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Biggin pays tribute Dean West reports from a beautiful Biggin Hill International Air Fair. All photos copyright of author. Thank you to Adam Noonan for his help compiling this report.
The weekend of the 3rd and 4th of June was blessed with beautiful weather for the Biggin Hill International Air Fair 2006. An almost cloudless sky was the backdrop to a spectacular days flying by a variety of aircraft, from the Fox glider to the RAF Typhoon. The airshow, the future of which looked very much in doubt last year was saved by a local sponsor to help the show carry on for at least the next few years. The date of the Air Fair was also moved forward this year from its September slot, the weather much benefiting the move.
As always, the organisers at Biggin Hill are good at getting a treat or two to the show, as we've seen the likes of Su-27's, Mil-24 Hind's and more recently Mirage F1's making an appearance at the show. Unfortunately there was nothing quite as rare as the Su-27's but, along with good support from the Belgians, there was a Belgian Air Force F-16BM in the static, which was also due to fly but unfortunately a few days before the show it was announced that its flying appearance would no longer be happening. However the Belgian Air Force sent a pair of Fouga Magisters, one flying and one as a spare, making their last appearance at the show before they're retired this year. One of the big stars though was a Belgian Air Force specially marked Sea King which performed a Search And Rescue demonstration, a very welcome performer. Unfortunately the Belgian Air Force SF260 didn't make it to the show, which would have been an unusual visitor to the UK airshow scene. The Royal Netherlands Air Force Beaver and Spitfire also didn't appear at the show, the Spitfire was due to take part in the flying but it's absence wasn't too damaging as there were two other Spitfire displays as well. On a good side, and already looking a long way forward to next years show, the Spanish Air Force have already said that they aim to attend Biggin Hill 2007 as they had their own large airshow on the same weekend and were unable to send anything to Biggin. The static park seemed smaller than previous years, featuring various light aircraft, warbirds and many of the flying display items. The show closed on either day with a tribute to the Ray Hanna who passed away on the 2nd of December 2005. His Spitfire, MH434 flown by Nigel Lamb, formating with a Gnat of Delta Jets, as he used to lead the Red Arrows in their Gnats, to perform some very nice passes before the Spitfire broke away and performed rather fittingly close the show as Ray Hanna did at the Air Fair the year before. It was A very fitting tribute to such an amazing person, he will never be forgotten. Each show day was opened by the Royal Air Force Falcons parachute team, jumping from a C-130J Hercules. The Royal Air Force supported the show well sending displays from the Typhoon T1, which was very impressive making its restricted display due to the overhead traffic from London's various airports, Harrier Gr7, which was one of the highlights for most of the crowd, the Hawk T1 from 208 Sqn in its anniversary scheme as well as a Hercules tactical demonstration and absolutely amazing performances from the Merlin HC3 and Chinook HC2, which are always such a pleasure to see at the smaller shows. The only other military performers were the Royal Navy Black Cats putting on another superb display in their Lynx HAS3's. Air Atlantique participated hugely in the shows main theme of Air Transport getting no less than 2 DeHavilland Rapide's, 1 Twin Pioneer, Pembroke, Anson, Devon, DC-3 and DC-6, which could have been making its last airshow appearance before it leaves Air Atlantiques fleet. All of the AA aircraft each performed solo displays featuring various passes before they all formed up to make a pass over the airfield in a rather loose formation. Aerobatic displays were not in shortage over the weekend. The Breitling Team came from France flying their 5 L-39 jets with a display including some formation manoeuvres before a more dynamic part of the display which featured crossovers and because Biggin is built on a hill the solo aircraft even managed to dip rather low into the valley to the West of the airfield behind the tree line, superb to watch though! More so for the general public were the Utterly Butterly Barnstomers duo as well as the newly formed 2Excel Blades which seemed to interest the enthusiast a bit more. My personal favourite aerobatic display came from the Red Bull Matadors flying 2 Su-26 aircraft performing some superb aerobatics. Will Curtis was present in his Biggin based Su-26 now carrying the name of its new sponsors Road Angel. Other odds bits were the Plane Catalina from Duxford and Will Curtis later displayed in another Biggin Hill based aircraft, this time a Gold Air Learjet 35, an unusual item to see displaying. There were many warbird types present, the RLm German trio including FW44, Messerschmitt Bf108 and Bucker Bestmann. Unfortunately the Lancaster from the BBMF was unable to fly on the Saturday so the Spitfire and the Hurricane just took to the skies. Making a return in the flying display at Biggin was the B-17 'Sally-B' which made a mock bombing run, followed by P-51 Mustang 'Ferocious Frankie' making some very low passes and a strafing run which both included pyrotechnics. Unfortunately these pyrotechnics were due to be used for the Air Power demonstration which would have including Belgian F-16's, RAF Hercules, Chinook and Merlin and Royal Navy Lynx. But due to operational reasons this had to be cancelled. Congratulations to the RAF Chinook HC2 display who won the Shell Trophy, Air Atlantique who won the Battle of Britain Sword and the Red Bull Matadors who won the Breitling Team Trophy. Air Fair 2006 was a successful show, blessed by beautiful weather and great displays, here's to a great 2007 show. |
