The Flying Legends Air Show does not have the romantic and exciting popularity of Farnborough and Oshkosh, but it is one of the biggest gatherings of vintage aircraft in Europe.  This year it took place on the weekend of 7 – 8th July at its usual venue, the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, in the eastern part of England.  It was organised by The Fighter Collection, one of the largest warbird operators in Europe.  The weather played along for part of the show every day, giving both cloudy and sunny conditions.  The show is run differently to our air shows in South Africa, in that it the flying only starts at 13:45 pm, giving the visitor’s time to visit all the sales stalls and museum halls in the morning.

Members of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen

These stalls are designed to separate you from your money, and do so with great success.  Every year a new group of old vets will sit and sign their books, or prints, done by well known artists like Robert Taylor.  This year it was the turn of the Tuskegee Airman, i.e. the Negro Squadron that flew supportive missions to some of our SAAF Squadrons during WWII, in their red tailed Mustangs. Other personalities present to sign their books included Capt. Eric “Winkle” Brown CBE, DSC, AFC, RN who was the most highly decorated navy pilot and became well known for his testing of all the captured enemy aircraft.

 He ended up as the holder of the world records for flying the most types of aircraft, and for the highest number of aircraft carrier landings. Others were Lieut. Commander Peter Twiss OBE, DSC who set the world airspeed record above 1000mph for the first time in the Fairey Delta 2; Capt. Allan Sutton CBE, DSC; Lieut. Commander Edgar Lee; Lieut. Commander George Richard Blackburn (son of the founder of Blackburn Aircraft Company), to name but a few.