Tommelisa

The only WWI related aircraft shown off was the Tummelisa 01 that is owned and flown by Michael Carlsson.  Swedish built it served as an advanced trainer between 1920-1933, having the distinction that its type never had a fatal accident during its use.

 Another welcome performer was the Polikarpov I-15.  A real noisy brute.  It belongs to the Avia Restoration Company and our readers will recognise it as similar to the ones flown at Wanaka in NZ.  It gave a beautiful show, just showing how slow and vulnerable it is.  One can understand how the Luftwaffe experts notched up such high scores when they encountered these biplanes in the initial stages of the Russian campaign.

The Fighter collection then gave a formation as well as individual show by its ‘Grumman Cat’ collection.  The oldest was the FM 2 Wildcat.  It sure is noisy, but it was painted in FAA colours and therefore known as a Martlet.  It was followed by a F6F-5K Hellcat that was real agile and fast, despite its big appearance.  It became the darling of many a naval aviator and was one of the main annihilators of the Japanese Air Force in e.g. the Mariana’s Turkey shoot.  As far as performance went the last ‘Cat’ of WWII produced by Grumman i.e. the Bearcat, was flown by Steven Grey, owner of the Fighter collection.  This is a real performer and must rank in the similar league as the radial engined Tempest and Sea Fury.

Martlett

Many of our Vets will know the name Alex Henshaw, who was one of Britain’s foremost test pilots.  He passed away aged 94 in February of this year.  As a tribute to him there was a slot with three A/C that he was involved with.  Probably the most significant was the Mew Gull G-AEXF in which he broke the solo records between the UK and Cape Town. He also acted as the Technical Director of Miles A/C (SA).  His other A/C was the Arrow Active II G-ABVE with a Gipsy III engine in which he learned to master outside loops and inverted spins.  The third was the TFC’s Spitfire MkV, this flown by Marchasson.

The record held by this aircraft still stands today

Legends are known for throwing different A/C in formation and flying a show.  Under Bomber and escorts they had a B-17 (Sally B) and a B-25 (from Duke of Brabant A/F) that was escorted by a P-39 (TFC) and a P-51 (Old Flying Machine Co).  All four A/C ended up giving individual displays with the bombers sounding very much like six Harvard’s in formation.  Some of our readers may have heard of the European bureaucratic fiasco that is threatening the heavyweights whereby the B-17 is now classed as the same insurance risk as a full Boeing 747.  This limits the flying time severely so the days of seeing a B-17 in European skies may be limited.  These four A/C were then followed by five Mustangs being thrown about all over the airfield.  Their show consists of various groups of Mustangs approaching from different directions making it very difficult to decide what to photograph.  I am sure our readers will agree that all the colours together in these beautiful machines make for a spectacular show.  Probably the most well known at the moment was Miss Velma which attempted the Trans Atlantic flight with P-38 Glacier Girl that was restored after recovery from 268ft of ice in Greenland.  Glacier Girl again did not complete the flight but Miss Velma did and showed off her colours to us.  The next P-51 was the colourful Old Crow that was flown by Bud Anderson during WWII who became well known for his exploits in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Ferocious Frankie and Big Beautiful Doll flew formation and single displays as well.