Old Buckenham air show, 2023

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Airframes

Benevolens Magister
62,431
11,578
Aug 24, 2008
Cheshire, UK
Old Buckenham air show, 30th July, 2023

Karl and I attended this relaxed show for the second year running. Situated on a former B-24 base, just a 20 minute drive from the "Tin Tent", in Norfolk, this year's show promised to have some interesting "acts", but unfortunately the weather had other ideas.
Although the forecast rain stayed away until late in the day, the wind was gusting strongly across the runway at times, and bad weather on the various routes to and from the field led to the cancellation of a number of "acts", including the show opener, the RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team, who would have probably ended up in Denmark had they jumped !
The Tiger Moths of the "Tiger Nine" formation team had to depart early, in gusting wind, in order to return to their various home fields safely, and other cancellations included the BBMF's Lancaster, the Lysander, Mustang and Buchon "dogfight", and a few more. One aircraft Karl and I particularly wanted to see was the Royal Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron Vampire T.11, now in RAF markings, but this was stuck at Duxford with a fuel leak.
However, the show went ahead more or less on time, and those "acts" that were able to perform put on a great show, often in very challenging conditions.

Although the rapidly changing light conditions, and some rather dull cloud backdrops made photography tricky at times, I managed to get some reasonable shots of most of the action, even when some bloke in front, who had an unobstructed view, insisted on standing up right in front of me, using a lens that could have captured a moon landing, it was so ****ing big !
The first batch of shots below show Peter Kuypers, Captain of the B-17 "Sally B", departing for Duxford in his Beech Staggerwing, to collect the B-17 to open the show, a couple of the Tiger Moths departing for home, the blue one being the aircraft that flew from London to Sydney in 1979, and the first few of the show opener, B-17G "Sally B".
I'll post more of the show over the next few days.

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Thanks chaps.

The Hurricane takes off to meet-up with its partner, to display later, and one of the tiny Taylor Monoplanes departs before the weather got too bad. This aircraft had been scheduled to display as a duo with another Taylor, but the slot was scrubbed due to weather.
The Spitfire formation arrived, with a Mk.1 leading a Mk.IX (the well-known MH434 from Duxford) and a PR.XI.
After a number of formation passes, the Mk.IX and Mk.1 split off to perform an aerial ballet, whilst the PR.XI performed the solo "Joker" slot.

More to come soon, showing the Spitfires, and much more .....................


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The Hurricane duo gave a good display, despite the threatening grey clouds forming to the north and west of the field.
Due to the dull conditions, I only took a few pics of this display, but I managed to catch the break which ended the slot, reminiscent of the "Repeat please!" scene in the BoB movie.

More to follow later on Sunday.


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The skies really started to darken as the appropriately registered, tiger-striped Vans RV-8 went through its aerobatic routine, followed by a three-ship formation of Piper Cubs.
These three provided an interesting display of low and slow flying, demonstrating their WW2 role of observation and spotting and, with an extremely strong gusting crosswind, displayed some great piloting skills, often flying virtually sideways.


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Yes, a jet-powered biplane !!

This is the second of Rich Goodwin's "Muscle Pitts", the first being a highly uprated Pitts Special, but this one is even more "special".
Apart from structural modifications and an up-rated Lycoming piston engine, this Pitts, with the very appropriate civil registration G- JPIT, also has two jet engines, one either side of the cockpit, each developing 500 Lbs thrust, with an overall power to weight ratio of 1:1.
This aircraft was so incredible, especially in a vertical climb, that I didn't take many photos of it, preferring instead to watch the stunning display, and a sound like no other biplane anywhere in the World.

More to come either later today, or some time tomorrow ........................


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Yes, a jet-powered biplane !!

This is the second of Rich Goodwin's "Muscle Pitts", the first being a highly uprated Pitts Special, but this one is even more "special".
Apart from structural modifications and an up-rated Lycoming piston engine, this Pitts, with the very appropriate civil registration G- JPIT, also has two jet engines, one either side of the cockpit, each developing 500 Lbs thrust, with an overall power to weight ratio of 1:1.
This aircraft was so incredible, especially in a vertical climb, that I didn't take many photos of it, preferring instead to watch the stunning display, and a sound like no other biplane anywhere in the World.

More to come either later today, or some time tomorrow ........................


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I did post a thread on this beast a while back. It included a video….and its climb rate is pretty phenomenal.
 

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