The second biannual Sywell Airshow was held over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th of September. Just to the south east of Northampton in the middle of England the Sywell airfield has a long and distinguished history going back over 75 years. The first airshow at Sywell, the Northamptonshire Aero Club Aerial Pageant, was held on the 29th September 1929. In 1931 the first All-Woman’s Air Pageant was held at the airfield showing a very forward thinking attitude for the time. The site has been improving ever since and in 1934 a new club house was built in the Art Deco style. Among its regular visitors were pioneers like Amy Johnson, Jim Mollison and Alan Cobham. During the 1930s the changing political climate in Europe started to affect the Sywell Airfield. The RAF started training pilots at Sywell in 1935 via the 6 Elementary Flying Training School (6EFTS). The training was undertaken by Brooklands Aviation Ltd and by the start of the war 24 De Havilland Tiger Moths were operating at the field. By 1942 this number had tripled and was still growing. A large number of Free French pilots learnt their basic flying training at Sywell. Brooklands Aviation Ltd were also servicing RAF Wellington bombers at the small airfield and surrounding sites, they even assembled some Lancaster and Whitley bombers on the site too. 

The end of the war was to signal a slow down and decline for the airfield as it did for so many others, but Sywell still operated its Brooklands servicing facilities and they were still servicing RAF aircraft into the early 1970s. The flying training carried on with Brooklands Aviation and the RAF until all RAF training was moved to RAF stations in 1953.After that private training was undertaken by Brooklands. Over the last twenty years the site has seen a steady improvement in its fortunes, and a major planning strategy developed in 1995 has had great success. Now the site has developed into an industrial estate with aviation at its centre with two helicopter operators and the Aviator Hotel a new building styled to reflect the Art Deco style of the original club house. Also on the site is Dawn Treader Performance Ltd a collection of stunning classic and modern sports cars all restored to their original condition. The Brooklands Flying Club now trains private pilots on the site in two new AT-3 aircraft. Britain’s newest flying display teams The Blades have also chosen Sywell as their base of operations for their four brand new Extra 300 LPs.

Sywell was used in 1967 by the producers of the film “the Battle of Britain”, the field was used as a French airfield in the film and had six Messerschmitt Bf109 (actually Spanish built Buchon’s) stationed on site. Any previous visit to Sywell by Messerschmitt was probably not made welcome at all! As part of the ongoing improvements to the site at Sywell the operating company Sywell Aerodrome Ltd are planning to lay an all weather runway to improve safety during wet weather when the grass strips can become very slippery. The site also hosts the Sywell Aviation Museum. Housed in a Nissan Hut salvaged from an RAF station this is a real gem of a local museum. Among its many exhibits are the remains of a bomb dropped on Northampton by hand from a WW1 Zeppelin (L45) in October 1917 when the airship was driven from its target Sheffield by strong winds. The airship continued with the southerly winds until being forced to land in France the following morning. The airship was destroyed and the 17 crew taken prisoner. The show weekend had two major themes, one being the 60th Anniversary of the de Havilland Chipmunk and a fund raising effort for the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance that is serviced on the Sywell site by Slone Helicopters. One interesting thing to note is the planned lack of jet aircraft, this was to be a prop only event to keep with the 1930s feel of the airfield.

On the morning of the display the British weather was promising to do its worst to spoil the day and this did affect the numbers of people travelling to the show, but at around 11am the sky began to clear and the sun began to shine. The flying was to start at 2pm and by then the weather was much better over the field with brooding cloud formations all around. There were a few static displays but most aircraft on the ground were intending to fly during the display. Flight line walks were available to get up close and personal until just before the flying started. Keeping within the 1930s feel of the event many aircraft of the era were taking part with elegant examples from De Havilland and Miles Aircraft. The flying got underway with a fly past from one of the Utterly Butterly’s that had arrived earlier in the day, but the person on the wing did not look like the usual blond lady. Even so the flypast caught the crowd’s attention and got people over to the flight line. The real display started with a display of WW1 replica aircraft from John Day in his new Fokker Dr.1 G-CDXR, Brian Brown in the Real Aeroplane Company’s Dr.1 G-BVGZ, Bob Gauld-Galliers Nieuport 17 G-BWMJ and Peter Davis in 7/8th SE5a G-BUWE. The two Fokker Dr.1 Tri Planes took the part of an airfield attacker and a SE.5 with a Nieuport 17 took up the defence. The following tail chase and opposition passes were a delight to watch with the flight line being at a sensible distance from the crowd line so the aircraft could be seen clearly.

