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Visitor Information: Guinot Wingwalkers |
Scotland's National Museum of Flight is based at East Fortune in East Lothian, a historic military airfield 18 miles east of Edinburgh. On a Saturday in late July each year the museum is home to one of Scotland's leading airshows.
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The pictures on this page were taken at the 2009 airshow and reflect a highly successful event that attracted a crowd of over 10,500 from across Scotland and beyond. Visitors to the airshow are able to enjoy a wide variety of attractions. These include the full range of facilities of the museum itself, including access to all its display hangars and other exhibitions, plus the chance to view the interiors of some of the larger aircraft it keeps outdoors on the museum site. There is also, of course, the museum's Concorde Experience, with airshow visitors able to book on a first come first served basis to board one of the world's most iconic aircraft.
Meanwhile there is also an impressive collection of other ground-based attractions. These range from a funfair to military vehicles, and include a number of static light aircraft flown in to East Fortune for the event. Elsewhere you find trade stands and food and drink outlets, plus stands seeking recruits for the Air Training Corps or the RAF. A large tent known as the family activity zone caters for the needs of children who might not be as interested in aeroplanes as their parents, and offers everything from traditional Punch and Judy shows to interactive story telling and dance lessons.
 Star of the Show: Avro Vulcan XH558 |
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 Folland Gnats |
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 Chinook |
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 Hunter G-PSST "Miss Demeanour" |
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 Swift Aerobatic Team |
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 Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Spitfire |
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 Lynx Mk8 |
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 P51-D Mustang |
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 Dakota |
There are a number of factors which combine to make the airshow at East Fortune rather different from other large airshows you might have been to. The most obvious has already been mentioned: it is hosted by an aviation museum rather than by an active airfield or airport. The second is the nature of the museum site, which offers plenty of space and allows visitors wishing to view the air display to do so from just about any exterior part of the site. The large grassy areas mean that, on a nice day at least, you can choose to join the crowds near the fence on the side of the site nearest the flight line, or instead pick a quieter spot for a picnic or your folding chairs.
East Fortune is technically a disused airfield. This means that there is no prospect of large aircraft flying in to form part of a static display. Light aircraft do so, however, and alongside the museum's own extensive aircraft collections mean that you have plenty to look at. East Fortune's status also means that aircraft in the flying display, apart from the helicopters, either fly in from a distance to give their performance or are based at Edinburgh Airport.
At East Fortune the displaying aircraft do so along the line of the old north-south runway, which is to the east of where the spectators are gathered on the museum site. With a flying display that extended for over three hours during the afternoon, this means that the sun is behind the spectators and lighting up the performing aircraft: ideal conditions for watching or photographing an air display. The third factor that made the 2009 airshow so successful was a truly magnificent commentary. The commentator brought to life the flying display in a way that was knowledgable, entertaining, fascinating, personable and audible: and accessible to enthusiasts and more casual visitors alike.
The 2009 flying display itself was varied and entertaining, mixing skill and spectacle with daring flying and beautiful aeroplanes: and a little bit of rolling thunder, especially at the end. Everyone's tastes are different, but for us the display had a number of very clear highlights. These included the ever popular Battle of Britain Memorial Flight which brought to the show a Spitfire, a Hurricane and a Dakota. Two individual displays by helicopters were also very impressive. The massive twin-rotor Chinook was thrown around the sky in a manner which belied its great bulk and weight; and a Royal Navy Lynx Mk8 showed why the Lynx is the world's fastest helicopter, both forwards and backwards.
A highly unusual show was given by the Swift Aerobatic Display Team, who fly aerobatics in a Swift glider being towed by a Piper Pawnee tow plane in company with an SA180 Twister. Equally impressive were the Blades extreme formation aerobatics team, composed entirely of ex-Red Arrows pilots flying highly maneuverable Extra 300s: and the Guinot Wingwalkers also gave a superb display.
You can tell the outstanding moment of an air display has arrived when the entire crowd stops talking and turns as one to look in the same direction. At East Fortune in 2009 this moment came with the arrival of Vulcan XH558, which retired from the RAF in 1993 and returned to the skies in late 2007 after years of restoration. How an aircraft designed 60 years ago can still look so futuristic is beyond us. And nothing in modern aviation can sound as magnificent as four Bristol Olympus engines on full power.
The 2009 display had one other, rather more subtle, highlight. The flag of Scotland is the Saltire, a white diagonal cross on a blue background. There are variants of the story of the origin of the Saltire, but they only differ in relation to the year and the name of the king involved.
The most likely version is that in 761 the Pictish King Unust was about to meet a more powerful Northumbrian army in battle in East Lothian. The night before the battle, St Andrew appeared in a dream and promised Unust the victory he had prayed for. The two armies met the following day at a place called Athelstaneford, just over a mile south west of East Fortune. As they did so, a strange cloud formation appeared, forming a broad diagonal white cross against the background of bright blue sky. The Picts believed this to be an omen of victory: and after they subsequently won the battle against the odds they adopted the Cross of St Andrew or the Saltire as their flag.
During the display of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, early in the 2009 flying program, there was a rather interesting cloud formation in the sky north of East Fortune: a broad white diagonal cross set against the background of the blue sky. Dissipating condensation trails caused by high flying aircraft? Probably, but the echo of the story of the origin of the Saltire and the proximity to Athelstaneford, from which it would certainly have been visible, did bring a certain resonance to the moment. There's an image of the cloud formation at the foot of the page.
 Spitfire T.IX PT462 |
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 The Saltire Returns to East Lothian: and a Hurricane of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight |
