the Battle of Britain Memorial flight now we saw on the list earlier that the bbmf battle Britain Memorial flight did appear at that first air show in 1973 now unfortunately the way the Battle of Britain Memorial flight season works now is that by October the aircraft have finished their flying
Season entering their winter maintenance period so sadly the bdmf were not able to support Duck’s 50th Anniversary show with the very ER planes that appeared 50 years previously however this is an ex Battle of Britain Memorial flight airplane and on the day it was being flown by Mark
Discom code Nam disco disco is the operation Commander the OC of the Battle of Britain Memorial flight so although they weren’t there with their own airplanes and a previous BB meit fire were on site to um to entertain the crowds and um if you’ve if you’ve ever
Seen a mark 19 splitfire I’m sure the CAF has its own Mark 14 so big Griffin po splitfire it really is a beast of an aerplane um this airplane PR aircraft photo reconnaissance so flying in the pr blue um for high altitude reconnaissance over occupied Germany this aerplane
Having flown just that a number of operational missions over Germany during the latter months of World War II one good thing with duckford is you can get relatively close to the airlanes um this is taken from an area which is cloy known as the tank bank and one of
The hangers at duckford is devoted at the moment to land Warfare It’s called the land Warfare Hall so tanks armored cars and as part of that they’ve got a track where you can actually go and ride in an armored car now just a big Earth embankment that surrounds that and by
Standing on the side of that bank hence the tank Bank you can get these wonderful shots down onto the end of the of the taxi way and see the aircraft taxiing past you so this is Disco taxiing in in the mark 19 Spitfire and then you see taxis P you see that’s the
Control tower and that’s the big airspace hanger at the end which is the one that’s got the Vulcan and the Concord inside it you can see it was a beautiful day I’ve been to some duckford air shows which have not been beautiful weather luckily on this occasion the weather gods were
Kind to us uh more civilian atics uh this was team titan so sponsored by Titan Airways uh here in the UK so a cabria and this airplane here which is an extreme 41 so um two very different types of playing to very different types of aerobatic style um
But flown really well as a formation Duo um again one of the newer teams on the circuit great to see duckford giving some exposure to some of the the upand cominging a acts in amongst the the war birds that we all go to duckford to see
And I think it’s um the amount of pilots who have transitioned from the civilian arabaticum at this this event now this is an AR that wasn’t at duckford in 1973 but it was at duckford throughout the 1980s this beach staggerwing um aerplane now owned by Peter kers um well known for flying the
B17 Su B uh he’s recently acquired this airplane um from robs lampau uh well-known uh War Bird collector in the UK in the 1980s and 90s uh this aerplane was based at duckford with robs for many many years painted at an unusual Royal Air Force scheme this was actually a
Scheme applied to an airplane used by the uh the Dutch Prince Bernard uh has his uh his effectively runaround airplane when he was in Exile in the UK um so this airplane now is used by Peter to commute from Mainland Europe over to the UK when he’s flying aircraft out of
Ducks but particularly SBE um and he he really flies the Stager Wing well um not an aerobatic type but um really getting the airplane up to some high angles of Bank during his display in October the flying comrades another um civilian team that took place took part
In the show in October uh two Yak 52s on the wing and leading a yak 18t um ex Soviet block airplane the 52s military training airplanes the 18t developed as a civilian training aerplane particularly aeroflot uh but it’s a four seat aerobatic aerplane so the flying comrades um flirting by Tom Turner Alex
Luten and David Hardesty uh Tom Turner actually the Airfield manager at duckford and Tom is very gracious in allowing the display box the airspace at duckford to be used by up and cominging team to practice their displays um there we see that the um the airplanes you’ll notice that um
Traditionally these aircraft have had red stars um due to the climate in Ukraine at the moment and the general feeling here in the UK those red stars have been obliterated on the both the 52s and on the yak 18t replaced here with the British Union flag on the
AT&T um again beautiful sky beautiful low Evening Sun by now that harsh into sun photography has passed the sun has moved around over your shoulder a little bit um and as I say the 18 tier fully aerobatic airplane uh and quite quite the display aircraft it’s very unusual
To see an airplane that’s almost the size of a Beach Bonanza flying aerobatics now remember earlier we said it’s not a boat it’s actually a plane this is a miles Magister this Photograph I said taken 1973 at the very first duckford air show this airplane was later restored to airworthy condition
And fittingly it took part in the 50th Anniversary Air Show quite the trans as you can see as I said it’s very similar in configuration to a pt9 um so Gypsy major engine the same as you would find on a tiger moth uh flaps very unusual at this time to have flaps
