| The theme for the September Airshow in 2008 was '90th Anniversary Of Duxford' and consequently all the stops were pulled to try and make this one a bit special.
Duxford has such a rich history dating right back to World War I and has seen so much happen in the world of aviation. Of course the fact that 19Sqn was the first to be equipped with the supreme Spitfire had to be at the top of the list and the current Squadron brought along their specially painted Hawk. This was used as an excellent backcloth for photographs of three of Duxford's own veterans. These were John Milne who was groundcrew on 19 Squadron, Sylvia Salmon who was a Mess Waitress and David Clark who had the important post of Station Pay Clerk. As with so many events of 2008, the weather tried to disrupt proceedings, but in the end over the two days, most items that were scheduled to take to the air did manage at least one appearance. Highlight of course for many was the first display appearance of Avro Vulcan XH558 which displayed on the Saturday with several passes before a power climb into the west. As well as being an RAF airfield, of course Duxford was famous for the black & white chequered (or should that be checkered!) noses of the USAAF that were based here. No such coloured noses were in the air this weekend unfortunately since the departure of P-47 'No Guts No Glory' and P-51 'Twilight Tear' but there were US machines a plenty including TFC's P-40B and P-39 (representing the only RAF squadron to fly the type), OFMC's 'Ferocious Frankie' and the glorious F-86 Sabre of Golden Apple Operations. On a much larger scale was the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift featuring a series of formation flypasts from three C-47s/Dakotas from Air Atlantic Classic Flight and the gwnuine D-Day Veterans from Wings Venture and 'Drag 'Em Oot' over from Dakota Heritage in Holland. The Fleet Air Arm was represented by HAC's Nimrod II and Kennet Aviation's Seafire. though most of the routine was solo from each aircraft, there were a couple of almost formation passes which made for interesting photographs for those who caught it. One of the most startling take-offs of the whole weekend had to be that of Jonathan 'Flapjack' Whalley in his Hunter 'Miss Demeanour who pulled straight into a climbing turn straight from the runway with wheels still folding. Team Condor of the RAFGSA lent some quiet to the proceedings with a smoke laden display of aerobatic gliding before the Bouchon was chased around the sky by Dave Harvey on the Hurricane Mk.XII. The modern day RAF were represented by the display Hawk, while the BBMF brought along Spitfire PR.XIX 'The Last' and Hurricane 'Night Reaper'. More aerobatics were shown by the superb Aerostars in their Yaks with tight formations as well as solo routines. They were lucky to have a good height of sky to play with, unlike some of the participants. No able to happen due to the weather on the Saturday, was the Duxford Diamond Nine. However, against an increasingly blackening sky to the east, the formation of 8 Spitfires and one Seafire, got airborne to bring the show to a close on the Sunday. |