Manston Air show was as controversial as it was brilliant. The traffic was dire, thousands of cars heading for a narrow funnel into a huge grassed area on the side of the air field, caused nine mile tail backs. We took four hours to cover three miles and missed half the show.
The Spitfire was there along with a Hurricane, both gave fantastic accounts of themselves, unfortunately we only saw the Hurricane flying over a distant air field whilst stuck in the traffic.
What air show would be complete without the B 17? This magnificent aircraft gave a great display as she majestically swept about the sky. In this picture the 'old girl' was trailing smoke from her port outer engine. In other shots the bomb bay doors were open, fantastic!
One of the static displays, a Tornado, note the huge tail section that distinguishes this aircraft.
One of my favourite aircraft is the Hawk. The Red Arrows fly this brilliant little jet, they are also used by 19 Sqn as advanced trainers on Anglesey in Wales. They are nimble as you will know from watching The Red Arrows, and are pretty simple as they are an old and trusted design fitted with analogue display systems and 'seat of the pants' technology.
Because we were delayed, we missed the star of the show. A beautifully restored Vulcan Bomber took off from the runway and did a turn. We certainly heard this beast of the sky but unfortunately were too far away to get a good view of the stunning flying.
Hopefully next time the organisation of this fantastic event will be much improved, or maybe we'll allow a few more hours to get there. We live 20 minutes from Manston, but obviously 4.5 hours is not enough time on air show day!
