Author: Alex Bradley
Alex Bradley
Alex Bradley is a UK-based aviation writer and airshow circuit regular who has spent years attending displays from RIAT at Fairford and the Biggin Hill Festival of Flight to small fly-ins that drew two hundred people and a hot dog van, and values both for entirely different reasons. He is not a pilot. He is not a PR man for the aviation industry. He is the person in the crowd who has been coming long enough to notice when something has quietly changed, when an organiser is papering over a problem, and when a display is genuinely worth the drive. His writing on Redhill Airshow covers the British airshow circuit, safety, display team politics, CAA regulations, and the quiet contraction of grass airfield culture that nobody in the industry wants to discuss plainly. He has stood at Redhill Aerodrome in every kind of English summer weather, watched Tiger Moths bank low over Surrey farmland, and carries strong opinions about what this country is slowly losing one cancelled event at a time.
There was a moment at Fairford, three summers ago, when the crowd went quiet in a way I had not heard before. Not the reverent hush that falls when a Lanca
The moment I understood it was not at an airshow at all. It was a Tuesday afternoon at Redhill, of all places, standing at the edge of the grass strip with
The Sidmouth Airshow 2026 takes place on Friday 28 August 2026 along Sidmouth seafront in Devon. The RAF Red Arrows headline the event for 2026, joined for the first time at Sidmouth by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Douglas C47 Dakota. It is free to attend and forms the opening event of the 3-day Sidmouth Regatta Weekend.For official aviation safety context, see the UK Civil Aviation Authority. For the previous guide in this series, see Clacton Airshow 2026 Dates, Aircraft, and 6 Key Things to Know About the 33rd Essex Seafront Spectacle.What Is the Sidmouth Airshow 2026?The Sidmouth Airshow is…
I saw it for the first time on a phone screen, held by a man in a folding chair at a small fly-in somewhere in Oxfordshire. He was showing it to his compan
It was a Thursday evening in August, and I had not gone to see a drone display. I had gone to a friend’s birthday gathering in a field in Wiltshire, which
The livery was what stopped me. Not the flying, which was genuinely and frustratingly good, but the colour scheme, and specifically the logo that occupied
The first time I saw them perform, I was standing at the wrong end of RIAT. Not wrong in any official sense, just wrong for my purposes, which is to say I
The ejection seat came out at about two thousand feet. I know that because I had been watching the display closely enough to judge the altitude, which is s
The Clacton Airshow 2026 dates are Thursday 27 and Friday 28 August. Organisers confirmed the dates following one of the most successful shows in its 32-year history. The event promises to be another spectacular celebration of aviation and community on the Essex Sunshine Coast. This article covers confirmed aircraft, opening times, hospitality tickets, the best viewing spots, economic impact, and how to get there.What Is the Clacton Airshow?The Clacton Airshow is the largest aviation event on the Essex coast, with flying displays over the seafront supported by a wide range of ground-based attractions and entertainment. Its typical line-up includes a mix…
The Question They Are All Asking and Nobody Is Answering The grass at Redhill was still wet at half past nine when I arrived, that particular August dampne