1981 Finningley Airshow

[F3]

With the regular passage of civil traffic for Doncaster Robin Hood Airport over my house providing a constant reminder I've at last got around to scanning almost 3 decades worth of Finningley Airshow pics. The 1st complete set I've found is for 1981, an interesting show which saw the debuts of Concorde, F16, Tornado F2 and the ill - fated Nimrod AEW and also the last of the Vulcan scrambles which had been a feature of the display since the early sixties. For one of the 4 a/c which took part it was the last flight, as XM 648 landed back to take up its new duty as the Station Gate guard.





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[paddyboy]

Hi Buddy

Simply wonderful

Nostalgia at its best

Thanks for sharing

Paddyboy

[slogen51]

Interesting set.

Like the shack and of course the British Airways flag ship.

[Vulcanone]

F3

From Memory XJ782 was assigned to Finningly post Op Corporate in 1982, as 648 went for some fun with a JCB at Saints...


Tim

[Ratrace]

Superb!

[gosman767]

I was a Chief at Finningley then, can't remember if it was 81 or 82 I was in charge of 4 Hangar static display - brings back happy memories :-)

[reheat module]

I was a Chief at Finningley then, can't remember if it was 81 or 82 I was in charge of 4 Hangar static display - brings back happy memories :-)

Crikey, I was a young Cpl (ex Jelly Tot) at Kinloss in that year, but I used to love coming home to Doncaster and taking dad to the Finningley Airshows

[irishjim]

Does anyone out there have a image of four Vulcans in the air? Was that called QRA? Great images.

[roughcutter]

'81' was my first Finningley, fantastic show with an immense static park (well it seemed that way to me at the time). And all for the princely sum of £1.00 !

[NickC]

Fantastic stuff. The Tornado F2 looks great in that scheme, although I never got to see it. Interesting looking Meteor in the background of that shot too.

[Vulcanone]

Well hopefully when Marham has finished with the lone survivor of the F.2 trials fleet (ZA267) they see fit to pass it onto Cosford...


Tim

[F3]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the favourable comments. Seems like I'm not the only one with happy memories of fabulous Finningley shows. Re Irish Jim's query - a 4 Vulcan scramble was one of the hardest things to photograph. Really needed video to do it justice and capture the noise, smoke etc. I never managed to capture all 4 a/c in a single frame. Trouble was that in the 4 mins the scramble took by the time the last one was airborne the lead was usually out of sight, or at best just a dot on the horizon! Happy Landings.

[golfromeo]

Hi. The Meteor behind the Tornado F2 was Meteor T7 WA662 from RAE Llanbedr. The cockpit section is on show at Doncaster Aero Museum.

[two1938]

Seem to remember XV485 appearing there in the static

[Mustang531]

Regarding the comment above about the cockpit of Meteor WA662 being on show at Doncaster museum, the complete airframe is on show now. 1981 was my first Finningley show and I too hoped for a pic of all four Vulcans, but ended up disappointed. To confirm, it was XJ782 which came back later and landed.