Review by Simon Fenwick
Photography by Simon Fenwick & Jeremy Welsman

The two day September Air show at Duxford is the Imperial War Museum’s premier show of the season and always brings together something a bit special. Few will forget the incredible sight of so many Spitfires tailchasing at the show in 2010 to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Battle Of Britain.

This year the major theme celebrated the 75th birthday of the first flight of what many regard as the finest aircraft to come from the pen of a British designer. It was on 5th March 1936 that ‘Mutt’ Summers took K5054, the prototype Spitfire, into the air for the first time at Eastleigh in Hampshire and upon landing uttered the immortal phrase “Don’t touch anything”. Sadly, RJ Mitchell, the man whose genius brought the iconic shape to fruition, never got to see how successful his design actually was as he died in June 1937 after battling intestinal cancer. 

That design went on to become a phenomenally successful machine entering service with 19 Sqn RAF in August 1938 and the final examples, three PR.XIXs, leaving service from the Meteorological Flight in 1957. Two of those are still flying with the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight. When the last Spitfire left the production line in 1948, over 22000 had been built in dozens of variants. From the early Merlin powered Mk.Is to the Griffon engined Mk.24, power had increased from 1030hp to 2340hp maximum speed had gone from 353mph to 460moh (PR.XIX) and service ceiling had reached an amazing 51550ft on one special occasion. This was a remarkable flight by Flt Lt Powles.

For the finale of each day of the show, the organisers had brought together various marks and these were arranged on the flightline each morning and were joined by the newest addition to these restored examples in the shape of Mk.I P9374, fresh from the workshops of the Aircraft Restoration Company/Historic Flying Ltd. Rescued from the French beach on which it crashed in May 1940, this is the first time that such an early version has been restored to flying condition. Although it had had a test flight prior to the show, it was too early for participation in the flying display.

Joining the Spitfires on the grass were three Hawker biplanes from the 1930s in the shape of TFC’s Nimrod I and HAC’s Nimrod II along with the beautiful new addition to the HAC stable. This is the world’s only airworthy example of the Fury fighter and it will be a total delight to see this stunning restoration in the air. A few years ago no-one would have dreamt that there would be a growing collection of these biplanes, but with the Fury now added to the two Nimrods, Shuttleworth’s Afghan Hind and the Old Warden based Demon, there will soon be the possibility of seeing five together. These however, were not the only biplanes to be seen as the Royal Navy Historic Flight’s Swordfish LS326 arrived on Saturday morning.

Towards the eastern end of the flightline there were examples of the Curtis family with the Hawk 75, P40B Warhawk and Merlin engined P40F (now sporting new artwork on the tailplane – from certain angles it actually appears that the girl is sitting on the elevator!) all owned by The Fighter Collection could be seen along with P-51D Mustang, Hurricanes and Hispano Buchon sharing space with the menacing Apache from nearby Wattisham. Representing the hundreds of Polish airmen who fought in the Battle of Britain was an Antonov AN-28 from the Polish air Force.

On the Jet Pan, Jonathan Whaley’s Hunter Mk.58 ‘Miss Demeanour’ was lined up with the visiting Vampire FB.6 and T.55 from the Royal Norwegian AF Historical Squadron, the two locally based T-28 Fennecs and the Beech King Air from 45(R) Sqn at RAF Cranwell. Sunday also gave the rare opportunity to see the BBMF Lancaster up close at Duxford, the conditions having proved just right for it to land on following its display on the Saturday.

The weather conditions on the two days of the show couldn’t have been more different with Saturday’s flying display taking place in perfect sunny conditions which meant the whole show could go ahead as planned. This included an appearance of the solo Alphajet from the French Air Force and the only opportunity in the UK in 2011 to see the full display from the USAF F-15E Strike Eagle. Sunday however, saw torrential rain totally disrupt the first half of the afternoon and tribute must be paid in particular to the Aerostars and the pilots of the two T-28s for displaying in such conditions.

