Shuttleworth Collection 'Festival of Flight' Air Show
Friday 28th June - Sunday 30th June 2024
New for 2024, the Shuttleworth Collection held a three-day long ‘Festival of Flight’ on the last weekend of June. An excellent weekend all-round, the flying programme was as different on the Saturday and Sunday as the weather. Featuring plenty of top visiting displays from the UK and abroad, it was an event not to be missed.
reports from a busy weekend at Old Warden for UK Airshow Review. Photography by the author and .
When Richard Shuttleworth tragically died in a training flight in a Fairey Battle in 1940, little did he know that his private collection of vintage cars and aircraft would survive up to this day. The Collection, taking on his Shuttleworth family name, has grown into a worldwide institution of unique, airworthy, historic aircraft. Spanning decades of aviation history from the 1909 Blériot XI to the 1953 Piston Provost, every airframe is maintained in an airworthy condition - on the same basis that Richard did when he bought his first aircraft; a de Havilland DH.60X Moth G-EBWD. Today, the Shuttleworth Collection are renowned for their airshows. Collection and visiting aircraft alike are shown off to a standard simply not seen anywhere else in the UK. It is a venue designed for aviation aficionados who want to see, smell and experience aviation at its finest. It really does not get better than spending a day at Shuttleworth on a warm summer’s afternoon, enjoying aircraft lazily flying around the famed ‘dogleg’ or curved display line, and is something that Richard Shuttleworth would have surely enjoyed had he been alive to experience it.
Early on in the year, it became apparent that the new three-day Festival of Flight was going to be unlike anything ever seen at Shuttleworth before. With a promise of an international fly-in, evening flying display on the Friday and a full airshow on the weekend but with varied lineups, there was plenty to whet the appetite and convince many to make this into a multi-day trip to Bedfordshire to celebrate 60 years since the very first Shuttleworth airshow in 1964. With a strong start with announcements of the BBMF Lancaster (Saturday), BBMF Spitfire pair (Sunday), Hawker Tempest Mk. II (both days), the Red Arrows (Saturday) and Typhoon (Sunday), it was clear to see Shuttleworth were going all out. It was enough to convince one visitor to make the journey specifically for this show from as far as Argentina. As the unserviceability of the Tempest, and continued grounding of the BBMF became clear, Shuttleworth were prompt to replace these lost displays and continue bulking up the flying programme, unlike for the Military Airshow at the beginning of June. Though most of the additions in the month or so before the Festival of Flight were announced on an ad-hoc basis on social media, some failed to ever appear on Shuttleworth’s website, such as the Swordfish, causing confusion as to what was displaying on which day. A couple walking down the crowdline on Saturday morning could be overheard asking each other, where is the Swordfish? This is certainly an aspect of Shuttleworth’s communications that could be improved - the website often lags behind any social media announcements, and ever since a re-vamp several years ago, is realistically not a website that is easy to navigate, especially with so much information now included for the new multi-day events.
Airshow organisers across the world typically do their best to ensure both weekend days of their airshows are as similar as possible, so it must be said that Shuttleworth’s approach to make the Saturday and Sunday as dissimilar as possible was certainly unorthodox. If anything, though, it is evidence to how extensive the Shuttleworth Collection is, with both airshow days featuring different Collection aircraft in various set pieces, themes and formations with visiting aircraft. It was undoubtedly an interesting experience to attend two completely different airshows - at the same venue – on the same weekend! This approach attracted many enthusiasts to attend both days in view of a much better weather forecast on the Saturday, but a couple of very unique visitors on the Sunday. One of these was the Fighter Collection’s Curtiss Hawk H-75A-1. Arriving on Friday afternoon, the H-75 was basking in the sunshine all throughout Saturday and looked simply stunning but would have looked even better in the air. An argument could be made perhaps that Shuttleworth were exploiting enthusiasts and their hard-earned cash to attend both days so as not to miss out on the unique visiting acts such as this, but this also very much gave the weekend that festival feeling with completely different line-ups on both days.
With blue skies and cirrus clouds, Saturday’s display kicked off with the return of the Red Arrows. Returning to Shuttleworth for the first time since 2019 and displaying at 1pm, an hour earlier to the usual 2pm start, they were a real crowd pleaser. It was clear looking amongst the crowd, which was busier than on Sunday, that this was a big draw for many families and hopefully brought in additional revenue for the Collection to ensure the Festival of Flight will go down as a success. For enthusiasts, Saturday highlights included the privately-owned, Old Waren based Travel Air D-4000 together with the Mystery Ship Type R, which rarely participate in airshows. The Tiger 9, for one time only displaying with an impressive 11 aircraft were also a lovely sight over the airfield, closely followed by some jet-noise with a single Folland Gnat operating from North Weald. A special formation of the Collection’s DH.60X, Comper Swift and Desoutter was particularly significant, signifying Richard Shuttleworth’s first ever aircraft he owned and flew. These aircraft formed the basis of the Shuttleworth Collection as it is today and were a lovely homage to Richard Shuttleworth.
