Air show

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Patrouille Suisse final

An air show is an open-air event where pilots demonstrate their aircraft in flight. They often show spectacular flight maneuvers and flight conditions, for example aerobatics . They show them alone or in formation flight (→ aerobatic team ). They demonstrate their flying skills and those of their aircraft. Flight maneuvers in quick succession are intended to entertain and impress the audience. Many of the maneuvers performed by military pilots are common military aircraft maneuvers. They are regularly trained by the pilots, among other things, in preparation for dogfights .

There are large and small air shows, mostly as part of another event (e.g. open day at an airport / airfield or during an air fair or air show ). Many flight days / air shows are organized and carried out by aviation associations. Here mainly aircraft are shown that are flown in these clubs (e.g. gliders , microlight aircraft , hang-gliders , paragliders and aerobatic machines).

history

The flight week Reims ⊙ ( Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne ) in August 1909, one month after Blériot's English Channel crossing

The first public international air show at which many different types of aircraft were presented and flown was the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne , which was held in Reims from 22 to 29 August 1909 . A number of competitions were flown out at this event. The first ever Gordon Bennett Cup for aircraft was won by Curtiss with his Curtiss Golden Flyer for the fastest flight over 20 km in 15: 50.4 minutes (76.749 km / h). The lap record for the 10-kilometer event circuit was set by Louis Blériot with his Blériot XI at 74.32 km / h . With his Farman III, Henri Farman won the 50,000 franc long distance prize with flown 180 km. Hubert Latham won the altitude prize with an altitude of 155 m with an Antoinette VII .

Franz Kafka and two friends took part in the air show in the city of Brescia in September 1909 during a trip to Italy. The article he published in the Bohemia newspaper in September 1909 , The Airplane in Brescia, is one of the first descriptions of airplanes in German-language literature .

On June 18, 1911, 40 planes took off from Vincennes near Paris in front of more than 400,000 spectators on a so-called “European sightseeing flight”. He had twelve stations: Liège, Spa, Venlo ( Venlo-Herongen Air Base ), Soesterberg, Gilze Rijen, Brussels, Roubaix, Calais, Dover, London Dover, Calais, Amiens back to Paris. 580,000 French francs were offered as prize money. The stage destinations essentially raised the money; these sold tickets for the airfields.

There was also a European sightseeing flight in 1929 , a European sightseeing flight in 1930 (organized in Germany, start and end in Berlin-Tempelhof), a European sightseeing flight in 1932 and a European sightseeing flight in 1934 .

General

Red Arrows - Enid with soloist

As a cradle of aerobatics applies England . Aviation was perfected there in the 1920s, both alone and in teams. It was also during this period that the first public events were held on airfields, which at that time already attracted thousands of visitors. This form of event has remained similar around the world to this day: A spectator area is delimited for the event on an airfield with a sufficiently long runway ; there are toilets, food stalls and souvenir stands. The spectator area has a certain distance from the taxiway. The aircraft must maintain a set safety distance from the public area during their demonstration (see Safety ). The day of the flight is continually commented on by a moderator (“place speaker ”) over loudspeakers in the spectator area. Some aerobatic teams have their own moderator. Programs are often sold to the public.

An air show is also professionally divided into a static display and a flying display . This means that during the event, stationary aircraft can be viewed on the ground (static display) and demonstrated in the air (flying display). Aerobatic demonstrations are the highlight of an air day.

Static display during the flight day at Bremen Airport 2009

Paramedics, the airport fire brigade and security personnel, mostly supported by the regional police, also ensure the safety of visitors . On military airfields, soldiers secure the airfield and the buildings.

It is not absolutely necessary to use an airfield as the venue for an air show. Coastal areas by the sea or large lakes are also popular venues, such as in Lugano (CH) or Bari (I). The pilots use fastened buoys as a point of orientation over water . Air shows over densely populated areas are prohibited for safety reasons.

The Patrouille de France with nine Alpha Jets over the Champs Élysées

For the big parades on public holidays in metropolises, almost only a simple overflight without aerobatics is shown. So z. B. annually in London , Paris (see photo), Moscow or Rome . The AirPower at the Hinterstoisser air base (Styria, Austria) is the largest air show in Europe .

