We are delighted to announce that the Vulcan will be teaming up with the Breitling Jet Team on Saturday 4 July and flying past as a not to be missed one off formation. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this fantastic feature.
Not to be out done, the Red Arrows will also be flying with the Vulcan over the Air Show weekend, this time on Sunday 5 July. Another fantastic opportunity to see these all time favourites gracing the skies over Waddington.
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About rafwaddingtonairshow
Held annually over the first weekend of July at Royal Air Force Waddington, Lincoln, the RAF Waddington International Air Show is the largest of all RAF air shows, regularly attended by over 140,000 visitors. Since its inaugural year 1995, the Air Show has grown in size and popularity; the show offers a truly unforgettable day's entertainment for families and corporate guests alike.
The main purpose of the event is to increase public awareness and understanding of the RAF and its role today. All proceeds from the Air Show are donated to RAF and local charities each year. The spectacular 7-hour flying display features the fabulous Red Arrows, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the RAF Falcons freefall parachute team and many more military and civilian aircraft from the UK; it is also heavily supported by military forces from around the world. Ground displays include 2 exhibition hangars, funfair, classic cars display, pleasure flying and much more!
I am not being funny or anything but how can you justify flying the red arrows with the vulcan on sunday only? Not only this, you have only secured the Patrouille de France for Sunday aswell. Common Waddington… Play fair and get the flypast on both days!
Posted by Lawrence | June 22, 2009, 5:06 pmTo be honest i can happilt miss p. d. france, the vulcan is in formation on saturday as well, not with the arrows, but a bit of variety is great as far as im concerned. Flying list is dissapointing and i cant spell but im still looking forward to it.
Posted by Richard Lay | June 22, 2009, 5:48 pmI’ve been around airshows long enough to know that some of these aircraft have other comittments and are not only available to Waddington. The Paatrouille de France for instance are at Koksijde on the Saturday hence not Waddingstons fault they are only apppearing for one day, but good on them for them securing them for at least the Sunday.
As for the Vulcan flying with the Breitling team on Saturday if the offer was made & the Vulcan flight ops accepted it why not? Perhaps The Reds weren’t available on the Saturday? I don’t know but I do they they often have more than 1 event planned per day.
Posted by Rosie | June 23, 2009, 11:46 amI dont care who the Vulcan flies with – it didnt fly last year at Waddington when I was there – I have missed it endless times at other events (including Bruntingthorpe). So anything will be relished!
Posted by Jeannie | June 23, 2009, 11:59 amdifferant flypast! do we still get a full Display by the Vulcan?are the Red Arrows flying both days?
Posted by neil senior | June 23, 2009, 3:44 pmDo we still get a full Vulcan display? are the Red Arrows flying both days?
Posted by neil senior | June 23, 2009, 3:45 pmThe vulcan is still down for a full display as last year it flew with the Lancaster and still did a solo display. Also the red arrows are listed for a full display on their own site, aswell as the flypast with another aircraft that they seem to do yearly anyway
Posted by Lawrence | June 23, 2009, 11:16 pmcheers for info thought we would get full display just checking yes flypast with Lancaster was something!
Posted by neil senior | June 24, 2009, 4:38 pmwould it be that difficult to organise a formation with the Lanc like last year? That was truly someting.
Posted by Steve | June 25, 2009, 4:32 pmI doubt very much you’ll see it again at Waddington this year. There is a lot of organising to do, and with 558 formating with diffent a/c both Sat & Sun I doubt theres room in 558s schdule for another.
Posted by Rosie | June 26, 2009, 6:27 amPersonally I say let them fly however they like so long as they do fly. from the weather report so far this weekend it look pretty bad heavy rain showers both days along with low cloud base. Lets hope the weather people are wrong.
I notice on the waddington website it they are warning people that its going to be hot lets hope they are correct and not just bluffing to get the crowds
Posted by Jason | July 1, 2009, 2:02 pmGreat to see some positive tweets coming though on twitter. I’ve just done a few quick searches on “Vulcan” and “Waddington” http://search.twitter.com
I’ve taken the liberty of starting a new tag #WAD09 if anyone else want’s to use it – could help others track Air Show tweets – you never know, it could start trending…
Posted by Justin | July 2, 2009, 3:28 pmVery disappointed the Vulcan did not fly!!!!! It would have been helpful if an explanation had been given!!! Many of us drove for hours to RAF Waddington to see the Vulcan!!! I do not understand these admin hiccups!!! We did have trouble seeing the low passing aeroplanes cos so many tents along the runway!!! Oh for the airshows of the 60′s and 70′s – they were about the aeroplanes!!!!!
