There's nothing I like more than a nice reenactment of a WWI dogfight, and I got one. Two Junkers C1s, with dummy observers in the rear cockpits, got up to a bit of trench-strafing until driven off by a gallant SE5.
Biggin is a Battle of Britain airfield, so they always lay on some good 1940s stuff. This year they excelled themselves with a ten-ship Spitfire and Hurricane 'scramble', complete with air raid siren and clanging bell to summon the pilots to their aircraft. A solo Spitfire concluded the display, beautiful in the evening light with its oh so distinctive wings and sound.
I'm always snobbily amused when people get the meaning of 'momentarily' wrong, so when the American commentator for the F-15s announced that they would be with us momentarily, I gave an indulgent chuckle. However, since the planes arrived, did a couple of quick passes then buggered off back to Lakenheath, perhaps he got it right after all?
I'm as fond of fast jets, thrilling stunts and afterburner thunder as the next person, but it's generally the slow, graceful displays accompanied by the thrum of prop engines that do it for me. So my favourite turn was Plane Sailing's Catalina, still in its yellow firefighting livery, displaying alongside a renovated Dornier DO-24 flying-boat making its first UK appearance.
The airshows are over and the nights are drawing in. Maybe this will be the winter I finish my Airfix F-14 Tomcat.