On Saturday the flying opened with a scintillating display from the solo routine from the French Air Force Dassault AlphaJet trainer carrying special markings. The pilot used every bit of the available area with some close manoeuvres and vapour streaming loops

He was followed by John Romain in the Aircraft Restoration Company’s Buchon. He was supposed to have been joined by Dave Harvey in the Historic Aircraft Collection’s Hurricane Mk.XII but technical trouble grounded the aircraft

Harking back to the Hendon displays of the 1930s, Pete Kynsey and Charlie Brown gave a nice display of formation work and aerobatics in the Nimrod I & II with their silver wings showing up well against the blue sky.

Displaying much more power were the three members of the Curtiss Hawk family. Dave Southwood flew the Hawk 75 and Carl Schofield was in the Pearl Harbour veteran P40B while Stephen Grey was at the controls of the new acquisition P40F. The final representative of the USAAF was the much loved B-17 Flying Fortress ‘Sally B’ which looked serene against the backdrop of the Duxford countryside.

Visiting from its base at nearby Wattisham was the Westland Sea King HAR.3A from 22 Sqn. Celebrating 70 years of Search & Rescue, the crew gave a demonstration of their techniques in picking up their ‘survivor’ from the grass.

To quote a famous comedy team “and Now For something Completely Different”. Duxford pulled off a real coup by managing to add the full display of the USAF’s F-15E Strike Eagle for both days of the show. The Demonstration Team’s Commander and Chief Pilot, Mike ‘Cash’ Maeder came over from the 4th Fighter Wing’s base at Seymour Johnson in North Carolina to fly a jet loaned by Lakenheath. The 4th FW can trace its history back to Duxford in the 1940s when the airfield was the base of its predecessor, 133 Sqn. The display was flown in honour of the ‘Eagle’ Squadrons of the RAF which were manned by American pilots prior to the US entering the war. With Saturday’s non-existent cloud, a full display could be flown, but if anything Sunday’s was even more special with there being so much dampness in the air. At times it appeared as though there was a giant ball of condensation flying through the air with two large red jet pipes! On both days, ‘Cash’ finished with a ‘missed approach’ followed by a full reheat pull up into a ‘rocket climb’ reminiscent of the famous BAC Lightning, with shock waves clearly visible.

The Duxford based Old flying Machine Company (OFMC) are always heavily involved with The Victory Show at Crosby which meant that their famous pairing of Spitfire Mk.IX and P51D ‘Ferocious Frankie’ are not generally available for displaying at the September show at Duxford. However, their arrivals and departures can usually be seen. On Saturday though, ‘Frankie’ was parked on the static line in the morning and before leaving for Crosby, Stu Goldspink gave a display in the Spitfire to honour the type’s 75th anniversary before he too left to join the Mustang. His display, using the background of the hills south of Duxford harked back to the famous displays by Ray Hanna

Always big supporters, the much loved Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight had perfect conditions on the first day of the show for an over crowd arrival with the Lancaster, Spitfire Mk.IX and Hurricane IIc. Following their traditional three-ship passes, the Lancaster went into its solo routine after the two fighters put on a display, the like of which this reviewer has never seen before. Rather than the two individual displays, pilots, ‘Smithy’ and ‘Parky’, gave a stunning performance of opposition passes. The routine finished with all three aircraft landing on. Indeed a very rare opportunity to see the Lancaster on the ground at Duxford with its rather short runway

Next up was the second of the two rotary winged items of the afternoon. This was the ever menacing Apache AH.1 from the Army Air Corps from Wattisham. With all hardpoints stocked and the under-fuselage gun sweeping the crowd line, this was a very impressive display

During WWII, the Norwegians were heavily involved both on the ground in the air with their underground movement and with pilots in the RAF. In tribute to this, the Royal Norwegian AF Historical Flight sent over their two Vampires, a rare airworthy FB.6 and a T.55 (suitably marked with a tribute to Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine). This was a delightful display of very close formation flying and their silver aircraft really shone against the deep blue skies.