The RAF Band and cafe in the hanger went down a treat!!!
Posted by linda | July 6, 2009, 7:11 amWaddington 2009 – great day out pity about the dismal flying display. 4 F16′s on the ground but not one in the air? what is all that about. As for the Vulcan – Incredible. Apparently they overlooked the fact that the “mot” was due. What! These people amass millions of pounds of public money to get it back in the air but cannot remember when the “mot” is due. Surely too incredible to be true.
The cynic in me thinks it is more likely it was just used to bring in the crowds.
Presumbly, as it is currently not certified to fly it is still at Waddington. I would love to know exactly when it leaves. Can anyone tell me?
Posted by kevin | July 6, 2009, 8:05 amTotally agree with you, I’ve watched this blog for approx 6 weeks leading up to the show and although I agree with the majority of the messages, felt that the team at Waddington do a great job and could well do without me moaning. However, I must now say that the show on Saturday was probibly the most drab air display I’ve ever been to in my 25yrs of attending. OK, with the current climate, both in financial terms and military operations, I can see why aircraft participation was low, however, it is hard to accept how dissapointed I and my family feel. The kids were looking forward to the vulcan and cant quite accept my explanation (and nor can I !!) that the management of VttS failed to carry out the ‘MOT’. I now wonder if the massive funding required to keep the Vulcan in the air is partly due to the way the organisation is managed. That may seem harsh but how can you overlook something like that and expect to have any credibility. I thaught leaving the Typhoon to the end of the show was asking for a traffic problem, and was proven right since the Typhoon was the only crowd puller left in the display so must people decided to wait for it. I’m sorry to the team at Waddington for this message, because I have been to every airshow here and a good number at Finningley before it and enjoyed every one, but this year was only saved by the weather. Hopefully 2010 will be better……
Posted by Paul | July 6, 2009, 12:31 pmI spoke with the ground crew on the day. The fault lay firmly in their optinion with the CAA not the XM558 organisers.
They filed all the necessary paperwork and flew to Waddington and participated in a practice run on the Friday firmly believing all was in order. (Why else make the effort to attend)
My understanding from speaking to the crew they received notificiation on Friday night the CAA had not cauthorised the so called ‘MOT’ but if it came thorugh the plane could be ready within 45mins to perform.
Posted by Mike | May 18, 2010, 8:11 amIt is starting to feel like the vulcan is just being used to get the numbers through the gates. What a disgraceful stupid mistake to fail to carry out a condition of receiving a new permit. This is an unacceptable issue and having heard comments from many of the spectators the people responsible should be ashamed. How many times do they think they can get away with excuses after the millions of pounds donated by the public!!!!!!!!!
They have to have known that they were not going to do this work yet they wait until the day of the show to announce the no show!!
Disgraceful!
Posted by Jason | July 6, 2009, 8:51 amSorry. I got carried away and posted before finishing.
The flying displays were great from the pilots who participated, and thanks to all of them. But we all want to see the top guns at these military shows and for the money it costs for a weekend they should make sure they get more modern fighter jets in the air.
Please please please if you book the Vulcan again please have a back up plan,as it seems the Mighty Vulcan is becoming to unreliable to fork out a fortune to go and see it not fly.
Anyway my kids loved talking to the pilots and the Military personnel who were on hand, and one thing that we all come away feeling was very proud of our Armed Forces.
The other thing that bugged me was the cues for food were very long and it seemed to need more food stalls.
So come on Waddigton sort it out for 2010.
Posted by Gary | July 6, 2009, 12:25 pmTotally agree. A whole year they have known that the work needed doing in order to secure a permit. It should have taken priority from the start. Having taken all our money, they had a duty to ensure that it was ready for all major airshows. They would have known for weeks that they would not get a new permit and yet they kept it to themselves and then fobbed us off on the day with “how sorry they are”.
Shame on you TVOC! Your a disgrace!
Posted by Lawrence | July 6, 2009, 1:35 pmYep, got to agree, i am absolutely disgusted that the Vulcan didn’t fly. Even more disgusted that this wasn’t made clear on the website. Im sure they must have known before saturday morning that this was the case, and if they had put a message on the website that it wasn’t displaying, i woudln’t have bothered doing a 300 mile round trip. But then again, this is probably why it wasn’t mentioned!
