Duxford Air Show

RAF Matthew. He picked up an authentic, not-made-in-China, souvenir.

Matthew and I had a guy's day out with Cliff and his son Daniel this Saturday. Cliff once manufactured jet engines so he and I enjoyed sharing aviation stories. Lori took the opportunity to use her peaceful time for shopping and crafts.

Duxford is about a 2 hour ride from Oxford so we left early. It was nice to arrive early so we could look at all of the exhibits of the Imperial War Museum. The museum is made up of many buildings, most of which appeared to be WW-II vintage.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford/exhibitions

The first building we visited was the American Air Force Museum and was jam packed full of American planes. I didn't expect to find a USAF themed museum in the U.K.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-duxford/the-american-air-museum

A TBM Avenger named Barbara and with LT BUSH painted  on the canopy rail in honor of President George Bush, the youngest naval aviator in WWII.

The ceiling is constructed with many points to attach aircraft. This is an A-10 Thunderbolt. 

I was amazed at how many large aircraft were in the room. This is a B-17. A B-52 is wedged behind it and was hard to get a photo because of the smaller planes around it.

A B-24 Liberator, the type of aircraft that dropped most of the bombs on Berlin.

A SR-71 pilot was giving a lecture to the group of people collected around the tail section.

The next two buildings had many displays of primarily British aircraft. We toured the exhibits, ate lunch, and waited for the flying displays.  I took almost 900 photos, so here are just a few of the better pictures. 

A Battle of Britain era Spitfire.

This ME-109 did not make it back across the English Channel.

There were Spitfires everywhere. I would like to fly one.

A Soviet MIG-21, from the same era as the A-4s that I flew.

This Harrier GR.3 is not hovering any longer, it is hanging around now. The version after this, the GR.5 was the British version of the AV-8B that I logged a few hours in.  Looking closely at the exterior, I could not see many differences.

The museum had a section with hands-on activities to help children understand the principles of flight. Matthew is learning about lift by flying a helicopter.

Daniel experiments with thrust by launching the rocket.

The Vulcan bomber is huge!

A Lancaster bomber.

Cliff recognized this from his days at Rolls Royce. Now we make lawn mowers together.

Another view of the GR.3 Harrier.

A Jaguar (pronounced Jag-u-are here).

This looks like fun to fly, the Eurofighter, which is currently in use.

This P-47 Thunderbolt crew was resting in the shade.  We were blessed with an unusually hot and sunny day.

The Soviet An-2 Colt flew for us. This plane has no listed stall speed and can fly at 30 mph!

The flying portion of the show started at 2 pm so after lunch and ice cream, the boys needed something to do.

A flyby of U.S. F-15s opened the show.

A flight of RAF Tornados performed simulated target attacks.

I did not notice the 1,000,000 flight hours on the tail until I cropped the photo.

Matthew thought that the jets were loud but I did not think they were close enough. I think they used the afterburner  most of the time.

The monstrous Vulcan bomber performed a nice long sequence for us.  The large plane was extremely powerful and graceful.  This plane was designed to deliver strategic nuclear bombs...

...that were carried in the cavernous bomb bay.

Sally B, the B-17 Flying Fortress, in action.

The final pass.

This C-47 (DC-3) was used in the Berlin Airlift and still has a bullet hole in the pilot seat.

I was not upside-down, the Bücker Jungmann was as it performed an elegant ballet, complete with music.

An in-flight salute from the crew of the Kingfisher torpedo bomber.

I did not get any decent photos of the P-40 Warhawk until it was taxiing back to its parking spot.

The P-47 pilot knew how to give the photographers some good angles.
We could only see the bellies of many of the aircraft.

We had to stand but it was worth it to have a prime location next to the taxiway.
This P-51, Ferocious Frankie, passed nearby.

A P-51 in action.

The Aerostars, flying their YAK-50s, put on an impressive team aerobatics display.

One of the Aerostars solo passes.

The museum also has an extensive land warfare building. I think that this is a British Chieftain tank.
If it isn't, please let me know what it is.

RAF Matthew with a U.S. halftrack.

This replica of a German Tiger tank was used in the movie Saving Private Ryan.

With the airshow over, this Me Bf 109 is heading home while we sat for almost an hour trying to exit the car park.