On Sunday there was another famous British jet representative in the shape of Jonathan Whaley’s unmistakable hunter F.58 ‘Miss Demeanour’. Some dislike the fact that the aircraft is not in military colours, but personally I feel that this is a stunning machine and displayed with such panache by ‘Flapjack’. In the damp conditions when he flew, vapour was seen from the wingtips and across the tops of the wings and of course he included his ‘party piece’ pass with canopy open and waving to the crowd!

Slightly touching on the Spitfire theme of the show were Pete Wells and Guy Westgate of the SWIP Team in their Silence Twisters. Now a highly regarded display act, they have created a really pleasing routine combining formation aerobatics with solo manoeuvres in these delightful little aircraft with their Spitfire-esque wingforms. Displaying on Sunday, Brendan O’Brien was up to his usual antics with his crazy flying and truck top landing.

During the Second World War, many thousands of pilots trained on the North American Harvard. Developed from that aircraft was the T-28 Trojan. It made its first flight in 1949 and served throughout the 1950s. Many were purchased by the French Air Force once they were phased out of US service and they were subsequently named Fennec after the North African fox. They were remanufactured by Sud Aviation as a ground attack aircraft with machine guns and underwing bombs or rockets. There are two of these ‘thumpers’ based at Duxford and Dave Southwood in the silver machine and Martin Willing in ‘Little Rascal’ really know how to show them off. Huge praise must go to them for displaying in such dreadful conditions on Sunday afternoon.

The Fournier RF4 motor glider is something possibly as far from the T-28 as you can get. Power comes from an engine giving no more than 39hp (compared to the 1425hp in the T-28) but Bob Grimstead and Matthew Hill provide a lyrical aerial ballet.

Looking more like an executive aircraft than a military one, the Beech King Air is the RAF’s multi engine trainer, taking over from the Jetstream. It is used to teach the basics of multi-engine flying. Flying from RAF Cranwell, Leon Creese of 45(R) Sqn has developed the display over the last few years and always finishes with his trademark ‘Khe Sanh’ approach.

The Aerostars in their Yak 50 aircraft are the largest civilian aerobatic team in the world and have been displaying for more than 10 years. They brought six aircraft to Duxford which allowed them to perform their full routine

The final solo display of the afternoon was the very welcome return of the wonderful old ‘Stringbag’ from the Royal Navy Historic Flight at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset. The hardy souls who fly this aircraft are real showmen constantly waving to the crowd and proudly flying the white ensign. Although designed and built by Fairey, the Swordfish was also built in large numbers by Blackburn and LS326 is one of those, making it one of the aircraft nicknamed the ‘Blackfish’

Closing the show on both days was the main tribute to the 75th Anniversary of the Spitfire’s first flight. Following a mass scramble, the seven aircraft formed up for several formation passes before splitting and some undertaking formation loops whilst others tailchased through across the sky

The Spitfires taking part were:

Mk.Vb             BM597/JH-C  Historic Aircraft Collection    Charlie Brown
Mk.Vbk           EP120/AE-A   Fighter Collection                   Brian Smith
Mk.IXT           SM520/KJ-I    Steve Boultbee-Brooks          
Mk.IXT           ML407/OU-V The Grace Spitfire                   Richard Grace
Mk.IXT           MJ627/9G-P    Maurice Bayliss                       Paul Day
Mk.IXT           PV202/QV-I   Aircraft Restoration Co          Rod Dean
Mk.XIVE        MV293/JE-J    Fighter Collection                   Pete Kynsey

Thus ended yet another excellent show at Duxford. With a very good mix of old and new, fast and slow, jet and prop, the whole weekend had something for everyone.

Thanks go to Esther, Gabriela and all the team at IWM, especially the very friendly and helpful guides who made it very easy to obtain flightline photographs early each morning. Also thanks to Roz for the opportunity to achieve a lifetime’s ambition to sit in the cockpit of a Spitfire and understand a bit more what those heroes had to work with.