Cosford - 1st June 2008

The UK airshow scene was blighted by awful weather conditions in 2007, and after a wet, grey day at Abingdon at the start of the 2008 programme, it was very disappointing to experience equally grey, if slightly drier, conditions at Cosford on the first day of June.

While it was disappointing that the organisers had failed to attract any overseas participation, they had put together a varied range of displays eminating from these shores.

Consequently, and in hope of getting some rather different shots of the flying display, I elected to shoot from outside (with a donation being made to the Royal Air Force Association, the beneficiaries of the show).

Charged with opening the show were the Great War Display Team with their mix of replica aircraft from both sides of the conflict.

Peter Teichman and "Jumpin' Jacques", a P-51D Mustang from his own Hangar 11 collection at North Weald followed.

The first taste of a jet engine was provided by the Vampire Preservation Group's Vampire T11, WZ507, resplendant in her new colourscheme.

She followed hotly on the heals by the Royal Navy Historic Flight's Sea Hawk, a late replacement for the Fairey Swordfish, whose return to the display circuit has been temporarily put on hold due to a paperwork glitch.

Making their last appearance in the UK before setting off on a North American tour were the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows.

The only good thing about these sorts of conditions is that they're generally condusive with a bit of moisture being present in the air, and as expected, Flt Lt Charlie Matthews reaped the benefits in the 29(R) Sqn Typhoon F2, from RAF Coningsby.

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight returned a more sedate pace to the proceedings with the usual combination of Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane.

A new item on the display roster for 2008 is the Beechcraft B200 King Air, captained by Flt Lt Leon Creese, an instructor on 45(R) Sqn at RAF Cranwell..

The highlight of the show for me was the 2008 RAF Role Demo, this year featuring two Tornado F3s, two Tornado GR4s, a Sentry AEW1 (who was sadly unable to take part here), a Chinook HC2, an Apache AH1 (who was also forced to pull out following an APU fire), and a pair of 100 Sqn Hawk T1s.

It really is a great spectacle with aircraft seemingly everywhere and large pyrotechnic explosions. It works very well indeed.

It was rather lovely to see the Delta Jets pair of Hunter and Gnat gracing the skies. One pass inparticular looked great through the viewfinder.

The curtain was brought down on the show by an outfit local to me, the Blades , with their four Extra 300s.

Given the weather it was a pretty good show, even if the consequent pictures weren't especially pretty...

The weather can only get better for the rest of the season, right?!