4 of them to be exact. Flying in formation to a nearby airfield, then breaking off and circling in for landing. It caused quite a traffic jam on the freeway as everyone slowed down to watch and rolled down our windows to listen to the roar. Quite a sight! Especially seeing them flying so low overhead! They were part of the tall ships parade taking place in Boston today.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Answers

Yo Ciara - the Tall ships were in the Tyne a few years ago and the North East stopped with people trynig to see them. I was in Manchester and missed them.

Are you into aircrafT ?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

There was a 3 plane flypast over Central/West London about 40 minutes ago (just after 21:00 - 11/7/00) - don't know what it was for....probably something to do with QM100, but it passed our office at about 300 feet and was friggin noisy.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

The Red Arrows are over London 21:10 every night this week for the Queen Mum. Are you sure it wasn't them ?

I'm off to the Royal International Air Tattoo a week on Saturday - anybody else going ? Last years was superb - hot sun and flying from 11:00 - 20:00 - bet it pees down this year.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I was in Hyde Park for the VE Day 50th Anniversary. The Battle of Britain flight (Spitfire, Hurricane and the Lancaster) roared overhead as Vera Lynne sang "We'll meet again" and the setting sun turned the sky pink. Bliddy floods, and they weren't even my memories...unforgettable.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Yep - they should bottle Merlin engine noises. I was at Woodford the other year and a biplane was doing an incredible display - a Mosquito started up next to us and everybody just watched it taxi past - I felt sorry for the display pilot but the warbirds are just incredible.

This year the BOBM Flight has 2 Spitfires + the Hurrcane and Lanc. Can't wait. (There's another 6 private Spits + a Hurricane as well.

#21.95 for 9 hours flying - less than a seat @ SJP - hmmm.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Hey Josh.....it may have been part if the same thing, but these were three more modern planes......one biggie (looked like a passenger carrying), and two smaller on each flank.......

It wasn't the Lancaster, Hurricane and Spitfire.......living pretty much at the end of the RAF Northolt runway I see them on a fairly regular basis so know them, (the Lancaster was around last Saturday for something or other) and it wasn't the Arrows as I was able hear them, get out of my seat, go to the window and just glimpse them before they disappeared behind a tree.....and when the Arrows pass over, you don't have time for that!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Sorry about this, but Josh.....where and when is the show......the last IAT I was at was held at Greenham Common pre-cruise!!! that will tell you how long it is since I've been to one.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

RAF Cottesmore Saturday July 22nd and Sunday 23rd. Have a look at :-

http://www.airtattoo.com/riat2000/index.html

The list of participating aircaft is pretty awesome - and there'll be more I reckon.

Its normally Fairford near Gloucester but the runway is being resurfaced so its at the RAF Harrier base - with Wittering next door I expect a significant amount of very noisy Harriers doing silly things.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Any of you guys used to go to the Acklington air displays? I was a kid when they had the last one but they were magic.

I saw the BOB flight and a host of other WW2 stuff at Barton Aerodrome a few years back. I was watching from a mate's garden at the end of the runway and I swear the Lancaster nearly took the chimney off it was so low. It was awesome!!!!

I was also lucky enough to be in Portsmouth on a weeks course when the 40th anniversary of VE day was centred there. I can't remember seeing the BOB flight then - just the Red Arrows, but the fleet was in and I got photos of about 15 - 20 of the navy's finest. They sailed out around 7:30 to 8 every morning and my hotel was just 100 yards from the harbour mouth. They also had one of the big US Carriers in. I think it was the Eisenhower from memory, but I didn't get any pictures. Great memories!

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Not really into planes. Unless of course I'm getting into one to fly across the Atlantic. ;-) I've never really gone out of my way to see them, but am always amazed by them when I do see them by chance. Saw one of the Army cargo planes, I think it's supposed to be one of the biggest aircraft in the world or something, last summer when it was on it's way back after a flyover at the Esplanade. My windows face one of the flight paths to Hanscom Field (used for regional military aircraft). I wish I'd known today was the day all the tall ships were parading around Boston Harbor led by the Constitution! didn't realize it until mid afternoon when I saw the coverage on tv. That would have been somethin to see! And a gorgeous day for it, too. Gorgeous blue skies, no humidity and temps in the upper 70s. Oh well, I'm hoping to at least get down to the piers to walk around some of them later this week. Not quite the same as seeing them in full sail, but should still be interesting.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

ITK, was that the military air tattoo at Greenham. I had a great time there (1980?)and got some spectacular photos.

I was well hacked off a month ago when I returned from Newcastle to find that the Seawings 2000 event over the Solent had been on. 13 Spitfires in formation ..... awesome.

I remember about 10 years ago they had a Spitfire re-union at Eastleigh airfield (Southampton Airport). I was sitting in the garden when there was this unmistakable rumble and growl of a low flying Spitfire. Right over my house.... folowed by a dozen more. I was nearly in tears. Beautiful.

This Saturday there's a Spitfire fly-past at our works open day so I'll pop along for a quick peek. The Spitfire design offices were in Hursley during the war hence the fly-past.