On a royal Air Force training aane um and great to see an airplane that is that was there like that c47 that was there 50 years ago taking part in the flying display having been fully restored Now 50 years ago shorth bought this aerplane with them as well to uh to
Duckford this is the aor um a precursor I guess of the of the deav and tiger that you may be familiar with quite similar to a steerman in its configuration with a big uh radial engine on the front um so you a beautiful plan the only one in existence
There aren’t even any more in in museums that is the only surviving AA unfortunately on the morning of the air show it refused to start it went Tech so it was not able to make the short journey across from the old warden base of shuttleworth collection to duckford
So ly they decided to bring their second miles Magister so this is the collection’s OWN miles Magister the yellow one we saw two slides ago is privately owned but based at the shuttleworth collection so um there aren’t many places in the world where you can see two miles magisters taking to the sky
There are currently five airworthy miles Magister in the entire world um four of those are in the UK one of them is in in the Czech Republic we were lucky I think two years ago now to get all five together at Old Warden at the shut collection uh the Czech aircraft
Had recently been imported from um Argentina had been rebuilt here in the UK and before it went out to its owners in the Czech Republic we managed to get all five together and that really was a treat for the uh for the Harden Aviation Enthusiast scking on the trainer theme
And sticking on the new pilot themee it’s a T6 it’s a Harvard as we would call it here in the UK uh this aerplane Canadian built Harvard 2B painted up in the markings of the royal Air Force this an airplane that was restored at duckford it was restored by the uh the
Fighter collection so Steven Gray collection birds that goes back to 1983 1984 in the UK uh but the zc was recently sold and it was sold to to Isabelle Rutland and Isabelle um very competent araba competition pilot here in the UK and she’s had this arlane now
For two or three years and the reason she bought this aerplane is because she has been training herself up for her new acquisition which is her P-51 and just before Christmas last year her P-51 arrived in the UK it’s an airplane called marinel uh based in the
UK was restored and based in the UK for a number of years in in the early 2000 thousands was sold to Italy about 10 years ago now and has now return Isabel is basing the airplane at duckford for the time being but this airplane this har Harvard this was Isabel’s first T6
Display at duckford um and great as I said earlier great to see these new pilots coming through especially with the colle the connection here to an aane which has got a long duckford history another T6 so we’ve gone from a new pilot to I’m sure Rod if he’s
Listening won’t mind me calling him an old pilot uh Rod has been displaying airplanes in the UK for more than five decades is Rod Dean um stalwart of the um the British Air Show scene um somebody that I grew up admiring and and uh Rod is something i’ been privileged
To know in my uh writing career and got to know very well and to go off on a very brief tangent as a a young 17y old I wrote to a warbird collector here in the UK called Spencer Flack asking to take photographs of his P-51 and I got a
Letter back in 1992 from Rod Dean saying why don’t you come and join us at duckford for the day and again the same way that the CAF inspired a few years earlier to follow that interesting historic aircraft and War Birds Rod’s Hospitality that day and his
Enthusiasm really set me on a career and um about 18 months ago I got a phone call from Rod who’ been clearing his desk and I’m not saying Rod’s desk is untiy but he found that original letter signed by Steven Bridgewater age 17 years old and I now have that letter
Back in my collection having come full circle from Rod so this is Rod flying and a T6 uh this is an airplane called Taz the markings of the Portuguese Air Force this is an ex Portuguese aircraft um so Havoc had Isabelle making her first display in Harvard um in UK in
A duford air show we then jumped to Rod flying in air shows now for five decades and he flew with Nigel Wilson another very experienced T6 pilot in a peir display to this US Navy marked airplane and that’s Taz leading the formation but it’s the war Birds you
Really want to hear about isn’t it walk hurricane mark one if ever there was a type synonymous duckford Spitfires and hurricanes have to be right up there with a black and white checkerboard P-51 Mustang this aerplane Mar one hurricane uh restored recently uh in the UK for um
Originally for Rick Roberts uh he sold it before it was completed to um gra peacock’s collection um which is um now operated by air leasing at cwell and at duckford this aerplane splits it its time between cwell Aerodrome in Northampton Shire which having a big air
Show in June of this year if we get chance to come across with that it’s looking amazing and it splits the second half of its year at duckford um so getting Airborne for its display you can see the black and white undersides that uh were painted to aircraft during the
Battle of Britain um these were in the early part of the battle recognition markings so let’s just say some of the ground to air Gunners were a little trigger happy and if you saw that the aerplane had a black and white decide you knew it was friendly you knew not to shoot at
