Indy Transponder: Air show review: Göteborg, Sweden August 28-29

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Air show review: Göteborg, Sweden August 28-29

Location: Göteborg, Sweden
Admission: $20 US approx. per day or $26 US approx for both days, converted from Swedish currency.
Parking: available some for fee around $3.50 US proceeds for support local sports club.
Value: Excellent

The Goteborg air show is held annually in Sweden. It takes place on the last weekend of August. Goteborg is the second largest city in the country and home of the Aeroseum where the event is located.

This museum is situated in a former Swedish Air Force underground aircraft hangar built in 1955 and a classified top secret location until 2003. This cave was blasted into the granite and is 22 thousand square meter. During the height of the cold war aircraft would stand in an access tunnel at full readiness for take off. In 2003 the government wanted to fill the hangar with sand and weld its doors shut. Without the intervention of the Aeroseum Foundation, which was created in the same year, this unique facility would not be available today.

This is the 3rd annual air show held at the museum grounds, which uses the runways of the Goteborg City Airport located across from the museum. It is a well organized and well attended air show with most of the aircraft present were by performing flying displays. The few aircraft parked for static display only were a Swedish Air Force C-130, a 2-seater Gripen and Danish F-16. But the main attraction of the show were the aircraft on flying display, which were also available for viewing by the public, when they were not in the air, in their designated aprons from behind crowd barriers. This included aircraft rarely seen flying elsewhere. They were all there! J29 Tunnan, J32 Lansen, J35 Draken, SK60, J34 Hunter, SK16 Harvard, SK61 Bulldog, J28 Vampire. These are all historic aircraft. The one missing from this impressive line up was the J37 Viggen. The organizers were trying to get a 2-seater Viggen for the flying display but due to bureaucratic tie-up it was not allowed to participate.

Other aircraft on flying display were a Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, DC-3, Danish F-16, Sukhoi Su-29, SK 11 Tiger Moth, Boeing Stearman, Bleriot XI, Swedish TP 84 Hercules (C-130) (Sunday only), HKP 5 (Hughes 269), HKP 6 Jet Ranger, Agusta HKP 15 (A109M).

There were 3 display teams present: The Italian Frecce Tricolori with their Aermachi 339s, The Swiss PC-7 Team, and the Danish Baby Blue with their Saab T-17s. On Saturday we witnessed the arrival of the last Swedish Kawasaki HKP 4 (KV-107 Sea Knight helicopter), which will be on permanent display at the museum. On Sunday the show ended with a spectacular formation flight of most of Saab’s post war jet aircraft. Flying together in the sunny late afternoon skies of Gothenburg were the Tunnan, Draken, SK60, Gripen and Lansen. A sight not to be forgotten!

The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday called for 30% chance of showers and they did materialize during these 2 days. There were brief periods of heavy rain throughout the weekend. That did not discourage people form coming to the show. Thousands were present for both days, with Sunday having a bigger turnout. There were plenty of food vendors and bathroom facilities. There were also activities for children. There were also tours to the main tunnel of the hanger available for the visiting public.

This air show is highly recommended due to its historic significant location and the rare aircraft types on flying display. Organizers tried their best to give the public a satisfying experience even though mother nature did not want to cooperate all the time. The grounds were soggy due to weeks of rain in the area.

The list of some of the performing warbirds at the show:
The Italian Frecce Tricolori
Swiss PC-7 Team
Danish Baby Blue Saab T-17
J29 Tunnan
J32 Lansen
J35 Draken
Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, DC-3
Danish F-16
Sukhoi Su-29
SK 11 Tiger Moth
Boeing Stearman,
Bleriot XI,
Swedish TP 84 Hercules (C-130) (Sunday only)
HKP 5 (Hughes 269)
and many more

Rating: 9.5 out of 10