My father was in the RAF and used to take me to air shows etc. when I was a nipper.... Biggin Hill etc.. You never get it out of your system!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I was working on the roof of a barn conversion in Kent one Summer. It was boiling hot and we were all stripped to the waist and suffering in the heat. Over the downs came an unmistakable growl and the six of us scrambled up to the ridge as a spitfire snarled over the brow of Charing Hill. We all started dancing about waving our arms and cheering except Pete, who was the old timer cynic on the crew and my mentor. "It's one of ours, Lads!" came the cry.

The pilot was clearly impressed by this knot of lunacy on a barn roof in the middle of nowhere and proceeded to swoop back over us a couple more times and finished up with a barrell roll and waggled his wings and waved before flying off. We were all ridiculously elated and bemoaning the lack of a camera while Pete just rolled a cigarette and reckoned that the pilot "was wearing mirror shades and had his arm out the window" - I know he was just as excited as the rest of us and was just covering up for not being able to run up the roof!

We were treated to a squadron of A10s tearing through the valley at another job near Billingham which was also pretty impressive but not nearly as scary as getting buzzed in the Lake District...they're mad, that lot!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Aye it's quite special in the Lakes when you're looking down on the planes sreaming up the valleys!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I couldn't believe it the first time I went there: struggling up a hillside and suddenly registering an enormous shadow swoop overhead followed by a massive displacement of air (some of it mine!) and roar of sound. That was when I noticed them jinking in and out of the valleys down below. Amazing sight.

I've always dreamed of seeing a Vulcan bomber in flight: wonderful looking machines. Took a leaf out of the Germans' book and built something that looks deadly.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

We used to get a Vulcan fly over every year in Washington for the Sunderland air show.....before they chopped down the forests and the airport and made Nissan....

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Now if only it had had a Geordie pilot :-))

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Softie,

I've seen a Vulcan take off at fairly close quarters .... f&^%ing massive!!

Sadly the last one flew in 1992 .... however.....:

Vulcan restoration

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

In the PC game 'Flying Fortress' they give you the chance to practice by bombing the Isle of Sheppey on the North Kent Coast. I tried flying North to Sunderland instead but it got all arsey with me. Waiting for a really good Battle of Britain simulation so that I can send the full weight of the Luftwaffe after them.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

The Sunderland Air Show is worth a visit if you can ignore all the red and white shirts around the place!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Great site Geordie! Thanks. I see there are several thousand other idiots who find them pretty impressive as well.

I have a mad friend who reckons that whole bomb shelters filled with Merlin engines were simply concreted over rather than bother winching them out after the War. He asures me that if you can find the exact bits of the relevant airfields and get the title deeds for them, you'll be made for life. I think he's deluding himself, but it's no worse than looking for the Holy Grail :-)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I've seen a Vulcan a few times and they are truly Gob-Smacking!

As a kid I once biked up to Acklington with my mates and we stood on the road at the end of the runway watching the planes go over. Yes, one was a Vulcan. I don't think I could hear for a week.

Also saw one at the Barton show. Brilliant!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

The Vulcan always reminds me of Douglas Adams' description the Vogon Constructor craft as "hanging in the air in exactly the same way that bricks don't" .... or something like that. They look like they move soooo slowly

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

We came into Portsmouth harbour this weekend just gone on the Cherbourg ferry, and were about 3 miles from the harbour when we were met by an extraordinary welcoming party of a spitfire, a couple of hurricanes and the Lancaster. We were treated to a 40 minute display as they flew around us all the way into the harbour. Christ were they loud, and how the lanc stays in the air I'll never know.

I used to work in a research lab and one of the old technicians had flown spitfires in the war; his arms were like Popeye's...so thick at the wrist that he couldn't button up his shirt cuffs.

After the war he went on to fly as a test pilot on dodgy jets and planes that had emergency-landed. He must have been absolutely fearless.

When I asked him what it was like, he just grinned and said 'scared the shit out of me, son'

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Always have to cross my fingers on the trip home coming past Northolt Aerodrome (as the Hillingdon Massive will testify). Private aircraft (and the odd Royal jet) approach so low to the A40 the street lights are some 50% lower to accomodate. You can even see the stowaways in the landing gear wells :-)

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Didn't a plane overshoot the runway and end up on the A40 a year or so ago? Nothing as interesting as a Vulcan or Lancaster though.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

That last bit was sick Bobby :))

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Pilgrim

I used to go to Acklington every year in the early 70s.

Vulcans - aaah - seeing a massed scramble takeoff at Finningley was one of the most awesome sights possible.

I used to fly from Usworth (still can't call it Sunderland) before Nissan trashed it.

One of the better vantage points for Sunderland is on the high ground just behind Marsden. We watched the Red Arrows from there and were actually above them as they flew in down the shore line.

This years show is 29th/30th July.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Hi Josh,

I can't remember how many of the Acklington Air Shows I went to 'cos I was so young. I remember them selling Zeppelin balloons and being fascinated by the life rafts. Memories of the planes are very vague. I saw more that I cab remember from the end of the runway. I remember seeing Lightnings, Victors and of course Vulcans.

