DUXFORD | An all-new airshow will be held at the Imperial War Museum Duxford this June, as the Historic Aircraft Collection host the latest addition to the UK airshow calendar.

Photo: Roy Gore

The event, scheduled for Saturday 22nd June, will see all the Historic Aircraft Collection’s planes take to the sky, as well as a small number of visiting aircraft. This will include the newly-restored Airco DH.9, taking part in its first public flying display.

According to the Vintage Aviation Echo, the DH.9 will be joined by its relative, the Shuttleworth Collection’s DH.51 will join the lineup, as will its Dragon Rapide. They also report that Roy Palmer’s SE5a will make its airshow debut at the event.

Duxford-based aircraft officially confirmed for the show include  the Spitfire Mk.Vb, Hurricane Mk.XIIa, Hawker Nimrod II, Hawker Fury and Fokker DR.I.

Tickets cost £19.50 and can only be brought through the IWM website. Parking costs a further £5.00 per vehicle. The event will begin at 18:30.

Four iconic Second World War fighters representing the UK, USA and Germany will team up as part of a brand new display team this year.

The team was announced in a breathtaking trailer video on Facebook earlier today and will go by the name “Ultimate Fighters”. The display has been put together by Ultimate Warbird Flights, a supplier of warbird experience flights and aerial displays.

From the the video, it appears the aircraft involved will be P-47D Thunderbolt “Nellie”, Supermarine Spitfire T.IX ML407, TF-51D Mustang “Contrary Mary” and ME109 Buchon “Red 11”. Ultimate Warbird Flights said on Facebook that more information on the team will follow.

OLD WARDEN | The Shuttleworth Collection have updated their aircraft participation lists for this year’s airshows, with the Military Airshow standing out for hosting seven Hurricanes.

The Military Airshow on the 7th July will feature the Collection’s Hurricane and Sea Hurricane, as well as five visiting examples of the type. We believe this will be the largest selection of Hurricanes at a single show in recent years, with Flying Legends reaching five in 2017.

As if that is not enough, the show will also include P-47D Thunderbolt “Nellie” and the four Extra 300LXs of the Royal Jordanian Falcons, returning to Old Warden for the first time since 1997.

The 15th June Evening Airshow will also feature several Hurricanes, with one visiting type joining the Collection’s own Hurricane and Sea Hurricane.

Also attracting attention is the Flying Festival on the 2nd June, which will be headlined by the RAF Red Arrows.

Spitfire Mk.IX MH434 has been added to the lineup for the Evening Airshow on the 18th May. The Family Airshow on the 4th August has also had aircraft added, including the Turbulent Team and Calidus Autogyro. The Vintage Airshow on the 1st September will include the Global Stars, three Miles Magisters and P-51D Mustang “Contrary Mary”.

The schedule for Daks Over Normandy was published today, featuring daily flying displays and rides at Duxford and Caen-Carpiquet.

The event celebrates the 75th anniversary of D-Day and will bring together over thirty DC-3s and C-47s from around the world. It will also include a cross-channel flight from the UK to France, with hundreds of paratroopers jumping into historic drop zones in northern France.

The event will begin on Sunday 2nd June 2019 with the aircraft arriving at IWM Duxford near Cambridge. Pleasure flights and formation training flights will take place during the following day, with a practice parachute jump in the afternoon. Monday will culminate with a photoshoot from 22:00 until midnight.

Photo: Jim Lucas

Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th June will be public, ticketed airshow days at Duxford. Pleasure flights and air-to-air photo flights in the T-6 Texan and Dragon Rapide will take place all day on Tuesday and in the morning on Wednesday. There will be two flying display sessions on Tuesday (11:00-12:00 and 14:30-15:30) and one on Wednesday (11:00-12:00). Each will include a formation display, parachute jump and solo demonstration by C-53D Skytrooper LN-WND, owned by the Dakota Norway Foundation.

The cross-channel flight will depart from Duxford at 13:40 on Wednesday 5th June, performing flypasts at Colchester (14:21), Southend-on-Sea (14:29), Maidstone (14:37) and Eastbourne (14:50). The formation will arrive in France at 16:20 local time, flying over La Havre, before arriving at the Ranville drop zone at 16:30 for a mass parachute jump. The aircraft will begin arriving at Caen-Carpiquet Airport at 16:45.

Photo: Alex Prins

There will then be two ticketed airshow days in Caen on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th June. This will include pleasure flights, air-to-air photography flights in a T-6 Texan and two daily air display sessions from 11:00-12:00 and 14:30-15:30. A second photoshoot will take place at Caen from 22:00 until midnight on Friday.

Daks Over Normandy is to be a once-in-a-lifetime occasion bringing together the largest group of Dakotas in decades. Such a large gathering will probably never be seen again. This is Flight will report on both the British and French legs of the event.

BRUNTINGTHORPE | The UK’s last flying Gloster Meteor in private hands touched down for the final time on Saturday 5th January, and will now be maintained in a taxyable condition.

Meteor NF.11 WM167 arrived at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome as part of a celebratory ticketed event. Other classic aircraft, including a Vampire T.11 and Strikemaster Mk.80A, joined the Meteor for an impromptu fly-in.

WM167 was built in Coventry in 1952 and flew with the Royal Air Force  until 1975, seeing out the final years of its service as a target tug. It was  purchased by a private collector and reverted to NF.11 configuration shortly afterwards.

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The jet was operated until recently by the Classic Air Force, a now-defunct aviation museum and warbird operator based first in Coventry and then Newquay. She was a regular airshow performer during this time, and the only flying Night Fighter Meteor in the world. The charity, who owned two Meteors, folded in early 2016.

Both Meteors, as well as two ex-CAF Venoms, were purchased by American collector Marty Tibbitts in 2017. The first Meteor, T.7 WA591, was taken to the United States and made its American airshow debut at Oshkosh last summer, while the remaining jets stayed in the UK. Meteor NF.11 WM167 was donated to the Classic British Jets Collection at Bruntingthorpe following Tibbitt’s death in an accident last July.

The jet will be maintained in a fast-taxy condition, along with a collection of other Cold War-era jets at Bruntingthorpe, and will likely participate in public events such as the biannual Cold War Jets fast-taxy events.

A further pair of UK-based Meteors are used by Martin Baker as testbeds for their ejector seats, but these are rarely seen in public. The only other airworthy Meteor in the world is a Meteor F.8 owned by the Temora Aviation Museum in Australia.