The Fokker Dr.1 is probably the most memorable of German fighters of WW1 and the one most British people would recognise with its tri wing construction based it’s argued on the British Sopwith Triplane although this is contested by many. Designed by Reinhold Platz the first models were delivered to the front line in August/September 1917 for evaluation. In July Fokker were instructed to produce 320 Dr.1 and the first was delivered by Antony Fokker to Manfred von Richthofen’s the “Red Baron” Jagdgeschwader 1 in late August. Armed with two 7,92mm Spandau synchronised machines guns the Dr.1 was to become an excellent fighter in the hands of an experienced pilot but the plane was not easy to fly for the novice. Perhaps the most famous name associated with the Fokker Dr.1 is the “Red Baron”, he led the Flying Circus or Jasta 1, the Squadron credited with more than 300 kills 80 of which were by the Red Baron. The Red Baron was himself killed during combat in his Dr.1 and ironically it’s now thought that he fell to ground fire whilst pursuing his next potential victim. He was awarded Prussia’s highest military award, the ”Pour le Merite”, and buried with full military honours by the British.

A development of the Nieuport II built by Societe Anonyme des Etablissements Nieuport established by Edouard de Nieuport the Nieuport 17 had a more powerful engine and a synchronised Vickers machine gun and facilities to carry the Le Prieur anti-balloon rocket mounted on the wing struts. Introduced in 1916 this was to become the main fighter of the French forces and was adopted by the British, the German High Command were also impressed and ordered the design to be copied. This highly manoeuvrable aircraft played a large part in ending the German superiority in the air war although it is commented that in harsh manoeuvres the lower wing could be shed. The success of the type was relatively short lived as they became outclassed the opposition. Many nations bought the Nieuport 17 and some produced it under licence, it was popular while short lived with the British Royal Flying Corps taking 274 alone. With the changing fate of the type the designers at Societe Anonyme des Etablissements Nieuport took the lessons learned from the Type 17 and followed it with the Type 21 and the Type 23. The Nieuport 17 was flown by the notable “aces” Albert Ball, Rene Fonck and Charles Nungesser.

The SE.5 (Scout Experimental 5) was built by the Royal Aircraft Factory and first flew in November 1916, it was designed around the new Hispano-Suiza engine. The design team, H.P. Folland, J. Kenworthy and Major Frank W. Goodden aimed to design a plane that was inherently stable so it could be flown safely by inexperienced pilots. The initial reports suggested that they had achieved just that, but as full production started the prototype crashed killing Frank Goodden, production was halted pending the investigation. The result of the investigation was a strengthening of the wings and redesign of the wing tip, the aircraft already in production received the strengthening but not the new wing tip. The derived SE.5a entered service in April 1917. At the time it was considered to be the best allied fighter in the war, although the British Ace Albert Ball disliked it and secured the use of a Nieuport until in April 1917 the extra speed and firepower of the SE.5a saved his life. He flew the Nieuport only once after that. Production was dogged by delays due to engine shortages and misunderstanding between the customer and the suppliers resulting in a batch of engines that had been rejected once being fitted as they were better than no engines, when these were overcome the result was a strong and reliable aircraft. The SE.5a gained a reputation as an excellent fighter that was easier to handle than the Sopwith Camel better at altitude and faster. This gave the SE.5a pilot a real advantage in combat. The Royal Aircraft Factory stopped designing aircraft when it became the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1918 and moved onto research only. Alltogether 5,205 SE.5a’s of differing marks were built.

Although not displaying at the show the Augusta and its crew were on the flight line as part of the fund raising activities of the day and they were on standby. Shortly after the flying display got under way we did get to see a scramble by the Air Ambulance when they were requested to attend an accident site. Quite impressively from receiving the call to being air born and wheels up was achieved in just under 90 seconds. They returned to the show about an hour later. The Air Ambulance is not operated by the state and is totally supported by charity donations, £90,000 (133,462Euro) per month. The A109 was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first of five prototypes flew in August 1971, with customer deliveries starting in 1976. The A109 Power is a greatly improved development from the original. The two side-by-side Pratt & Whitney PW-206C or Turbomeca Arrius 2K1 can reach 180mph and reach any area of Northamptonshire in 12 minutes. Over 300 A190 Power’s have been sold with the UK RAF ordering three for VIP service. An armed version the MH-68A Stingray is in service with the US Coastguards Helicopter Tactical Squadron for drugs interdiction operations. Our Air Ambulance carries both paramedics and a doctor making it even more of a life saver than most air ambulances and the show team are proud to support its upkeep at this year’s show.