It second hurricane getting Airborne again an aeroplane that’s been at duckford many many years first restored at duckford and flew in 1990 in time for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain uh this aerplane G hurry it’s an ex Canadian Mark 12 was restored by the fighter collection now
Owned by and operated by Guy blacks um historic flying sorry historic craft collection at Duckville and there we see the third hurcan so this at the bottom here is the one we’ve just seen taken off at the top here is an aircraft owned by syndicate at duckford this is
Again another mark one Hurrican this is Hurricane 501 as it’s known 501 referring to 501 Squadron um the Squadron which this very hurricane flew with during the Battle of Britain so three Hurricanes taking to the skies two genuine Mark 1s a mark 12 with extensive War Bird history as
Well so this the historic aircraft collection aircraft carrying the later scheme of the duckhead blue underneath by this time they dispensed with the black and white undersides now we reached the the end of the display the finale of the display and if anything says ducks for air shows to
Me it’s big piston Fighters and non more so than the Sea Fury and the Bearcat maybe the Corsair maybe the Thunderbolt so it was fitting that we have those four to close the show really um so starting care getting Airborne Paul bonum in the Haw of Sea Fury this
Aircraft a game operated by air Le for GR peacocks action painted in the markings of the Prototype Sea Fury which is why it’s got this distinctive yellow undersides um and again a classic duckford backdrop joined in the Sky by the Bearcat the longest serving aircraft with the fighter collection this
Aircraft arrived at duckford in about 1984 8384 um a personal favorite of Steven Gray the founder of the fight um he flew his last public display in this Aeroplane about 10 years ago um and it continues to fly now with his son Nick and with other members of The
Fighter collection yeah you have a bearcat at the CAF I don’t need to tell you about the Bearcat it is the you the punchiest the most dramatic of all the Piston powered Fighters another aircraft from gra peacocks collection operated by air leasing this is the p47 Thunderbolt this is Nelly B and getting
Airborne here with Stu goldpink that the controls um a personal favorite of stews and following it into the air the Corsair flown by Brian Smith fg1d Corsair um this a goodye built aerplane in the markings of the British Fleet air arm um a very early airplane actually
Got fabric um control surface of the wing on this aerplane um and again been operational in UK at duckford since 1988 so to close the show having airplanes that have got that long Synergy that long personal connection with duckford I think was was a great move and they really treated us to a
Finale um you know the some of the best World War II warb bird Fighters flying some of the most powerful and dramatic airplanes um yeah in an an October Autumn evening in the sunshine what’s not to like and so began with a for ship um really nice close formation from these
Guys you can see there the the the yellow p on the side of the Prototype markings on the Sea Fury it’s not a c fury it’s actually an exi aane the what was called yes the Iraqi single seat um so this was an airplane that was
Provided to the Iraqi Air Force so it doesn’t have a a arrer hook and it didn’t have folding Wings although it’s been restored as the Prototype C Fury and it does have as you can see from the five propeller blades the Bristol Centaurus engine um an increasing Rarity even here in the UK
Now so having done a for ship display they broke into two pairs and again with that beautiful light now from behind up on the tank Bank you get these glorious topside passes as the aircraft wheel around onto the B AIS and to start with this was for me I think probably the
Highlight of of the 50th Anniversary show because this brought back memories of the 1990s for me the the mid to late 90s an Iraqi single seat Fury not this one uh but a different Fury flown by the late great Ray Hannah with this very be cut flown by
The still very much Withers Steven Gray Steven Gray Ray Hannah the best piston powered fighters in a seemingly unchoreographed dog fight was as good as display flying got you you could tell there was real competition you they were trying they’re trying to get on each
Other’s taals just as as good as it got the two pilots at the top of their game Flying the best aircraft and to see these aircraft so Paul Bonham uh Jack Brown flying these aircraft today and they really did do do that that Justice um seaf Fury
Bearcat and even the corser and the p47 got in on the act as well with um tail Chase aerobatics um just just glorious to see and then as the sun is starting to set getting those de aircraft taxi past you on tank Bank you can see the blue smoke
Here coming out to see Fury as that that big Centaurus engine chugs its way back down the flight line um there’s Stu gold in the p47 and Jackie theair and Brian Smith there in the beat taxiing in and that effectively brought us to the end of a flying display
Um the last movement of the day fittingly the Battle of Britain Memorial flight pilots flying home to East M’s airport in the um the rollsroyce Spitfire as I sit now less than three miles crow flies in that direction is e sp’s airport that’s an airplane I see
Overhead here on a regular basis it’s whenever it’s out on air test the growl of Spitfire growl of a griffin Spitfire even the dogs know to run outside because they know the Spitfire is coming um but I guess we should maybe in closing look back at what the 50th
