Duxford Summer Airshow - Another aircraft ticked off the bucket list!

 

Another weekend, another airshow and another aircraft ticked off my bucket list. After a sunny start to the season at Headcorn Airshow it was off to Duxford's Summer Airshow with it's promise of a P38 Lightning - high on my aviation bucket list. 

The weather was set to be sunny again so I decided it was time to debut my ridiculously large hat ....

 

Corney & special guest Darcy attempting to hide their shame at the Typhoon stand

I finally remembered to take my Instax camera and took some fun instant photos of the aircraft on the flight line.

The show fell on the 4th July and had an American theme with a lot of American warbirds and this special flypast from Duxford's resident B17 Flying Fortress Sally B and a USAF KC135 Stratotanker from nearby RAF Mildenhall. 

I'm used to squinting up at KC135s as they come over the house at high altitude and seeing such a large aircraft at low altitude never fails to be impressive. 

Refueling hose extended

Sally B during her display

The Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Dakota continued the 'heavy' theme with a graceful display. 

Returning to Duxford for the first time in many years were the Royal Jordanian Falcons. I'm used to seeing them at RIAT and seeing them in action helped my RIAT-cancellation depression a little bit. Their red livery caught the sun beautifully throughout their excellent routine.

Heading into their famous 'fan break'

High energy displays were in plentiful supply for the rest of the day with the OV-10 Bronco Demo Team representing the Vietnam-era.

It wouldn't be a summer airshow without Rich Goodwin and his Pitts which has been reunited with her jet engine. From the moment he takes to the skies (sideways of course) to landing there's not a moment's pause from the action. I'm really excited to see him all 4 days of Airbourne next month. 

The traditional 'sideways start'

A noisy newcomer to the airshow scene this year is the Fubar Aviation MIG 17. It's such a beautiful shape and I loved it's long afterburning flame. It's coming to Airbourne this summer and I think it'll look lovely over the sea.

The aforementioned afterburner flame

Probably my favourite photo of the day

Taxi-ing back after it's display -

My bucket list ticking off came courtesy of Austria's Flying Bulls collection who sent a P38 Lightning along with a P51 Mustang, Corsair and B25 Mitchell (I saw the Mitchell at Duxford's 2024 D Day show). They put on a real crowd-pleasing display with plenty of top side passes that make for perfect photographic opportunities.

Lightning, Corsair & Mustang

In formation with the Mitchell

 

The only disappointment of the day was the RAF Typhoon display. It came in but pulled straight off with a technical issue so I only managed a brief video of it as it came in over the taxi-ing Flying Bulls. 

The finale segment was titled 'Duxford Thunder' and it certainly lived up to it's name with storming formation and solo displays from the photo reconnaissance Spitfire, ME109 Buchon, Mustang, Thunderbolt, Wildcat & Bearcat. Unfortunately the light wasn't great for photographing the aircraft but as you'll see from the video it was a fantastic way to end the show.

Bearcat, Wildcat & Thunderbolt

The awesome Bearcat

  

You can watch more highlights of the show here -

It's nice being back in the airshow swing despite being gutted about the lack of RIAT this year. I'm off to Farnborough Airshow for the first time in years in a couple of weeks as they have the USAF F35 Role Demo and I need some noise in my summer!

Love Jen

XxxX