Swartkop Wings and Adventure Air Show 2009

 Swartkop AFB has a long history behind it. Established during 1920 as the first Air Force Base (Air Force Station) for the then fledgling South African Air Force (SAAF) as one of the oldest air forces in the world. Subsequently it became the primary AFB in the PWV area for the SAAF. The years leading up to WWII saw major expansion of the SAAF’s requirements for airfields and a number of satellite air stations were established to address the expanded requirements for the forthcoming war. The most important of these was AFB Waterkloof, which became operational in 1938. AFB Waterkloof eventually supplanted Swartkop’s role as the primary Air Force Base. This saw “Zwartkop” taking on a training and maintenance role during this period. (Note the original Dutch spelling for AFB Swartkop slowly changed to the Afrikaans spelling over the post-war years.)  During 1951, Waterkloof closed for major renovations and AFB Swartkop reverted to her prime operational status. This lasted until 1955 when the refurbishment of AFB Waterkloof was completed and the primary combat squadrons returned to AFB Waterkloof. All that remained at AFB Swartkop were a number of transport and a helicopter squadron.

 The IMG travelled down to Swaziland for the weekend of 25 to 27 September 2009, to attend the Swaziland Airshow staged on 26 September 2009, at the Matsapha International Airport.  This airshow turned out to be one of the most enjoyable airshows that the team attended over the last four years as part of IMG.