RAF Waddington International Air Show

Words and photographs by Mike Freer additional photography Stuart Freer.

With un-predictable weather sweeping across the UK from the Atlantic Ocean leading up to the International Air Show staged over the weekend of July 5th & 6th, it looked at times that there would be a re-run of last years awful conditions, which resulted in the show being cancelled on the Sunday. Thankfully, most of the bad weather skirted the airfield allowing most, but not all, of the flying to take place.

A capacity crowd attended this year’s airshow, no doubt encouraged by the fantastic news that Avro Vulcan XH558 had arrived back at its home at RAF Waddington and had been issued with its “Permit to Fly” allowing it to perform at an airshow for the first time.

So what are the aims of the Waddington International Airshow ? Firstly, to stimulate public Interest in the Royal Air Force which includes its proud history and looking to the future, to promote the many careers available to young people. Also to demonstrate air power which was dramatically highlighted during the role demonstration and most importantly, as a charity fund raising vehicle.

The themes of this year’s show were the 90th anniversary of the Royal Air Force; the Royal Air Force today; Youth in the Community and the “Coming Home” of Avro Vulcan XH558.

The highlights of this year’s seven hour flying display was the RAF role demonstration , three international display teams, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the star attraction – the Avro Vulcan. The ground displays included a large static aircraft park including representative aircraft illustrating the 90th anniversary of the Royal Air Force and the creation of an RAF Deployed Operational Base.

RAF solo displays were flown by the Typhoon piloted by Flight Lieutenant Charlie Mathews; the Hawk T1 piloted by Flight Lieutenant David Davies; the Grob Tutor piloted by Flight Lieutenant Andy Preece and the Tucano T1 piloted by Flight Lieutenant Stew Campbell. The Boeing Chinook gave its usual hair raising demonstration and the Beech Kingair 200 was a very welcome addition to this year’s airshow scene.

No RAF airshow is complete without the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the Red Arrows and the Falcons parachute team and these all contributed to a hugely entertaining show.

Beyond doubt, the highlight of the Royal Air Force participation was the Role Demonstration. The scenario for this year’s demonstration is the fictitious operation “Summer Lightning”. The scenario is based on a rescue mission. During offensive action as part of an on-going operation in the Middle East, 2 UK servicemen become separated from the rest of their comrades and are captured by the enemy. Following extensive surveillance, intelligence has shown that the servicemen are being held captive at a camp in the corner of an enemy airfield. A rescue mission has been planned after which the airfield will be attacked.

Aircraft involved in this year’s Role Demonstration are 2 x Tornado F3, 2 x Tornado GR4, 2 x Hawk T1, an E-3D Sentry, Chinook and Apache helicopters.

Creative designer for Role Demo 2008 is Squadron Leader Andy Pawsey. In addition to developing the concept and sequence of the Role Demo, he also directs the special effects and narrates the performance. In addition to Royal Air Force participation, the Army Air Corps displayed with the Blue Eagles helicopter team and the Royal Navy with the Black Cats Lynx helicopter pair.

There was strong international support at this year’s airshow with the Patrulla Aguila aerobatic team from Spain flying the CASA C-101 Aviojet and Los Hacones flying Extra 300 aircraft from Chile (their support C-130 Hercules was present in the static aircraft park).

A coup for the organisers of this year’s show was the appearance of the Indian Air Force Helicopter Display Team. The ‘Sarang’ (Peacock) helicopter team fly the Dhruv (Pole Star) Advanced Light Helicopter manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and were displaying at RAF Waddington as part of their European tour.

Other overseas participation came from the USAF with a B-52 (which sadly did not fly as scheduled during the air display) a C-21A and a Mildenhall based KC-135R of the 100th ARW. There were a pair of Mirage 2000s of the French Air Force; a pair of EF-18A Hornets of the Spanish Air Force; F-16 Falcons from the Netherlands; a German Air Force Tornado; Italian Air Force C-27J and a NATO E-3A AWACS aircraft. Also present was a USAF example.

Note:
The author wishes to thank the Station Commander, Group Captain A.D.Fryer, the Officer Commanding 51 Squadron, the Community Relations Officer and all air and ground crew for their kind hospitality during my visit.

Welcome Home

But of course, all this took second place to the “star” of the show – the one everyone had waited such a long time to see and the one which stopped everyone in their tracks. The howling roar of Avro Vulcan XH588 as she powered skyward heralded the start of her new airdisplay career. Everyone present stood in awe as this majestic delta wing bomber sedately performed her display routine.

This was truly a great home coming for “Delta Lady”, as she is unofficially known. She departed RAF Waddington, where she had been based, for her new home at Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire, on 23rd March 1993 and no one in their wildest dreams thought she would ever return.

Having been purchased from the RAF by C Walton Ltd in 1993, she was maintained in full running order at Bruntingthorpe by a dedicated team of volunteers. Having undergone a technical survey in 1999, the monumental task of restoring her to flight was taken. The funding required was daunting and the Vulcan to the Sky Trust, whose Chief Executive is Dr Robert Pleming, was formed to generate public interest and, more importantly, funding. Following a fund raising campaign which raised millions including a successful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the extensive and highly complex engineering project commenced during 2005 being undertaken by the aircraft engineering company Marshalls of Cambridge.

XH558 finally took to the sky again during October 2007 and had conducted six test flights prior to its flight to RAF Waddington.

The result of all the blood, sweet and tears shed over the years was the sight of “Delta Lady” flying the downwind leg on approach to her spiritual home at Waddington on July 3rd. However, there was one final obstacle to over come and that was obtaining the much sought after “Permit to Fly” from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in order to conduct display flying.

On arriving at Waddington she flew three consecutive display routines before landing. There then followed a long agonising wait before news came that the CAA had given the “thumbs up” and then it was time to pop the cork on the bottle of Champaign.

The short term future looks secure, but the search for commercial sponsorship has still to bear fruit. Hopefully, she will hold airshow crowds in awe and wonderment for many years to come.