FarnboroJohn wrote:UKTopgun wrote:I always feel the same about the Bearcat at Duxford, why can't they vary the displays it gives? Why do they always have to boom and zoom the thing every time, sometimes lower and slower might give a different perspective. Sometimes it is fine but not all the time.
Must admit I always enjoy the boom and zoom, but reflecting on this and trying to find a positive, it occurred to me that I'd quite like to see a dirty pass with wheels, flaps and hook down once in a while. It works for Hornets.... so fair enough.
One of the things (as an oldie) that used to annoy me about BBMF in the 60s and 70s was that they drove their Hurricanes and Spitfires like buses, and to my mind it's the civvie owners that have driven warbird displays to the point where you get some idea of what one or two are capable of: its not all about photos, sometimes the throttle has to be well open. And with e.g. three baby Spits upside down in Vee formation at the top of a loop you could be at Hendon in the late 1930s.... true flying legends. What's not to like?
John
It's a fair point often made, but why not both? The Bearcat's display at OW's Fly Navy show last year was very boom, much zoom, but also was graceful and had some lovely topsides for those with cameras. Warbird loveliness, that was, I enjoyed both aspects equally.
However, we're talking about classic jets here, not warbirds. The likes of the Bearcat, or the Sea Fury/Fury were pretty much the pinnacle of piston-engined design in terms of power to weight ratios. Early "classic" jets on the cusp of a brand new technology were very different.
How much boom, and how much zoom can, say, a JP, or a Gnat, or a Meteor, really have? That's, personally, why I celebrate this news, but I don't really get excited by it. It's celebrated because its another indictment that airshow flying is considered safe by the relevant authorities, which of course it is, and that's welcomed. For me though, I think classic jets are better-suited to more graceful displays, rather than the higher-G manoeuvres which take an age for them to complete, and are done so far away that they appear as dots to the eye, which can be better-left to the much more able modern counterparts.
Only if each pilot has a valid UK CAA Display Authorisation... which I don't believe they do.
