Went to the 'Flying Legends' air show at Duxford on Sunday. Wow. The cast (in no particular order): BoB Memorial flight (Lanc, Spit, Hurricane) 8 Spitfires (4 Merlin, 4 Griffin, including one PR plane with contra-rotating props. Man, that just jumped off the runway...) 7 Mustangs, including a 'B' model 2 Hurricanes 2 B-17s 2 Mitchells 2 Corsairs SAAB B-17 (the light bomber) P-47 Thunderbolt Curtiss Hawk 75 Polikarpov I-15 (fantastic!) Yak-3 (with radial engine) Wildcat (VERY noisy!) Hellcat Tigercat Skyraider Hawker Sea Fury Gloster Gladiator Hawker Nimrod (the 1930s biplane) Bucker Jungmeister 5 dH Dragon / Rapides 4 DC-3s Pictures hopefully to follow when my films get developed. We were standing right where the planes stopped to do their engine checks before going onto the 'runway' (or 'flat bit of grass') The only problem (aside from forgetting my hat & geting a sunburnt neck) was that there was too much to see. For example, at one time there were 2 Corsairs overhead, 7 Mustangs taking off in pairs (and a single!) and a Hawk 75 & Yak 3 revving their engines in from of me. What do I look at?!?! And at the end the multi-engined planes flew off to do the official flypast in London, where the Lanc dropped 1 million poppies on Pall Mall (poor roadsweepers!), and the single-engined planes (plus Tigercat) formed up into 1 big formation and flew back & forth. Wow...
Yeah, I know exactly how it feels. Saw it in 2002. Flying Legends is the airshow, at least on this side of the Atlantic. We went both days, and I still had the feeling I hadn't seen half of what was going on ( and I got a really sunburnt nose ). Was the Shuttleworth Gladiator still in Norwegian colours ? I remember a couple of grumpy old men being very annoyed about that in 2002.
Yes it was - and I have (hopefully) got a lovely photo of it for you. I have seen the Gladiator many times (Shuttleworth is nice & close to where I live) - lovely!
I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing a Hawker Sea Fury up close a few years ago.I didn't know what it was at the time.It had a scruffy silver finish with no markings.Was it loud on take-off!
My first air show was at Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem, NC. I've been to three of them there and have seen the following aircraft: B-17G Flying Fortress P-47N Thunderbolt LB-30 Liberator (Very early model of the B-24) B-25 Mitchell P-51D Mustang B-29 Superfortress (The only one still flying) TBM Avenger DC-3 and C-47 Skytrain (The latter actually flew over my home!!!) Someday, I hope to see one of the big air shows.
