IWM Duxford Summer Air Show
IWM Duxford felt very tropical at times during its Summer Air Show, and that was not just because of an ‘Asian War Theme’ display which was one of the highlights of this most varied of airshows. The third weekend of June was particularly warm with the Saturday reaching temperatures of over 30°C which in turn brought some sprinkles of rain to Cambridgeshire. While the Summer Air Show may not be as warbird heavy as the Battle of Britain Air Show in September, the 2025 edition did still bring in some very interesting international historic aircraft for two days of flying in the heat! It was however another event to suffer a fair degree of bad luck, particularly as the event wrapped up on Sunday evening.
Paul Johnson/Flightline UK reports. All photography by the author.
Summer Air Show was more than an apt title for Imperial War Museum Duxford’s first major airshow of the year. It was a baking weekend with Saturday’s temperatures reaching well over 30°C and Sunday’s not too far behind in the high twenties. Saturday’s rather extreme heat did mean conditions were ripe for the formation of thunderstorms and while Duxford escaped any disruptive weather, the final few acts did have to cope with some light rain as storms formed just west of the Cambridgeshire airfield. Sunday remained warm but felt very different with fresher air and a south-westerly breeze.
That difference in conditions over the two days probably had a major bearing on visitor experience across the weekend despite both days seeing some superb flying. I personally felt Saturday started to drag a bit in some very tropical feeling air. Sunday felt very different, almost as if the entire event just felt revitalised by the fresher air even though it some planned elements of the flying were dropped and it ended in disappointing circumstances.
While Flightline UK is very much biased towards the aviation elements of events, it would be remiss not to mention the efforts of the airshow team to enhance the Duxford experience. All of Duxford’s Flying events now see some extra ground displays, but for the main airshows this is brought to a whole new level with displays throughout the aircraft including living history groups, the incredible displays from the British Model Flying Association as well as the modern military contributions from the UK and United States Air Force. Of note was the central ‘hangar base’ area with its additional catering including a new bar area from Greene King, living history displays and live music. This central area made the event feel much more of an occasion, not just a flying display bolted on to a day at the museum!
The afternoon flying displays had no over-riding theme, but there were several mini themes for certain sequences of flying. Duxford’s legendary status as a Battle of Britain Airfield was remembered with very smooth and elegant routine from a trio of home-based warbirds led by the Aircraft Restoration Company’s stunning Bristol Blenheim 1F flanked by the Imperial War Museum’s own Supermarine Spitfire Ia flown by Martin Overall and Fighter Aviation Engineering’s Hawker Hurricane I piloted by Travor Duggan. At the controls of the Blenheim was Jon Gowdy flying one of his first public displays in the unique twin-engine warbird. Just before the combination display on the Sunday, the audience were treated to two additional Spitfire IXTs arriving into Duxford from the Aero Legends fleet.
Another major part of Duxford and Air Display history was marked by another pair of home-based aircraft. Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress ‘Sally-B’ is celebrating 50 years since her arrival in the UK in March 1975. Indeed, she also began her residency at Duxford that year before the site became an open museum. Throughout that half century, Elly Sallingboe has overcome extraordinary challenges with B-17 Preservation Ltd and the Supporters club to keep the might four engine bomber flying as a unique memorial to the thousands American airmen who fought in the European air campaign during the Second World War. For her special anniversary display, she was escorted by Fighter Aviation Engineering’s Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, an aircraft which has flown alongside Sally-B for many displays, flown by Mark Levy.
Duxford based pilots were also involved in other themed displays. The pilots of the Flying Comrades team, Phil Hardisty, Alex Lewton and Tom Turner took a leading role in two such displays. Saturday saw a sequence of displays highlighting cold war trainers and was led by the three Duxford pilots flying a de Havilland Canada Chipmunk T10, Scottish Aviation Bulldog T1 and Yakovlev Yak-52 through a sequence of formations together with solo passes and some tailchase aerobatics. The sequence was closed by Classic Viper Aircraft’s beautiful BAC Jet Provost T5 flown by former RAF Tutor Display Pilot, David John Gibbs.
