Birmingham Airshow 1973

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Leebee0
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Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Leebee0 »

Hi All

In August 1973 an amazing thing happened right in the centre of Birmingham UK. For two weeks from 11th August running up to and finishing on the August bank holiday the 27th the RAF took part in 'Meet the Forces' a recruitment event for all three forces Army Air and Navy.

From what i can work out this was a yearly event which took place in the early seventies and was always a Seaside event but in 1973 it was decided to bring it in land and put it just 4 miles out of the second city centre.

A full flying programme took place every day for two weeks with all major RAF aircraft taking part including Vulcan, Lightning, Hunter, Harrier, BBMF, Whirlwind and the Red Arrows to name but a few all giving full flying displays.

Very little information remains now and pictures of the event are very rare. Good job my dad had his camera with him to take just a few priceless shots which now all that seem to remain of this long forgotten event.

Talking with my dad about this event before he sadly passed away he told me that most people in the area just ignored what was happening as it went on around them as most people were at work!

It is incredible when you look through the pics that this was ever allowed even then the routes to fly in and out would have taken most aircraft at very low level right over some of the most densely populated areas of the city. The Reds were flying over peoples houses and gardens at just a few feet :rock:

So here are the pics if anyone out there has anymore info or even better any pics please post them here along with you're memories. Sorry the pics are not the best but you get the idea :smile:

It took place between 11th-27th August 1973 at Billesley Common Birmingham West Midlands.

BBMF Spitfire

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BBMF Lancaster

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Avro Vulcan

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I think this is a Whirlwind i am sure i will be corrected if wrong :grin:

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Harrier GR1 the first pic was taken from my nans back garden just to show how close the displays were to the houses!

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Finally some lovely shots of the Reds in the last shot dad told me that the Synchro Pair would dip down out of sight and suddenly appear right in front of the crowd then pull sharply up wards and break. If only that happened today lol those were the days!!

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Over the tops of the houses!!

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Hope you have enjoyed seeing these and hopefully someone has some more tucked away somewhere to add to this collection.

Thanks for looking

Lee.

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st24
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by st24 »

Finally some pictures! This event was raised over on FC a while ago http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/v ... 56#p609856 and hopefully you don't mind but I've posted a link to your post here.

It was quite a bizarre bit of planning by the RAF (it was a "meet the RAF" event, not joint forces - I still have the Birmingham evening mail souvenir pull out) and am still scratching my head as to why such a venue was selected... :dizzy: Living in the Midlands at the time I recall quite a few of the acts (pretty much everything on the RAF display inventory) in the hold or departing over the fortnight. I particularly recall a JP T5 team, maybe the Poachers (there were 3 to choose from in '73!) literally at roof top height performing a roll back manouvere; insane. Flying only took place during the week, presumably to give the ears of the Brummies some respite from daily Vulcan, Nimrod, Lightning, Phantom etc displays and for local roofers to repair tiles, slates and TV aerials knocked off by the Reds!

Great to see these, have been waiting for something to surface as even my Dad, usually always armed with a camera has nothing in his collection as being local and with free entry we went a few times! Whilst working in Birmingham a few year ago I even went through old newspapers at the library but only found the odd small item with no images but there was a daily flying programme published in the Evening Mail. Vividly recall the Harrier on it's pad and doing STOVL take offs from what is now a Tennis club IIRC..? Happy memories... :up:
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hunterxf382
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by hunterxf382 »

:yahoo: Oh how fantastic to see these!!!!

I was another local who attended this amazing event as a kid, as we lived only a few miles from the venue in Solihull Lodge! I can still vividly remember hearing and seeing the Vulcan roar from my house, and thinking even back then that it was absolutely bonkers having such a show in a built-up area....

