The first weekend of October didn’t only bring some good, warm autumnal weather, but the Flying Finale at IWM Duxford.
With the sun peaking through the rolling clouds all afternoon, the display organisers really put on a fantastic lineup with the classic warbird participation you expect to see at a Duxford event along with assets from the Royal Air Force in the form of the Typhoon Display Team and the Red Arrows.
Kicking off the show was a melody of Merlin engines as four Hurricanes and three Spitfires took to the skies for a large formation flight around the aerodrome before breaking down into a 7 ship long tail chase, which was a beautifully choreographed display sequence of exhilarating flying. The victory rolls of 7 subsequent warbirds was an incredible sight and only at Duxford would you see something as magical as this. It was good to see Duxfords own Mk1 – N3200, flanked by both Comanches Fighters Spitfire Mk1a X4650 and the Fighter Collections clipped wing Mk.Vb. The Historic Aircraft Collection Hurricane XII, was joined by a trio of MkIs to make up the 4 ship of Hurricanes, including Fighter Aviations MkI .
An unusual pairing or little and large came next as Plane Sailing PBY-5a Catalina and The Fighter Collection Hawker Nimrod I started theit respective displays with a flypast together as both aircraft shared Navy links. The crowd were treated to a single pass before the Catalina took first dibs with its solo display, gracing the skies before being followed by the Nimrod, showing its speed and agility for such an early carrier-bourne biplane. It was good to see the Nimrod back in the air at Duxford after a long period of maintenance.
Something even more special was about to be seen as finally, the teased pairs display of both, The Fighter Collections Grumman Wildcat FM2 and the recently restored back to flight Aircraft Restoration Companys Wildcat G-KINL, finally happened, and for the first time two Wildcat aircraft flew together in a display over the skies of the UK. Stu Goldspink in G-RUMN and Paul Bonhomme in G-KINL put on a perfect display keeping the aircraft in tight formation and in sync with each other. I must say the colours of G-KINL really popped against the dark clouds to the South of Duxford, she looked stunning.
The Flying Comrades were next out bringing their aerobatics display to the crowds. In their striking Soviet era trainer aircraft, the Comrades delivered a fantastic ever growing display. Their colourful aircraft, trailing smoke and growl of radial engines added a lot to the senses on what was developing to be one of the best starts to the 3 hour flying display that I can remember.
Roaring over the Duxford skies came the first of the two RAF display teams participating in the Flying Finale, as Flt Lt Tom Nation brought the noise, speed and spluffage with the Typhoon Display Team. Signing off his last public display as the 2026 display pilot, Tom really squeezed every ounce of performance out of the Eurofighter as it had to keep in the smaller than normal display area set around Duxford. Tom has done a great job as this years Typhoon Display pilot and I’m sure as much as he loved displaying for the Duxford crowds, nothing would ever top being able to display at his home town at the Wales Airshow.
As Tom left the Duxford displa area with his signature high speed past, and after a quick departure from Lilham Aviations Spitfire Mk IX the Fighter Collection started their next display with their Curtiss P-40F Warhawk, dazzling similar colours to the ARCo Wildcat earlier in the display. The Warhawk display never ceases to amazing, with high speed, high noise run in and loops, showing just how good the Merlin engine created some aircraft. Sadly, the P-40F Was due to fly with the Curtiss Hawk 75A-1 however, as it was engine running at full power before their takeoff, some rather apparent misfires were heard and the pilot, rightly called off and taxied back to parking. A shame, but safety is always paramount.
A wonderful display from new display pilot Mark Rowland in the Aircraft Restoration Company’s de Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk. It was a really fitting display as the Duxford display season started with a chipmunk celebration of large and it was great to see Mark, an engineer with ARCo, get to the stage in his flying career that he could display in front of a large audience. The capabilities of the Chippie were certainly shown off well and we look forward to following where and what Mark will fly in the future.
The Red Arrows were up next in an unusual slot of not being the first display of the day or the final display of the day. This was also the last public display for Jon Bond and the team for the 2026 display season but also the last public flying display for Bondy as well. At the place that attracted Jon Bond to flying in the first place, all those years ago as a kid just watching an airshow, what better place to flying your last display as Red 1 in one of the most famous Aerobatic Display teams in the world. With 8 seasons under his belt, and 29 countries flown in, Bondy really has been through it all with the Reds, marshaling the initial move back to being a 9 ship display team and then subsequent move down to being a 7 ship display team this year due to a surplus of parts to keep the flight flying, I hope it isn’t the last we see of him on the display circuit, or at least with the Red Arrows one day as Red 10 as he really has given his all to the team and guided the Reds through some rocky times.
Duxford warbirds took the finale slot of the days flying action, and warbirds we got. In the ‘Thunder’ formation, the powerhouses and epitome of warbird engineering was on show as the Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, Hawker Fury ISS and Spitfire FRXIVe were joined by the Fighter Collections Grumman F8F-2P Bearcat, the Old Flying Machine Company’s Spitfire MkIX MH434 and Marcin Kubrak’s newly acquired P-51D Mustang War Horse. Forming up as a six ship formation, before breaking the display down into two groups of three, it was an incredible finale to an incredible flying display which felt like the cherry on top of the cake for another cracking year or UK Airshows.
