2024 In Aviation

 

Merry Christmas everyone! Between helpings of mince pies and pigs in blankets I thought I'd share my favourite plane geeking moments of a really packed 2024 season. 

2024 has definitely been one of my favourite seasons of recent years, great weather (I only got mildly drizzled on once on the Saturday at RIAT and it was a bit miserable on day 1 of Airbourne), interesting 'themes' with the commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the D Day landings, ticking off multiple aircraft from my display bucket list and of course the celebration of the Red Arrows' 60th display season. 

Duxford D Day Airshow - 2nd June 2024 

Full blog here 

Duxford kicked off my season in beautiful sunshine with their regular summer airshow moving up a weekend to coincide with the D Day commemorations. 

One of the D Day Squadron Dakotas flying past

Duxford secured the services of the French Rafale to kick the show off in style.

The beautiful Blenheim

One of the highlights of the show were the Flying Bulls DC6 & B25 Mitchell glinting in the sunshine during their graceful flying display. 

More highlights from the show -

 

RIAT - 19th & 20th July

Full blog here

RIAT was back with a bang this year and, aside from some drizzle on the Saturday, had appeased the weather gods. It was also my first year not camping which was sad but the comfy hotel room went some way to make up for it! RIAT's themes this year included the 100th anniversary of the Canadian air force and the 50th anniversary of the F16.

RIAT was my first chance to see the Red Arrows in their anniversary year and it was great to see manoeuvres in their routine that I haven't seen in years. 

The return of the 'Diamond 9'

A flypast with the Canadian F18

There were a couple of 'Friday exclusives' this year. 

The RAF Falcons opened the show

An incredibly rare appearance by a U2

The 70th anniversary of NATO was marked by a large flypast of aircraft from various member nations (including a very colourful Italian Tornado much to my delight).

RAF Rivet Joint, French Mirage, Swedish Gripen & the aforementioned Tornado

Two other favourites returned, the Italian Spartan and the Spanish Harrier -

Spartan

Harrier

Friday's show was also the first chance I had to see the insane F15QA display -

The highlight of Friday's show was as I was leaving with the arrival of 2 Greek Phantoms -

Some more Friday highlights -

I was up extra early on Saturday to make sure I had time to walk around the whole of the showground (it was the first time I've been in on a weekend day when the full showground is open) including the incredible line of F16s -

A close pass by the Red Arrows

The RAF Chinook casually carrying a 2 tonne field gun

It was also the first time I'd seen the RAF F35 Demo this year -

The Canadian F18 demo used the painted jet and it opened it's routine with a flypast with a Spitfire -

Whilst the grey sky didn't make for the best photographs the moisture in the air combined with the tight turns created some cracking vapour. 

Some more highlights -

Airbourne - 15-18th August

Full blog here

My beloved Airbourne returned for it's 30th birthday with the final UK appearance by the Red Arrows before they headed off for their tour of Canada.

My favourite of this year's moves

Highlights of the rest of the afternoon -

Friday set the trend for the rest of the weekend with the return of the sunshine and was in some ways my favourite day of the weekend with the emotional return of the BBMF Lancaster and also the ticking off of the top of my aviation bucket list with the appearance of the SAAB Draken. 

The coolest looking aircraft

The beautiful lady returns

The show was closed by a thunderous display from the Typhoon -

Some cracking vapour

The rest of the day's flying -

Saturday & Sunday were 'full' days with more aircraft packed in. One highlight for me were The Starlings -

The two Spitfires from the Aircraft Restoration Company's D Day Squadron

Another lovely 'sounding' display from the weekend was the Rolls Royce Heritage Flight's Spitfire & Mustang pair with their Griffon & Merlin engines respectively. 

Mustang

Saturday's highlights -

Sunday's highlights -

Bournemouth Airshow - 30th August

Full blog here

The seafront show theme continued with another bucket list tick off at Bournemouth. The Draken returned with another SAAB type the Viggen.

Another crazy looking design

One of my favourite team displays of the year have been the Royal Navy Black Cats and they were in their natural nautical environment -

Some more highlights of the show -

Duxford Battle Of Britain Airshow - 14th September

Full blog here

My final show of the year was Duxford's Battle Of Britain Airshow and it was another show blessed by some beautiful weather. Naturally this is always the best show of the year for warbirds and there were some real beauties on display. 

The show of course opened with a Battle Of Britain Dogfight -

A nice contrast was the appearance of the RAF's newest fighter in the F35 role demo -

Thunderbolt

Hurricanes

Sally B with the Lancaster

I really enjoyed the Mustang pair of Miss Helen & Jersey Jerk -

It was my final encounter with the Typhoon of the year too -

The show, as always, ended with the mass Spitfire & Hurricane flypast. It never fails to bring a tear to my eye, the sound of the engines is just so emotive. You can always hear a pin drop as the aircraft are approaching. 

Much more warbird content in the highlights -

It's been an absolutely fantastic season and I've been lucky to get to plenty of shows. A few weeks ago we got the good news that Airbourne's future has been secured for another year for 2025. I also have my RIAT tickets booked (sadly in a hotel once more as camping isn't something I'll be able to do again) for all 3 days this time! All I'm waiting for now is to see if/which Duxford shows Lynn's Travel will be doing next year.

Thank you for all your lovely feedback on my airshow content this year, be it views on my YouTube Channel or likes and comments on my Instagram. I can't wait to be back out with the cameras geeking away!

Love Jen

XxxX