Sunderland International Airshow

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Coordinates: 54°55′44″N 1°21′50″W / 54.929°N 1.364°W / 54.929; -1.364

Avro Vulcan XH558, the last flying Vulcan Bomber, makes its first appearance at the Sunderland Airshow on 25 July 2009, piloted by Martin Withers, the man who flew Vulcan XM607, the first Vulcan to bomb Port Stanley airfield in the Falklands War, in Operation Black Buck One

Sunderland International Airshow is the biggest free annual airshow in Europe, held near the Roker and Seaburn seafronts. It takes place over the course of two days, normally the final weekend in July and attracts around 1,000,000 spectators every year. The airshow features a large number of planes, including the Red Arrows and the Eurofighter Typhoon. In addition to the planes, the seafront plays host to a range of food counters, stalls and fairground games. The Royal Navy traditionally have a warship off the coast every year, usually the HMS Ocean, the adopted warship of Sunderland, however in 2007, HMS Albion made an appearance instead as HMS Ocean had other commitments. The airshow was first held in 1988, and was planned to be a one-off event, when it attracted 250,000 spectators. Due to thick fog and mist over the airshow weekend in 2008, only one plane was flown, the Belgian F-16 flown by Mickey Artiges on the Sunday.

[edit] Affiliations

Durham Tees Valley Airport is used as a base for most of the flying displays, compared with previous use of Newcastle Airport, this is possibly because Tees Valley has fewer flights resulting in faster turnarounds for aircraft departing and arriving from the airshow.

Eastern Airways BAe Jetstream 41 In One Northeast Livery.

Newcastle International Airport was used up until 2007, the only aircraft in the 2007 show to use Newcastle were the C-130K Hercules of the RAF Falcons Parachuting team, and the Eastern Airways BAe Jetstream 41 North East England Livery and the Red Arrows. The organisers stopped using this as the main airport because they have a tight flight schedule with many more low cost flights departing now then in previous years.

[edit] The Green Airshow

In 2007 Sunderland City Council teamed up with Gentoo and CarbonNeutral North East to reduce and off-set all the emissions caused by staging the two-day show. There was a Green Village with many environmental stalls.

[edit] Highlights

The Red Arrows At Sunderland International Airshow in 2005.

The show has many highlights that return every year including:^[1]

Red Arrows
Eurofighter Typhoon
Black Cats (Royal Navy)
Merlin
Harrier GR9 (Although due to military commitments, it was not there in 2007)
The Blades
F-16
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
The RAF Falcons

In 2007 a few new displays turned up including:

Royal Marines Role Demo - 6 Assault Squadron
RAF Chinook Display Team - Personnel from 18 and 27 Squadrons
Eastern Airways BAe Jetstream 41 North East England Livery
Catalina G-PBYA

[edit] Gallery

The Red Arrows At Sunderland International Airshow in 2005.
Eastern Airways BAe Jetstream 41 In One Northeast Livery.
The RAF Falcons landing at the Sunderland Airshow 2007.
Catalina G-PBYA At the Sunderland Airshow 2007 with floats down ready for a water landing.
Red Arrows at Sunderland in 2007