Kiwis to Canberras

Kiwis, Austrians and Brits...

In the lead up to the RAF Waddington International Airshow it became apparent that the show was likely to suffer from clashes with several European Airshows. Despite this however there were still several highlights to be seen as the organisers overcame some difficulties. At least this English team managed to have a successful weekend despite clashing with other European teams...

Steven Hadlow / aircraftinaction.co.uk reports from the RAF Waddington Airshow.  Additional Photos by Roger Hadlow and Michael Hind. All photos are copyright of author unless otherwise marked.

As was the case back in 2002, this years airshow clashed with the World Cup, except this year the Saturday show clashed with an England World Cup game. This led to concerns of possible drop of attendance on the show day. In an effort to prevent this, as was the case back in 2002, the organiser repeated the inspired idea of erecting a big screen for those wanting to watch the football. Unfortunately their efforts this year were blighted by technical failures with the screen in the time leading up the match, but the organisers deserve to be commended for keeping everyone informed regularly of the situation in regards to this. Thankfully the technicians managed to get the screen working at the last minute. Just a shame about the end result of the game!

Thankfully the weather co-operated with the organisers with beautiful blue skies and soaring temperatures throughout most of the weekend barring a cloudy Sunday morning which soon cleared. Highlight in the lead-up to the show was the planned celebrations for the soon to be retired Canberra Pr.9. As well as an example in the flying display a special Canberra tribute was also planned in the static display. This turned out to be placed on Alpha dispersal along with the large aircraft static park. Both Wk163, operated by Air Atlantique and RAF Canberra XH135 could be seen in and around the hangar as part of a display paying tribute to the aircraft.

Waddington marked the first static appearance of the brand new Sentinel R.1 in the static park. This aircraft is due to operate with 5 (AC) Squadron who will operate it out of Waddington itself. Also in the static was a Greek RF-4E Phantom from 348 MTA Hellenic Air Force. The particular airframe used will probably be familiar to those who visited RIAT in 2005 as this was the same specially painted example, with a small number new markings added to the nose. Other interesting items to be seen among the static were two F15 Eagles, German Tornado IDS and it was good to see a pair of Jaguar GR3s on the line with their retirement creeping ever closer, despite the barriers being somewhat tight to the aircraft which made decent photography difficult to carry out.

Foreign flying participation was down on the 2005 event but other airshows taking place in mainland Europe along with ever increasing operational commitments meant that this was always likely to happen. Despite this however, the organisers managed to attain two very unusual flying display items. These both came from the Royal New Zealand Air Force in the shape of the Boeing 757 and P3K Orion displays, the latter being familiar to regular Waddington attendees as it was last seen here back at the 2004 show. Both were surprisingly powerful and entertaining displays, the takeoff from the Boeing 757 being especially amazing, and both provided very welcome flair to the flying display. The other overseas display came from Austria in the shape of a SAAB 105 OE. As is always the case the SAAB made a surprising amount of noise and performed some very aggressive manoeuvres.

Much of the rest of the flying display was provided by the Royal Air Force (which is the most important thing since this is, after all, a RAF airshow) who provided all of their current flying displays. 

The 'home team' performed their usual flypast to open the show on both days however operational commitments meant that the Sentry performed the flypast alone without the usual resident Nimrod which was a disappointment due to the fact that flying appearances at airshows by this type have become rare now that the Nimrod no longer displays at shows.

Highlight of the RAF participation had to be the Canberra PR9 display. The aircraft performed a tight and powerful display which belied the age of both the aircraft and it's pilot. Due to the sad loss of the Tornado F3 display in 2006 afterburning jets were in short supply. But the Eurofighter Typhoon F.2 and Panavia Tornado GR4 displays certainly did their bit to address this gap. The Typhoon, flown once again by Squadron Leader Matt Elliot, performed it's usual loud and powerful display showcasing the aircrafts supreme handling characteristics. The Red Arrows were, of course, present straight out of their base at nearby RAF Scampton having recently returned to the UK. 

The display programme didn't all go without hitches throughout the two days though. On Saturday, following it's tactical demonstration, the RAF C130 Hercules suffered a technical problem which resulted in a three engine landing having to be performed. Normally this kind of problem would lead to the aircraft being unavailable the next day however during the night the engineers at Waddington worked hard to move some of the static display in order to replace the static Hercules with the faulty one. The attempts were successful and the hard work of all the ground crews meant the tac demo was able to go ahead on the Sunday as well.

Statically Speaking...

Another aircraft that suffered from technical problems was the 20(R) Squadron Harrier GR7. First the spare went tech at their base at RAF Wittering on Friday then on Saturday the display aircraft performed it's first pass before being forced to land with a technical problem. To their credit the Harrier ground crew tried their hardest to get the aircraft back up later on the Saturday, eventually succeeding at the third attempt. Sadly though the gremlins returned on Sunday meaning the display couldn't go ahead.

The Navy and Army Air Corps were also present with their helicopter display teams. From the Royal Navy came the two Lynx helicopters whilst the AAC sent the Blue Eagles consisting of four Gazelles and one Lynx. The Blue Eagles came with a display showcasing some new display manoeuvres for the 2006 airshow season, which certainly served to enhance the display. It's just a shame that the team are seemingly no longer able to use smoke as part of their display routine, which is a shame.

Civilian items were present in larger  numbers to help fill the flying programme and none of them failed to entertain the crowd. This side of the display also showcased the worlds newest display time. The Blades consist of the four Extra 300 aircraft, a type commonly seen around the UK airshow circuit, which are flown by four extremely experiences pilots in a tight and well choreographed display. The four pilots are extremely experienced with three having flown with the Red Arrows in their vast careers. Well known acts such as the Aerostars, Road Angel Sukhoi 26 (Will Curtis), Red Bull Matadors and Utterly Butterly display teams all provided able support to the flying display lineup, the latter were also on the lookout for a new sponsor for the 2007 season.

Another unusual item, returning to Waddington on top of their appearance last year, were the two FR aviation operated Falcon 20s. These aircraft are not strictly military operated but rather are used in assisting with air defence training for both NATO and UK forces. The display again combined a formation pass or two with a couple of opposition passes, in these days of increasing costs it's a always nice to see a new item come up on the scene.

The hot weather no doubt caused a lot of problems for some members of the crowd however the idea to provide free water from a couple of the hangars on Sunday was well thought out  and well done to the organisers for providing this. These are problematic times for airshow organisers, with air forces becoming increasingly reserved on attending UK shows for various reasons so the organisers of Waddington deserve to be congratulated for managing to put on such a successful and enjoyable show which once again succeeded in it's aim of showcasing the Royal Air Force, let's hope the show continues to prosper in 2007 and the foreign air arms are a little more forthcoming.

AiA would like to thank Fg Off Sarah Dickson and all of the media team at Waddington for their excellent hospitality on both days.