Sea Vixen

... at the Kidlington Air Show ("Fly to the Past").

This quite futuristic-looking 'plane has its origins as far back as 1946. I am surprised that any are still flying. In its original form, it was the de Havilland DH110. Another shot shows the trademark twin-boom tail structure.

In 1952, when I was 13 years old, I was taken to the Farnborough Air Show on 5 September, and was deeply impressed by this aircraft, allowed at that time to display along the crowd line at supersonic or near-supersonic speeds. The very next day, the DH100 broke up during its display, killing the pilot John Derry, and another 30 people on the ground. It was this incident that set in motion the changes in safety regulations for British public air shows.

Nothing untoward like that today, which is just as well in view of the sad loss of a Red Arrow and its pilot at Bournemouth yesterday, and the grounding of Vulcan XH558 as a result of a leak in the fuel tank.

In fact, it was a wonderful afternoon for what is almost certainly the last air show of the season for us. Together with many other friendly watchers, we assembled on a road at the end of the runway, thereby gaining a much better view (since we were roughly on the display line) than those inside the airfield on the rather distant crowd line.

The show was surprisingly interesting and varied, with many graceful displays showing the remarkable skills of the pilots. Maybe the female wingwalkers on these biplanes are taking fewer risks tahn it seems, but being strapped to the top of aircraft performing crossover manouevres must feel a little hairy.

Towards the end of the show a multicoloured Hunter materialsed!. Here you can see it climbing away at speed.