Shouting from the Hop

Spitfires Scramble (Pic: R. Harvey) 

We went to the Biggin Hill Airshow yesterday, where they were celebrating the Battle of Britain at "the most famous World War II RAF fighter station in existence".

When I was a boy, my father would regularly bring me to see planes at Biggin Hill; I seem to remember there being two shows - a regular "airshow" with many civilian aircraft, then the Battle of Britain one where the emphasis was on war planes. Of course, it was a lot nearer the end of the war when I was young, and some of the planes were not that old back then! Biggin Hill was where I had my first ever flight, a 25 minutes jaunt round Crystal Palace TV mast and back in a DC3 or similar (I think...), probably in about 1965 (give or take a couple of years). I also remember seeing the Lightning, the aircraft that spouted flames out of it's back and which was Britain's defence against the supposed red hordes back then, and also the long traffic queues to and from the show.

Yesterday was a little different; no traffic problems, even though there was a very large crowd, and no Lightnings (even though we eventually did have a thunder storm last night!).

What we did see were the usual Spitfires, Hurricanes, Hawker Hunters and Hawks, Gnats, a DC3 (Dakota), a Flying Fortress (Sally B), a Sea Vixen, Harriers, helicopters (including a Lynx doing back-flips!!!), plus newer all-purpose British (or Euro) fighters like the outgoing Jaguar, the incumbent Tornado, and the soon-to-be released Typhoon.

I love watching the new fighters, they make so much noise! The Typhoon was very impressive, but why do they seem to name planes after the weather and/or winds? What comes next? The Gale? The Breeze? The Gust? The Bit-blowy-today? Who knows...

It was a lovely day and no crashes which was good - last time I went to an airshow (at Lowestoft about three years back) a Harrier stalled and ended up in the sea!