Show troops of Europe

Military national squadrons on jet planes with regular appearances:

Show effects

Propeller machines also use smoke effects in aerobatics in air shows

With single machines, but especially with aerobatic teams, smoke effects are used to reinforce the flight maneuvers . There is a special tank on the machines for this purpose. At the push of a button, a smoke-generating liquid is injected into the hot exhaust gas jet. This evaporates immediately and is visible as white smoke behind the machine. There are also devices that generate smoke on both wing tips. You will e.g. B. turned on role in aerobatic maneuvers .

The smoke trail makes the flight path of the air device visible. In a flight relay they can have the advantage that pilots can see each other better and faster from a distance - during encounter maneuvers.

Almost all large military aerobatic teams use, in addition to the white smoke effect, colored powder in the national colors of their countries, which is added to the smoke-generating liquid.

On average, the special tanks on the machines are designed for a capacity of around five minutes of smoke effect. It occasionally happens that individual machines in the aerobatic teams are no longer able to generate a smoke trail at the end of the demonstration.

Known regular air shows

Germany Switzerland Austria Great Britain France Russia Czech Republic
Hamburg Airport Classics International Bodensee Airshow (IBAS) AirPower (Zeltweg) Flying Legends (Duxford) Paris Air Show MAKS (Moscow) Air show during the joint NATO days in Ostrava
Air show during the ILA (Berlin) International flight days from Dittingen Farnborough International Airshow
Aero Friedrichshafen Axalp air demonstration Royal International Air Tattoo (Fairford)
Oppenheim in Rhineland-Palatinate Zigermeet in Mollis Airbourne

Flight safety

In the usual air traffic regulations, requirements are usually placed on air traffic that make air shows impossible for reasons of flight safety . In Germany, Sections 6 and 8 of the Aviation Ordinance (LuftVO) stipulate safety heights except for take-off and landing and expressly prohibit “aerobatics at heights of less than 450 m and over cities, other densely populated areas, crowds and airports”. Every air show is therefore in contradiction to basic flight safety requirements and requires special approval from the responsible supervisory authority.

Safety requirements

Until the Ramstein air conference accident in 1988, there were no special safety standards for flight days worldwide. In interviews, pilots repeatedly emphasized how safe aerobatic demonstrations are. After this misfortune were

  • the safety distance from the audience to the runway is set to a minimum of 150 m,
  • the distance during the flight demonstration is set to a minimum of 250 m,
  • a minimum flight altitude of 30 m in straight flight for single aircraft, set at 100 m in a formation,
  • decided that meeting flights may no longer be carried out against the audience,
  • the audience may only be overflown with a minimum altitude of 300 m.

These safety standards can of course be increased individually by countries and organizers. In Belgium and Great Britain , for example, higher standards apply to flight days.

Special status for Germany

In Germany , there have been very strict regulations since the Ramstein disaster (see also accidents ). Air shows in Germany only take place to a limited extent; especially without military aerobatic teams. The International Aerospace Exhibition Berlin is to this day the only German event at which military aerobatic teams on jet planes have been allowed to perform again with special editions since 2000. Even there, particularly spectacular and dangerous flight maneuvers, including all encounter maneuvers, are prohibited. For the port birthday of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg in May 2009, a military aerobatic team - the Patrouille Suisse - flew outside the ILA Berlin in Germany for the first time since August 1988 .

Accidents

In the past there have been numerous accidents, some of them serious, at air shows and during training for air shows. They were favored, among other things, by the narrow distances between the aircraft, low altitudes and high flight speeds. Here are a few examples:

