Buckets and Spades

Up north

Steven Hadlow writes from one of the major seaside events in the United Kingdom on the Seaburn and Roker Seafront. All photos are copyright of author unless otherwise marked.
The Sunderland International Airshow bills itself as the largest free event of it's kind in Europe and judging by the packed seafront it would appear that this billing is well justified. 

Both days attracted large crowds with Sunday proving the busiest largely due to the fact that the Red Arrows were only attending the event that day with figures of one million people being quoted. This was the 19th International Airshow following it's initial inception as as a small, one day festival hosted by Sunderland City Council. In what has been a miserable summer for weather across the United Kingdom it was a relief to see it, for once, didn't interfere with the running over the day with only a few scattered showers over the two days. 

Something of a regular feature in recent years has been the mooring of a Royal Navy vessel out to sea. This year saw the Landing Platform Dock ship 'HMS Albion' off the coast. Prior to the beginning of the main flying display there was a mock beach assault carried out from HMS Albion and her permanently embarked Royal Marines personnel from 6 Assault Squadron.

In the air, making a welcome return to the airshow following their absence in 2006 were the F16 display aircraft from both Belgium and the Netherlands. With the recent cutbacks in Royal Air Force solo display aircraft shows like this find it difficult to give their programs a bit of noise and power, so having the F16s took on an extra importance this year. All the more reason we hope to see the RAF solo dislays back next year. One high volume, attention grabbing display from the RAF that is still on the circuit was present, the Eurofighter Typhoon. The Typhoon display has been much improved over this season and perhaps for the first time it really showcased it's superiority over the F16. Also from the Netherlands came the AB412 SAR demonstration, complete with enthusiastic winch crew. The rest of the RAF solo display items were also at the show, with the RAF Falcons landing on the beach.

Proving popular with the crowds over the weekend were several civilian formation display teams. Possible stars were The Blades performing a seamless display of high quality flying betraying the fact that three of the four pilots in the team served with the Red Arrows, who closed the show on Sunday having earlier performed at Windermere. The initial crossover to begin the display in particularly drawing applause from the watching crowd. Making their first appearance at the show were the 'Aerostars', a team consisting of one Super Yak 52 and five Yak 50 aircraft. Unfortunately, the teams leading Yak 52 suffered from technical gremlins, preventing it from performing. Luckily, however the team were able to 'borrow' a Sukhoi 29 as they operated out of Durham Tees Valley Airport to fill the void.
Also making it's debut appearance at the show was the Boeing Chinook HC2 based at RAF Odiham. It's surprising the team hadn't appeared at Sunderland before now as the display is always a remarkable sight regardless of how many times you see it. A helicopter more familiar to Sunderland is the Lynx, or in this case two of them. The Royal Navy team the 'Black Cats' performing a polished routine, unlike their Navy counterpart the Merlin that didn't appear.

Whilst the warbird participation was significantly reduced this year we did still get to see this area of aviation represented. Making a return to Sunderland was the Consolidated Catalina operated by Plane Sailing. Whilst there were hopes for her to perform a touch 'n go on the water fears of water corrosion and increased maintenance costs ruled out this possibility. The BBMF appeared out of Durham Tees Valley minus the Spitfire to perform their display.

2007 marked another successful year for the organisers with as strong a line-up as most events of it's size in Europe, good weather and another bumper crowd. A very happy nineteenth birthday.