4K Bomber Formation at Duxford Battle of Britain airshow 2024
Video from the channel AH AVIATION about Duxford Battle of Britain Air Show 2024, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 19:10. Language: English. Video type: Air show.
Competition and team
Display at the Duxford Battle of Britain Air Show 2024 featuring two four-engined Second World War bombers: the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress "Sally B" and the Royal Air Force's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Avro Lancaster.
What you see
The two aircraft enter together over the American Air Museum, make several formation passes and then split for their solo displays. The commentary contrasts the B-17's four Wright Cyclones with the Lancaster's four Rolls-Royce Merlins. The B-17 closes its display with a smoke pass simulating two damaged engines, after which the Lancaster flies.
The aircraft on display
According to the commentary, "Sally B" was built in 1945 at the Lockheed Vega plant in Burbank, California. It served with the US Army Air Forces and later the USAF as a test aircraft until 1954, when it passed to the French Institut Géographique National as a mapping platform. It arrived in the UK in 1975 and has been based at Duxford ever since. It flies as a tribute to the American airmen killed on the European front between 1942 and 1945. The commentator also recalls that that year the Memorial Flight lost Squadron Leader Mark Long in a Spitfire accident.