Battle of Britain Air Show at IWM Duxford

On Saturday the Wife and I went to the Battle of Britain Air Show at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. Both the kids were otherwise occupied so we were going solo for a change. We headed off about seven am, determined to beat the inevitable traffic jams entering the site. This paid off and we were walking onto the airfield by about quarter past eight. We eventually left Duxford about six thirty pm (allowing the crowds to dissipate before heading back to the car) so we well and truly got our moneys worth from our entry ticket!

This is the first Air Show I have been to since the Shoreham tragedy and I was interested to see what effect the new CAA regulations would have on the event. There were fewer jets and those that did attend were restricted to simple flyby's. I was expecting that but it was also noticeable that the normal approach routes for all flypast's had been shifted a few hundred yards further south (away from the motorway) and that the displays seemed further away from the crowds as a result. For the real enthusiasts - wielding expensive camera's with huge lenses - this small change probably wasn't even noticeable, but for normal folk the aircraft did deem rather remote at times. 

Having said all that the show was still spectacular. As well as the usual Spitfires and Hurricanes there was a newly restored Bristol Blenheim. We were treated to an amazing agility display by a Chinook helicopter and a flyby of the Duxford 'Big Wing'...fifteen Spitfires and two Seafires flying in formation. I shot a load of photo's as usual and here's a selection of my favourites. 

B17 Flying Fortress 'Sally B'

Aircrew in front of a Hawker Huricane

The Flightline - Hurricanes in the foreground and Spitfires further down the line

More Aircrew reenactors.

BigLee having a great time!

Hispano Buchon is essentially a Rolls-Royce Merlin-engined Messerschmitt Bf109

Lots of spitfires in the Flightline

The Buchon in flight

Hawker Hurricane

Bristol Blenheim & 3 Hawker Hurricanes

Spitfire & Hurricane flypast

Chinook Helicopter

The B17 starts its engines prior to its display

'Sally B' in flight

The Finale - 15 Spitfires and two Seafires flying in Duxford's 'Big Wing' formation

The final flypast of three Spitfires

For those that are interested (all two of you probably) I shot all my photo's on my Canon G15 compact. The quality optics, image stabiliser and large sensor mean this camera far outperforms what you might normally expect of a camera of this size. True I could have got better pictures with my SLR and 400mm lens but I would also have had to lug all that heavy gear around with me all day. I'm getting too old and creaky for that!