Cambrai Wings Meeting 2022

Video from the channel Georges Valdec about Meeting des Ailes de Cambrai 2022, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 38:31. Language: French. Video type: Air show.

The video covers the Meeting des Ailes de Cambrai 2022, held at Cambrai-Niergnies airfield in northern France. It opens with remarks from a former commander of squadron 1/12 Cambrésis, who recalls his years at the former Air Base 103 at Cambrai, now converted to logistics use, and welcomes the fact that the area remains linked to aviation thanks to the aero club and the event's organisers. At the close, the organising director highlights the presence of all three armed services (Air, Navy and Army), the smooth running of the day in terms of safety and organisation, and the work of around 250 volunteers.

It is an edit of the flying displays interspersed with fragments of the presenters' commentary. A wing-walking demonstration is used to explain that the aircraft's wings are slightly reinforced to bear a person's weight, and to recall the flying circuses that toured the United States before the First World War, in which Roland Garros flew. A Second World War-era transport aircraft prompts a look back at the night of 5 to 6 June 1944, when around 900 aircraft of that type took off from England from 10pm onwards to drop the pathfinders and paratroopers who marked out the landing zones.

The Patrouille de France also appears, presented as a symbol of excellence, along with an aerobatic duo, one of whose pilots was world aerobatics champion in 2000 in Toulouse, as well as French and world champion pilots. A French Air and Space Force pilot invites support for an association that offers sick children the experience of an aerobatic flight. The video closes with the testimony of an 89-year-old veteran who was part of the Patrouille de France between 1955 and 1957.

There is no single star: the event brings together historic Second World War aircraft, wing-walking biplanes, civilian aerobatic machines and France's national aerobatic display team, with a strong tribute to Cambrai's military aviation tradition.