What a scorcher of a weekend! Temperatures high in the twenties were to be experienced over the weekend of the Biggin Hill Air Fair. Dean West was in Kent on Saturday 27th June to witness a fantastic day’s flying. All photos by author.

Biggin' it up

The show was opened by Carolyn Grace in her Spitfire T9, very apt for a location such as Biggin, performing a very elegant display under the late morning sun. Following on from this was a trio of RAF displays, being the Chinook, Tutor and Hawk, the latter sporting a striking scheme featuring a Union Jack ‘ripping through the metal’ and running down the tail and fuselage of the aircraft. These three displays were just part of a very strong RAF involvement in the show which included displays from the King Air, Typhoon, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the Red Arrows, making a return after their absence last year. The Chinook and King Air displays were particularly impressive, with the latter performing to ELO’s Mr Blue Sky, with some impressive wingovers, throwing the aircraft around like you would not expect with the Chinook, too, performing amazing manoeuvres, such as the 270 degree quickstop and wingovers.

Summer fun
One of the themes for the show was Fly Navy 100, with the Royal Navy celebrating 100 years of naval aviation. Original plans included the participation of the Royal Navy Historic Flight’s Swordfish and Sea Hawk, the Royal Navy Black Cats Lynx duo as well as a Hawker Nimrod, Chance Vought Corsair and Supermarine Seafire. Unfortunately out of these only the Hawker Nimrod was present, with the other participants cancelling for one reason or another. Quite a shame that there was no Fleet Air Arm participation to celebrate their centenary! However, much to the delight of some enthusiasts, this meant that the Hurn based DeHavilland Sea Vixen and Duxford based Douglas Skyraider were bought in as part of the celebrations, with the pair performing a flypast together in between their displays, both of which aren’t seen enough for my liking, so these late additions were very welcome. Unfortunately the Vixen went tech on Sunday along with the Vulcan - ed


A Wessex proud to be British A gaggle of classic jets were to be seen at the show, including Team Viper, flying 4 Strikemasters in their first season, a Folland Gnat pair, although down to a singleton display on the Sunday, Hunter ‘Miss Demeanour’, which could only display on Sunday due to technical problems, Golden Apple’s F-86 Sabre, making what looked to be its last Biggin appearance before heading to the States at the end of this year, as well as Avro Vulcan XH558, flying in from RAF Brize Norton as the runway at Biggin Hill was just too short. Seeing the delta shape of XH558 over the airfield was rather impressive, with the crowd on their feet, watching the display silently, my highlight of it’s performance being the howl of those great Rolls-Royce Avon engines as she performed her last pass.

Other military involvement came from the Army Air Corps Blue Eagles, flying a Lynx AH7 and Apache AH1, with a pairs display much improved from last year. The United States Air Force Europe sent a KC-135 tanker along to perform two passes with the boom down, while it was nice to see a different aircraft inn the air the passes were unfortunately rather high with a long gap between them due to its large turning circle. The French Air Force sent a single Alpha Jet to join the static display.

A fair amount of aerobatic displays were present, ranging from solo aerobatics in the Ultimate High Extra 300 to Swift Gilder Team, featuring a Pawnee tug pulling a S-1 Swift glider with a Twister aircraft performing some light aerobatics. As usual the wing walking Team Guinot were there, always a crowd favourite, and a North Weald based team called the Aerostars, flying Yak-50 and Yak-52 aircraft, performed a spirited display, something a little different as they are not often seen at larger shows. 

My favourite aerobatic display of the day had to the Red Bull Matadors. These are two Su-26 aerobatic aircraft flown by two world class pilots, Paul Bonhomme and Steve Jones, who participate in the Red Bull Air Races. They flew a crisp, energetic and entertaining display, performing manoeuvres in tight formation as well as solo aerobatics, showing off the performance of the Russian built aircraft as well as demonstrating their skills as world class pilots, my display of the day.

French under close inspection... Biggin always hosts a variety of war birds and this year was no different. The Hanger 11 P-40 Kittyhawk was a personal favourite, supplying some nice low passes, in a similar fashion to P-51D Mustang of the Old Flying Machine Company. A dogfight sequence between the Me109 Buchon and Spitfire TIX was particularly impressive, the sound of their engines being particularly effective over the second world war fighter airfield. Paul Bonhomme was one again part of a display pair, this time in the Mustang which performed with Spitfire IX MH434, flown by Nigel Lamb, who put on an superbly elegant display before the Mustang peeled off to land letting MH434 close the show, in the true Biggin Hill tradition. A poignant display, with the crowd silently looking on, remembering those who never returned to their loved ones in the second world war.

Another successful Biggin Hill show, drawing estimated crowds of 120,000 people on the Sunday alone! A strong, varied line up with the typical Biggin atmosphere made for a very enjoyable show, hope next year is just as successful.

Airshow Website - www.bigginhillairfair.co.uk/

 

Aircraft In Action 2009