RAF Cosford’s exclusive Pre-Airshow photocall

Welcome to this latest edition of Aerodrome and our regular look at the fascinating world of aeroplanes and the historic aviation scene around the UK.

After a long winter where we’ve been struggling for new aviation related content for our Aerodrome blog, we currently find ourselves in the middle of the UK Airshow season, faced with so many content opportunities that it’s difficult to fit everything in. This does allow us to keep some reviews in the bank for later use, but means that we’re a little bit out of sync when it comes to documenting the latest events which have taken place on the UK aviation scene. With a hectic few weeks of event activity, and having taken the opportunity to enjoy holiday break overseas recently, we will be going back to the middle of June in this edition, as we head for a specially arranged event held at the RAF Museum Midlands site.

As the title suggests, our subject for this latest edition of Workbench is an unusual and extremely enjoyable pre-Airshow photoshoot event held at RAF Cosford, as the final preparations were bring made for their incredibly popular international Airshow, which was to be held just two days later. I was fortunate enough to join a gathering of aviation enthusiasts and photographers for this late afternoon/early evening event, and will be bringing you a selection of images which were all taken during a pleasant three hours or so meandering through the show’s static display, with the odd aircraft arrival thrown in for good measure.

It’s cameras at the ready, as we’re allowed access to the country’s only RAF organised Airshow site 36 hours before showtime.

Sell out Airshow opens its doors early for photoshoot opportunity

Cosford is not only the site of the last RAF organised Airshow, but it’s also home to one of the finest collections of historic aircraft in the world. Currently on display, the museum’s Boulton Paul Defiant stands next to the wreck of the Goodwin Sands Dornier Do17. 

When you have as many years invested in attending Airshows and aviation related events here in Britain as I have, it really can be difficult to find something that’s just that little bit out of the ordinary to get those enthusiast juices flowing these days, even though they are there if you look hard enough. Thanks to our friends at RAF Cosford and the good people at Threshold aero, they worked hard to create something really special for the enthusiast photographer this year, a rare opportunity to gain access to an International Airshow event just hours before the Airshow was due to take place.

As you may well imagine, the airfield site was a hive of activity during our visit, and even though most of us in attendance were aviation minded, the fact that this was essentially an active airfield meant that the pre-access safety briefing was comprehensive to say the least, and was delivered to an extremely attentive audience. We were all left in absolutely no doubt how fortunate we were to be afforded such access, and how we would be acting as ambassadors for those who might be afforded similar opportunities in the years to come – we all knew our responsibilities.

Now standing proudly as the only remaining RAF organised Airshow in the country, the Cosford International Airshow is always a highlight event in the schedule, and as such is almost always a sell out event. With its central location in the country, Cosford’s attendance catchment area is huge, but can also count on the fact that the population of Shropshire and the wider Midlands region regard this as ‘their Airshow’. Every year, come rain or shine, local people turn up in their tens of thousands, determined to show their support for a show they continue to hold dear. They’re probably also trying their level best to give organisers as few excuses as possible when it comes to them considering the future of the show. For them, that’s simply not an option - they love their Airshow, and their links to the Royal Air Force past and present. As far as they’re concerned, you’re not taking our Airshow anywhere.

Cosford is now regarded as the home of the RAF Jaguar, with the last flying example arriving at the Midlands airfield site almost 20 years ago.

Although this famous airfield site is now a vitally important training and engineering facility for trades within a Royal Air Force which is hopefully about to undergo an overdue period of expansion, Cosford is actually steeped in RAF history, and is a fascinating place to visit for those with even a passing interest in aircraft or aviation history. Helping to maintain the future development of the Force, flying training operations still take place here under the control of No.6 Flying Training School, whilst the various disciplines of the Defence College of Technical Training help prepare engineers and technicians for a future career in one of Britain’s armed services.

Without doubt though, Cosford’s spectacular jewel in the crown is the magnificent historic aircraft collection of the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands, a collection which occupies three massive hangars across this historic site, in addition to the cavernous display space within the impressive National Cold War Exhibition building. Over recent years, Cosford’s collection of exhibits has been greatly enhanced by the addition of several truly historic aircraft which have re-located from the RAF Museum’s Hendon site, a development which has made an annual pilgrimage to Cosford essential for thousands of people and creating a truly world class collection of aircraft.

