TAKING WING

The Royal Australia Air Force's Acrobatic team "The Roulettes"
were a great "opening act".They fly Swiss built Pilatus PC 9 Turbo props.

It was a remarkable day! 

   Retired in recent years, the Royal Australian Air Force's former workhorse transport the amazing Caribou.

About two hours drive South of Sydney, we had come to the "Wings Over The Illawarra" Air Show at St. Albans, along with the estimated 4,000 other people.It was a very professionally run and prepared Air Show  with huge numbers and variety of Aircraft, Military and civil, historic and ultra modern.

NAZI FW 190 Fighter

There were , we were told, approximately 4,000 people present and that was a grand tribute to the very smooth , professional organisation that characterised the event. The airport is large enough to handle the landing of a Boeing 747  Jumbo Jet which is one of its static exhibits. The atmosphere of the Air Show is one of a relaxed family affair and dozens of marquees house all man of stalls from souvenir vendors, to Armed Forces representatives and food and drink vendors.

The glamour girl of the event was sadly a "no show". The Constellation four engined airliner had been sent away for a re-paint, but, contrary to promises made to the owners, it was not returned on time for the Show.

So we had to make do with the dowager glamour girl which started civil aviation - the Douglas DC 3  also known during the War as the Dakota. These planes were incredibly numerous around the world and their robust construction, reliability and  versatility made them the very foundation of all civil aviation. In WW II they also became the universal workhorse for transport of men and supplies throughout the world from Europe to the jungles of the Pacific theatre.

The legendary DC 3. 

The PBY Catalina was built in prodigious numbers as served brilliant;ly in WW II as a patrol and anti-Submarine sea plane. The stories around them are many, but my favourite is of a particular Royal Australian Air Force Catalina whose aircrew found that they were all Catholics, so as the long hours of their patrols at low speed went by, they began to regularly say the Rosary as they plodded through the air looking for submarines below.

The port side of a Catalina taken from under its huge wing.Note the trailing end of the sea plane shape and also the wheels which enabled the plane to make its way out of the water and onto land ramps.

The business end of the Catalina's nose. If you enlarge the triangular window you can see the bullets in the Machine Gun feed belt for the gun above the window.

                                              Pilot's Seat in Canberra Bomber.

The two jet engined Canberra Bomber was also used by the United States Air Force as the B 57. The Canberras were superseded in the RAAF by the F 111 swing wing Bombers which represented a quantum leap in technology and performance and became the backbone of the RAAF for decades.

          Vampire Jet foreground and ORION Anti Submarine plane background.

The two aircraft in the above photo. are oddly paired. The Vampire jet , with it twin hulled fuselage was a product of the immediate post war period and nothing especially exciting. The ORION anti Submarine plane was a military version of the civilian Lockheed Electra  a particularly noisy passenger aircraft as I remember them.

                 U.S.NAVY Chance Vought CORSAIR famous for its gull wing.

The above photograph is disappointing for what we cannot see . The famous gull wing s are folded as they are when the planes are saving space on the Flight Deck and Hangar Deck of an Aircraft Carrier. A big plane the CORSAIRS were brilliantly successful in operation with the United States Navy and its large Aircraft Carriers .They were also a very good looking aircraft, in part because of their gull wings and in part because of their proportions.

In the photograph, to the left of the CORSAIR, we can see the Royal Australian Air Force's "Roulettes" Pilatus PC 9 Aircraft. and to the right and beyond the CORSAIR we see a variety of other aircraft on display.

                    The general scene - note the Neptune Anti Submarine Aircraft 

                                                             doing a sedate fly past

                                  The stunning beauty of the FA 18  Super Hornet.

The static beauty and apparent simplicity of the FA 18 Super Hornet entirely belies its incredible performance, electronics sophistication and weaponry. I was entirely awestruck by the planes demonstrated ability in performance at the Show - not only its absolute speed (which is published at 1,915 kmph.) Its Show appearance included among other things a low pass at sped then a near vertical climb ending in what I might describe as a "lean'' backwards and twist to head off in an entirely unexpected direction. Obviously very handy in air to air combat.

All things considered it was  an absolutely splendid day, in great company. And I have not even mentioned the frightening stunt flying by Paul Bennett in his specially designed tri-plane. It was awesome beyond belief even to the point of seeming foolhardy. I could go non forever, but I hope you begin to get the picture that I had a great day.