COSFORD 2010 By Tony Hooper, All Photographs were provided by Neil Hutchinson

Every year we wonder whether we can maintain the high standard that the annual Cosford LMA event tends to demand. Once again this year the show lived up to all expectations with excellent feedback from pilots and the general public. All this was achieved in no small way by the hard work and dedication of the LMA Events team supported by quite a number of “unsung heroes”.

On Saturday there was a record crowd which exceeded our expectations in the light of the fact that the International Air Tattoo was also taking place at Fairford. What our event was able to show was that many aircraft from the past which are not available at full size airshows are flown and demonstrated in model form at our events and this gives a much better perspective of aircraft “down the years” . It was really pleasing to see the Victor originally built and owned by Gordon Nicholls come back into the events scene in the most capable hands of Andy Johnson who is the new owner. The formation display put on by Dave Johnson (Vulcan) and Andy with the Victor was a photographers delight and a wonderful reminiscence of the Cold War era.

We were also entertained by a number of WWII types which helped to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. This display was preceeded by a minutes silence and the playing of bagpipes by one of the Queens pipers. On Saturday the Dawn patrol team gave an excellent display and it was a pity that the higher strength of the wind on Sunday prevented them from repeating this performance. Undaunted , the Midlands Large Model Flying Group quarter scale WW1 team flew both days and considering the conditions they performed extremely well on Sunday.

Some more notable aircraft were the 2 Panthers of Harold Dowbekin and Dave Swarbrick, an excellent display by the DH Comet of Steve Rickett , and a real proof of what developments have taken place in the electric field by Tony Nijhuis with his B50 bomber – one of the biggest electric powered models in Europe. An impressive display was also given by Richard Rawle and Steve Holland with their “Breitling” Stearmans complete with wing walkers who actually performed ballet type action using a discrete transmitter operated by Sharon Stiles.

One of the highlights on the warbird scene had to be the Corsair of Trevor Wood which flew with a very realistic sounding radial engine – his flight was complimented by Brian Rawcliffe with his Tempest which also had a radial engine. It is difficult to pay tribute to all those fliers who made Cosford 2010 such a success but the LMA can be proud of the quality of models flown and the high level of skill exercised by all the pilots.

Please click image to enlarge.

Members of the LMA pulling together to put on the premer event of the year at RAF Cosford, Sponsored by RCM&E

The theme was the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain so I couldn’t think of a better way to start than with Richard Rawle stunning replica of the Caroline Grace’s Spitfire above