Other aircraft, such as Aircraft Restoration’s Company Spitfire PR Mk. XI PL965, was a mainstay of the flying display on both days. Saturday saw the Spitfire in formation with Shuttleworth’s Sea Hurricane before individual displays from each aircraft, whilst Sunday saw a brief pairs display with the Rolls Royce Spitfire PR Mk. XIX PS853 before each aircraft performed a solo. Both formations and displays were pretty unique and indeed worth attending both days to see. PL965 in particular is an aircraft intertwined with the Shuttleworth Collection throughout its history, and so it was fitting to see it play a major role in the weekend’s airshow. Duxford-based Catalina was also present on site on both days and looked grand in the paddock opposite the Shuttleworth restaurant, offering walkthroughs throughout the weekend. Despite this aircraft becoming somewhat of a regular at Shuttleworth over recent years, it still remains a treat seeing it operate from Old Warden and put in a very spirited performance.
Whilst there were simply too many displays to all be mentioned in this review, the pair of aircraft that were a prominent feature of the weekend were two warbirds from abroad. Based at La Ferté-Alais in France and appearing at Sywell the week before, W Air Collection’s Spitfire FR XIV RM927 and Les Casques de Cuir’s Vought Corsair F4U-5N arrived at Old Warden on Friday and displayed in the penultimate display slot on Saturday and Sunday. Kudos must go to the organisers for managing to obtain international flying display participation for the Festival of Flight, and to also have the forethought to schedule them towards the end of the flying display to please the photographers.
When Baptise Salis started his display in the Corsair on the Saturday, you could tell he had done his homework and got the memo on the assignment at hand: how to display at Old Warden. Climbing to height with the rough echo of the radial P&W R-2800 reverberating around the site, a dark silhouette against the sky, the crowd were in for a real treat. A vertical manoeuvre to reposition, followed by a dive towards the crowd on the B-axis, gaining speed and turning this dive into a topside, before pulling up to reposition for the rest of the display - it was perhaps the single greatest opening manoeuvre one could perform in a warbird. Likewise, the Griffon Spitfire with its authentically painted rough D-Day stripes was a fantastic sight and sound. The slow flypast from Brice O’Hayon with the canopy open was a truly outstanding piece of airmanship. If anyone had any doubts about coming back for the Sunday airshow, they were put to rest by knowing we were due a repeat performance of this terrific French pair.
Sunday’s display started particularly early at 12pm with the Fauvel Glider followed by the RAF’s Typhoon, to allow a 4pm finish time to allow any fly-in visitors to depart. Though the fly-in aspect of the event was disappointing by all accounts, it is something that can be built on in the future if this event becomes a permanent fixture. Though Sunday’s display was shorter, started earlier and the day was mostly overcast, it actually exceeded expectations. Many of the visiting displays booked for Sunday fit Shuttleworth like a glove and there was a couple of sunny spells too. One of these displays was the Titans aerobatic duo, with an XtremeAir XA42 and Yak-50, the latter replacing the usual Decathlon due to unserviceability. The display was a perfect spectacle at Shuttleworth. With lots of engaging, tight vertical manoeuvres always keeping the aircraft within the airfield boundary, it was an impactful display and a nice contrast seeing a modern carbon fibre aerobatic aircraft next to an older Soviet design. The rare Ryan ST-A, appearing in formation with a pair of Magisters was also a much discussed Sunday highlight, and was a pleasing sight despite the cloudy skies.
The other Sunday highlight that did not disappoint was the Vietnam-war pair with the UH-1H Huey and O-1 Bird Dog. The display was so good that it could quite easily make its way into UKAR’s annual top 10 airshow moments of the year. A well-rehearsed and synchronised routine, the Bird Dog and Huey made several formation flypasts, opposition passes, together with the Huey hovering and performing tight turns over the runway. And if this was not enough, Sunday also saw a second visit from the Navy Wings Swordfish to Old Warden this year. Now marked with D-Day stripes, the large biplane looked fantastic and was flown to absolute perfection. With head on passes towards the crowd before peeling away at the last second and multiple topsides around the bend - it was an epic display. The dark skies added to the theme of missions over the Atlantic, especially as this display was followed by the Catalina to stick with the Naval theme.
With non-stop action and not knowing where to look at times, the quality acts did not stop there. The Fighter Collection’s H-75 proved to be the other unique selling point for Sunday’s airshow. An early Second World War fighter that has limited presence at its home base at Duxford, at Shuttleworth it just felt right. The only airworthy H-75 in the world, visiting aircraft such as this would even make Richard Shuttleworth proud of what his Collection has become today. It was a true star, with a flypast with the Collection’s Spitfire Vc and P-51D Mustang ‘Miss Helen’, before a formation display with the Spitfire, including opposition passes and mirrored half-cubans. Stu Goldspink then had a chance for a quick solo with a single topside pass thrown in and if we were being picky, all of the photographers on the crowdline would have appreciated another topside or two. Nonetheless, Historic Aircraft Collection’s Hawker Fury which displayed at the Season Premiere and TFC’s Hawk 75 from the Festival of Flight will both go down in memory as the most delightful visitors to Old Warden over the last few years, and long may this approach from Shuttleworth continue. Unique, one-off surviving historic aircraft are what Shuttleworth is, and should be about.
Like the Festival of Flight, this review must also come to an end, but how do you summarise a weekend aviation extravaganza such as this? Shuttleworth’s Festival of Flight went above and beyond and was truly an aviation feast. The flying programme on both days was just the perfect blend of aircraft and themes, with visiting and Collection aircraft supplementing each other like never before. It was a weekend with an atmosphere like no other. Two different, yet excellent airshows, at the same world class venue, on the same weekend. Simply magnificent, sign me up for the next one.