The Buecker Jungmeister single seat advanced trainer performed a very nice display. The 145 hp Warner Super Scarab engine in today’s display aircraft gave a taster of what was to come later in the display when the other WWII aircraft took to the air, a beautiful sound of old engines. An important aircraft to the Luftwaffe, the Jungmeister was a very successful aerobatic competition plane, it was also being used to train combat pilots as a way around the restrictions of “The Treaty of Versailles” before the outbreak of WWII. Based on the Buecker Bu 131 in design and construction but with smaller dimensions the prototype (D-EVEO) had excellent aerobatic ability with the 135 hp Hirth HM6 inline engine. Later versions incorporated the more powerful Siemens Sh 14A-4 Radial engine. Today’s display made it plain to see why this aircraft was so successful, it gave a great display.

The Catalina was by far the largest aircraft at the show, owned and operated by Catalina Aircraft Ltd and in the new all white livery for 2006. The big flying boat gave a great display. The Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines are a pleasure to hear over the Northamptonshire countryside, about as far from the sea as you can get in England. This aircraft was built in Cartierville/Quebec and served with the RCAF with No 9 Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron in 1943 flying anti submarine patrols off the Canadian coast. After the war she served with No 413 and No 121 Squadrons on mapping, reconnaissance and SAR missions. She left military service in 1959 and placed in storage for a time, she was struck off charge in 1961. In private hands she was converted for fire fighting as a water bomber and served with Kenting Aviation of Toronto under hire to the French Governments Protection Civile based at Marseille. In 1974 Kenting disposed of their fleet and she then flew with Norcanair on fire fighting duties in Saskatchewan. The Province of Saskatchewan Fire Fighting Service took her over in 1980. It was then that she received the colour scheme of yellow and green with red trim that she still wore when she arrived in the UK in August 2002 (see Duxford V-E Day 2005 report). For those of you who really love flying boats shares in this bird are now available for £17,500 (25,950 Euro) at www.catalinabookings.org

A group of old aircraft consisting of a de Havilland Chipmunk X 2, Thruxton Jackaroo, Miles Falcon, Miles Messenger and a modern Steen Skybolt taxied out to the runway and all were expecting a dignified flypast by these old birds. At the same time limbo poles with tapes were being set up on the field, it turns out these old birds were The Barnstormers. Setting up a tail chase the old birds began to behave without regard to their senior years as they flew under and over the limbo tape. Again the sensible flight line and display line made this a great act to watch even without a long lens. Some of the Barnstormers would return later in the display to drop powder bombs from the cockpit by hand, creating a fun spectacle for all. The flyers were Dennis Neville in Chipmunk G-ALWB’, Trish Neville in Jackaroo G-ANZT, Tom Stanbach in Chipmunk G-BCGC, Stuart Beatie in Tiger Moth G-ADIA, R. Millinship in Miles Falcon G-AEEG and Barry Tempest in Skybolt G-KEST.

The de Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk was the first aircraft to be designed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company of Canada Ltd. Designed to replace the Tiger Moth as a basic trainer and flying for the first time in May 1946. The Chipmunk was a great success for the company and its designer Wsiewolod Jakimiuk who later in his career worked on Concord. 1283 “chippies” were built, 217 in Canada, 66 in Portugal, and 1000 in the UK. The RAF was using Chipmunks as late as 1996. The type remains very useful with historic flying organisations as acrobatic trainers and for providing pilots used to modern jets the experience of “tail draggers”. A number of “chippies” flew in to Sywell on the Saturday and during the week. One arrival had flown his yellow DHC-1 in the markings of RCAF all the way from Spain. Numerous other “chippies were on the field adding to the “old bird” feel of the event.

