Tag: B-17G

Duxford Air Show, Sunday 2014 featuring two Avro Lancasters in formation

If you love aircraft, especially old aircraft, you will love this post but if not, look away! This is necessarily going to be a long post with lots of photographs! I went to Duxford on the Sunday, drawn by the prospect of seeing two Avro Lancasters in formation. As all flight buffs will know, this is probably the last time more than one Avro Lancaster will be seen flying together and the crowds were huge. I arrived before 9 am and the queues were already long. By the time I left, I knew that many hadn’t got in. I saw people standing on bridges, miles down the motorway, hoping to see something. They probably weren’t disappointed.

Apart from the First World War crates, most aircraft were fast enough that their displays were spread over miles of the countryside around Duxford. Indeed, one of the highlights was a display by a Boeing 727, which has recently retired from passenger carrying and been converted to an environmental disaster response unit by a consortium of large oil companies. The red and silver jet was piloted by a first time diplay pilot who clearly had no idea about constraint, because he proceeded to come in low over the airfield many times and climb away with both engines roaring at somewhere near full power. He was not that far from the onlookers, possibly flouting UK air traffic laws, but who could blame him? Continue reading “Duxford Air Show, Sunday 2014 featuring two Avro Lancasters in formation”

B-17G Sally B at Duxford Air Show

B-17G Sally B at Duxford Air Show

The nose of B-17 Sally B
The nose of B-17 Sally B

I went to the annual Duxford Air Show yesterday. What a day! I have never been before and I thoroughly relished seeing so many old aircraft in one place. I have never before seen an SR-71 Blackbird, B-29 Superfortress, B-52 Stratofortress, Avro York, TSR2 or Handley Page Hastings. I also walked through all the old air-liners: The Viscount, Trident and the DeHavilland Comet. I actually remember traveling to the Canary Islands in about 1973 with Dan Air on a Comet. It was a case of shake, rattle and roll and very noisy! I wondered if it had been the same aircraft because the Duxford Comet was retired in 1973. But its log showed that, for the last few years, it flew between London and Alicante. I managed to get my ticket clicked for every single air-liner.

Click on any photograph to expand.

Sally B flying
Sally B flying

On the program for the day, I noticed that an ex Blackbird pilot, Colonel Richard Graham, would be giving guided tours around the SR-71 Blackbird. I turned up on time and even go his autograph on my ticket. Did you know that pilots had to stay in the cockpit of the SR-71 for 30 minutes after landing because it was too hot to exit? Continue reading “B-17G Sally B at Duxford Air Show”