After Last Year’s catastrophic drop in visitors due to the council charging people to enter the showground on the seafront, Eastbourne Council has reopened the entire seafront area for free this year and the results were obvious with the beaches being crowded throughout the four days of the airshow.
Unfortunately the airshow organisers had to cope with more than a few cancellations at the last minute but they managed to book a few acts to replace some of the gaps but unfortunately some of the cancellations led to a 45 minute gap on the Sunday, which did see some of the crowds dispersing.
The Tigers Parachute display team decent from the skies above Eastbourne.
The organisers did book several acts that went down well with the crowd, one of them being The Tigers Parachute Display Team representing the Army. The Tigers Parachute Display Team represent The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment which is the local Regiment for the South East of England, and so there was plenty of support from the crowd for the team. Instead of landing in the arena like at many airshows, the team cut themselves free from their parachutes a few feet over the sea and then splashed into the water before being picked up by the lifeboats.
One of the Tigers Parachute Display Team from The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment about to splash down into the sea off of Eastbourne.
An RAF Tutor T1 flown by the display pilot Bill Ramsey displays over The English Channel off Eastbourne.
As with most airshows in the UK the RAF had a large presence with The Tutor T1, Hawk T1 and the Eurofighter Typhoon flew their impressive displays with some spectacular views being had of the displays being held over the English Channel. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight also made an appearance with their Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane in front of the white cliffs of Beachy Head taking people back to the dark days of WWII.
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight begin their display with a formation pass low over the sea allowing people to look down onto the aircraft, something rarely seen at airshows.
Another Hurricane was seen around the cliffs of Beachy Head during the airshow as well, Peter Teichman brought along his latest toy his Hurri-bomber which has just recently been restored flew its maiden display on the Thursday of the airshow.
Peter Teichman flies his Hurri-bomber as it performs at its first airshow.
On the civilian side of things, The Blades performed on all four days much to the crowds enjoyment with gasps from the crowd when they performed their close formation manurers. Several jets were also displaying, Duxford’s F-86 Sabre as well as the Gnat Pair from North Weald putting on great displays on each day, unfortunately on a couple of days the weather forced flat displays but they did manage full displays on Sunday. Team Guinot also put on fantastic displays each day, with the girls getting closer than I can remember seeing them for a long time on the mirror pass.
The Team Guinot girls get just a few feet from each other during their mirror pass.
Keeping up the International participation of the airshow a USAF KC-135 tanker displayed on the Thursday and Friday, and on every day the Dutch F-16 Display Team flew their specially painted orange F-16 in formation with a two seater Spitfire TR.9 in Dutch markings flown by John Romain from the Aircraft Restoration Company before performing a break and then going straight into their display.
The Dutch F-16 Demo Team perform a formation pass with a Spitfire TR.9 in Dutch markings for a Dutch Heritage Formation Flypast.
The Dutch F-16 Demo Team perform their fantastic display at Eastbourne.
On every day of the airshow the Red Arrows performed their highly refined display which had the crowds looking to the sky on each and every day. On Saturday one of the aircraft suffered a suspected bird strike when taking off from Manston airport in Kent and had to return, leaving only 8 aircraft displaying. The rest of the time however everything went as planned and the crowds were wowed by the 9 aircraft performing in the deep blue skies over Eastbourne.
The Red Arrows perform their display in the deep blue skies over Eastbourne.
The Red Arrows prepare to perform a break high in the skies over Eastbourne.
The Red Arrows Gypo section perform their final break for the Eastbourne Airbourne Airshow.
