On the 5th July 2014, I went to Waddington Air Show. Once we had parked and gone through security, we got onto a vintage bus which took us to the main area of stalls and exhibits. Waddington is a good family day out because there are lots of things to do as well as looking at the aircraft and watching the flying displays.
First thing I did was to climb the Air Cadets climbing wall, straight to the top! Then I went to the next hanger where the Science Museum were doing rocket experiments. Also in that hanger were the Girl Guides stall and the RAF band as well as lots of others stands.
We then walked around the static aircraft display. Two aircraft stand out for me: the Boeing 727 Oil Spill response unit and the Shorts Skyvan.
The Boeing 727 was big and quite shiny. It was interesting to see the engines in a different place – on the back rather than on the wings! It also had what looked like a crop sprayer and I assume that is to squirt liquid on the oil spillage to help it disperse.
We laughed when we saw the Skyvan as it didn’t look very aerodynamic! It made us wonder how it could fly.
I thought the Skyvan was different from other aeroplanes – it was quite boxy with a protruding nose.
We were able to see inside some of the aircraft on the static display line such as the Royal Netherlands Air Force Chinook, which is very useful for modellers who want to build an accurate replica as you can get pictures of the detail, as here:
Throughout the day, there were of course the flying displays. All were very good but my favourites were:
My absolute favourite is and always has been the RAF Red Arrows. They always put on a brilliant display with new tricks each year. This year, I noticed that because they put their smoke on whilst they were on the ground, it made the background look surreal:
They do still do some of their classic formations such as the diamond:
As it is the 50th year of The Red Arrows, the Hawks tail fins have a unique paint scheme which shows aeroplanes’ flying in different directions within a union flag.
Overall I had a fantastic fun-filled day. There will be no Waddington next year, but I hope it will be back the year after.
Emily Coughlin