The second scenario was one of the highlights of the afternoon and was very loosely titled ‘Asian War.’ It was initially planned as a ‘Mish-Mash’ of aerial battlefield operations within the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. However, this was somewhat confused by some aircraft serviceability which meant it got expanded to include Indian operations. As lead commentator Ben Dunnell said, it required some imagination on the part of the audience. The sequence opened with a quartet of spotter aircraft in the form of two Piper L4 Grasshoppers, an Auster AOP6 and a Cessna L19 Bird Dog which were patrolled an Asian river plain when they spotted enemy activity and were attacked. They then called on a strike package of a bomber and escorted played by the Commemorative Air Force’s Douglas R4D-6S and Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd’s Royal Indian Air Force Supermarine Spitfire FRXIVe. Despite various bombing and strafing runs, when the spotter aircraft returned, they were attacked once again so called in a further strike, this time from the menacing Bell AH-1S Cobra from HeliCzech’s Cobra Demo Team making its UK display debut. The Cobra put on a tremendous display of its agility amidst the distinctive ‘whop-whop’ rotor noise to close its sequence accompanied by music from the Vietnam era including ‘Fortunate Son’ by Creedance Clearwater Revival. Special mention should be made of the Cobra Demo Team’s efforts to support Duxford. Not only was it a fairly long transit for the aircraft, but several of the team made the trip by road to bring a ground display with them too which was greatly appreciated.
As well as the historic aircraft, there was plenty of colour provided by a variety of civilian teams. The Aerosuperbatics Wingwalkers have long supported Duxford’s early summer events and were joined by the Stampe Formation Team, a full seven-ship of Vans RV8s from Team Raven and the Starlings Aerobatic Team flying their sleek Extra NGs. A very classy display of elegent glider aerobatics was brought to Duxford’s skies by Brendan O’Brien flying the Cambridge Gliding Group’s Schleicher ASK21 training sailplane.
However, it was the contributions from the modern-day armed forces that really stood out at this Duxford event. The Royal Air Force had scheduled nearly all of its display teams for Duxford, but sadly weather and operation circumstances intervened. Weather, specifically strong winds, prevented both the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team from completing any displays at Duxford. But perhaps the strangest loss was the RAF Red Arrows. The team based themselves at RAF Mildenhall for the weekend for a busy weekend which included a flypast at SHAPE Headquarters in Belgium and supporting the Armed Forces Weekend in Northern Ireland before heading to Duxford. Come display time at Duxford it was announced the team were unable to perform for the crowd as they were being prevented from leaving the United States Air Force base. It clearly left the members of the team at Duxford as well as the event organisers rather bemused and the audience very disappointed.
There was still however plenty of RAF involvement with the thunderous Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 flown by Sqn Ldr Nathan Shawyer on both days and on Saturday by the Grob Tutor T1 energetically flown by Flt Lt Bob Dewes. A Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook HC6 returned to a Duxford flying programme for the first time in many years with the much-improved Role Demonstration by crews from RAF Odiham and the Joint Helicopter Support Squadron based at RAF Benson.
However, the highlight of the modern military participation was the brand-new Army Air Corps Demonstration Team Team comprising of a pair of Boeing AH-64E Apache AH2s and a Leonardo Wildcat AH1. Though they were without their supporting pyrotechnics, the team gave an interesting display of how the Army uses both the Wildcat and Apache together to support battlefield operations. More significantly the demonstration marked the first time a UK AH-64E Apache AH2 had participated in the UK flying display. The fact that took place at Duxford is very appropriate as it was at Duxford the original WAH-64D Apache AH1 also made its public flying display debut in 1999.
2024’s D-Day 80 Summer Air Show was always going to be a very hard act to follow for IWM Duxford. While they were not helped by the weather which did not follow the script or decisions made by other airfield operators, they still put together a very varied and entertaining flying programme that the audience really enjoyed with the end of almost every act met with applause. The efforts of the airshow team to bring together international historic aircraft rarely seen in the UK plus some imaginative presentation is also to be applauded.
