SCAMPTON AIRSHOW MAKES ITS DEBUT

More than 50,000 people attended the inaugural Scampton Airshow held over September 9-10. The flying display started at 11am and opened on the first day with a flypast by the Scampton-based Red Arrows in formation with a Sentinel R1 from 5(AC) Sqn – also resident in Lincolnshire at RAF Waddington. This was followed by a flypast by a Sentry AEW1 of 8 Sqn, also from Waddington. Other modern military performers were limited to a Belgian Defence – Air Component F-16A MLU Fighting Falcon, the only UK appearance this year from the French Air Force’s Alpha Jet solo display and the closing item each day at 4pm was an RAF Typhoon. The rest of the programme was made up of routines by civil aircraft or former military types. Highlights among them was a spraying demonstration by T2 Aviation Boeing 727-2S2F, G-OSRB, which released water to show its capabilities to disperse an oil slick. The routine by the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron’s two Vampires was also noteworthy. Pembroke C.1 WV740/G-BNPH of Horizon Air Services was due to display on the Saturday but developed a technical fault. Thankfully it was resolved in time for it to take to the air the next day.