Duxford Autumn Airshow
Duxford, 16 October 2011
The final show of the 2011 UK airshow season was once again held at Duxford, at the Imperial War Museum on 16 October. A very nice autumn sun greeted visitors who had ample time to walk around the museum halls or go on the flightline walk, prior to the afternoon’s flying display. That flying programme had a central theme, the Korean air war, and this brought out some very rare airshow acts.
This was even an international airshow as it marked the final public display by Belgium’s Mitch Beulen as F-16 solo display pilot. He even stunned the crowd with some well-timed flare drops, something which not only took the audience but even the commentator by surprise.
The show also had a first public display, specifically by Classic Flight’s newly restored Meteor T7, displayed to great effect by Dan Griffith.
Another anniversary at the show was the 80th birthday of the Tiger Moth and this was celebrated with the Tiger Nine, though they only had 8 planes in their formation. 2 pair’s routines in the programme were the Old Flying Machine Company’s Spitfire and Mustang and the RV8tors.
Modern day British participation was available in the shape of the Royal Navy Black Cats and the RAF Tucano. This meant the rest of the show pretty much had a Korean War theme and the organizers had clearly put quite a bit of effort in, bringing in gems like a Yak-18, a C-47 and C-45 combo and Kennet Aviation’s Skyraider, resplendent in Korean war markings.
With the F-86 at the end of the show, the crowd could look back on a wonderful afternoon with some exceptional flying. The organizer pulled off the theme of the show very well.
This report would not have been possible without the help of Rachel Morris