Duxford Airshow Sept 2013

It has been some time since I attended an air show at Duxford UK and chose Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September 2013 as the ideal days to review the Warbird collections and air displays.

The weather was mixed with some cloud, however Duxford turned on its usual fantastic displays of Warbirds with good access to the aircraft on the flight line prior to the Airshow proper which commenced about 2.00pm and finished by 5.30pm.

The highlight of the day was the enthusiastic display put on by WW11 fighters especially the Spitfires in attendance. There are more of the early marks coming on stream now and they look even better than the later series models and to my ear sound better.

To an Australian, it was great to see a Sea King doing a routine; a sight not seen on our shores for a few years now.

Also the Messerschmitt Bf 109/Buchon was an aircraft I had not seen displayed for many years and it looked superb in the air mixing it with the Spitfires. Sadly, there were no Mustangs flying at the airshow but you can’t have everything. The heavy WW11 aircraft were well represented with the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress ‘Sally B’ and the North American B-25 Mitchell; however the Avro Lancaster was a no show. The Jets were also well represented with Lockheed T-33, North American F-86 Sabre and de Havilland Vampire as well as current RAF Eurofighter Typhoon which I had not seen displayed before, which sounded awesome.

Another highlight of my day was seeing the advanced state of the restoration of the Bristol Blenheim Mk1/ Bolingbroke which will be its 3rd incarnation following 2 accidents over the past 20 years. This aircraft is beautiful and a credit to those working on her and judging by her current state will be flying within a couple of years being largely complete except for the fitting of her engines.

Although the event doesn’t quite have the absolute numbers of WW11 Warbird aircraft it is made up for to some extent by the participation of some of the modern RAF types and the Boeing 747F which was flown with great exuberance by British Airways.

Duxford is still the best location in the UK for museum exhibits and with the current reorganization of the London Lambeth facility there are a number of extra exhibits on show, such as the Sopwith Camel and Mustang etc. making this visit particularly exciting. Visitors should note however, that recently several of the Imperial War Museum aircraft have been sold to clear space, including a de Havilland Vampire and a Junkers Ju52.  So please check carefully if you are going to see a particular aircraft that it is still there.

I was also very happy to see that some of the aircraft, long standing outside, such as the Avro Shackleton, have now moved inside and are receiving restoration attention whilst some of the airliners still outside are also getting some care and a repaint as well.

The Flying display schedule was strong on both days and included:

• Aerostars – Yak-50 x 6 (Saturday only)
• B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B, Boeing747F fly pasts (Saturday only)
• B-25 Mitchell
• Bearcat
• Chipmunk x 4 (Saturday only)
• CT-133 Silver Star
• Extra 330SC (Sunday only)
• F-86 Sabre
• FG-1D Corsair
• T-28 Fennec (Sunday only)
• T-28 Fennec (Sunday only)
• Gladiator
• Hispano Buchon (Messerschmitt Bf 109)
• Lancaster, Spitfire (Saturday only)
• Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane (Sunday only)
• Patrouille de France – Alpha Jet x 8
• Piper Cub (Saturday only)
• Sea King (Saturday only)
• Spitfire IX
• Spitfire IXT
• Spitfire I
• Spitfire V
• Spitfire V
• Spitfire XIV
• Spitfire IX
• The Red Arrows – Hawk x 9 (Sunday only)
• Tucano (Sunday only)
• Eurofighter Typhoon
• de Havilland Vampire x 2

For those who haven’t been Duxford, it is located near Cambridge UK about 80km north of London and fairly easy to get to via train or road. It is well worth a visit any day as the Imperial War Museum (IWM) is a great place to spend a day or two. As well as the IWM, there is the American Air Museum and the Tank Museum on the site as well as several good restaurants with the usual English fare which is reasonably priced. There are also children’s playground facilities and good parking.

Should you wish to stay overnight I would recommend booking well in advance for the Old Bull Inn at Royston. This English pub is ideally located to travel to all the Warbird museums and the Duxford Airshow. It has a great restaurant and the village, although small, has all the facilities you would need.

The Imperial War Museum website provides all the information that you would need to prepare for your Warbird adventure.

© John Parker 2013