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| What we all came for 💓 |
Last week I went to my last airshow of the season the Duxford Battle Of Britan Airshow with Lynn's Travel. All the week the weather forecast was absolutely horrific but we were so lucky and only got a couple of spots of rain on the day despite some incredibly angry looking clouds in the distance (possibly the most British start to a blog ever talking about the weather 😂).
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| Corney decided to wear his waterproofs just in case |
We got there early enough to have a look around the museum, you can see more of the exhibits in my blog from the Celebrating 19 Squadron blog back in August.
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| Lightning Tail, Vulcan and a Canberra above. |
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| Red Arrows facemask & a Concorde engine |
After the hanger I had a walk along the flight line which was a great chance to have a closer look at the aircraft that were going to be flying.
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| The NHS Spitfire |
There were a few stalls to look around selling aviation memorabilia and I was really pleased that Planes TV had a stall there. I have so many of their DVDs from airshows that I've been to over the years, one of my favourite things to do on the first day of Airbourne was to visit their stall to pre-order the DVD of the show and then watch the free 'Airshow Action' DVD that they gave me with my order. Unfortunately they're now moving online as a purely on demand service - Netflix for plane geeks if you will. They were selling off a lot of DVDs cheap so I came away with a handful.
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| Not bad for £30! |
I hadn't realised but as well as giving me a discount on airshows and in the gift shop my membership also meant I could sit in the member's area right next to the runway. There was seating (although I felt more comfortable on my picnic blanket on the grass so that I could spread all my crap out) and we also had our own toilets. One of the volunteers was saying that they normally have a marquee and food vendors within the area so that will be interesting to see for next year's show.
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| Nice and close! |
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| Just like being at a gig! |
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| VIPs |
The flying started at 13.00 with 3 Spitfires a MK1, MK 9 & MK 14 and you could really hear the difference between the 3 engines - the 'whistle' of the MK1, the 'classic' merlin of the MK9 and the growl of the MK 14's griffin.
Next up we had a formation of 4 Hurricanes which is a very special sight as, sadly, there aren't many of them left.
The Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight sent two of their Spitfires, this is the clipped-wing variant.
I saw the newly restored 'Russian Spitfire' for the first time.
There were two Curtis aircraft at the show a Hawk and a Warhawk -
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| Curtis Hawk over the NHS Spitfire |
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| Curtis Warhawk |
Next up was one of my favourites, the Flying Fortress Sally B
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| Sally B always ends her display streaming smoke from one of her engines to pay tribute to the American bomber crews lost during the second world war. |
We had three ME109 Buchons attacking the airfield
Luckily two Mustangs and a Thunderbolt came to the rescue
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| Thunderbolt |
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| Mustangs |
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| This is Miss Helen, I have some far sunnier photos of her here |
One of my favourite parts of the day was the Historic Helicopters with their Wessex and Sea King. I don't think I've seen a Wessex before and I always used to love seeing the occasional Sea King come along the coast.
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| Wessex |
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| Sea King |
I really liked these photos I got of the two helicopters over the aircraft on the ground.
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| The Air Sea Rescue theme continued with the Catalina |
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| The weather got a little nautical so we donned our hoods and rain ponchos |
Continuing the nautical theme were the US Navy Fighters the Bearcat & Corsair.
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| Corsair |
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| Bearcat |
After the Bearcat and Corsair the build up to the mass flypast began with Spitfires and Hurricanes taking off and the Desert Spitfire playing 'joker' to keep the crowd entertained whilst the formation lined up.
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| Taking off |
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| Our Desert Spitfire 'Joker' |
Listen to this sound -
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| Just amazing |
The show was closed by the NHS Spitfire to pay tribute to the NHS Workers who have looked after the country during the pandemic and made for a truly emotional moment.
You can see my full video highlights here -
It was an absolutely fantastic day topped off by this stunning sunset on the way home.
I can't wait until next year!
Love Jen
XxxX
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