I got sunburned; let’s get that out of the way before anything else. I can’t remember the last time I got quite this frazzled but I’m not complaining and let’s hope more shows benefit from the kind of weather we saw at Cosford on 14th June.
For a show that has historically enjoyed bumper crowds it might be a slight exaggeration to say that an appearance by the Vulcan was the sole reason for more than 58,000 people heading for Cosford this year, but it is probably fair to say that the aircraft’s place in the line-up was responsible for the event reaching capacity.
Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that most of the chaos on the surrounding roads was met by people coming in, and the organisers and police must be congratulated with the relative ease in which they seem to have got everybody back on their way home again. There really were an awful lot of people on the airfield this year and correspondingly a vast amount of cars, certainly if judging by the difficulty I had in even finding mine is anything to go by anyway!
The event has had its critics in recent years but as one of only three RAF ‘At Home’ days has enjoyed the full-support of the RAF and other armed forces along with, as previously mentioned, large crowds, so while I doubt the organisers have lost much sleep over the sniping, largely from the enthusiast community, hopefully complacency hasn’t completely taken hold.
The event does lack fast jet participation and it does seem unable to attract the kind of foreign visitors that were so common at previous shows and that the other two RAF events at Leuchars and Waddington can, but this year still offered a six-hour flying display at a competitive price with plenty else happening on the ground to keep visitors happy. An unfortunate occurrence in the build-up to the show was the addition of Cosford 2009 to the Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 display schedule, closely followed by it’s removal from the calendar. Adding the F-16 to the display programme would have given the show a timely boost and would have delighted the general public and attendant enthusiasts alike. Exactly what happened here remains unclear.
It must be said however that such was the depth of the display that loss of the B-17 "Sally B" and the Royal Navy Historic Flight’s Seahawk and Swordfish, all due to technical issues on the day, while disappointing, were not too detrimental to the overall line-up, despite the lack of fast jet action.
Real gems in the flying programme were the Golden Apple F-86 Sabre from Duxford which will unfortunately be heading to the USA later this year having been sold, and a sole foreign military visitor in the shape of an SAR Demo from a Belgian Air Component Sea King.
Anthony Hodgson’s ‘Dragon’ Spitfire T.9 was a beautiful sight and beautifully flown as was Peter Teichman’s P-40 Kittyhawk, while other highlights were Flt Lt Scott Loughran’s tight and noisy display in the Eurofighter Typhoon and a dynamic performance by the Red Arrows, complete with 'amusing' radio calls. Personally I’m not sure this does the team any favours but the public around me seemed to lap it up.
The star of the show was of course the Vulcan. Flying in from Brize Norton there was a palpable sense of excitement as she ran in for her first pass, with an ovation as she flew through. Stirring stuff. The display certainly appears to have been ramped-up a little this year and while she will never fly the kind of displays we saw when she was in RAF service there is more than enough there to keep everyone happy, including a lovely howl when she departed the airfield by way of a spiralling climb. Cosford was desperately unlucky not to see her last year and the organisers will have been delighted that she made it this time round.
One or two other displays it must be said were a little lost at a venue of Cosford’s size, notably the Turbulent Team and the Jet Provosts, the latter suffering from the fact that most people had seen the Vulcan holding for its display. It was wonderful to see P-51 Mustang ‘Old Crow’ of the Scandinavian Historic Flight, but Anna Walker’s display was unfortunately remote and rather high.
In general terms the show was once again well-organised with a whole host of hangar displays and it was nice to see the event’s albeit small static displays slightly increased in size with the RAF Merlin and Squirrel parked with Navy Lynx and Navy Historic Flight Wasp. Cosford will always struggle with static displays due to the runway length so it was good some more helos were invited and also Neil McCarthy’s Jet Provost Mk.3 from Newcastle, although this and some Mk.5s from the School of Technical Training were tucked away round a corner somewhat.
The commentary this year was disappointing. No one should doubt Sean Maffett’s dedication and sterling service to the world of airshow commentary, but his work this year was liberally littered with errors and incorrect predictions as to what was about to take place during routines. It smacked to me of either carelessness or lack of research and referring to Typhoon as ‘Tornado’ on a number of occasions was particularly cringe-worthy. Anyone can call a routine incorrectly but it was a shame to hear this happen so frequently.
A new addition from Sean was a segment entitled “In To The Wild Blue Yonder”, an attempt to encapsulate the whole range of emotion connected with flying. This was done by way of broadcasting narrative pieces over a series of aircraft routines. It was nice to hear Anna Walker for example talking of her love of flying as she displayed the P-51 Mustang but the sudden addition of passengers talking as they prepared to leave Birmingham International for Magaluf and such like was bizarre to say the least. Other segments came and went, including barely-explained references to Icarus and Leonardo da Vinci, all the while a sequence of music played on, apparently ripped straight from an episode of Dad’s Army.
I applaud anyone who tries to bring something new and fresh to the airshow scene when it is really needed, but cannot help but feel that “Into The Wild Blue Yonder” was poorly conceived and executed, a disappointment confounded by the overall shoddiness of the commentary this year.
For one of only three RAF ‘at home’ days I must mention the event website for it does the airshow, nor the RAF, no favours whatsoever. It has used the same template and wording for at least the past three years along with pretty much the same photos of Tornado GR.4s and such like. A show like Cosford feels the loss of the RAF Role Demonstration more than most and it seems unnecessary to even suggest that such hardware could be appearing. Also bizarre was the addition of an RAF C-17 to the display list which was then changed to B-17 at a later date. A mistake I’m sure but with other shows such as Kemble and Abingdon able to attract the mighty transport from Brize Norton this error served only to highlight the difficulty Cosford has in attracting additional modern military participation, even from the RAF itself.
In summary Cosford was, as ever, a great day out. A six hour flying display in stunning weather shouldn’t be sniffed at, but one can’t help but feel that without the weather, without the support of the RAF and of course without the Vulcan, then this review would be very different. For whatever reason, the organisers seem to be struggling to develop the show and should surely be making further improvements to the overall event in terms of participation, organisation, communication and marketing.
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