The Miles M.3A Falcon Major is one of the most elegant aircraft of its era, a low wing cantilever monoplane of spruce structure covered in plywood this was the first enclosed cockpit aircraft from Miles and the raked quiff windscreen looks great. The example flying today G-AEEG was built by Philips & Powis Aircraft Ltd in 1936 and used as an air taxi until being sold to a Swedish owner, she then became SE-AFN. She was later impressed into the Royal Swedish Air force as Fv-7001. The Falcon Major was one of a family derived from the M.3 Falcon that first flew in 1934, the prototype was a three-seater but the first production example had a wider cabin with four seats. After the war Fv-7001 returned to her civilian registration of SE-ANF and changed hands several times before returning to the UK in 1961. She was restored by several owners in the UK until in 1965 she was re-registered as G-AEEG and returned to flight. In 1966 she received a 145hp Gipsy Major engine and flew extensively in the late 1960. In the 1970s she entered the Kings Cup Air Race and in 1979 she won it. Now owned and operated by Peter Holloway she is based at the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden.

The Thruxton Jackaroo is a heavily modified Tiger Moth, the standard Tiger Moth was split on its longitudinal axis and the side frames moved apart by adding new cross frames. A new wider undercarriage was added with extra fairings at the wing root, the nose and rear fuselage were both extended creating baggage space. The resulting aircraft has a four seater cabin and space for baggage too turning a two seater into something rather more useful. This was done by engineers at the Thruxton Aerodrome to convert war surplus Tiger Moths. 16 were built plus a variation by the Rollason Flying Group called the Rollason Jackaroo. Of the 16 originals its thought that only three survive in flying condition, one of which is G-ANZT in the UK.  G-ANZT was built as a Tiger Moth at the end of 1940 at Morris Motors Cowley, she was used by the RAF until 1953. During this time with the RAF she was damaged in a taxiing accident and turned over in a field. Sold in 1955 to the Wiltshire School of Flying (WSF) at Thruxton in 1957 she again suffered the indignity of being turned over on landing. At this time she was converted to a Thruxton Jackaroo and was the third of the type to be made. After the conversion she was used for commercial training, air tests and air races, it’s reported that she once hit 119 mph. In 1958 she was sold to Rollason at Croydon who kept her in the Thruxton configuration until an accident in a Welsh bog. Rollason then carried out the works to make her a Rollason Jackaroo changing the engine cowlings and modifying the rear decking so she no longer had the “Tadpole” shape, the rear seats were replaced with a bench seat. She returned to the WSF in 1964, and was sold on in 1968. She was used for spares by consecutive owners until 1990. When tired of getting cold in Tiger Moth’s Dennis Neville was looking for an aircraft with the feel of a Moth with a bit more comfort. He went looking for a Jackaroo and found the fuselage, all that was left in July 1990. After six years and many foraging trips around the country to get hold of parts G-ANZT returned to flight in 1996 after being on the ground for 29 years. G-ANZT is a very rare bird indeed and presented in immaculate condition, a credit to its owners Dennis and Tricia Neville.

The Dragon was designed in response to a request from Edmund Hillman for an aircraft for the proposed Croydon-Paris air service (Croydon was the main airfield in the London area) and built on the success of the four seater Fox Moth. The first flight was in 1932 and the type was a real success with feeder airlines due to low operating costs. The cabin could hold six passengers plus pilot. The design fits the art deco style of its time beautifully although not intentionally. The two Gipsy Major 10 engines produced a most pleasing growl as this classic airliner displayed to the Sywell crowd. The aircraft displaying today, G-ECAN, was one of 87 built in Australia under licence for the Royal Australian Air Force, serial number A34-59. She saw civilian service as VH-AQA and VH-DHX. She was acquired by the Norman Aeroplane Trust at Chilbolton England in 2001 and now wears the livery of the Railway Air Services Ltd. The success of the DH.84 led to the development of the DH.89 Dragon Rapide, using the basic design of the DH.84 and the tapering wing design and faired in undercarriage of the four engine 10-12 seater DH.86 de Havilland Express. The DH.89 also took the more powerful Gipsy Six engines from its bigger brother the Express, giving the Rapide a greatly improved performance over the Dragon. First flown in April 1934 with deliveries starting in July the same year, among the first to operate the Rapide were Hillman’s Airways Ltd and Railway Air Services again.