Growing up since then (I was 11 at the time), I started to think my childhood imagination had got rather distorted as there was nothing about it online until recently - now we see photo proof of what actually happened - brilliant!!!! :yahoo:

I hope you don't mind me saving these photos for my archives - finally got proof that I was not mad or delusional :biggrin:

And I would like to share this link too - what a great memory, and thank you for uploading these! :worship:

And for anyone doubting the crazy choice of location - it is surrounded by the urban sprawl of South Birmingham - and hasn't changed much over the years:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Billesley+Common/@52.426212,-1.876641,4155m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x4870b95346da0c33:0x55ff429404c7dea8
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Rory76
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Rory76 »

Fantastic stuff!!

Lived in Kings Heath a few years ago- insane to think that was just up the road- it's not as if the houses are all new builds round there!!
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Leebee0
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Leebee0 »

Hi all

Thanks for the comments glad your finding this pics interesting but we need some more so please dig deep see what we can find. :smile:

Dad and I went to the Birmingham archive at the library in 2011 and we found one ref to it and it was in the 'Sunday Mercury' a paper famous in the midlands. They carried it on the front page with a lovely shot of the Reds but those were the only other pics I have ever seen from the event. So the pics here seem to be the only ones the survive??

Cheers

Lee.

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st24
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by st24 »

I know it's not much but being a spotter (!) I made a note of the daily flying programmes, may well plonk them on here for the hell of it.
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IanKeele
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by IanKeele »

That solves a childhood mystery. I remember seeing a load of air display type aircraft and a 4 or 5 ship Jet Provost team pass near or over my home in Coseley W Midlands on a weekday (s) during the summer holidays when I was a kid. I thought perhaps I daydreamed it.. I still get a strange extra thrill out of seeing displays near or over `ordinary' housing estates built up areas etc -`this shouldn't really be happening' type of thing eg Albrighton on Cosford practice day.
Ian

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Ian G
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Ian G »

Stone the crows, how low are they in that break on the last picture?!?!!
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hunterxf382
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by hunterxf382 »

:biggrin: Not half as low as they could be at other venues back then in the good old days ;) I've seen some shots especially with Ray Hanna at the controls where the grass was getting in the way!!! :shock:
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zepplin
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by zepplin »

I remember going to this it was fantastic this what got me into planes strange a airshow with no runway in sight just a grass field

Flare Path
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Flare Path »

hunterxf382 wrote::biggrin: Not half as low as they could be at other venues back then in the good old days ;) I've seen some shots especially with Ray Hanna at the controls where the grass was getting in the way!!! :shock:


:lol:

Johnp94
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Johnp94 »

Does anyone know which Vulcan that is?

John

Leebee0
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Leebee0 »

Johnp94 wrote:Does anyone know which Vulcan that is?

John


Hi John

Well that's a good question one I had wandered myself for a long time. So I asked Craig Bullman to take a look at it and he identified this one as XH534 and the date she flew he also identified a second Vulcan that also flew in Birmingham at this event. I am currently on holiday in Cornwall and I am going from memory here so I will confirm there details when I get back. I am sure we got this Vulcan as XH534 though. :-)

On another note I have been to Airbase and spent a day at RNAS Culdrose today whilst here in Cornwall will have full reports on both for you next week :-)

Cheers

Lee.

Leebee0
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Leebee0 »

Hi all

Just thought it might interest some of you to revisit this post I made back 2014. I was asked about it at the recent Jaguar event at Cosford so here it is again for those whom have not seen it also might be able to shed new light or more info or pics on this event which took place in 1973.

Cheers

Lee.

Leebee0
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Leebee0 »

Interesting to read that someone has posted about this thread but on another forum that they think the Harrier GR1 pictured above is XV759 can anyone confirm this please.

Cheers

Lee.

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st24
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by st24 »

Finally found the Evening Mail supplement for this event. Still amazed by it... :dizzy:
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Dan O'Hagan
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Dan O'Hagan »

Can't decide what's more startling - an RAF with actual aeroplanes it can be bothered to display for the public, or houses for less than £9,000?

