Black Cats perform to sell-out crowd at RAF Waddington

The Black Cats flew into RAF Waddington on Friday 1st July in bright and sunny conditions for the RAF Waddington International Airshow.

Billed on Saturday 2nd July to close the first day of the show, the Team spent the majority of the day signing posters and chatting to the public at their merchandise trailer next to a static Lynx Mk8 from 815 NAS.

The flow of people through the trailer was surprisingly busy early-on in the day, and would become the busiest day experienced so far in the 2011 Black Cats season.

The headlining acts for the air show were the USAF Thunderbirds, the RAF Red Arrows and the Vulcan, although there was plenty of praise to go around, and even some for the Black Cats display from the public and other performing display teams.

A particularly busy and popular Saturday quickly turned into an even more crowded Sunday, with not a cloud in the sky. From the air show gates opening at 8am, the spectators surged into the show nearly clearing the Black Cats trailer out of stickers and posters by 10am.

The Black Cats were scheduled to display at 1252 to lead into the USAF Thuderbirds display. The airborne view of the crowd was impressive on Saturday, then what we saw from the cockpit as the helicopters ran in to display on Sunday was nothing short of amazing.

As always the weather dictates the success of an air show, and on this occasion the weather was perfect for display flying to a estimated 140,000 spectators over the whole weekend.

The Black Cats performed two successful displays to the largest crowd at the RAF’s busiest and most prestigious air show, and the whole Team thoroughly enjoyed meeting the public, signing posters and showing people around our agile aircraft.