Flying Legends Airshow 2003, IWM Duxford
The Flying Legends weekend was blessed by warm blue skies and an enthusiastic audience who enjoyed the unique aerial theatre that the show offers. It is however, impossible to reflect on the event without remembering the tragic events on Saturday involving the Royal Navy Historic Flight’s Fairey Firefly WB271 which led to loss of Lt Commander Bill Murton and Neil Rix.
All photography by the author.
While Flying Legends is very much a Fighter Collection event, it was the Old Flying Machine Company that were the stars of the show in 2003. The legendary Breitling Fighters team made their final appearance at a Flying Legends event plus their Lavochkin La-9 made a rare UK appearance alongside other Russian warbirds. Adding some North American flavour to the USAAF salute was Chino Warbird’s rare North American/Cavalier TF-51D Mustang Mk2 in the capable hands of Steve Hinton. The aircraft wore markings representing a 78th Fighter Group P-51 based at Duxford during the Second World War. It was joined by TFC’s new P-51D Mustang Twilight Tear and P-47D Thunderbolt ‘No Guts No Glory‘ plus Rob Davies’ P-51D ‘Big Beautiful Doll’ for a unique salute to the 78th.
Another eye-catching aircraft making its UK debut was the Junkers Ju-52/3M from Amicale Jean Baptiste Salis with support from EADS. It flew alongside the Lufthansa operated Ju-52 as part of an early war Luftwaffe sequence of flying.
