We were provided with press tickets to the Imperial War Museum Air Show at Duxford for this post however all opinions are my own.
Our 10-year-old son, Jacob, absolutely loves Spitfires. Imagine his delight when we were invited to the famous Imperial War Museum Battle of Britain Air Show at Duxford.
He has lots of models, enjoys building Airfix kits and loves to draw them. Jacob's interest in Spitfires started around the age of 3 years old. He is the Young Ambassador of The Battle of Britain Memorial Trust at Capel-Le-Ferne, near Folkestone in Kent. He helps the Trust keep the memory of the aircrew known as 'The Few' alive.
We got up super early as we wanted to spend as much time there as possible and by early I mean 5am!
IWM Duxford is Europe's largest air museum located in Cambridgeshire, just off the M11 and accessible by car, train, bus, or by air! Also, served as a base for many of the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots during the Second World War.
This historic site includes a vast range of enormous hangars, gigantic aircraft, a live airfield and a wide collection of personal stories of those who have lived, fought and died in conflict from the First World War to the present day.
You could feel the excitement as we parked our car and walked through the ticket booths. People carrying camping chairs and everything they needed for an exciting day watching the show.
We attended the second day of the 2-day event.
As we got there early, we were able to walk the Flightline which I would definitely recommend.
What a fantastic sight. To see all those aircraft up close was amazing.
Walking down the Flightline we could see the amazing flying machines in detail, how often do you get to see a Spitfire that close!
You can see how much they are cared for and it's really humbling to see them and realise their history.
Alongside the many Spitfires, there were Hawker Hurricanes, a Corsair, a Bearcat, 2 Mustangs, a Thunderbolt, a B-17G Flying Fortress, a Curtiss Hawk, a Curtiss Warhawk, 3 Hispano Buchons, a Catalina, a Swordfish, a Curtiss P-36C the First World War replica Sopwith Triplane, a Fokker and The Junkers, the Vans from Team Raven and not forgetting the Westland Whirlwind, Westland Wessex and the Westland Sea King which was featured on BBC One's TV drama Vigil starring Suranne Jones.
From the 10th July to 31st October 1940, The Battle of Britain took place in the skies over the English Channel against the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe.
The Battle of Britain was a huge victory in our history with just under 3000 pilots and other aircrew of Fighter Command always remembered for their heroics.
Jacob took great pleasure in looking at the aircraft and educating me and dad, Mark, on which aircraft was which.
The fantastic line-up included Spitfires, Hawker Hurricanes and so much more.
We also saw the Aircraft Restoration Company's blue Spitfire with 'THANK U NHS' painted on the underside of those iconic wings, and all the handwritten names from people who have donated to NHS Charities Together.
As the flying display was due to begin at 1 pm, this gave us lots of time to look around the rest of what IWM Duxford has to offer.
There was so much to see and do, you could have a vintage hairdo, dance at the stage area, listen to one of the Dazzle Talks by the IWM volunteers, have fun in the vintage fairground, spend some money on the stalls (Jacob bought an IWM Spitfire flipbook and a book on how to draw Warplanes from the IWM gift shop tent) and, check out the different Living History Groups and even play Crazy Golf!
Photo: IWM
There are 10 key elements to IWM Duxford that are permanent exhibitions.
AirSpace
Flying Aircraft
Historic Duxford
Air and Sea
Battle of Britain
Conservation in Action
Battle of Britain: Ops Block
American Air Museum
Land Warfare
The British Airliner Collection including 13 commercial airliners.
After we had found a good spot (to be honest, anywhere is a good spot here) and set up our camping chairs ready for the air show later, we headed down to the biggest hangar on the site, AirSpace.
AirSpace is huge!
Seeing the Avro Lancaster Bomber, famous for its role in the Dambusters raid, standing under the belly of the impressive Avro Vulcan and walking through Concorde and seeing that iconic nose was a great start to the day.
In AirSpace, you can get up-close to some of the most famous aircraft in the world and get to know how they fly, how they’re made and discover the impact they’ve made on our world.
Whether you are a plane enthusiast or not, you will be in awe at these amazing flying machines.
Also in AirSpace you will find the Airborne Assault Museum. Airborne Assault is the Regimental Museum of the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces and tells the stories of the soldiers who go to war from the air.