The aircraft was a success the world over and eventually a military version was developed for the RAF in response to the Air Ministry Specification G .18/35 to be known as the DH.89M Dominie. De Havilland did not win the contract it went to the Avro 652A Anson but De Havilland did supply some armed Rapides to the Spanish Government in 1936. The Rapide was however selected as a communications aircraft and out of the total 728 Rapides built 521 were to fulfil British military contracts. The aircraft we see today G-AGJG was built for the RAF in 1941 and used by No1 Camouflage Flight. She left the service in 1943 and flew for Scottish Airways on the Inverness to Orkney and the Shetland Islands route. Now flying in the regulation wartime colour scheme she is the product of a loving rebuild by David and Mark Miller who worked on the aircraft for 27 years to achieve a better than new condition. This aircraft is still working hard and can be seen at The Imperial War Museum Duxford giving pleasure flights.

With the cancellation of the Real Aeroplane Company's Hispano HA-1112-M1L Buchón C4K-154, (G-BWUE) due to it being sold the Sywell organisers searched for a display to fill the sizable empty shoes. The Hangar 11 Collection came to the rescue with Curtis P-40 Warhawk to finish the warbird line-up. In the anniversary year of the Spitfire any chance to catch a display by this most famous of war birds is not to be missed. The aircraft displaying from the Historic Aircraft Company based at Duxford is a combat veteran, built at Castle Bromwich as part of contract No B981687/39 with 999 other Spitfires. She was delivered to No 37 M.U at Burtenwood on 26th February 1942 and assigned to 315 Sqn on 7th May and moved to 17 Sqn on the 5th September. During her life she was damaged and repaired, allocated to Vickers Armstrong for an “undisclosed purpose” and flew with several different units. She ended her operational life with 58 O.T.U in October 1945 and was transferred to St Athan as an instructional airframe. She served again as a gate guardian at Hednesford from 1950 to 55 and then at Bridgenorth from 1955 to 60 and Church Fenton from 1960 to 89. During this period she was also used as the master for the moulds being made for “the Battle of Britain” film. This film is credited with starting the war bird preservation industry in the UK. The aircraft was recovered by Tim Routsis in 1989 and sold to HAC in 1993 and restored to the original specification. She now flies in the colours of 317 Sqn with an earlier camouflage scheme. The HAC team have reunited some of the pilots that flew BM597 from the Polish 315 (PK-C) and 317 (JH-C) Squadrons RAF. Squadron Leader Ludwik Martel and Squadron Leader Tadeuz Anderz were reunited with the aeroplane at the Old Hay Charity Fly-in in July 2000. Other than her display work she was also the fighter who returned to Malta in 2005 with the Hurricane “Z5140” also a HAC aircraft to celebrate the defence of that strategically important island. For that trip she was painted blue as were some of the re-enforcement Spitfires being delivered by the aircraft carrier USS Wasp. Why blue? It was all that was available on the ship and better than the green and brown British camouflage scheme for fighting over the Mediterranean. Her pilot for today was Charlie Brown.

The second aircraft from HAC was the Hurricane Z5140 flown by Clive Denny. Another regular on the UK circuit the Hurricane delivers a great display, although overshadowed by the more glamorous Spitfire the Hurricane earned its place in history. The first monoplane fighter in the RAF it was cheaper and faster to build than the Spitfire and this was a crucial factor in the industrialised war. By weight of numbers the Hurricane was the key fighter of the Battle of Britain and is credited with more kills than the Spitfire. Hurricane Z5140 was originally 5711 when built in Canada in 1942 by the Canadian Car Foundry. She was one of the sixth batch to be produced and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1943. It’s believed to have served with 123 Squadron at Debert and later moving to 127 then 129 Squadrons at Dartmouth and Bagotville with 1 Operational Training Unit. Struck off charge from the RCAF in 1947 she was purchased by a syndicate in Saskatchewan. In 1985 she was restored by Paul Mercer and flew again 1989, HAC acquired her in 2002. After an 18 month programme of repairs and maintenance she emerged with the Z5140 and the code letters HA-C and the colours of 126 Squadron during the siege of Malta. The original Z5140 was a Gloster-built Hurricane IIB that was one of the reinforcements sent to Malta in June 1941 aboard HMS Ark Royal during operation Rocket. The Malta garrison could not afford to wait for the aircraft to be repainted and would take whatever was available. Z5140 also took part in the Merlins Over Malta operation in 2005 with Spitfire Mk.Vb (G-MKVB) BM597 and can be found with the Spitfire in Hangar 4 on permanent display at The Imperial War Museum Duxford.

