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Classic Fighters 2017

This is my report on the Classic Fighters Omaka Air Show for 2017. I had been to many Warbirds Over Wanaka shows in the past, but this was the first Omaka show I had attended. Omaka is a small airfield near the town of Blenheim at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. Most of the photos and videos were taken with my Canon dSLR but I also used my iPhone 6S whenI needed a wider angle (note that the photos and videos on this web site are much lower resolution than the originals).

The Omaka shows are well known for their displays of authentic replicas of vintage aircraft, mainly from the World War I era.

Kiwi Blue is the RNZAF (Royal New Zealand Air Force) parachute team who are all instructors at the RNZAF parachute training base in Auckland.

The air show also had an impressive collection of replica military vehicles, including Tanks from Word War I and II, a half-track, a field gun, and even a replica of the "Great Panjandrum", an experimental British device designed to roll across enemy defences and detonate to destroy a target. Rockets attached to the wheels provided propulsion. Tests showed it to be somewhat unpredictable and development was soon stopped.

The Omaka shows generally have extensive displays of older, especially World War I era, aircraft. There are no originals of this aircraft left in the world but there were 8 replicas being shown at the show this year. The main reason for its fame is that it was flown by the infamous Manfred von Richthofen (2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918, AKA the Red Baron) who flew an all red example. He was officially credited with 80 air combat victories.

There were many other aircraft flown at the show, including this (top of page) awesome Mk IV Spitfire. The Mk IV used a Griffon engine producing up to 2050 hp. This is the beast which Tim Wallis was almost killed in when he crashed it at take-off in 1996.

The V1 model is flying remote-controlled replica of the German terror weapon from World War II.

The Soviets experimented with radial powered Yaks near the end of World War II because of overheating issues with the V12s they used up until then, but as mentioned above, this is a modern aircraft built to the same basic design.