2005 Edition

Waddington 2005: Part 2 - The Flying Displays

The RAF Waddington International Airshow is the first very large military airshow of the year and therefore is the first really major international flying display of the year making it perhaps one of the most eagerly anticipated. Paul Johnson/Flightline UK reports from the crowdline at Waddington. All photography copyright of author.

With the current security climate and global deployments of military equipment and personnel, airshows have seen a great down turn in military participation across the board, but flying displays have been particularly affceted. Waddington have taken the brunt of this and recent programmes have looked quite depleted compared to the glory days of 2001 which had participation from Israel, US and several european nations. It has changed the emphasis of the displays which are now much more focused on the UK military, not just the RAF but with the Army and Navy both heavily involved wiyh a few international participants in the form of national display teams and solo displays and some the best warbirds and civilian acts on the circuit.

Both days were uninterupted by the weather, though Sunday's weather was much improved with typical summer sunshine and puffy white clouds. The only real casualty of the weather on Saturday were the RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team who would have been unable to display even if their Hercules had remained serviceable. However, they were able to perform hopefully their last display without smokes. A new bathc has been delivered and is to be tested to allow the team to return to their normal displays.

The show on both days was not opened by the based aircraft but by civilian display items. Opening the show on Saturday were the Red Bull Matadors flying Sukhoi Su-26 aircraft and flown by Paul Bonhomme and Steve Jones. Their appearance at Waddington was to highlight the Red Bull Air Race 2005 series. The Race is not appearing as part of an airshow this year, but has it's own event this year at Longleat in Wilshire on the 7th August. They gave an excellent display and were duly awarded for the best display at Waddington. On Sunday, the winner of two years ago opened the show, Will Curtis also flying a Su-26, although a much more potent version than those flown by the Matadors who gave an equally fine display.

The home team flypasts were also part of the opening displays on both days with an E-3D Sentry AEW1 leading a 51sqn Nimrod R1 for a series of flypasts. This is the only airshow in the UK you will see the somewhat shy Nimrod R1s participate in the flying displays and infact Waddington is the only show where you will see a Nimrod fly at all! With no official RAF Nimrod MR2 display team this year partly as a result of the remanufacture of several airframes to MRA4 standard plus a huge demand on the force, Waddington saw a single flypast by the type on both days to complete the lineup of RAF types in the display. As always, the full line-up of RAF displays was present at Waddington headed by the Red Arrows who operated out of their nearby home base of RAF Scampton. A number of the team did make it on to the ground at Waddington being flown over by a couple of RAF Squirrel HT1s from RAF Shawbury.

It was good to see a number of the RAF's display aircraft wearing special schemes. the RAF Valley display Hawk T1 has taken on something of an american hot rod style scheme with bright yellow flames on the nose and a yellow verison of the Valley standard on the fin. 56sqn's pair of Tornado F3s both wore their special 2005 markings, one of which had 43(F) Sqn's black and white chequer board markings on the top of the fin as the navigator is from 43(F). XV(R) sqn also brought it's more familiar and toned down special scheme aircraft for the display which has been slightly modified to mark the squadron's 90th Anniversary. Sadly though, their display on Sunday was cut short after the crew felt a bang after opening their display. Two other major highlights from the RAF were the Merlin HC3 and Chinook HC2 displays stealing the thunder so to speak from their fast jet rivals. Although not usually assocationed with the RAF, a pair of K21 Gilders from the RAFGSA's Team Condor also proved to be a hit with the crowd displaying as a pair on Sunday and solo on Saturday. However, the biggest draw from the RAF was without doubt the display from 29(R) Squadron - the Typhoon T1 flown by Flt Lt Matt Elliott. The display drew applause from the audience and is certainly a great advert for the type's entry into RAF service. The Royal Navy too provided two great displays from a four ship of Sea Harrier FA2s and the Black Cats while the Army brought the Historic Aircraft Flight and Blue Eagles for a joint display. Another rariety related to UK Armed Forces' were the pair of FRA Dassault Falcon 20s which are used as simulated threats in military exercises.

Of course, 2005 is a very special year being the 60th anniversary of the end of world war two. Waddington by no means saw the biggest warbird participation, but did contain real gems. B-17G Sally B made her forst display of 2005 having receiving significant support from Sir Richard Branson which is most welcome in this special year. Also displaying as a pair were Maurice Bayliss' rare Spitfire T9 and Peter Vacher's star Hurricane I R4118.

Of course, for many enthusiasts, this kinf of airshow is all about rareities from abroad. This year was another difficult year for the organisers with really not much in the way of international participation. What there was however was very very high quality. Without doubt the show star was the Hungarian Air Force MiG-29UB Fulcrum. It's strange to think this was the first MiG-29 display since the Hungarian's appeared at RIAT 2003 and they never disappoint with tailslides and even mini cobras! The Belgian F-16 also managed to capture the crowd on Sunday (it went tech on Saturday moments into it's display) with a powerful display. Trainers were also well represented with the French Air Force Alpha Jet E, a very rare visitor to the UK and perhaps the last ever appearance at Waddington for the Belgian Fouga Magister. A show like Waddington is not complete without some international teams. The Polish Air Force sent Team Orliky who displayed massive improvements in their display since their last visit with the addition of smoke and a much bigger team. The Swiss Air Force also returned with the PC-7 Team which has only ever been seen at Waddington which typically was a tight elegant and precise ballet. The Royal Jordanian Falcons also provided their unique display as part of their annual european tour.

Waddington certainly left enthusiasts and the general public alike feeling satisfied with their day's entertainment, it was certainly a well presented display that would have appealed to all. Certainly, the skill of the pilots shone through with some great displays. If there were any complaint to be had it was the slight inaccuriacies of the commentary at times (Romanian MiG-29?) and may be some lack of variety at times within the flying display - Sunday lunch being particularly 'lazy!'

Part 1 : Click Here for a look at the Static Displays

Part 2 : Click Here for a review of the Flying Displays

 copyright Flightline UK 2005