And as for the lack of fast jets, appalling!
Posted by Mark | July 6, 2009, 1:50 pmI travelled 200 miles to see the Vulcan and although I had a good weekend overall my friends and I were not happy.
Letting the crowd know on the morning that it wasn’t flying doesn’t help all those that had prepaid tickets as we for one wouldn’t have gone if we were paying on the gate.
Posted by Hurl | July 6, 2009, 1:58 pmWhat can i say that has not already been said my son and i drove for 2 hours to be there purely and simply to see the Vulcan which i have been lucky enough to see in the past and spoke many times to him of how great it was to feel the sky tearing in front of you and the goose bumps all over as the vulcan took to the sky we were in bournemouth last year and a very simular thing happened so again he failed to see it !! so when it was announced yesterday that it would not be flying “which we never heard until 14:30 ” we got in the car and drove home very disappointed and vowed never to return to what overall was a very poor air show at waddington
Posted by steve foakes | July 6, 2009, 3:54 pmAs with you all I was very dissapointed with the way the Vulcan to the air team performed, they are very unproffesional and someone should be sacked. I’s a good job they weren’t in charge of the airforce in 1941, or we would all be talking German.
A special mention is also need for the ignorant pigs who built their tents and barracades along the display line. They ignorred the initial request to remove them, and just brassed it out, how unbritish.
The authorities should have sorted them.
I payed a lot of money to get in againt this year, but unless Waddington get a grip I won’t be visiting again.
Posted by Neil | July 6, 2009, 4:02 pmI totally agree with the previous posts its a disgrace and I’m affraid your a laughing stock. I wonder where you would be if we all “forgot” to donate!! As for the air show….Great weather Great people shame about the the display!! Could you really list the Waddo aircaft as a display?? Just a take off and landing to me. Red Arrows, Typhoon, and BBMF you saved the day. The Reds were quite fantastic. Come on Waddo Get those Aircraft booked now for next year!!!
Posted by Dave Barrott | July 6, 2009, 5:05 pmwhat about the Team Orlik, & the Breitling Team both excellent to my mind, & what about Patrouille de France & the alpha jets are seriously saying that their display was just a take off & landing!????
Posted by Rosie | July 7, 2009, 9:13 pmYou are missing the point I think. Waddingtons home team of AWACS, ASTAR and Nimrod took off, flew past and left. Thats it. Nothing more, Nada, Zilch. No “display”.
Orlik was pretty good. They always are.
Breitling? OK but not a patch on the Arrows.
Patrouille de France? Wannabes. Now the Frecce Tricilori on the other hand have always (at least when I have seen them) come really close to the arrows in terms of style.
But the wider point is that this year was mainly about formation flying which is all well and good, but for a military airshow the show stoppers are the solo performers. F-18s and F-16, Tornados, F-16s, Typhoons, Rafales and Grippens each doing the best to say look at me, I’m the best.
So maybe a high alpha pass is getting old. I don’t care. I’m opld enough to remember a show where the F-15 played at being top dog with a high speed low level pass and a pull out into a fast vertical ascent. Then the Lightning came on to show how it should be done!
Those were airshows. They got the pulse racing and the ear drums begging for mercy.
This weekend was a pale imitation.
Posted by Tony Greenfield | July 7, 2009, 10:49 pmFair point they were ok but not a patch on the reds, and I didn’t comment on them being just flypasts just the waddo trio.
Posted by Dave barrott | July 8, 2009, 6:24 amI have to say David Barrott im with you on this the Vulcan has consumed more money than the Labour party. I love the aircraft to bits but not seeing this time round will be the last straw for me, i will have to stop putting money in the pot.
People do pay money for things like this, posters show the monster Vulcan in flight (I Wish) and now I feel let down if it was not for the strong line up I would ask for a refund. What’s your feelings chat back
Posted by Andy Medley | June 25, 2010, 9:06 pmi for one will neveragain beleive the hype surrounding the vulcan as for the actual display at this years show well if i had wanted to see aircraft on tne ground i would have saved me and my family nearly a £100 price tag and gone to newark air museam d burto 19 caincross road bilborough nottingham ng8 4az
Posted by david burton | July 6, 2009, 5:06 pmhi there airshow fans i like to thank waddington airshow for a good day out even though the Vulcan did not fly but that didnt put a dampner on things as they was plenty to see and do around the base well done waddington for a grand day see u next year
Posted by paul | July 6, 2009, 9:13 pmI was so dissappointed not to see the Vulcan fly and I agree some one want,s sacking for such a over sight.
