My first airshow was probably around 1980, at Church Fenton near Leeds. I have only glimpses of memories from that day – one is of the red bricks used on the station buildings (because clearly that’s what you should remember about an airshow) and the other is a toy English Electric Lightning I got that day. I still have that toy and indeed my little boy is now playing with it…under my watchful eye. I believe I also came away with a 1/72nd scale Novo Hunter which I subsequently built on the kitchen table in wonder. That day had quite an impact on me it seems because I have spent the rest of my life pursuing military aviation and scale models with varying degrees of passion.
I’m really not 100% sure it was 1980, could’ve been a year or 2 earlier, or a year later but the line-up is likely to have been pretty similar. Harrier GR3, Pitts Special, Vulcan, BBMF, JP, vintage pair, probably an A10 on static…..not a big airshow but my word I’d pay good money to go back in time and see that line up now.
In fact, as an addendum to this blog post I have just found a school book from 1980 where I actually wrote about this very airshow!!
I’ve also found a website that has listed the line up for Church Fenton 1980 and I’m really not sure who the Vikseons were but they clearly put on a good show!
The 1980 flying programme was as follows:
Red Arrows
Vickers Varsity
Rothmans aerobatic team
Army Air Corps Gazelles
Jaguar tactical support supersonic jet
Royal Navy Sea Fury
Campbell “Super Cricket” Gyroplane
The Blue Herons aerobatic team
Blackburn B2
Royal Danish Air Force T17
Charles Shea-Simmonds (Stampe SVb)
Nimrod submarine hunter-killer aircraft
Vulcan delta-wing bomber
Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight
Blanik Glider
Wright Jubilee Trophy Winner (aerobatics)
Marlboro Pitts Special (Philip Meeson)
The Vintage Pair
Miles Gemini
The Falcons Free-Fall Parachute Display Team
Hot Air Balloons (Golly III and Kennings)
And of course, 1980 was the year that a British Airways 747 came in for an impromptu flypast!