  • September 6, 1952 : At the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, the first prototype of the De Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen crashed into the crowd, killing 31 people, including the two pilots. A sonic boom should be demonstrated to the audience. The right wing leading edge could not withstand the loads and tore off. As a result, the right and left wings and the two engines were dismantled one after the other. An engine and the remains of the cell crashed into the audience.
  • June 19, 1962 : During training for an aerobatic presentation, a Starfighter formation of the German Air Force crashed at Nörvenich Air Base . A USAF flight instructor and three Air Force pilots died. The Air Force then disbanded all aerobatic teams. The first aerobatic presentation of the newly assembled aerobatic team was planned for June 20, 1962 on the occasion of the commissioning of the Starfighter at Fighter Bomber Wing 31 .
  • June 15, 1965 : During the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget , a Convair B-58 , a four-engine, supersonic long-range bomber , crashed on approach. The pilot had attempted an overload landing and missed the runway due to an approach that was too short. He died doing it; the other two crew members survived.
  • July 3, 1973 : At the Paris Air Show, a Tu-144S crashed on the suburb of Goussainville. The six people on board (crew and a journalist) and eight people died on the ground. When the pilot tried to intercept a sharp dive, the structure of the machine was overloaded and it broke apart at a low altitude. Why the Tu-144 even went into the dive, for which it was not designed, is unclear.
  • May 22, 1983 : The air show disaster in Frankfurt crashed during an air show at the Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt a Starfighter on the national highway 43 and met a crowded car The five-member pastor's family died instantly, a sixth inmate few months later. in the hospital.
  • 1983 : In the so-called opposition loop of the Patrouille de France, two alpha jets of the partial formations collided at the top of the loop . One pilot was able to save himself with the ejection seat, the other crashed with his machine. Spectators on the ground were not injured. The Patrouille de France has not operated this maneuver since then.
  • August 7, 1988 : A Mirage 5 of the Belgian Air Force crashed during the Sanicole Air Show in Belgium . The solo pilot, Commandant Duvivier, catapulted himself out of the plane with the ejector seat; but he was fatally injured because the maneuver took place near the ground.
  • August 28, 1988 : Three Frecce Tricolori Aermacchi jets collided in the Ramstein air conference accident at Ramstein Air Base . One plane crashed into the crowd, the other two onto the airfield. 70 people - including all three pilots - lost their lives and over 1,000 were injured. This catastrophe sparked an immediate and unprecedented international debate on the “sense and nonsense” and the safety of air shows.
  • October 1988 : At an air show in Harlingen , Texas , the pilot of a light Douglas A-20 bomber (built in 1939) lost control of the machine and crashed after flying over the audience, killing him.
  • September 3, 1989 : Two Canadair Tutor machines of the Canadian aerobatic team Snowbirds crashed at the Canadian International Air Show in Toronto . One pilot was killed.
  • June 8, 1989 : A bird strike caused the right engine of a MiG-29 to fail at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport during an extremely low and slow flyby. The machine crashed. The pilot Anatoly Kwotschur survived slightly injured thanks to the rescue device K-36D. There were no other injuries.
  • September 9, 1990 : During a flight demonstration at the Salgareda Airshow, Rimantas Stankevičius , one of the pilots scheduled for the Buran space glider program , fell fatally with a Su-27 due to a loop that was flown too low . One of the organizers of the airshow died on the ground.
  • July 24, 1993 : During a pair aerobatics flight at the Royal International Air Tattoo, two MiG-29s collided at low altitude and crashed while burning. There were no casualties, both pilots saved themselves with their ejection seats.
  • June 24, 1994 : During a training flight for an air show, a B-52 bomber crashed at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane , USA . The team was killed. Main article: B-52 crash at Fairchild Air Force Base .
  • July 14, 1996 : During the Flying Legends Duxford in Duxford , a Lockheed P- 38J crashed away from the spectators and went up in flames. The pilot died.
  • June 12, 1999 : A Russian Sukhoi Su-30 MKI crashed at the Paris Air Show . After a figure flown, the jet flew too low and grazed the airfield. Thereupon flames shot out of the tail, the plane reared up and rose vertically. The pilots used this moment to save themselves with their K-36D ejection seats . A little later, the jet fighter fell from a height of about 35 meters on the ground and burned out.
  • August 29, 1999 : During a demonstration flight at the Cham-Janahof airfield , a CriCri got into an uncontrolled flight position and crashed onto the airfield. The pilot was killed.
  • June 12, 2000 : At an aviation event in Chemnitz-Jahnsdorf , a Jakowlew Jak-52 took off for an aerobatic flight with a passenger. After a roll at a low height, the machine crashed. The pilot and one passenger were fatally injured.
  • August 11, 2001 : During a demonstration flight during an aviation event at Michelstadt airfield , a Fokker Dr.I (US replica from 1976) crashed after breaking a formation flight with another biplane while turning. The pilot was fatally injured.
