Well, they did it again! This year's Waddington International Airshow proved itself to be a huge success, not just for the vast majority of those who attended, but the Royal Air Force, its sister services, a number of foreign attendees and general aviation to boot - despite what some people would have had you believe in the build-up to the show.
It never ends does it? Some of what was aimed at Waddington’s airshow team this year, and is still being aimed at RIAT as well I hasten to add, really beggars belief. I’m all for a good moan when it’s deserved but when the basis of your complaint would largely only be solved with the usage of a time machine to take us back to the airshows of the 1980s I really don’t see the point!
Anyway, let’s not dwell on the vocal minority too much, the real barometer for the success of any airshow, and especially one like Waddington, is the broader public. They certainly attended in their droves and, looking at the feedback, most importantly enjoyed a fantastic day out, traffic issues aside which we'll come to later.
I attended on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this year, largely as I wanted to take in the Media Day activities, arrivals on Friday and of course another day inside at the show itself. Thursday, eventually, turned in to a beautiful day after one relatively heavy shower and some significant cloud cover. Having watched The Thunderbirds (more of which later), Vulcan, Bronco, King Air, The Blades, Team Viper and Hawk all display, the weather was so brilliant that I just had to go and take a walk around the two Nimrod R1s parked up ready for the show weekend with a Sentinel for company. Sad to see them looking so immaculate yet knowing that their day is done, but, still, an opportunity not to be missed.
Friday’s weather was almost too good I reckon – very warm with plenty of blue sky, the heat haze was awful and while the arrivals came in dribs and drabs we eventually ended up with pretty much everything from the list. The total of Eurofighters on display was five with two examples from Germany next to two Italian aircraft and a single example from 29(R) Squadron at RAF Coningsby, complete with a full payload.
I ventured over to this area a couple of times on Saturday and, with a number of RAF Typhoon pilots on hand, it was very busy and evidently plenty of questions were being answered. In the continued absence of Flt Lt Tim Clement’s solo display, surely now in doubt for the remainder of the season one would imagine, it was good to see an opportunity like this actually being taken advantage of, and rightly so, at the RAF’s biggest show.
Also parked on Alpha Dispersal was a RNLAF KDC-10 which snuck in on Friday evening, one of the Thunderbirds' C-17s and a home team E-3D Sentry which was open to the public and, as always, extremely popular. It was certainly nice to see the blue camo An-2 for the first time and it was noticeable that most of the other static display aircraft across the weekend were actively manned by their aircrew, happy to meet and greet and give visitors to the show a chance to take a look round.
This is just one element that helps make airshows what they are, and there is nothing worse, in my book, than seeing a static aircraft simply left alone all weekend as if abandoned by its crew.
One special mention must go to Neil McCarthy and the Newcastle Jet Provost Group's T.3 which won the award for Best Static Display Aircraft. A great honour for Neil and also hugely exciting for fellow Geordie Pete Hemsley who accompanied him to the show and ticked ‘fly in a fast jet’ off the to-do list as well. What a good weekend for them both, and I’m sure Neil will be hoping he can accomplish something similar at RIAT next week!
Other static highlights were 41(R) Squadron’s specially marked Tornado GR.4, Boscombe Down’s Andover and the Belgian Air Force’s beautiful 50th anniversary Tiger Meet F-16. Various helicopters, light / general aviation types and military trainers completed a line up of great variety, if somewhat smaller in number than we’ve seen in previous years – a sign of the times and a reflection on current circumstances.
And so on to the flying, and let’s begin with the USAF Thunderbirds. For many people the team was the star of the show and I must confess to being slightly surprised that they proved so popular for I came away feeling, well, slightly ambivalent. It seems unfair to criticise the team for simply being different to what we are used to in the UK, that doesn’t make what they do any less worthy, just different, and they are after all an ‘Aerial Demonstration Team’, not an aerobatic display team.
I saw the Thunderbirds display on each day I was at Waddington and there’s little doubt for me that their performance on the Saturday was easily the best of the three. As has been widely reported there were some issues with the length of the crowd line which resulted in two car parks being sanitised on show days to avoid overflights of the crowd – a very necessary solution to what was a tricky problem for the flying display committee I’m sure.
The formations are very tight, no question about that, and some of the synchro passes are very nice with the show, finally, actually kicking off with both singletons screaming vertically skywards shortly after a four-ship take off. It’s a strong start and while there are some lengthy gaps between passes, and I know the presentation isn’t to everyone’s tastes, it is what it is.
It is unashamedly American at heart and, like many display teams, essentially reflects some of the personality of their country of origin. At the end of the day it was a real coup for Waddington to land an appearance from the team and, as I said in a pre-show blog, it seems a little rich to bemoan the appearance of six F-16s these days anyway!
UK military displays were naturally abundant at Waddington with all of the Royal Air Force’s solo and team performers present alongside the Royal Navy’s Black Cats and Merlin HM.1 solo, both of which always impress. The RAF’s Chinook, having debuted at Sywell a couple of weeks back, flew a routine which was a return to the solo displays of old, complete with the ‘Wokka Pass – because jet noise is boring’; excellent stuff from the rotary community!
Not to be outdone, the Army Air Corps got in on the act with the AH.1 Apache making its season debut. I spent a fair bit of time with WO2 Bruce Allen and Capt Scottie Hewitt on Saturday and was fortunate to accompany them airside for the duration of their slot in the flying programme.
