Airshows: Top 5 Facts!

Airshows are the place to be if you love planes as much as Amy does!

1. There are loads of planes!

You can even go inside some to look around and perhaps sit in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit!  There’s also planes flying overhead in the sky for you to watch.

Different air shows will display different mixes of planes.  Some air shows concentrate on older planes, like the Flying Legends Air Show at Duxford, whilst the Farnborough International Airshow focuses on more modern aircraft – and that makes it a pretty noisy place to be so don’t forget your ear defenders!

2. The first airshow race was in 1910!

For as long as there have been aircraft, people have been interested in seeing them being put through their paces. In 1910, the first cross-country race was held between London and Manchester, with a prize of £10,000!

The race was between Englishman Claude Grahame-White and France’s Louis Paulhan.  Paulhan left London first followed a few hours later when Grahame-White set off in hot pursuit.

Despite the massive head start, Grahame-White nearly caught up with Paulhan. Paulhan’s lighter plane meant he reached Manchester first, landing the first powered flight into the city.

Just like the displays from all those years ago, races are still popular at air shows although these days they’re more likely to be acrobatic short races where small planes take it in turns to race  round an obstacle course of inflatable markers. The winner is the plane that does it in the best time.

3. You can see Typhoon jets!

Its two turbojet engines can propel it at over 1,350 miles per hour – and are so loud that you can feel the noise in your chest as they go over!

Jets like this can climb in a flash and make tight manoeuvres. Some of these manoeuvres have funny names, like Aileron rolls, barrel rolls, hesitation rolls, Cuban 8s, tight turns, high alpha turns, double Immelmans, and touch and gos.

4. Or maybe The Red Arrows!

The Red Arrows are the aerobatics display team of the British Royal Air Force.  They’re a squad of 9 red planes which perform amazing acrobatic routines, making amazing patterns in the sky in formation or with coloured smoke.

Many countries have acrobatic display teams like The Red Arrows, and these frequently visit UK airshows – look out for the Blue Angels (from America), the Frecce Tricolore (from Italy) and the world famous Patrouille de France (from France).

5. There’s much more than just planes!

Don’t forget to explore the stalls with models, toys and clothing with a flying theme.  So there’s lots of reasons to check out airshows.

If you look online you’ll find most of them run through the summer and with airfields across the UK there’s bound to be one near you.

Check out this episode of Amy’s Aviation in the video above!

Click here to find out more planes!

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Amy Aviation with support from the Royal Aeronautical Society. Click here to find out more.