The Barton Airshow was memorable 'cos we sat in the garden and the flight path of all the planes was directly overhead and very low. You just can't describe the immense sense of power that a Vulcan projects. When it flew overhead everything shook like an earthquake - it can't have meen more than a couple of hundred feet directly above us. Also loved the WW2 stuff. Lanc, Mosquito and of course the fighters. I want to go back!

I enjoyed a trip to the air museum at Biggin Hill a few years ago. The whole place reeks of history (like my holiday in Belgium touring the trenches, war graves etc). Have you been to the Air and Space Museum at Castlefields. There's not a huge amout there, but it's worth the trip.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

I was living in Sheffield on the 35th anniversary of the Dambuster raid. At that time there were still three surviving Lancasters, which they organised to do a repeat of one of the practice runs they had had at the time over the Ladybower Reservoir (apparently the terrain was vaguely similar to one of the German dams). Three of those things at an altitude of 60 feet were quite something to see and hear.

My mother, having been an observer on Tyneside during WW2, still claims to be able to tell a Dornier from a Heinkel, but strangely has no desire to see either flying again. She also gets quite irate when people equate the blitz with Lahndahn.

I told them I was an oberver too, but my case still comes up next week...

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Did you know a Vulcan crashed near Wingate (Co Durham) in 1971?

Details on the North East Air Museum Website

North East Air Museum

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Talking about Air Shows of which I add know nuffin, well the other Geordie in the village, on the spur of the Grouse and Tennants about 2 years ago in the pub decided to take a trip to see the Confederate Air Show, decided Thurs, left for Dallas/Ft Worth Friday, half a days drive to show at________?, late Sat/Sun, back in the village for the 5 oclock club on Tuesday where he regaled me at least with stories of the aircraft and the intrepid, flyers owners, probably more of interest to the real Buff`s, ouch

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Yo Buff - he was a lucky B*st*rd - the CAF is run by loons who decided to keep old WW2 aircraft flying - they've got trash loads of all different kinds of WW2 aircraft and they fly them regularly - they are I believe actually bigger than the vast majority of the worlds airforces.

They do things like re-enacting Pearl Harbour on a pretty large scale. A sight not to be missed by anybody interested in flying things.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

From :- http://www.confederateairforce.org/ (Note no brits just Yanks and opposition)

Aeronca L-3 Defender (Grasshopper) Beech AT-11 Kansan Beech C-45 Expeditor (USN SNB and JRB) Bell P-39 Airacobra Bell P-63 Kingcobra Boeing PT-17 Kaydet (USN N2S) Boeing B-29 Superfortress Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Cessna UC-94 (C-165 Airmaster) Cessna UC-78 Bobcat (RCAF Crane) Chance Vought FG-1D (F4U) Corsair Consolidated B-24 Liberator (British RLB-30 variant) Curtiss C-46 Commando Curtiss SB2C Helldiver (USAF A-25) Curtiss P-40 Warhawk (Kittyhawk and Tomahawk) DeHavilland DH-94 Moth Minor DeHavilland DHC-1 Chipmunk Douglas A-26 Invader Douglas C-47 Skytrain (USN R4D, RAF Dakota) Douglas SBD Dauntless (USAF A-24) Douglas B-23 Dragon Erco YO-55 Ercoupe Fairchild PT-19, PT-23 and PT-26 Cornell Fieseler Fi-156 Storch Fleet 16B Finch Focke-Wulf Fw-44 Stieglitz Grumman TBM (TBF) Avenger Grumman FM-2 (F4F) Wildcat Grumman F6F Hellcat Grumman F8F Bearcat Heinkel He-111 (Spanish-built CASA 2111 H-16 variant) Interstate L-6 Grasshopper Japanese Zero fighter replica (North American Harvard conversion) Japanese Kate torpedo bomber replica (Vultee BT-13 Valiant conversion) Japanese Val dive bomber replica (North American SNJ conversion) Junkers JU-52 German bomber and transport Lockheed C-60 Hudson (Model 18 Lodestar, A-28/29, C-56) Lockheed P-38 Lightning Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon Lockheed T-33 Messerschmitt Me-108 Taifun German liason/trainer Messerschmitt Me-109 German fighter (Spanish-built CASA Ha-1112 variant) Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 21 Zero Japanese carrier fighter Navy N3N Yellow Peril North American P-51 Mustang North American AT-6 Texan (USN SNJ, RAF Harvard, various models) North American B-25 Mitchell North American BT-14 North American P-82 Twin Mustang North American T-28 Trojan PBY-6A Catalina Piper L-4 Grasshopper (J-3 Cub) Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Ryan PT-22 Recruit Ryan L-17 Navion Stinson AT-19 Reliant (RNAF V-77) Stinson L-9B Voyager Stinson S-108 (WWII Civil Air Patrol markings) Stinson L-5 Sentinel (USN/Marines OY) Sikorsky R-48 Hoverfly Taylorcraft L-2 Grasshopper Vultee BT-13 and BT-15 Valiant (USN SNV, Vibrator)

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Mystery solved - ITK

Your aircraft were over the RMT 2000 at Horseguards that week - probably a VC10 taanker and 2 Tornados or Jaguars.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000