  • April 20, 2002 : The engines of an F-4 Phantom II at the Point Mugu Airshow failed, the jet crashed. Both pilots were killed, although one of them had previously ignited the ejection seat. However, this was defective. The parachute did not open and the man fell into the cloud of fire from the exploding plane.
  • July 27, 2002 : During the flight conference accident in Lviv , Ukraine , a Sukhoi Su-27 jet fighter crashed into the audience due to a pilot's error. 85 people were killed and 110 injured, some seriously. The pilots were able to save themselves in time with their ejection seats.
Mountain Home Air Force Base 2003: The pilot of an F-16 is able to save himself with the ejector seat shortly before the impact
  • September 14, 2003 : During an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base near Mountain Home , Idaho, the pilot of an F-16C Fighting Falcon of the USAF Thunderbirds aerobatic team misjudged his altitude and failed to make the aircraft intercepted again in good time from a so-called Split S maneuver. Just before it hit and exploded, the pilot released the ejection seat and saved himself.
  • April 22, 2007 : An F / A-18 Hornet of the USAF aerobatic team Blue Angels crashed in Beaufort , South Carolina, and exploded. The pilot died; Wreckage from his machine damaged several houses. Nobody was injured.
  • September 1, 2007 : At the airshow in Radom in Poland, two Zlín Z-526 fan guns of the Zelazny aerobatic team collided during an encounter flight . The two pilots (Lech Marchlewski and Piotr Banachowicz) died.
  • April 26, 2008 : At a party at the Kindel airfield near Eisenach , a Let Z-37 aircraft (registration D-ESVU) came off the runway when it took off, sped through the crowd and came to a halt in a cotton candy van. One of the two saleswomen and a 14-year-old visitor were killed, other people and the pilot were seriously injured.
  • June 1, 2008 : At a military air show in Bracciano , an NH90 helicopter touched Lake Bracciano near Rome after a turn with fuselage and tail boom. In doing so he overturned and sank. At the time of the accident, there were hundreds of spectators and many pedal boats and canoes on and near the lake. Two of the three crew members escaped from the helicopter, slightly injured. The 44-year-old pilot Filippo Fornassi died on the way to a clinic.
  • July 12, 2009 : At an airfield festival at the Großostheim-Ringheim airfield (Germany / Aschaffenburg district), a 45-year-old pilot lost more and more altitude after a loop with a Pitts S-1S double-decker aircraft and barely missed a group of cyclists. On an adjacent access road to the airport, the landing gear of the plane rammed a car with three occupants, causing it to tip over on its side. The aircraft remained on the roof a few meters away. All those involved survived this accident. The other screenings have been canceled.
  • August 30, 2009 : At an airshow in Radom, Poland , a Sukhoi Su-27 of the Belarusian Air Force crashed during an aerobatic demonstration in a forest outside the festival area. The two pilots were killed.
  • November 14, 2009 : During an air show at Overberg Air Force Base in South Africa, the hydraulics and ejection seat of an English Electric Lightning T.Mk.5 failed. The plane crashed within sight of the spectators, the pilot was killed.
  • September 5, 2010 : At a flight event at the Lauf-Lillinghof airfield in Middle Franconia , a de Havilland Tiger Moth got out of control at takeoff and then fell into the audience. A 46-year-old woman was killed and 38 people injured, some seriously. The pilot was unharmed.
  • September 18, 2010 : Two aerial acrobatics machines collided at the Warngauer flight days. One pilot died, the other was able to make an emergency landing with his damaged aircraft.
  • August 20, 2011 : A BAE Hawk T.1A jet of the British Red Arrows crashed at an air show in Bournemouth , England . The pilot was killed
  • September 16, 2011 : At the Reno Air Race 2011 , the pilot of a North American P-51 and ten spectators were killed and other people, some seriously injured, when the machine crashed in the immediate vicinity of the main auditorium during the Unlimited competition.
  • April 28, 2012 : At an air show at the Thuringian airfield Arnstadt-Alkersleben , a Zlín Z-226 , which was flying in a formation of four from the aerobatic team Aero from Gera, crashed. The pilot died from his injuries.
  • May 6, 2013 : A Hispano Aviación HA-200 crashed at an air show at Madrid-Cuatro Vientos Airport . The pilot died.
  • June 1, 2014 : During the Stevens Point Air Show at Stevens Point Municipal Airport in Wisconsin, an experienced 47-year-old Delta Air Lines and former US Air Force F-16 pilot crashed a 1993 Yak-55M . The machine was caught very late from a back spin position and grazed trees. The pilot was killed.
  • September 21, 2014 : During the "Fly Venice 2014" at the Venice-Lido airport , the 57-year-old professional aerobatic pilot Francesco Fornabaio crashed with an Extra 300 . The machine fell straight into the open field during the demonstration. The pilot was killed.
  • May 31, 2015 : Two aircraft of an aerobatic team collided at an air show in the Italian seaside resort of Alba Adriatica . The pilot of an airplane made the emergency landing at sea. The other aircraft lost a wing, sank together with the pilot in the 4 m deep sea, was located and lifted with lifting balloons, but the pilot died.
  • August 22, 2015 : At the Shoreham Airshow in the south of England, a historic Hawker Hunter fighter-bomber crashed onto the A27 expressway after a loop . 11 people died and at least 14 people were injured. The pilot survived seriously injured.