We had a pretty good idea their display would go down well when we saw it for ourselves at Wattisham during their pre-season work-up, and it certainly seems that confidence wasn’t misplaced. Having landed, returned to the crowd side and spent some time at Meet The Pilots, Bruce took the time to give GAR a few words on their first show of the season:
“We were really looking forward to it, but there were definitely a few nerves when we were in the hold. We weren’t worried about it though and I actually think it’s good to be a little bit nervous.
“Once we got started that all went away though and it was just like a practice although I did notice the crowd! It went well and felt smooth to us, but the most important thing is that everyone watching enjoyed it.”
With RIAT coming up, airshow crowds will get the chance to see the AAC boys alongside the RNLAF Apache demo, although Bruce is keen to emphasise the difference in approach.
“I hope we can get round to meeting them actually and get to know a bit more about how they do things. They have a special paint scheme and perform the full aerobatic manoeuvres of course, whereas we have an operational cab, which, in Waddington’s case, was given to us on the Friday before the show and has not had any modifications whatsoever to give us a performance advantage.”
This is a routine which fulfils an important role in making people aware of the work being carried out by our Attack Helicopter Force in Afghanistan and of course Libya, especially as the Apache Force works so closely with both the RAF and the RN. Such is the power of this work I would probably argue that they should be doing as many shows as they can, certainly more than the half a dozen or so currently scheduled, but as ever, and just like Typhoon, essential training and operational commitments will take precedence.
Other highlights for me were B-17 ‘Sally B’ which was quite simply stunning on Saturday in wonderful conditions. Her display is one of those which does more than simply show off an aircraft of huge historical worth, but also truly reflects the sacrifices made by so many during the Second World War.
Tony de Bruyn also put on a wonderful performance in the OV-10 Bronco – an aircraft I had seen but glimpses of as it arrived and departed from Abingdon's show the past two years. The Bronco’s manoeuvrability shouldn’t be surprising considering its success as a close air support platform but still, to see it demonstrated at an airshow for the first time was most enjoyable and many people, including onlooking aircrew, were captivated by his display and the Bronco's ability.
The Norwegian Heritage Flight of two Vampires are also well worthy of note, and I really enjoyed their display of formation passes and aerobatics; it was excellent to see two of the type in the air together. And then there was the Vulcan. Surely even the biggest doubter, and I myself was probably in that category at one time, cannot ignore the powerful draw that the aircraft clearly provides.
The Vulcan Village was absolutely heaving on Saturday, completely rammed, and Kev Rumens' brilliant display will have done the cause no harm at all. I would go as far as to say it was the best display I have seen by the aircraft since she returned to the circuit and, in fine weather like that which Waddington enjoyed, the 'new' towering spiral climb was massively impressive.
With the flying display also including the likes of Belgian solo F-16, Team Viper's five Hunters (four on Sunday), The Blades and the Royal Jordanian Falcons, this was a programme of real variety. The usual Station flypast opened proceedings with, on the Saturday at least, an E-3D and a USAF RC-135 Rivet Joint flying through, an aircraft which will serve the RAF in the years ahead and, despite the height and brevity of its appearance, was a good one to see and most appropriate.
A whole host of ground attractions completed the entertainment and this will, I am sure, have been a productive weekend for those seeking to recruit or simply, as mentioned above with reference to the Apache routine, raise awareness. The RAF was naturally the highest profile service on show with the likes of the Presentation Team and also, for the first time, the large 'RAF On AIR' area which was hosted by Carol Vorderman no less and was used to inform visitors about the whole range of RAF activities and operations. All good stuff and hopefully it was mission accomplished for those involved – it certainly was for the Waddington team and Airshow Director, Paul Sall, spoke to GAR yesterday to tell us how he thought things had gone:
“Overall I’m very happy with how things went. Despite the operational footprint many armed forces are working with at the moment I thought the team did a sterling job in terms of participation.
“Our event is one that by design makes for a high quality family day out as well as catering, we hope, for the enthusiast community too. We had 145,000 people attend over the course of the weekend and that certainly gives us a good basis to move on and develop the show even further next year.
“Traffic was an issue and the good weather forecast, the success of last year’s show and the line-up for this one all contributed to that with heavy traffic on the A17 and A607 in particular. Everyone, including the event's traffic management company and the Police, did try their best to ease the congestion and it is something that we will re-examine.
“We know that some people were left disappointed as a result and we are dealing with all of those complaints on an individual basis while taking a close look at the plan for 2012.
“It goes without saying that we were delighted to host the Thunderbirds and it was significant that we worked with the USAF so closely at the show, just as the RAF does with them so regularly on operations Worldwide. The 'RAF on AIR' concept was an important addition this year as the show is about much more than just the flying display, and presentation arenas like this give the RAF a superb platform to tell visitors about the work it carries out. The Show also embraced new technology this year with interactive displays and activities for children in Hangar 4, in addition to the RAF on AIR 'big screen', and the innovative smartphone app which provided visitors with in-depth information on the aircraft on the static line.
“Mainly though we shouldn’t forget that this is a non-profit organisation and that the RAF and local charities benefit from the show each year. To that end we have now donated £2.65 million to good causes in the past 15 years. It’s not really fair to pick out individual acts but for me seeing the Vulcan was magnificent as she’s such an iconic aircraft, the Chinook display was unbelievable and it was great to see the Bronco performing as that was an excellent routine and something of a rarity for a UK show."
More of the same next year please Waddington!
If you would like to discuss using any of our imagery or feature content please contact us.