The P-40 Warhawk was the main US fighter when the they entered the Second World War after the attack at Pearl Harbour. The prototype first flew in 1938 with production starting the following year. It’s not a particularly advanced fighter with poor performance at altitude due to the limitations of the liquid-cooled, supercharged Allison V-1710 V-12 engine. The plane was however available and in combat although often out performed it was very tough. Britain and France were happy to receive the P-40 and took the planes earmarked for France when France fell to the Germans. In Britain the P-40 was known as the Tomahawk. The Tomahawk did make a name for itself in the North African campaign where it was very successful and helped tip the balance of air power in the theatre until the introduction of the BF 109F. Between 1939 and 1944 13,728 P-40s of various marks were produced, displaying today to fill the space left by the Hispano HA-1112-MIL Buchon C4K-154. Flown by Peter Teichman the P-40 gave a very good account of itself. G-KITT was built in 1943 and served with various RCAF squadrons before being demobbed in 1950. She then spent some time with the Oregon State University as an instructional aircraft. Following a long period in storage she was eventually re-discovered by Tommy Camp an expert on the P-40. She was in excellent condition although some restoration was required to return her to ex-military stock condition. She flew again in 1982 with her total flying hours only 732. She moved to the UK in 1985 as part of the Duxford based Fighter Collection and has now joined the Hangar 11 Collection at North Weald, 63 years old and still looking and performing very well indeed.

As the demand for fighters grew in the dark days of WWII and the production of the Curtis P-40 was already at maximum, alternative suppliers were sought. A British Purchasing Commission working from New York visited North American Aviation (NAA) to see if they could run a P-40 production line. The head of NAA “Dutch” Kindleberger said they could if it had to, but it could design a superior fighter itself. The result was the P-51, working against a 120 day deadline the designers Edgar Schmued and Raymond Rice with aerodynamicist Ed Horkey produced what many consider the best fighter of the war. Initially the aircraft suffered the same drawback as the P-40 at altitude and was used for low level missions; it was faster and had more range than the Spitfire V. In 1942 the RAF installed a Rolls -Royce Merlin 60 engine into the P-51 and the fortunes of the aircraft changed, with the Merlin the P-51 became a high altitude fighter and with the addition of drop tanks became a high altitude and long range fighter with a range of 3,327km. This development changed the nature of bombing missions in Europe, until the P-51B the bombers outran all the escort fighters leaving them vulnerable to the Luftwaffe fighters during the critical part of the mission. In 1944 P-51B Mustangs appeared over Berlin to protect the B-17 bombers and for the first time air supremacy over Berlin was challenged. Today’s display by the RAC Mustang “Susy” flown by Tony Smith was a great addition to the other great warbirds displaying today. She was built toward the end of the war and did not see service in theatre, assigned to 131st Fighter Squadron based at George AFB, California in 1951 and then to the Texas ANG at San Antonio, Texas in 1954. In 1958 she amongst others was sold to the Nicaraguan Air Force and returned to the US as a civilian in 1963 and eventually to the UK in 1986.

Another firm favourite on the UK airshow circuit are the wing walking Utterly Butterly Barnstormers from Randcome Airfield possibly seen for the last time as the sponsorship of the team is about to change hands. Two of the four Boeing Stearman biplanes attended at Sywell this year and gave a superb display to the sound of the 450 hp Pratt&Whitney engines. The wing walkers affixed to a swivels rig can change positions with the changing aspects of the display and speeds reaching 150 mph. The team were Vic Norman and T. Richards and the wing walkers were Kirstie Joly & Tanya Gaze. The Stearman was the main training aircraft of the US Army and gained a reputation for being forgiving and easy to fly, it was also rugged and durable as can be witnessed by the number of Stearmans still flying. From the ten thousand produced over a thousand are still flying. Once again the positioning of the display line gave this display an edge over the bigger airshows and gave great views of the stunning display. We wait to see next year’s new colour scheme with the cosmetics company sponsor the Guinot Institute of Paris.