Web links

Commons : Air shows  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ RHEIMS AVIATION WEEK . In: Proprietors of FLIGHT (Ed.): Flight . tape 35 . Flight, London 1909, p. 515-523 .
  2. ^ Aviation pioneers. In: Rheinische Post . August 24, 2011, accessed December 22, 2014 .
  3. ↑ A logistical masterpiece. In: Rheinische Post. August 23, 2011, accessed December 22, 2014 .
  4. ↑ z. B. Diesel fuel (e.g. with the Red Arrows) or an oil concentrate (with the Frecce Tricolori )
  5. ↑ s. a. Accident list on Wikipedia under List of airshow accidents
  6. ↑ cf. List of flight accidents caused by test pilots ( Memento from October 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Testflying Memorial (English)
  7. ↑ s. History of the Air Force 1962
  8. ↑ Wikibase entry Crash of the Convair B-58A Hustler in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  9. ^ The year 1988 ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on Ejection History
  10. ↑ Wikibase entry of the accident on September 9, 1990 Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  11. ↑ Photos: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29S (9-13S) Aircraft Pictures. In: Airliners.net. July 24, 1993. Retrieved December 16, 2018 .
  12. ↑ BFU annual report 1999 (PDF; 355 kB)
  13. ↑ BFU annual report 2000 (PDF: 330 kB)
  14. ↑ BFU Annual Report 2001 (PDF; 1.1 MB)
  15. ↑ Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation: Bulletin July 2009. Accidents and disruptions in the operation of civil aircraft. In: BFU Bulletins. September 21, 2009, p. 23 , accessed February 10, 2015 .
  16. ↑ ttt. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 2, 2009 ; accessed on October 24, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Poland: Belarusian fighter jet crashed at an air show ( memento from September 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) tagesschau.de from August 30, 2009
  18. ↑ Wikibase entry accident of November 14, 2009 in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  19. ↑ The double-decker races in the crowd. In: Spiegel Online. September 5, 2010, accessed September 19, 2010 .
  20. ↑ Investigations into the plane crash are ongoing. Bayerischer Rundfunk, September 5, 2013, archived from the original on December 7, 2013 ; Retrieved November 14, 2013 .
  21. ↑ Pilot dies in a collision between two classic cars. In: Welt Online . September 18, 2010, accessed September 19, 2010 .
  22. ↑ Air Force flight show: Fighter jet crashes. In: FAZ . August 20, 2010, accessed March 4, 2015 .
  23. ↑ Fatal crash at Flugfest in Alkersleben. In: Thuringian General . April 28, 2012, Retrieved June 10, 2012 .
  24. ↑ Disaster near Madrid: Jet crashes during an air show in front of the camera. In: Focus . May 6, 2013, accessed May 6, 2013 .
  25. ^ Pilot killed at the Wisconsin air show. In: USA TODAY. June 1, 2014, accessed February 7, 2015 .
  26. ^ "Fly Venice". Airplane Extra 300 crashed: aerobatics champion Francesco Fornabaio died. In: Avio News. September 21, 2014, accessed February 7, 2015 .
  27. ↑ http://www.krone.at/Welt/Pilot_stirbt_bei_Flugshow-Unfall_in_Italien-Video_WEIS_Crash-Story-455800 Pilot dies in an air show accident in Italy, krone.at, May 31, 2015. Accessed June 3, 2015. (Video)
  28. ↑ spiegel.de August 22, 2015: Air show in England: Fighter bomber crashes on the expressway - seven dead
  29. ↑ BBC: Shoreham plane crash: Seven dead after Hawker Hunter hits cars , accessed August 22, 2015
  30. ↑ CNN: No new victims found when plane that crashed at UK airshow lifted, police say , accessed August 25, 2015