Anniversary show achieved and for me it achieved great memories memories of Pilots that have entertained Us in the past it gave us memories of aircraft that we’ve seen at previous shows but the were a couple of in my opinion glaring gaps in the program which could almost have been filled relatively
Easily there have been a number of operators at duckford over the course of the years you know we had some aeroplanes there from the bi collection but a name that’s again always associated with duckford is the old flying machine company which spoke about Ray Hannah flying the the Iraqi Fury in
The 90s the old Flying Machine Company Spitfire mh434 has been based at duckford since the early 1980s and it’s still there but sadly it wasn’t in this 50th Anniversary display and for me that seemed like a shame likewise robs llau one of the first collectors to move aircraft into
Duckford yeah pc1 Mustang miss Helen although not owned by robs now is owned by um by John Terrell and um Ro sorry and that airplane is air worthy it’s based at tuxford but it wasn’t in the flying display likewise the what was the British a museum it’s now the aircraft
Restoration company we had their T6 but it would have been nice to have had some heavy metal we know the blenin was at the end of the season it would have been quite a big ass to get the the Bristol blenin ready for the show but there were
A number of Spitfires that could have represented the aircraft Restoration company shuttle Spitfire AR 501 we saw that in the hanger being restored 50 years ago to the day thatan airworthy would have been nice to have had that there likewise the Prototype beagle pup it’s not the greatest aerplane in the
World but it’s a historic aerplane and it’s flying and it was there 50 years ago and perhaps yeah almost equally as glaring we lost Caroline Grace this year you know the the the leading female Spitfire display pilot of of modern times um Caroline her son Richard a leasing still operate the two- seat
Spitfire m407 it would have been nice to have had some recognition for Caroline at that 50th Anniversary display and again where was the B17 where was Sally B based at duckford she started her winter maintenance one week before the show so in conclusion if I were to review the
Air show as I was if I was reviewing film I’d say maybe seven out of 10 six out of 10 could do better it was a great day it was a great event there were some relatively easy fixes that could have made it a nine or a 10 out of 10 but you
Know what it doesn’t matter because 1992 I went to my first Duxford here I am in 2023 on the tank bank with my best friend air shows that’s what we do this for it’s you at the end of the day it’s the friendships we meet make the network of
Contacts we make and those were the things that will outlive any of the airlanes that were at duckford that day so thank you very much I hope that was of interest to you Steve it was that amazing uh and now it just reinforces the fact that I I need I need to get
Over there and and get to that show because it is um I would think of very as you you said you you are relatively close to the a aircraft is a very intimate setting as far as maybe um in this country a military show where you
You’re set back quite a ways from from the action very um like I said intimate kind of experience it’s an intimate experience and that you don’t just see and hear the airplanes you smell them and I think that’s that’s one thing the CIF do very well and a lot of these independent War
Collectors you can go to a museum you can see an aane in a museum but until you hear it and you smell it it doesn’t come to life and I think that’s the tangible thing yes you you see a SP by a taxi pass duckford you see the the
Bristol Centaurus coughing out its blue smoke and you get that whiff of the exhaust and that’s for me really brings these aircraft to life and yes you are close there are two parallel run at duckford there’s the hard Runway and for a grass Runway and you saw some of those
Photograph particularly the hurricane take off taking off straight towards you that was take was taking off on the grass Runway so when you’re on the tank Bank those airplanes are taking off very close to you and it’s there are not many airfields in the world where you will
Get that close to an airplane and you you you almost feel it going overhead it reverberates through your rib cage it’s a sensory experience you have to come you have to come my friend all right I I think they should hire you as a the tour
Director I gladly do it there you go well Steve thanks you thank you so very much for sharing not only pictures of of this year’s show the 50th Anniversary show uh and the one that was in 1973 but also the history of of the Airfield itself uh really appreciate all the work
That you put into pulling this all together and uh certainly always enjoy having you as a guest on the show it’s an absolute pleasure Steve and unfortunately I will not be at Osos this year so this has to be our annual catcher we go all right well thanks again and that
Will wrap up tonight’s show remember if you would just uh take a minute to like share or subscribe to our videos we’d appreciate it if you’re subscribing on YouTube click the Bell icon and you’ll get notifications when the new shows are posted uh if you have any thoughts on
Tonight’s show or any of our shows please send Leah block an email at media cq. G until next time for the commemorative Air Force I’m Steve bus have a good Night
1 Comment
Nothing has changed. It's still the Confederate Air Force.