Held each July at the former Battle of Britain fighter airfield at Duxford, 50 miles North of London, England, the ‘Flying Legends’ airshow has long been recognized as the premier warbird airshow in Europe, if not the world.  Staged by Stephen Grey’s organization, The Fighter Collection, it brings together the cream of Europe’s finest piston-engined fighters and bombers, and for a weekend the skies of Cambridgeshire are filled with the sounds of Merlins and Griffons, Allisons and R-2800s.

  This is a show for what Stephen likes to call the ‘afficionado’.  No jets, no civilian aerobatic acts, parachute drops or helicopters.  Warbirds and vintage aircraft by invitation only, the team at TFC spare no trouble or expense in bringing many rare and unusual types across from Europe, several of which have only ever appeared in the UK at Legends.  From the many languages heard being spoken, visitors from all over the world congregated on Duxford for the show.

  Visitors from the USA are common at Legends too.  After last year’s aborted attempt to bring P-38 Lightning ‘Glacier Girl’ across the North Atlantic, this year Don Brooks brought his B-17 ‘Liberty Belle’ over for a week.  As well as attending Legends, he took the opportunity to take a tour of East Anglia, flying over several former B-17 bases including Framlingham, where the original ‘Liberty Belle’ (whose tail gunner, Elton Brooks, was Don Brooks’ father) was based.  It was joined by B-17 ‘Pink Lady’ from France – sadly, the home-based B-17 ‘Sally B’ had to sit this one out due to a blown engine.

  Several of the display pilots were also visiting from the US, including Legends regular Steve Hinton, joined this year by his brother John, Ed Shipley and Howard Pardue.

  The show opened with the traditional ‘Spitfire scramble’, with 9 aircraft getting airborne in a very short space of time, the Griffon-engined machines from the hard-surface runway and the lighter Merlin-powered ones, 2-abreast from Duxford’s grass runway.  We were then treated to a 9-Spitfire formation aerobatic tailchase – always one of the highlights of the show.

  This year’s highlights included Mikael Carlson’s original Thulin-built 1918 Bl.eriot XI from Sweden, powered by a 50hp Gnome rotary engine.  This made an unusual sight and was skillfully flown in gusty conditions, making flat turns due to the wing-warping controls from the pre-aileron era.  The Stearmans of ‘Team Guinot’ put up a 5-ship formation for the first time, and were also using colored smoke for the first time.  Each 450hp Stearman had a girl on top of the wing, the coordinated formation wingwalking being one of the highlights of the afternoon.