We where lucky we arrived at the caravan rally on the Thursday so watch small display from the campsight as it arrived.Also where was the harrier.
Come on Waddinton lets have more flying next year.
Posted by Pat Barratt | July 7, 2009, 7:58 ami agree with everyone about the vulcan, in future i will think twice before i donate again.
Posted by Richard Lay | July 7, 2009, 5:18 pmno I am not missing the point,
The Reds are the best in the world – so should Waddington say no-one can better them we’ll only ask the Reds as a formation team to attend?
F18′s F16′s American a/c, if they will only attend on static should Waddington say ok we’ll not have them?
No-one seems to appreicate that there is a recesson on & that affects the Military as much as civillians, and if they don’t have the man power to train up display pilots because they are serving at least 2/3rds of the year abroad in theatre so be it. As it is the MOD that has said the only fast jet displays will be Hawks & the Typhoon you can’t blame Waddington for not seeing a tornado or harrier
as for the Waddo trio they left to go on an operation mission,
No present airshow will ever be a patch on the old ones because there simply isn’t the varity of a/c about these days.
Posted by Rosie | July 8, 2009, 8:42 amSorry but I have to reply to this.
If they’re not going to fly those planes, why advertise them in their fliers. And have pictures of them all over the front. Why not stick a hawk on the front as that’s what will fly there. Why not make sure the vulcan’s licence up to date knowing it will be in a major airshow at the weekend?
There must be qualified pilots to fly those planes at the shows. Even if they’d done a few flyby’s it would have been something. It was so frustrating to see all those amazing planes in the statics!
Now I may get ripped apart here but at the end of the day I’m a paying member of the public and it looks like I’m not the only person who feels like this. My wife’s reaction when she saw the planes in the statics was “wow! why aren’t they in the sky?”
As for the recession, we’re all still paying full tax to the government, and from what I heard it was the best turn out waddingtons seen so money shouldn’t be the issue.
And lastly, I bet if everyone knew that there was no vulcan and a lack of fast jets, half of those people at the airshow wouldn’t have turned up. That’s why the flier was covered in flying harriers and stating an f16 and a vulcan would be there. Because that’s what brings in the crowds.
Posted by Steve | July 8, 2009, 10:42 pmAmen to that Steve. Rosie still isn’t getting it from what I see.
Most people I spoke to on Sunday didn’t know the Vulcan was a hanger queen once again and would not have come if they had known. They came based on the advertised line up (and many based on a flyer and website that implied Harriers, Mig 29s and a B-17)
That is misleading at best and fraud at worst – by the way I’m a lawyer so spotting that is kind of my stock in trade.
Yes there are economic and political problems but misleading people to get a positive turnout should not be the tactic they take.
As to the Waddo aircraft, they did a straight line flyby. Don’t give a rats ass that they were going on a “mission”. This was a paid for air display with the public paying a significant price at the gate. They should have at least tried to put on a display. How would it go down if a concert billed a major name star who then walked on, said hi and then left for a more “important” gig and left a no name backing group to fill in for the rest….
Posted by Tony Greenfield | July 8, 2009, 11:26 pmHere Here!!! Posted on youtube is a nice clip of the two F15′s and Phantom leaving. Waddo did’t do themselves any favours by listing the waddo trio as “display”. They need to sort things out like this as i am begining to loose faith in the Raf’s “PREMIER” airshow.
Posted by Dave Barrott | July 9, 2009, 8:34 ami would just like to say this was the first airshow as mr and mrs we was looking forward to seeing the vulcan fly as im a big fan and my wife has never seen it before and i think when permits are due they should be sorted before being added to list of planes as it ruined my day and what happened to airshows they use to have lots of old war planes flying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by mr and mrs lee | July 8, 2009, 7:44 pmI’m inclined to agree about the misrepresentation of the displaying aircraft. The lame “not my fault” line taken by the Vulcan PR team did them no credit whatsoever and given that Waddington 2010 will probably coincide with the MOT being due again perhaps they’ll be a bit more diligent in checking that jobs are actually being done. That said, some of the more vintage bits of the display – the strikemaster team and the AN2 were good to see, but what that encouraged me to do was to perhaps bin Waddington in the future and save up for Duxford or North Weald instead.
