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Danish Air Show 2012 , Aalborg
The Royal Danish Air Force celebrated 100 years of military aviation in
Denmark on June 10th at Aalborg airbase. Danish Air Show 2012 focused on
this historic theme linked with present tasks defined under the concept
of "Special Operation Forces" with particular focus on the interaction
between the Air Force and Special forces.
During the Air show it was possible to experience the aircraft and
equipment of the Royal Danish Air Force at first hand. The air force put
on a show which really highlighted the two main themes of the air show.
Sadly the weather was not co-operating so some of the planned
performances were cancelled due to the low cloud base and rain.
One hundred years ago Danish military aviation took off when in 1912 the
Danish Army Air Corps and the Danish Naval Air Service were established.
In the following years military aviation in Denmark developed with
Marine Flyvevæsen (Marine Air Service) on Margretheholm and Army Air
Corps in Kløvermarken, with hangars and workshop facilities being built
at both locations. In 1950 the two forces were amalgamated into the
Royal Danish Air Force (“Flyvevåbnet”) as we know it today.
One area of the static display showed a historic line-up of aircraft
which served with the RDAF. This collection reached from the very old
via a Spitfire to the early jets like the F-84G Thunderjet (1953), the
F-104G Starfighter (1964), and F-35 Draken (1972). Of course today’s jet
fighter the F-16 (MLU) Fighting Falcon was shown both on the ground and
in the air.
Air show
The “100 years”-theme was not only shown on the ground, but also in a
flying parade. This parade was planned to include planes like the the De
Havilland Tiger Moth (1933), “KZ-III” (1946) and Douglas C-47 Dakota
(1953) along with many other aircraft. Unfortunately some of these older
aircraft could not be shown due to weather limits.
In the ‘current’ static display of the air show all the present hardware
of the RDAF was present. Some of the more exotic foreign participants in
the static display were an An-2 from Estonia, an An-26 from Serbia and
an An-32 from Croatia. Two special forces MC-130H Hercules of the United
States Air Force highlighted the ‘special operations force’ theme of the
air show.
The RDAF displayed its current tasks like air transport with a
demonstration by a C-130J Hercules, a Quick Reaction Alert intercept
with an F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Search and Rescue demo by an EH-101
helicopter. In a show of force sixteen F-16s did a formation fly-by and
a base attack. The integration of the air force with the special forces
was shown in helicopter display performing a combat search rescue
demonstration.
Despite the ‘spring’-type weather leading to cancellation of some parts
of the air show we felt very welcome to Aalborg airbase and had a good
day with the RDAF.
We would like to thank Captain Jens Jensen and his team for a
well-organized and enjoyable media day and ‘100 years of military
aviation’ air show.
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