RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

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beany
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RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by beany »

Here are my scans of photos I took at RAF Abingdon (Oxfordshire) at the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain Airshow in September 1990.

Right - disclaimers first! I only had a very cheap Practika MTL3 fully manual camera and I was not very good at photography but rather just used to enjoy the spirit of what was going on. Secondly, the prints have been pasted in scrap books for the last 30 years and are somewhat tatty, spotted and faded. Thirdly, my scanner is pretty much life expired and is imposing a "shadow" on some of the scans. So apologies for the pictures be they out of focus, suffering from camera shake, being poorly framed etc. etc. but I hope you get the gist of what a great show this was. Where today would you see such an impressive group of aircraft brought together for a single flypast?

(I'll post the photos in groups so bear with me for the next day or two - scanning and cropping etc. takes bloody ages!).

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More to follow. If you can identify aircraft types etc. (or correct any I have got wrong) please let me know so that I can annotate the photos accordingly.
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Gregers
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by Gregers »

Awesome pics.
If I am correct that Catalina is sadly no more.
It had an accident on landing and the badly damaged airframe was being restored to airworthy in Ireland. The airport it was hangered at seized it because of late hangarage payments and it was sold for scrap.A sad end for a warbirds that actually saw action and had combat history.

All the best

Greg
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Gregers
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by Gregers »

As for types.

Spit Hurricane and Lanc.
Catalina
Buccaneer
Shackleton
Nimrod
Phantom
Nimrod
A10 Thunderbolt II
Insane humanoids
Seaking
Chinook
Auster mk9, Skeeter, Scout, Gazelle, Lynx, Sioux. (not in that order
Puma,
Hercules,
Harrier
Tristar
Harrier,
A10
Andover.

All the best

Greg
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by iggie »

Great stuff! Some really good shots there, particularly like the Harrier being vomited from the speaker! :-D
Best wishes

Jim
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by PaulBradley »

iggie wrote:....particularly like the Harrier being vomited from the speaker! :-D
Ditto! Looks like something from Monty Python!

Cool shots, Al - thanks for sharing!
Paul

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beany
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by beany »

The next batch (including the fly past)...

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beany
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by beany »

Final batch.

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Well, I had to use the film up didn't I...

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Cheers
Al.
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by iggie »

Great pictures Al, thanks for taking the time to scan and post them! 8-)
That Harrier looks very grubby :shock:
And great to see the Mosquito flying, I last saw it at Booker (now Wycombe Air Park) airshow about 1973ish
Best wishes

Jim
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by PaulBradley »

Wow, that's quite the variety of aircraft - some really classic types captured there. Thanks for sharing, Al!
Paul

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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by wokka »

Great photos, reminds me of when we actually had an Air Force.
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by MarkyM607 »

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
That must have been AMAZING!!!!!!.
Jaw almost permanently dropped to floor at all of that lot. Those were the days! :lol: :lol: :lol:
Hoping to return to modelling sometime this year!! :lol:
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by JamesPerrin »

Them were the days for sure!
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Re: RAF Abingdon BofB 50th Anniversary Show Sept 1990

Post by Gregers »

Awesome pictures, and alas another fine warbird lost to us. The BAC owned Mosquito RR299 crashed with the sad loss of both crew members.

All the best

Greg
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