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Duxford Summer Airshow 2026 |
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| ‘Fubar Aviation certainly displayed the aircraft to its best, with numerous top side passes (always popular with us photographers) with the addition of the after burner from its Klimov VK-1F turbojet engine lighting up in the fading light of the late afternoon.’ |
| Duxford is a familiar venue for most
aviation enthusiasts from across the globe, with its rich history,
from its inception during WWI in 1917. As the Royal Flying Corp
expanded, Duxford was one of the many new airfields established to
train pilots and crew for what soon became known as the Royal Air
Force. Duxford’s reputation for excellence grew to the point that in 1938, as a newly recognized ‘Fighter Station’, it was the first RAF Squadron to take delivery of the Supermarine Spitfire. During the Battle of Britain, Duxford was base to 11 Group, playing a key role in the defense of London and the South East. In 1943, RAF Duxford became the designated ‘Station 357’ by the Americans and became home to the 78th Fighter Group. This affiliation continues to this day and the Summer Air Show on the 4th & 5th July 2026 both commemorates and celebrates the 250th anniversary of U.S Independence Day, with the events flying program and static displays reflecting this. A flypast on the Saturday, consisted of the resident Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress ‘Sally B’ and the USAF Boeing KC-135 ‘Stratotanker’ representing both the history of Duxford and the strong connection to the USAF on this very special anniversary weekend. |
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| Duxford is very much a family friendly
site, with varied attractions within its many hangars and
buildings, with a huge collection of historic aircraft and wartime
displays and a host of static and interactive exhibits, shops,
restaurants and visitor facilities. This is aside from the Summer
Air Show’s exhibits and flying display, retail stalls, food
stalls, bars, children’s entertainment, classic cars, war-time
re-enactments, traditional steam fairground, live music and
captivating real war-time stories in Hangar 4. To cap this off, we looked forward to 4 ½ hours of flying displays each day. |
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The flying program started at 14:00, however
there was plenty of flying activity with arrivals, departures and
pleasure flights going on during the morning. To start the display
was the resident Aircraft Restoration Companies Spitfire Mk. IX
MH434 (Hanna Spitfire), probably the most well-known Spitfire in
existence. |
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| Following on was the ‘USA Yesterday & Today flypast by B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B and the USAF KC-135. After the initial formation flypast, with Sally B taking the lead and the USAF KC-135, boom extended in pursuit, we were treated to an individual display from the resident Sally B, taking us back to the war-time 1940’s, although she never saw active service in WWII but still very much in keeping with the shows theme. As the KC-135 Stratotanker headed back to Mildenhall, we mustn’t forget this aircrafts important role in support since its entering service in the mid 1950’s only 10 years after Sally B was built, and has served in many front-line theatres, from the Vietnam war through to the present day and perhaps as far as 2030. |
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The RAF BBMF treated us to a three ship
formation with several formation passes offering plenty of photo
opportunities followed by individual aircraft displays from their
Douglas Dakota, Spitfire Mk. Vb and Hurricane Mk. IIC. |
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| The Royal Jordanian Air Force’s Extra 300LX Falcons displayed next. Many airshow enthusiasts are familiar with their four-ship formation display that tests the pilot’s and the airframe’s performance with high/low G force aerobatics of the Extra 300LX with its powerful 315 hp 253 mph engine. This weekend was to be their only UK display for the 2026 display season, so we were very lucky to see them. |
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Back to the American theme, we saw the
following aircraft display, depicting the ‘Asian War Scenario’
(Vietnam), starting with 3 Piper Cub L-4s and the Piper NE-1
Little Blue Cloud. The L-4’s nicknamed Grasshopper this aircraft
type’s military version was produced between 1942 and 1945 with
over 5,000 being built and saw action during WWII including the
Normandy landings in risky artillery spotting role, and later, the
Korean and Vietnam wars. Followed by the fantastic and quite
unique display by the Fundacion Aeronautica Antonio Quintana’s
Cessna 2 x C337G Skymasters, high wing, twin boom aircraft, with
its ‘Push-Pull’ engine configuration painted in the USAF 0-2’s
colours of the 19th Tactical Squadron of the Vietnam War. The NA
AV-10B displayed by the Bronco Demo Team was another aircraft type
that had a distinguished Vietnam service in forward air control
amongst other theatres and many operators, including, US Navy, US
Marine corp and other airforces around the world. The version we
see today is the B variant, developed for the German airforce as a
target tug. |