On Airshow day itself, one of the unique aviation benefits of being amongst the crowds at Cosford is the possibility of seeing one or two of the collections incredibly rare aircraft being temporarily displayed out in the open, pulled from the protection of their hangars to serve as stunning static display exhibits, often just for one day only. For true aviation fans, this really does make Cosford a must attend event, with historic static display aircraft which are the envy of every other Airshow, and an international air display thrown in for good measure.

Static aircraft display photoshoot

The Cosford Airshow organising team always serve up an impressive selection of historic aircraft for their unrivalled static display.  

Although most people would have been looking forward to watching the flying display spectacle at this year’s Cosford Airshow, the show organisers had also arranged a similarly impressive static aircraft display for their viewing pleasure, the like of which couldn’t be matched anywhere in the world. With an impressive selection of post war aircraft serving as instructional airframes for current force apprentices, and the incredible array of historic aircraft scattered across the site, Cosford can boast a static aircraft display which is the envy of the Airshow world, and has to be considered one of the main attractions of this popular show.

Obviously, these aircraft were available to be photographed by the 50,000 strong sellout crowd scheduled to be in attendance on show day itself, but imagine having the opportunity to photograph them with just a few hundred people on the airfield, and before many of the crowd barriers had been put in place. 

This tantalising prospect had aviation photographers eagerly snapping up one of the limited availability places on a specially arranged event scheduled for the Friday evening prior to this year’s show, an event conceived by the passionate aviation photography group Threshold aero, in close association with the Cosford Airshow team, something really special in this year’s events calendar.

Those with ticket in hand, and if satisfying all the necessary event criteria, were given unprecedented access to the showground at Cosford for three glorious hours, with the ability to capture the impressive static display in glorious early summer light, something we had all been hoping for since securing our tickets back in April. We already knew that arguably Britain’s most historic post WWII military aircraft was going to be part of the display, and as far as many of us were concerned, the chance to photograph Chinook ‘Bravo November’ outside in Airshow surroundings was the only encouragement we needed to grab a ticket.

The event has to be considered a resounding success, and everyone in our group were treated to an extremely enjoyable three hours or so. Bravo November did prove to be the star attraction for many, but there were so many more historic airframes for us to photograph that those three hours absolutely flew by.

Anyway, enough with the introduction, what you want to see is pictures of aeroplanes. Please enjoy this selection of images which were all taken during this year’s  

A scurry of Chipmunks. 2026 is a big anniversary year for the De Havilland Chipmunk, as the type made its first flight in May 1946.

A trio of interesting new aviation arrivals were making their Cosford Airshow static display debuts this year, former Red Arrows Hawk XX294, the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, and their new Westland Puma HC.1.

Typhoons and Tornados. Heavy metal attendees at this year’s show included Typhoon DA4 ZH590, an aircraft which was the fourth of seven development machines, and a two-seat avionics development aircraft which operated out of the British Aerospace airfield at Warton, in support of the program.

The undoubted star of the static display, Falklands War Survivor ‘Bravo November’ has to be considered one of the most historic preserved aircraft in the country.

A Cast of Cosford’s beautifully preserved Hawk trainers.

Piston perfection, this Yakovlev Yak-3U is a UK Airshow regular, and a potent performer.

Despite entering UK service in 2001, you definitely would not want to mess with the Apache Attack Helicopter.

Another aircraft making an outdoor appearance at this year’s show, it was so good to see Harrier GR.3 XZ997 under Cosford’s blue skies. 

The largest overseas visitor at this year’s show, the Koninklijke Luchtmacht sent this Lockheed C-130H Hercules which was named ‘Ben Swagerman’. 

I’m afraid that’s all we have for you this time around, however, we’ll be back again in four weeks’ time with more news, updates and pictures from the fascinating world of aviation. Thank you for your continued support and as always, if you would like to comment on anything blog related or suggest a subject you would like to see covered in a future edition of Aerodrome, please do drop us a line at aerodrome@airfix.com, where we would be delighted to hear from you.

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The next edition of Aerodrome is scheduled to be published on Friday 7th August, and we look forward to sharing more aviation inspired content with you then.

I hope to see you all back here in four weeks.

Michael

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