They have been practicing the routine for a year and it showed, with close-formation entry and tail chasing as well as synchro manoeuvres on all four Airbourne days. A jet that was both a pleasure and a slight disappointment was the Sea Vixen. A pleasure, as it always is, to see such a magnificent aircraft in glorious condition.
The approach appeared unusually slow and the reason was soon to be revealed. The pilot, Cdr. Simon Hargreaves, suspected that he had a problem with one of his flaps and made a wide circuit, returning to the display line so that the display director could check.
It was confirmed that there was, indeed, damage to the starboard flap. The disappointment was that the display could not, therefore, continue and 'Foxy Lady' made an exit over Beachy Head, returning successfully and safely to her base at Yeovilton, where the flap damage was further inspected and the damage confirmed. Pleasure without the disappointment came in the form of the Aircraft Restoration Company's Spitfire and Hangar 11's Mustang, now in its 'Red Tails' paint scheme, both welcome returnees to Eastbourne.
Other prop regulars were the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight with the Lancaster, Hurricane and Spitfire, although not all at once on all of the days. The North American Rockwell OV was designed in the s as a light attack and observation aircraft and was widely used for forward air control during the Vietnamese war. This particular aircraft is the OVB variant, a type produced for use in Germany as a target tug. As well as the BBMF, more of the ever-popular RAF teams displayed, including the Red Arrows on the Friday and Saturday and the crowd's new favourite, the lively, noisy, Typhoon in which this season's display pilot Flt Lt Mark Long ripped up the sky and set off the car alarms on Airbourne's last three days.
The Chinook helicopter was to have displayed but all displays by the RAF Chinook Team had been cancelled a few weeks earlier, reportedly because of airframe fatigue. An unscheduled surprise was a flypast by a Puma HC. Although introduced as a flypast, pilot Flt. Owen Varley made several turns as well as passes, including a farewell wave from the crew, before departing the way he arrived over Beachy Head.
The Puma was to make another flypast at Dunsfold about a fortnight later so the flypast was not unique to Airbourne. It was, nevertheless, a welcome and rare addition to the programme: a welcome contrast to the cancellations more common to airshows.
The Blades did more-or-less their usual thing. The reason it wasn't exactly their normal thing is that there were only three Blades on the first two days of Airbourne, one being then Flt Lt Kirsty Moore, the first and so far only Red Arrows pilot. Now Kirsty Murphy, she is the wife of the former Red 1 who is currently another of the Blades. However, Ben was tied up with the Red Bull Air Race and although the Blades have a team of six from which to chose four, another two were also unavailable, one on duty at work as a commercial pilot and another with his new baby, so a trio it was.
Everything returned to normal for the weekend when all four Extra EAs were in the air. There is no doubting the pedigree of the Blades or their flying skills and they have their followers. However, they do seem to come every year with a very similar display, not only here, but at many other shows.
It was therefore good to see some light aircraft aerobatics from other teams. The Fireflies repeated their display on Sunday, with LED lights and pyrotechnics, in dusk flying, an increasingly popular addition to airshows and one that is surely here to stay.
Eastbourne is good at attracting teams from abroad. The Vampires, an FB. This may be because, as with most airshows in , there were some changes to the flying line that meant the displays were just a little bit further out to sea. Instead of flying over the pier, the aircraft skirted the end of the pier and stayed that far out all the way down the coast. This is an unfortunate, but unsurprising, legacy of the incident at Shoreham in , when the Hawker Hunter crashed into the A27, killing bystanders and road-users.
The display rules had changed by the date of the show, although the final report of the Air Accident Investigation Board had not been issued, so distances and other regulations may well be changed by the CAA again before Airbourne We can only hope, but perhaps not expect, that they may go back to the display lines of old.
There are always one or two parachute display teams at Airbourne and this year The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment's Parachute display team, better known as The Tigers, made jumps on all four days, pulling off something a little different each time and landing, as usual, on the beach rather than in the arena. On the ground, non-air highlights included the Red Arrows 'Meet and Greet' on the Western Lawns; music on the Live Stage every day including Brit Award nominees and top 10 charting Stooshe on Saturday and Chloe Paige on Sunday; evening concerts in the bandstand along the promenade as well as a firework finale by the Wish Tower on Sunday following the night flying and Live Stage concert, proving this is not only an air display show, but a family show with entertainment for all.
After such a stonking set of displays this year it will be interesting to see what the organisers can do to top that when they celebrate the show's 25th anniversary in Airbourne, Eastbourne's International Air Show, is one of the best-enduring free seaside airshows and still claims to be the biggest free airshow in the UK.
Also expect a parachute display each day - sometimes two, a good selection of aerobatic teams and contributions from abroad. WWII warbirds are generally well represented. Other than , when the Lancaster pair were the star attraction and and , when the Vulcan stole the show, The Red Arrows are typically the highlight and may fly on three or even all of the four days of the airshow. Each of their full, rolling and flat displays are possible, depending on weather conditions, because there are none of the height restrictions imposed by the aviation authorities at some shows.
Sometimes there is also a personal appearance on one of the days, when the pilots sign autographs and hand out promotional literature. Most of the displays are single aircraft or aircraft teams performing on their own with a few minutes between displays.
Occasionally a Messerschmitt and Spitfire or Hurricane will fly together or imitate a dogfight. There are also sometimes flypasts involving both a old and a new craft, such as the Mustang with an F16 in or a Spitfire with an F16 in Apart from these welcome but brief groupings there are relatively few joint displays and nothing like the mass flypasts much enjoyed at some shows. The show has a good reputation for innovation.
In it was the first UK family show to include the American long-range bomber, the B1, and at the same show the Eurofighter Typhoon made one of its first family show appearances. In , Eastbourne scooped the only family show appearance for the Royal Jordanian Falcons; in it had the launch of the Disney movie Planes with the Matadors flying in Planes liveries and in it had the first display at a free show of the Bristol Blenheim.
As well as these firsts and the regulars, the show has also given visitors a chance to see close up some of the larger commercial planes in various liveries, especially from the Boeing fleet. There have been display incidents. In one of the Falcons parachute display team had to land on an emergency parachute when his main parachute failed to open. In the Falcons jumped in quite gusty conditions which lead to some interesting landings and one unfortunately serious injury.
Since then the parachute display has been provided by other services and landings have been in the sea or on the beach rather than in the arena. Commentary used to be provided from a point on top of the Wish Tower, but now comes from a kiosk on the promenade. Anchor commentators are joined by specialists from some of the teams - always including Red 10 from the Red Arrows. This is a free show. The effect was not to raise income, as intended, but to deter visitors who chose to watch from less ideal, but free, positions nearby.
The experiment cost huge amounts of money because of the operational expenses associated with securing and controlling the paid-for area and policing the event. A tremendous free family show and one that deserves the continuing support of local businesses, authorities and residents. The planned flying timetable used to be printed in the programme, subject to the inevitable variations, but recently the programme has tended to indicate a rough running order. Programme holders can claim a daily flying list from programme sellers and selected information points.
Otherwise, regular updates are provided by Radio Airbourne on A new feature introduced in were displays at dusk, ending around 7pm. If the weather is kind, the setting sun provides ideal lighting conditions. More recently this has moved to a later time and has, from , included aerial lighting and fireworks. It would be good to see a little more variety in the Airbourne line-up.
Most family shows will expect the wingwalkers. But upon that platform, it would be good to see Eastbourne continue to expand even further on their already good reputation for innovation, perhaps with some novel combinations. Park and ride is usually available. Eastbourne is the nearest station to the show. There are frequent mainline rail services from London, Brighton, Ashford and Hastings.
Click here to create a pocket timetable for your journey between any stations on the National Rail network. It is best to book as far as possible in advance. This is not only because nearby hotels and guest houses tend get booked up well before the date of an airshow but also because prices can be better when you book early online. There are plenty of booking agencies. We find that many of the well known ones are better at finding hotels from international or larger UK chains and may suggest hotels in main towns or cities quite a distance from the show site.
There is a Premier Inn hotel just a few hundred metres from the flying line and another two within six miles. There is a Travelodge hotel on the outskirts of the town, about 2 miles from the seafront. Click any of the blue names to go to the corresponding web site. The links already have the location built in, but please check, and change as necessary, the dates, number of rooms and number of guests.
A day forecast from the BBC. The Met Office 7-day forecast includes actual and "feels like" temperatures, the likelihood of rain, wind speed, wind direction, wind gusts and visibility: the latter can have an impact on the viability of displays. The BBC's day forecast has overall conditions including and hourly estimate of temperature, wind direction, wind speed and UV range.
Airbourne: Eastbourne International Airshow Airbourne Airbourne 18th - 21st August The Breitling Jet Team in Airbourne always provides a varied flying programme on all four afternoons; Thursday being the quietest and building to a very busy weekend.
Message from the show about the future Airbourne is back from 18 — 21 August, but we need your help to ensure is not the final time our airshow takes to the skies! The Belgian Air Force has displayed the A for many years, but this was the types first appearance at Airbourne.
Historic aircraft always feature well in an Eastbourne flying display with several operators involved. Further to the RAF history were other historic aircraft. Adding some colour, smoke and noise to Eastbourne were a varied collection of civilian displays. Performing over the long weekend were two Airbourne favourites; the Blades Aerobatic Team and the Aerosuperbatics Wingwalkers.
Peter appeared on the Friday and really gave the crowd a great display bringing the gyro-copter close into the beach and drawing waves from the crowd. OTTO was one of the most famous acts on the American display circuit and performed across the continent as well as making trips to Australia and the Middle East. For his evening display, Brendan fits a dizzying array of pyrotechnics to OTTO for a truly awesome twilight spectacular which would have been a truly fitting end to the show.
Alas, despite appearing over the beach on time, the visibility and cloud were just too low for a safe display so the crowds only got a short glimpse of OTTO and Brendan before they headed back inland. It was such a shame weather affected the displays so much on the Thursday and Sunday. When the weather is onside, Eastbourne is just about one of the best seaside display venues of the year for flying displays. Together with the ground shows, Airbourne is always a fun day out on the Sussex Coast and we hope the event has some better luck when it returns in !
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