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| With a frenetic change of pace, we witnessed the amazing and high/low G stomach turning aerobatics from Rich Goodwin in his unique jet power assisted Pitts Special. Those seasoned airshow enthusiasts may recall Rich’s original Pits Special G-EWIZ in its distinctive Union Flag inspired colour scheme and its 300hp engine capable of speeds of up to 200 mph, pulling plus 6 to minus 5 G. Well Rich has developed a quite unique airframe from scratch over the last four years to produce G-JPIT which combines two ATM Lynx Jet Turbine engines with the 8.5 Ltr Lycoming engine, producing a combined total thrust of 1700 lbs. Rich’s display is something you need to experience as no superlatives can describe, and it certainly sharpened the wits, focus and panning skills of the many photographers gathered at this event. |
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| Red Bull had brought along their whole display team which displayed as a formation four-ship and with individual displays from their B-25J Mitchell, P-38 Lightning, F4U-4 Corsair and NA P-51D Mustang. As the four-ship ran in for their display we saw tight formations with a series of topside and rolling passes showing every facet of these most beautiful aircraft. As the Mitchell peeled off for its individual display, the fighters departed on hold. For a sizeable medium bomber the Mitchell was banked quite steeply and put through its paces by the experienced hands of pilots Frederic Handellmann and Ciara McGurk. Then it was the turn of the fighters, again performing tight formation passes and individual displays. If you attended on the Sunday, this display would have been slightly different with the exclusion of the p-38 Lightning that had to depart early to catch a window in the weather for its transit to Oshkosh. |
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| Bringing us up to the present day and
bringing on the noise! It was the turn of the RAF to display their
29 Sqn RAF Coningsby BAE Systems Typhoon FGR4 flown by Flight
Lieutenant Tom Nation, call sign ‘DRAGON01’. This display is
always a crowd pleaser on the UK display scene, showcasing the
RAF’s current fourth generation multi role combat aircraft.
Unfortunately, on the Saturday this display was cut short due to
technical issues but DRAGON01 certainly made up for that on
Sunday. |
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| Once again, slowing the pace and
returning to the American types, AeroSuperBatics wing-walkers
displayed in their pair of Boeing PT-17 Stearman’s. With pilots
Dave Barrell and Brian Cornes at the controls, joined by the
intrepid wing walkers Kirsten Pobjoy and Emma Broadbent, bravely
mounted their aircraft for a superbly elegant display consisting
of close formation passes, opposition passes, syncronised rolls
and breath taking head-on breaks at display centre. You too can
experience the thrill of wing walking by visiting
AeroSuperBatics |
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| We then hark back to the WWI origins of
Duxford airfield with a demo attack sequence and subsequent
dog-fights, from the Great War Display Team’s Fokker Dr1 Triplanes
x 3 with the response from two Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a and the
Nieuport 17. The Great War Display Team have been established
since 1988 and fly full size replica aircraft types used in the
very early years of aerial warfare, piloted by a very experience
goup of pilots that include, fast jet pilots, test pilots, airline
pilots and flying instructors. Their skills were very much put to
the test over this weekend with some challenging blustery weather
conditions at times. |
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| As the show drew closer to its end, the sky was filled by the sight and sounds of the most beautiful 1939 ‘VIP’ Douglas C-41a. This quite unique and beautiful aircraft was used by the US Army Air Corp as personal transport for General Henry “Hap” Arnold and subsequently other top military command staff. |
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To conclude the flying program, the
‘Duxford Thunder Formation, made up of the Grumman F8F-2P Bearcat,
Grumman FM-2 Wildcat, Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, Supermarine
Spitfire Mk. PRXI, NA P-51D Mustang and the Hispano HA-1112
Buchon, took to the skies individually, then united for formation
flypasts, followed by individual and paired displays.  |
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This was a
spectacular sight to end what was a fantastic and quite unique and
varied collection of aircraft types, that absolutely captured the
theme for this year’s Summer Air Show. With the mix of aircraft
displaying both in the air and on static, along with the period
re-enactment displays and general atmosphere, it truly gave you a
sense of the history, and the important role Duxford played during
both wars, the development of the RAF and in fostering continued
relations with the USAF. My thanks to the whole IWM team and their many volunteers, but especially to the Media Team for their hospitality. I am very much looking forward to my next visit and would recommend you taking a look at their upcoming events. IWM Duxford Airshows, Tours & Experiences - Find Out What's On | IWM |
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Review by Scott Sullivan. |