Leebee0
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Leebee0 »

st24 wrote:Finally found the Evening Mail supplement for this event. Still amazed by it... :dizzy:
Image

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Hi there thank you so much for posting this from the Evening Mail. Puts a little more light on this event would love a read through the souvenir pull out :smile:

Thanks again

Lee.

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st24
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by st24 »

Leebee0 wrote:Hi there thank you so much for posting this from the Evening Mail. Puts a little more light on this event would love a read through the souvenir pull out :smile:

Thanks again

Lee.


D'you know - I've only just noticed I'm missing some pages!!! :facepalm: I'll have to dig further.

The Whirlwind is XP356 from CFS/2FTS, then at Tern Hill..
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Leebee0
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Leebee0 »

st24 wrote:
Leebee0 wrote:Hi there thank you so much for posting this from the Evening Mail. Puts a little more light on this event would love a read through the souvenir pull out :smile:

Thanks again

Lee.


D'you know - I've only just noticed I'm missing some pages!!! :facepalm: I'll have to dig further.

The Whirlwind is XP356 from CFS/2FTS, then at Tern Hill..



Thanks very much that would be great. Just to find out as much info as possible about this event. Not doing a bad job on identifying some of the aircraft that took part ether :clap:

Cheers

Lee.

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st24
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by st24 »

Leebee0 wrote:Interesting to read that someone has posted about this thread but on another forum that they think the Harrier GR1 pictured above is XV759 can anyone confirm this please.

Cheers

Lee.

I believe the post on FC merely concluded that '759 was the display ship that year, but thats certainly not concrete proof, given the new (at the time) and temperamental technology of the Harrier, airframes were swapped around a fair bit.
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Georgeconna
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by Georgeconna »

"literally at roof top height performing a roll back manouvere; insane"

I would have called it Thrilling :lol: , Something that is sadly is not present at today shows.
Cheers

George

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mehere
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by mehere »

I recently came across this old(ish) topic .

Like others here, I too recall being totally amazed [even in those days] at how they managed to stage this Show in the built-up suburbs of Birmingham - a wonderful experience, indeed.

In that Summer of 1973, I was home in Kings Heath, on vacation from University. We did not actually visit the Airshow on the Common, but I can clearly recall the DEAFENING noise of things like the Harrier, the Vulcan and the Arrows Display, passing at mothers washing line height [so it seemed] across our back garden.

Somewhere I have a Super 8 cine film of the Arrows, said back garden and , indeed, the washing line...
Last edited by mehere on Mon 24 Jun 2019, 8:57 am, edited 2 times in total.

MingtheMerciless
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by MingtheMerciless »

neville wrote:There was also the occasion of a Harrier landing in the grounds of the BBC centre in Pebble Mill, not sure exactly when that was though.


September 1979, Sea Harrier flown by Lt Commander 'Sharkey' Ward. It was a SHar FRS.1, XZ451.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kENp24J8XM[/youtube]

IATthenRIAT
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Re: Birmingham Airshow 1973

Post by IATthenRIAT »

We were staying with some of my late farthers friends in the suberbs of Birmingham when this show was in the local paper, so my dad said on the sunday (I think) - "would I like to go" I was about eight or nine at the time and never been to a show or seen military aircraft before, the closest thing to planes was on the tv being into Captain Scalet and Thunderbirds.

Anyway we drove close to Billesley parked near a pub I think then just followed a croud of people walking down this road, then up this massive alleyway with a concrete wall, this seemed to take for ever before getting to the common, but during the walk I heard and saw the Vulcan first - It knocked me off my feet I just stood there in amazment and the noise deafened me.
We stayed there at a guess for about four to five hours and on the way out I think there was a toy/model seller and I begged my dad to buy me a kit of the Red Arrows gnat.

It was an amazing day and truly cemented my love affair with all flying machines.

Shame there isnt more pictures from the event.

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