Grabbing a drink in The Armoury Cafe & Kitchen just next to the entrance of the AirSpace hangar, we headed to the opposite end of the IWM Duxford site and into Land Warfare.
Land Warfare is where you can walk through scenes from the First World War through to modern conflicts.
Walking through the Normandy Experience you can listen to an audio reconstruction of what the invasion would have been like on D-Day itself in 1944, see what equipment they used and what it would have been like from the point of view of people who took part.
The scenes of devastation looked very real.
And to our surprise, out of the back of Land Warfare, there were actual real tanks, where you could have a ride in one!
As the air display start time was fast approaching, we didn't even think about food as we were so busy looking at the vast amount of things at Duxford! We quickly popped to grab some food, there was a great selection of food and drinks to choose from. Jacob opted for a yummy pizza, I had a juicy cheeseburger and Mark had a tasty hotdog.
We got back to our seats just in time to hear the unmistakable famous Rolls-Royce Merlin engines fire up as the Spitfires opened the show.
Check out the display flight schedule, what an incredible line-up that lasted for over 4 hours!
1.00pm – Supermarine Spitfires – Supermarine Spitfire Mk I, Mk IX & Mk XIV
1.13pm – Hurricane Formation – 4 x Hawker Hurricane
1.30pm – Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – Lancaster, Hawker Hurricane & Supermarine Spitfire
1.52pm – Russian Spitfire – Supermarine Spitfire MkIX
2.02pm – Curtis Fighters Curtiss P-36C, Curtiss Hawk 75 & Curtiss P-40 Warhawk
2.16pm – B-17 Sally B – Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
2.30pm – Buchons & US Fighters – 2 x Buchons, 1 x P-47D Thunderbolt, P-51D and TF-51D Mustang
2.47pm – Team Raven – 5 x Vans RV-8
3.09pm – Great War Display Team – 7 x First World War aircraft, Sopwith Triplane, SE5a, Avro 504k, Fokker DR1 & Junkers CL
3.31pm – Spitfire – Spitfire MkV
3.43pm – Historic helicopters – Wessex & Sea King
4.03pm – Historic Army Aircraft Flight – Army Historic Beaver, Sioux, Auster
4.19pm – Catalina – Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina
4.29pm – US Navy Fighters – Goodyear FG-1D Corsair & Grumman F8F-2P Bearcat
4.41pm – Spitfire Joker
4.43pm – Spitfire Balbo – 12 Spitfires & 4 Hawker Hurricanes
5.18pm – Spitfire Solo – Supermarine Spitfire Mk PRXI with 'THANK U NHS'
Jacob, insisted on me listing the full schedule for the air show so you can see just how impressive the show was.
The air show was absolutely fantastic.
We were treated to an amazing display by each and every one of the aircraft mentioned above.
We watched in awe as the various planes took to the skies.
The explosions and gunfire from the pyrotechnics when the Great War Display team had a dog fight which was exciting.
Team Raven's display was brilliant, and we loved the heart manoeuvre which was very impressive and made the crowd do a collective ‘Ahhhh’.
Check out the gallery of photos below. We took so many pictures!
The commentators did a great job and gave the crowd so much information on each display and played music from the era.
The most breathtaking site was seeing 13 Spitfires and 4 Hawker Hurricanes all flying together in The Big Wing formation.
You could hear a pin drop as the crowd fell silent, transfixed at this stunning sight.
After the 18 months we have all had with Covid, it was great to be able to attend the air show with lots of other people enjoying their day and seeing the Supermarine Spitfire Mk PRXI with 'THANK U NHS' was a fitting end to the air show display.
We were right next to the live side, as the planes came into land and were taxiing, lots came past us.
Jacob waved and gave thumbs-up as they went by and was unbelievably happy when he put his thumb up at the Spitfire pilots after they had finished their amazing final display, The Big Wing, and he got a wave from the pilots in return, his little face was a picture!
Overall it was a fantastic family day out that will be remembered and one I would definitely recommend. There really is so much for all ages to see and do. We didn’t even get to see half of it!
It was such an organised event and all the staff and volunteers were more than happy to help and chat.
We did a joint total of around 53,000 steps between the three of us!
Can't wait for another visit to see the rest of the site.
We had such a fantastic day. Just before Jacob fell asleep in the car, he said ‘BEST, DAY, EVER!’.