IWM Duxford Flying Finale
The UK Air Display season came to close on the first weekend of October with both IWM Duxford and the Shuttleworth Collection hosting their final airshows of the year. Opening the weekend was IWM Duxford’s Flying Finale which saw tremendous support from not only from its own cohort of operators, but also the Royal Air Force display teams which were also closing off their 2024 seasons at the event. While there was no major theme to the Finale, it did include some special flypasts to the mark the 80thAnniversary of the D-Day Landings and the 60th Display Season for the RAF Red Arrows.
Paul Johnson/Flightline UK reports. All photography by the author.
The 2024 edition of the Flying Finale was perhaps the closest the modern iteration of the event has ever been to being a full Duxford Airshow. For various reasons it attracted superb support from the Royal Air Force and that was reflected in a sell-out crowd of 6,500. The Flying Finale however is not funded as a full airshow and therefore does not enjoy the full infrastructure or parking areas that the Summer or Battle of Britain Air Shows enjoy. While there is a much more relaxed feel to showground, the same could not be said of the North-side car park after the event closed with a quite the delay for many to get out.
Though not a full airshow, the museum site still hosted a handful of traders and exhibits from re-enactors and the modern-day armed forces. Some of Duxford’s operators also had static displays including the Aerial Collective and the Fighter Collection.
Though the weather was very kind to Duxford with clear skies, the southerly wind meant it was a tricky crosswind, particularly for the lighter aircraft. It was therefore little surprise that conditions were deemed unsuitable for the First World War One segment which would have featured the Historic Aircraft Collection’s Airco DH9 and Paul Ford’s Fokker Dr1 replica.
The flying opened with theme reflected IWM Duxford’s winter exhibition – namely Photo Reconnaissance. This opened with the Beech D17S Staggering owned and flown by Peter Kuypers. A similar aircraft was used by the intelligence services during the period just before the outbreak of the Second World War to gather imagery of Germany’s military build-up. It was followed by Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd’s stunning Supermarine Spitfire FRXIVe flown by Alex Smee. Air Leasing recently fully refurbished this Spitfire returning it to its original Royal Indian Air Force markings and re-instating its camera port in the fuselage.
The next theme brought together some of the training aircraft based at Duxford. Phil Hardisty and Alex Lewton from the Duxford based Flying Comrades team flew a de Havilland Canada Chipmunk T10 and Yakovlev Yak-52 alongside Pete Kynsey flying his Bucker Jungmann. As well as some formation passes, each of the pilots showed off the aerobatic qualities of their respective aircraft with some very fine solo routines.
More colourful aerobatics came later in the afternoon from the ‘Racers’ slot. Peter Kynsey returned with his beautiful Le Vier Cosmic Wind and shared the stage with Danny Williams flying his Pitts S-1D Special. Both aircraft really looked superb with their colourful markings lit by the late afternoon sunshine against the pastel blue skies.
Another sequence featuring some of Duxford’s lighter aircraft marked the exploits of the communications and liaison aircraft used by both the allied and axis powers during the Second World War. Two thirds of this display were familiar with Sam Whatmough and Anthony Bendowski recreating ‘the last dogfight’ with their Slepcev Storch and Piper L4 Grasshopper. However, for the first time they were joined by Paul Ford in his beautiful Aeronca L3 Defender. This aircraft made its first appearance on static display during the Battle of Britain Airshow but the Flying Finale was the aircraft’s first flying display appearance. Like the Austers and L4s, the L3 were used by allied forces throughout the European campaign as aerial observation posts and communications aircraft.
Some of Duxford’s more potent historic aircraft also featured throughout the afternoon. Steve Jones and Stu Goldspink presented the ultimate piston engine fighters with a formation routine in Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd’s Hawker Fury ISS and the Fighter Collection’s Grumman F8F-2P Bearcat.
Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd also presented their Republic P-47D Thunderbolt ‘Nellie-B’ and North American P-51D Mustang ‘Jersey Jerk’ in the air together with a smooth aerobatic duo display flown by Mark Levy and Dave Puleston. With blue skies and delicate vapour vortices streaming, the two silver fighters looked sublime in the autumnal light as their looped and rolled over the formation USAAF base.
There was more flying from a P-51D Mustang later in the display with a solo display by Isobel Rutland in ‘Marinell’ which is based at Duxford under the care of the Aircraft Restoration Company. Isobel flew her first display in the Flying Finale in 2023 flying CK Aviation’s North American Harvard and since then has displayed at several other events in both the Harvard and Mustang. ‘Marinell’ was one of two P-51Ds restored and owned by Maurice Hammond’s Hardwick Warbirds before being sold to Italy. It returned to the UK in 2023 owned by Marinell Ltd and is maintained by the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford.