One more bit of positive stuff – the toilets were an improvement on previous years, and moving the funfair away from the crowdline so we could hear the show and commentary (yes even the poor music choices for some displays) but grinding my gears at the end of the day was the commentary team imploring people not to flood the exit gates by leaving all at once but “have a look around at the static displays and hangars”. Of we trooped doing our bit to ease congestion only to discover the hangars emptying their displays with indecent haste and crews closing public access to their airframes. OK so it is a long weekend (I’ve done a number of Mildenhall shows as support staff) but either the show and exhibits stay open to encourage a staggered departure or they don’t. Just a bit more co-ordination and though required.
Posted by marcus | July 10, 2009, 9:26 amPlease move the speakers in front of the Spitfire Grandstand..and tell the commemtator to be quiet he NEVER shut up all day. We need to hear the roar of fast jets at Waddington again. As for 558…im not even going there….Very lacklustre lineup.
Posted by Pete | July 14, 2009, 3:09 pmI saw the Vulcan at Fairford and it was brilliant. But I must say that the Fairford show was disappointing for me. First the traffic control to get people in was terrible, queues for 8 miles. Now I know these shows are popular, but so do the organisers, why do they not sort out better ways of moving people in by using Park & Ride etc, or one way systems like the Royal Show does. Poor Poor Poor in my view. I was also unlucky as we booked tickets in the Pimms Flightdeck enclosure, this was at one end of the runway and litterally no one ‘displayed’ to us, they were all concentrating in the middle. The catering was useless too £12.50 for a burger with queues of 100 yds. We did not bother TERRRIBLE enclosure. Won’t be going again, that is for sure.
Posted by Graham Baylis | July 21, 2009, 7:37 ami came to the show on friday and watched the planes comming in it was the best 5 pounds i ever spent. i thought if its this good i would buy a ticket so i came on the saturday loverly weather and about 10 30 the vulcan was not flying as i stood with a pilot i turn round to him and said i bet it flys at fairford so i came home and booked for fair ford it flew but the wether was crap. as for air displays can any body remember hucknall in notts having the displays in the 60s & 70s they was better than they r today
Posted by DEL THE HIT | February 6, 2010, 11:04 pmGreat stuff. blog.waddingtonairshow.co.uk deserves an oscar.
Posted by Miranda | March 9, 2010, 6:51 pmSo the Vulcan is yet again listed. Can we ask if they have sorted out the various permits this year? Passed the tests to fly or is the Vulcan going to be a hanger queen yet again…..?
So far as I am concerned this is the make or break year. If they cancel in 2010 this may be my last Waddington.
Put up or shut up guys
Posted by Tony | May 5, 2010, 10:33 pmThe organisers are well aware of the public disquiet regarding the Vulcan at the 2009 show. We have previously explained the position we found ourselves in at the last minute. Be assured that we have learnt from that. it is worth quoting that the paperwork the Air Show needed from the VOC, the Display Authorisation, was valid.It was the permit to fly that ran out on the Friday before the show. We are now monitoring the efforts to return the Vulcan to the display circuit very closely. The Vulcan has been booked for the 2010 show and we all hope that everything goes well with the winter servicing and we see the aircraft airborne over the show once again. As with all aircraft both old and new there is always the possibility of unforseen unservicabilities rendering the aircraft unable to get airborne. This is unfortunately, a fact of life. We will do all we can to keep the public aware of any change of circumstance regarding this icon, all we ask is a little patience.
Posted by rafwaddingtonairshow | May 10, 2010, 1:33 pmWell im afraid to say after last year i will never go to Waddington again the whole day was a total let down and vulcan not flying was the icing on the cake i went to bournemouth airshow on the sea front all for days all for free and it was a hundred times better !!!!!
Posted by Steve | May 10, 2010, 8:02 pmI hope the Vulcan operators get it right this year there really was no excuse for last years “non flying Vulcan” and the support financialy could wear a bit thin if it occurs again.
Posted by g plews | May 19, 2010, 8:30 pmI heard @ Wellesbourne show that 558 had cracked landing gear strut, hope it’s been sorted
Posted by Sparky5 | July 2, 2010, 11:15 am