The Duxford Air Show
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Flying Legends 2011
Flying Legends is
perhaps the best known warbirds airshow in Europe, Year for year it
attracts unique participants besides firm favourites. In some cases
aircraft are shipped over from the US just to participate in the display
at Duxford.
Duxford itself is an ideal location for such an event, being built during the first world war and serving as an active airfield until the sixties.
In 1968 the film the Battle of Britain was partly filmed at Duxford. The Imperial War Museum took over the airfield and has been expanding their display space with a wide variety of exhibits.
Several aircraft restauration companies and collections also have chosen Duxford as their home base.
Most prominent of those is the fighter collection which together with the imperial war museum organizes the Flying Legends every year.
2011 was no exception, with a few extraordinary items on display. I found it one of the best displays of the last few years. Unfortunately the weather was not very cooperative with lots of clouds on both days of the show. Fortunately there were only a few drops of rain, but the clouds tended to make photographing difficult as can be seen from some of the photos..
The magic number this year was 3 as there were 3 each of the Skyraiders, Buchons, Sea Fury, DC-3.
The Boss
The man behind
Flying Legends, and the Fighter Collection is of course Stephen Grey
who takes an active part in the display, normally displaying in his
Bearcat during the time it takes to form up the Balbo that always
concludes the display. Long may he continue to do so.
Stephen Grey in his Bearcat (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Stephen Grey on the Wing of his Curtiss Hawk (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
The
Flight line
One of the most impressing sites when entering the airfield is the
flight line which extends the whole length of the taxiway. For a small
fee the public is permitted to enter on to the taxiway to be able to see
the aircraft from close up. There is a gap between the taxiway and the
aircraft, so nobody will obstruct the aircraft. A perfect opportunity to
take pictures of the aircraft.
Normally some reenactors provide a kind of guard between the crowd and
the aircraft
The Flightline (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Spitfires (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Vought F4U-5N Corsair F-AZYS (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Reenactors on the Flight line (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Reenactors on the Flight line (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Hawker Sea Fury T.20 NX20MD (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Douglas AD-4 Skyraider F-AZHK(Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
The Horsemen
The only aerobatic
team flying P-51 Mustangs took part for the second time after 2009.
However, this time they brought their own aircraft over from the US.
And during the training preceeding the two show days, they showed some real low flying. Down in the bushes so to speak.
The Flying Bulls
The flying Bulls
took part in the Flying Legends Airshow for the first (but hopefully not
last) time.
They brought over their rare P-38L Lightning, which had been bought from
the Gardner Family in the US. It was known previously as white
Lightning in the US airshow and racing circuit.
The F4U-4 Corsair was previously flown by the Air Force of Honduras.
After being brought back to the US it passed trough several owners until
being bought by Sigi Angerer for the flying Bulls
The Curtiss Hawks
Flying for the first time at Legends was the rare P-40F with its Merlin
instead of the Allison engine. Also displaying were the P-40B, the P-40N
and the P-36
Curtiss P-40F Kittyhawk (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Curtiss P-40F Kittyhawk (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Curtiss P-40F Kittyhawk (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Curtiss P-40N Tomahawk (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
The Buchons
For the first time since the filming of the Battle of Britain in 1968
there were again three Hispano Buchon taking to the air together.
The Sea Fury
It was nice to
see three Sea Fury’s in the Air at the same time.
Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder
Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder
Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder
Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder
The new Thunderbolt
On the flight line but not flying at Legends was the new P-47 Razorback.
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Big beautiful
Doll
The P-51 crashed when the pilot had to bail out after a mid-air
collision with a Skyraider
North American P-51D Mustang D-FBBD (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
North American P-51D Mustang D-FBBD (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder )
North American P-51D Mustang D-FBBD (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
The
Spitfires
The most numerous aircraft at Flying Legends. On the Friday before the
show, there was the chance to have a short glance of the new and unique
Spitfire 1. This is the earliest Spitfire still in airworthy condition
that has a combat record.
Otherwise there were many different marks of Spitfires present at the show.
The flying
display
The flying part always starts a bit before 14:00 with a mass take off of
all the Spitfires available so they are ready to begin at 14:00.
And from then on it goes on without a break. One act after another.
There is no time for a break. Thanks god the need to change the films
during photographing is a thing of the past. At times you didn’t know
which direction to look first or which photo to take. The flying is done
in such a way, that there are good photo opportunities.
Boeing B-17B Fortress (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Boeing B-17B Fortress (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder )
Boeing B-17B Fortress and a North American P-51D Mustang (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
North American P-51D Mustang (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder )
Vought F4U-5N Corsair (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Vought F4U- Corsair (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder )
De Havilland Domine (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
Flight of four Hawker Hind (Photo courtesy Urs Schnyder)
The Balbo
At the end of the
display all the aircraft take to the air for a mass formation flypast
that is unique to Duxford. It is called the Balbo after the Italian
General that flew to America with a Squadron of Savoia flying boats in
the thirties.
It looks and sounds great, but is difficult to take a picture of as can
be seen.
And so one can go forward and plan the visit for the next year.
Supermarine Spitfire (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)
The Balbo (Picture courtesy Urs Schnyder)