For three of the Royal Air Force’s display teams, the Flying Finale marked their final displays of the season. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight ended what has been a bittersweet season with a fine solo display from Avro Lancaster B1 PA474. The loss of Squadron Leader Mark Long was a very difficult time for the flight and resulted in no fighter displays at all this season. However, the return of Avro Lancaster PA474 at the mid-point of the season meant the flight were able to take part in many of the UK’s big summer holiday airshows as well as the Operation Market Garden commemorations in Belgium and the Netherlands. The response to Lancaster flying again was heart-warming and reinforced just how much the efforts of the flight’s groundcrews and pilots are appreciated by the public.
2024 has seen the display Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 wear the colours of a Hawker Typhoon flying with 257 Squadron during 1944. Its markings include the famous black and white invasion stripes applied to allied aircraft to help better identify them from any Luftwaffe aircraft that might have been flying over the battlefield. However, during the display season it has not been seen flying alongside a warbird of any kind also wearing those stripes. That wrong was put right at Duxford with John Romain leading Flt Lt David Turnbull in ARCo’s Supermarine Spitfire PRXI for a couple of passes before each performed their own solo routines.
The final hour of Duxford’s display season started with what Duxford really does best, big formations of Spitfires and Hurricanes. In part, the formation saluted 19 Squadron’s commanding officer during the Dunkirk evacuations, Sqn Ldr Geoffrey Stephenson. At the time, 19 Squadron were based at Duxford and Stephenson was shot down during the operation. He landed his aircraft, N3200, on the beach and was taken prisoner. He survived the war returning to RAF service but was sadly killed while flying with the USAF in a F-100 Super Sabre.
In all seven aircraft took part with the Imperial War Museum’s own Spitfire Ia N3200, a restoration of the aircraft flown by Stephenson, leading in the hands of Jon Gowdy. He was joined by Anna Walker and Rolf Meum flying the Spitfire Ias of Comanche Fighters, Ben Cox piloting Fighter Aviation Engineering’s Spitfire Vc, the Old Flying Machine Company’s Spitfire LFIXb MH434 flown by Paul Bonhomme, Fighter Aviation Engineering’s Hawker Hurricane I flown by Trevor Duggan and Stu Goldspink at the controls of Hurricane501’s Hurricane I. The group of fighters made a couple of passes together before splitting into two opposing formations. MH434 then left the display leaving the remaining aircraft to perform one last spirited tailchase in the gin clear blue skies.
The display then turned to the RAF Red Arrows. 2024 marks the team’s 60th Display Season which took in events in the UK, Europe and Canada. Back in the spring ahead of the display season, there were some flypasts with a Folland Gnat T1 to mark the team’s history. However, for their final display of the season, the team and IWM Duxford chose to mark perhaps the Red Arrows most famous leader, Squadron Leader Ray Hanna AFC & Bar. Ray was one of the founding members of the team in 1965 and the following year became Red 1. He held that position for four years and was responsible for enlarging the team to a formation of nine creating the iconic diamond nine which has been the team’s hallmark ever since. Following retirement from the RAF, Ray pursued a career in commercial aviation but also flew Sir Adrian Swire’s Spitfire MH434 at air displays which he eventually owned. In 1981, together with son Mark and daughter Sarah, Ray formed the Old Flying Machine Company flying at airshows and for films until he passed away in December 2005. Though OFMC owned many warbirds, Spitfire MH434 was always the centrepiece of the fleet. Ray’s solo displays in MH434 are legendary. For me, it was Ray’s closing displays at Biggin Hill events that are the most memorable – there were the famous low passes, but they were tempered with very smooth and high energy aerobatics that demonstrated just what a formidable combat aircraft the Spitfire could be and perhaps more than most showed man and machine in perfect harmony.
It was therefore a very special moment for the Red Arrows and all gathered at Duxford to witness the 2024 team lead Spitfire LFIXb MH434 for a special flypast in the autumnal sunshine. The Red Arrows then signed off with their final display of a very busy season (and first ever as part of Duxford October show) in perfect conditions.
As a whole, the 2024 Flying Finale was a memorable way for Duxford to close its 2024 flying season. There were superb sequences from start to finish of the three-hour display topped off with a pair of unique flypasts and a superb Spitfire and Hurricane tailchase.
