A Flying Fortress and a Sea Vixen will replace the Red Arrows.


A spokesperson for the Air Show said

"We are excited to announce new aircraft displays as part of this year’s Southport Air Show.

Taking place on 15 - 17 September 2017, the annual spectacle will see debut displays from the de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen and B-17 Flying Fortress G-BEDF Sally B.

The Sea Vixen is a twin boom, twin-engine 1950s–60s British two-seat jet fighter and her appearance at the show is causing quite a stir amongst the organisers!

Sally B is the last remaining airworthy B-17 in Europe. She was critical to the USAAF daylight precision bombing campaign and was armed with 13 machine guns, hence the name 'Flying Fortress'.

Aircraft confirmed:

RAF Typhoon Display Team - Sat/ Sun
Sally B - Sat/ Sun
Sea Vixen - Sat/ Sun
Tutor - Sat/ Sun
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - Fri/ Sat/ Sun
Breitling Wingwalkers - Sat/ Sun
Blades Aerobatic Team - Sat/ Sun
Twister Aerobatic Team - Fri/ Sat/ Sun
Fireflies Display Team - Sat/ Sun
Tigers Freefall Team - Fri/ Sat/ Sun

The Friday night will showcase lights and pyrotechnics on the displays from the Fireflies Display Team, Twister Aerobatic Team and the Tigers Freefall Parachute Display Team - all three displays will also be on Saturday and Sunday.

Save your money and go to RIAT.

£47 each for one day at RIAT !!!

Originally Posted by Albion102

Save your money and go to RIAT.

Of course RIAT is a much bigger show, also has much bigger prices, Friday the cheapest at £34, other days £47, plus it's not exactly local to the North West, for an enthusiast RIAT has taken over the sort of attendance that Farnborough used to achieve in the early SBAC shows, that show was an annual must, back in the day.

Sea Vixen causing a stir amongst organisers? it's been at Southport a few times now. It did cause a stir several years ago when sponsored by Red Bull it flew 100 feet inverted above Lord St.

Originally Posted by TDM900

£47 each for one day at RIAT !!!

Think of it as like going once every three years to the Maldives instead of Benidorm every year.

They are excited at replacing 20 minutes of the greatest aerobatic display team in the world with two old crates? That might excite the avid enthusiast, but not the general public. The Red Arrows bring the place to a standstill when they fly by.

They might as well replace them by pointing out two passing easyJet flights to Benidorm.

I'm looking forward to seeing a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
It certainly helped to save our bacon in WWII.