RAF Waddington International Airshow

Lincolnshire, England   July 5-6, 2008

Story and photography by Craig Scott

July 2008 was opened with the RAF’s premier airshow at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, England. While the display listing lacked some of the foreign participation that might have been hoped for with a show of its stature - only the French air force Mirage 2000 was present on the flying display to represent the foreign fast jets - there was only one item that mattered to many, and that was the mighty Avro Vulcan. After an absence from the skies of 15 years its appearance was eagerly anticipated but remained on a knife-edge right until the last minute.

After being advertised as arriving at Waddington on the Thursday before the show, the one question that remained was whether the aircraft would be static or, as hoped, make its flying debut on the airshow scene. The aircraft arrived as hoped on Thursday, and proceeded to complete its display sequence on the arrivals day in the presence of the Civil Aviation Authority and a Permit to Display was issued to the crew. The display was on!

Saturday dawned dark and murky, with a heavy rainstorm doing its best to dampen the spirits of all those attending, but it was not enough to stop the Delta Lady from performing. As the afternoon came the skies cleared, the Vulcan accelerated down the runway as part of a “scramble” takeoff before blasting into broken cloud, but with welcome breaks beginning to appear. The battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster then displayed with the Vulcan waiting in the wings.

After the Spitfire and Hurricane had landed it was time for the highlight of the show - two generations of Avro bombers - the Lancaster and Vulcan-flying in formation for the first time ever. After the completion of a truly memorable flypast, the Lancaster landed allowing the Vulcan to bask in the glory of a return to flight that many had claimed was impossible. The Delta Lady was back, and at the end of the display the Vulcan’s wheels touched Waddington’s runway to the sound of spontaneous applause from the gathered spectators. History had been made, and the airshow attendees were clearly enjoying the moment.

Sadly a combination of truly appalling weather and an electrical fault meant the Vulcan was unable to repeat its display on the Sunday of the show, but the fact remained that Waddington - the home of the Vulcan Display Flight in the Eighties and early Nineties - had seen the homecoming of the Vulcan, a truly fitting conclusion to many years of hard work and uncertainty for Vulcan devotees.

The rest of the show still had its highlights, including a stunning display from the French and their Mirage 2000. The RAF’s “Role demo” was back, performed in its entirety using Hawk, Sentry, and Tornado F3 and GR4 jets, along with a rotary component consisting of a RAF Chinook and an Army Air Corps Apache gunship. Blessed with excellent conditions on Saturday (unfortunately Sunday’s was heavily curtailed, again falling victim to the weather) the display is widely described as being better than last year’s, and proved a spectacular demonstration of the kind of operations the modern RAF is engaged in. The “Sarongs” helicopter display team from India, the Extra 300s of “Los Halcones” of Chile, and the Spanish Patrulla Aguila added a bit of international flavour to the proceedings.

Despite a very high number of cancellations from visiting aircraft (said to be in excess of 40), the appearance of the Vulcan meant that Waddington was still hailed by many as being one of the base’s best in recent years. The Delta Lady is back, and she still looks as good as ever!