One of the most durable and important aircraft of WWII the T-6 Harvard was the advanced trainer of the USAAF and the RAF, it’s known as “the pilot maker” by many. The North American NA-16 first flew in 1935 and after some modification first deliveries of the now BT-9 started in 1936, leading to a number of variants including the AT-6 (advanced trainer) that eventually became known as the T-6. The RAF ordered 300 British instrumented aircraft known as Harvard Mk.I’s; in the US the T-6 was known as the Texan due to its manufacture in Dallas Texas. More than 17 ,000 of the type were built serving with 55 nations in many different roles beyond the advanced trainer role it was designed for. Approximately 350 Harvards remain in flying condition and are often seen doing the manoeuvres that they were doing to teach new pilots combat, surely a testament to the design and tough build quality of the type. Today’s display saw the yellow colour and markings scheme taken from the California Air National Guard with her military serial number 493209 of Harvard G-DDMV flown by Mr T. Richards. She was delivered to the USAF 3545th primary training wing at Goodfellow Texas in 1951 and served with several other wings before being disposed of in 1954. She was bought by the Haitian Air Force and its thought that she was used in anger during an abortive coup in the late 1950’s possibly fitted with under slung machine guns and bombs. She returned to the US and was owned by a succession of people before being sold to Jim Carbin who undertook a thorough reconditioning of the aircraft. In 1990 she was sold to Paul Morgan and brought to the UK. She was acquired by Warbird Experiences in 2005 and is used for experience flights for flyers and non flyers. The second Harvard was G-BGOR owned by Maurice Hammond and flown by Mr D. Evans sporting the colour scheme of the US Army with the nose art and legend “fools rush in”.

For more information look up www.warbirdexperiences.co.uk for the flight of your life.

One of two exceptions to the old bird theme of the show was the stunning display of agility and control of the Hughes MD-500E in the hands of Martin Lovell of Skytech Helicopters based at Sywell. A truly individual display in the air and on the ground and if you ever wondered why the landing skids were called skids Martin showed us why as he did skid along the airfield. After a display of manoeuvrability and agility he concluded the display by showing the precision and control available to him by using the skid to knock over a traffic cone and then pick it up by lancing it with the skid before parading along the crowd line with his prize. The Hughes MD-500 is a development of the Hughes OH-6A Cayuse that flew for the first time in 1963. It has seen wide use by the military as various different marks from anti tank and gunship roles to reconnaissance and gained a good reputation with US forces during the Vietnam War. Still being developed with stretched versions MD-600N and NOTAR (no tail rotor) MD-520N the type look set for a healthy future and with Boeing using a modified MD-530F for its Unmanned Little Bird programme perhaps we will see the same precision flying from the Hughes MD-500 without the pilot in the future?

The only RAF display of the day was the graceful and surprising gliding display flown by C. Heames of Team Condor, the RAFGSA display team. The team usually fly a synchronised two ship display that is always well received for its precision and seemingly never ending loops that carry on to a very low level without the aide of an engine to get them out of trouble. The ASK21 is a popular glider with over 750 being delivered to the military and private clubs and individuals, and the single example flying today showed that a single glider in the right hands could deliver as good a display as any noisy warbird. The finale of the day was the Blades, the UK’s newest aerobatic team based at Sywell and so displaying to a home crowd for the first time. 2 Excel is commercial business dealing in corporate entertainment, leadership and team building training and of course precision display flying with “The Blades”. The pilots are all well known display flyers, three of them are ex-Red Arrows and the forth a specialist flying instructor who specialises in unusual attitude and spin training. Flying four new Extra 300LP’s the team are a real addition to the Sywell site and offer the local residents great opportunities to see a fantastic display every week in training. We won’t go into detail about the team here as we hope to be spending some time with the Blades as they prepare for the 2007 season and a full report will be posted soon after.

To sum up this small show we must reflect on the fact that this was an old bird show with almost all the aircraft being in private collections or individual ownership. The show did not try to be anything other than it was, a small almost intimate celebration of classic aviation, a lack of support from the local media in the week before the show may well have limited the attendance on the day. But the organisers with a little help from the weather put on a show that was far more entertaining than this correspondent anticipated and they deserve the day to have been a financial success to match the success of the displays. Checksix UK looks forward to the next display at this stylish English airfield in 2008 when we expect Sywell to once again punch well above its weight.

Checksix would like to thank the Sywell team and Damien Burke the press liaison for their time, effort and help in delivering a great show and answering the questions required to produce this report.

Will Moore Checksix UK 

Release 4.0/2008

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