Pilot – June 2018

Both the RAF Station and the RAF
Museum at Cosford are hard at
work preparing to celebrate the
RAF’s centenary. The RAF Cosford
Air Show on 10 June is 2018’s only
official RAF-organised airshow
and will present an unprecedented
number and variety of RAF aircraft
types in both its flying and static
displays. By early May, some fifty
different types were committed to
taking part, ranging from an Avro
504K and SE5a representing the
RAF in 1918 to a Typhoon FGR4
from today’s air defence force. The
extensive RAF100 static display
will give a unique opportunity
to ‘see’ the past century’s UK air
power evolution. It will be divided
into four RAF ‘villages’: Policing
the Empire (1918-1938); World
at War (1939-1945); Age of
Uncertainty (1946-1999) and the
New Millennium (2000-2018).
Supplementing this, a ‘Partners’
area will assemble the show’s
international civilian and overseas
military participants.
The RAF Cosford Air Show
team can draw upon a variety of
instructional airframes from the
locally-based Defence School of
Aeronautical Engineering (DSAE)
for static display. These include
Jaguars, Tornados, Harrier, Hawk,
Sea King and Provost. RAF Museum
Cosford is wheeling out its Bristol
M1C, Sopwith 1½ Strutter, Defiant,
Gladiator, Gloster F9/40 Meteor,
Devon, Pembroke and Jetstream.
There will also be some very special
‘visiting’ aircraft in the ‘villages’,
notably the Cornwall Aviation
Centre’s EE Lightning F6 and, from
Bruntingthorpe, a Buccaneer S2B
courtesy of GJD Services, which

also owns the resident Phantom

FG1 XV582 Black Mike.

During the six-hour flying

display, Austria’s Flying Bulls

will demonstrate the world’s

only airworthy Bristol Sycamore

helicopter for the first time in the

UK. From the Great War Display

Team, the BBMF with its special

‘Trenchard Formation’, the RAF

Red Arrows, Falcons, Chinook,

Tutor and Typhoon displays and

flypasts from numerous current

RAF ‘heavies’, a century of RAF

aircraft will be comprehensively

represented.

RAF Museum Cosford’s Michael

Beetham Conservation Centre

(MBCC) has had a particularly

busy twelve months, moving

aircraft from RAFM Hendon’s

Battle of Britain Hall to Cosford

and preparing them for display.

This was an important part of

Hendon’s build-up to RAF100 and

has in turn added the Defiant,

Gladiator, Lysander and Tiger

Moth plus WWI and Luftwaffe

types to the ever-expanding

Cosford collection. Hendon’s

plastic Spitfire and Hurricane gate

guards, which arrived at the MBCC

last year, returned by road on 17

April following refurbishment and

repainting. Hurricane I ‘P2725’

represents the aircraft flown by Sgt

Ray Holmes of No 504 Squadron

when based at RAF Hendon during

the Battle of Britain, while the

Spitfire XVI ‘TB288’ carries

No 601 ‘County of London’

Squadron markings.

Restoration work by volunteers

on the Wellington continues slowly

but steadily, and the Lysander

was having a much-needed

refurbishment in April, prior to

going on display later this year.

The really exciting news is that

the rebuild of the crashed remains

of Hampden I P1344’s fuselage is

nearing completion. Darren Priday,

MBCC Manager said that the

forward fuselage, built by one of the

technicians from original drawings

incorporating some original

components, should be finished

by the autumn. He hopes that the

repaired rear section will then be

joined to it to present a complete

fuselage by the annual MBCC Open

Week, 12-18 November 2018.

90 | Pilot June 2018 | pilotweb.aero

Old TImers

Cosford gears

up for RAF100

celebration

PHOTOS: PETER R MARCH

ABOVE: Refurbished and

repainted at Cosford’s

MBCC, the RAFM’s

dummy Hurricane gate

guard is now back

at Hendon

ABOVE RIGHT: Hampden I

P1344’s fuselage is fast

nearing completion

BELOW: The RAFM’s

Defiant will be making a

rare outside appearance

in the RAF Cosford Air

Show's centennial

static display

One of DSAE’s Jaguars, X X835 has a specially painted tail, marking the centenary of No 238 Sqn (port side)