Ayrshire is a historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety of the historic county as well as the island of Arran, formerly part of the historic county of Buteshire. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire to the north-east, Dumfriesshire to the south-east, and Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire to the south. Like many other counties of Scotland, it currently has no administrative function, instead being sub-divided into the council areas of East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire. It has a population of approximately 366,800.
Ayr is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population of 46,982, Ayr is the 15th largest settlement in Scotland and second largest town in Ayrshire by population. The town is contiguous with the smaller town of Prestwick to the north. Ayr submitted unsuccessful bids for city status in 2000 and 2002, and as part of the wider South Ayrshire area in 2022.
Glasgow Prestwick Airport, commonly referred to as Prestwick Airport, is an international airport serving the west of Scotland, situated one nautical mile northeast of the town of Prestwick Scotland, and 32 miles southwest of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the less busy of the two airports serving the western part of Scotland's Central Belt, after Glasgow Airport in Renfrewshire, within the Greater Glasgow conurbation. The airport serves the urban cluster surrounding Ayr, including Kilmarnock, Irvine, Ardrossan, Troon, Saltcoats, Stevenston, Kilwinning, and Prestwick itself.
Prestwick is a town in South Ayrshire on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland about 30 miles southwest of Glasgow. It adjoins the larger town of Ayr to the south on the Firth of Clyde coast, the centre of which is about two miles south, and the small village of Monkton to the north. It had a population of 14,901 at the 2011 census.
Royal Air Force Coningsby or RAF Coningsby, is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located 13.7 kilometres (8.5 mi) south-west of Horncastle, and 15.8 kilometres (9.8 mi) north-west of Boston, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is a Main Operating Base of the RAF and home to three front-line Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 units, No. 3 Squadron, No. 11 Squadron and No. 12 Squadron. In support of front-line units, No. 29 Squadron is the Typhoon Operational Conversion Unit and No. 41 Squadron is the Typhoon Test and Evaluation Squadron. Coningsby is also the home of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) which operates a variety of historic RAF aircraft.
A warbird is any vintage military aircraft now operated by civilian organizations and individuals, or in some instances, by historic arms of military forces, such as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the RAAF Museum Historic Flight, or the South African Air Force Museum Historic Flight.
The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) is the world's largest military air show, held annually in July, usually at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England in support of The Royal Air Force Charitable Trust. The show typically attracts a total of 150,000 to 200,000 spectators over the weekend.
Imperial War Museum Duxford is a branch of the Imperial War Museum near Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England. Britain's largest aviation museum, Duxford houses the museum's large exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artillery and minor naval vessels in seven main exhibition buildings. The site also provides storage space for the museum's other collections of material such as film, photographs, documents, books and artefacts. The site accommodates several British Army regimental museums, including those of the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Anglian Regiment.
The Abbotsford International Airshow is held annually on the second Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August at Abbotsford International Airport in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 2005 general election from parts of the old Ayr and Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituencies. It has been represented since 2019 by Allan Dorans of the Scottish National Party.
Ayr is a burgh constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering the town of Ayr in the council area of South Ayrshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) via the plurality electoral system. It is also one of nine constituencies in the South Scotland electoral region which elects seven additional members to the Scottish Parliament via a proportional electoral system known as the Additional Members System which allows for greater accuracy in representation for the region as a whole.
The Wildcat Demo Team are the Royal Navy's helicopter aerobatics display team. The team is composed of two AgustaWestland Wildcat HMA.2 anti-submarine (ASW) and anti-surface (ASuW) helicopters, with the aircraft and crews drawn from 825 Naval Air Squadron, based at RNAS Yeovilton , in Somerset.
The Sunderland International Airshow was the biggest free annual airshow in Europe, held at the Roker and Seaburn seafronts. It took place over the course of three days, usually the final weekend in July, and attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators every year. The airshow features a large number of planes, including the Red Arrows and the Eurofighter Typhoon. In addition to the planes, the seafront plays host to a range of food counters, stalls and fairground games. The Royal Navy traditionally have a warship off the coast every year, usually HMS Ocean, the adopted warship of Sunderland, however in 2007, HMS Albion made an appearance instead as HMS Ocean had other commitments. The airshow was first held in 1989 as a single day show, and was planned to be a one-off event, when it attracted 250,000 spectators. Due to its success, from 1991 it became a two-day show, and subsequently three days. Due to thick fog and mist in 2008 the airshow was cancelled. The display was also postponed in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biggin Hill International Air Show, or Biggin Hill Air Fair, was one of the largest civilian airshows in the world and the largest privately organised air show in Europe. It ran once a year, usually near the end of June, at London Biggin Hill Airport, a former World War II RAF fighter station, from 1963 to 2010. It has been succeeded by a smaller-scale air show event titled The Festival of Flight which was launched in June 2014.
The Bournemouth Air Festival is an annual air show held along the coast at Bournemouth, in Dorset, England. It has featured aircraft from the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, as well as civil aviation displays. Since its formation in 2008, the festival claims to have entertained over ten million people.
Southport Air Show is an annual event held in Southport, Merseyside, England, since 1991. The first show was the brainchild of Tourism & Attractions employee, Mark Brammar.
The Jersey International Air Display is an air show which is held every year on the island of Jersey, in the Channel Islands. It normally consists of one air display and two static displays - one at the airport and one in a park in St. Helier.
Royal Air Force Leuchars or more simply RAF Leuchars is a former Royal Air Force station located in Leuchars, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, the station was home to fighter aircraft which policed northern UK airspace. The station ceased to be an RAF station at 12:00 hrs on 31 March 2015 when it became Leuchars Station and control of the site was transferred to the British Army. The RAF temporarily returned to Leuchars between August and October 2020 to carry out QRA (I) responsibilities while runway works were being carried out at RAF Lossiemouth.
On 22 August 2015, a former military aircraft crashed onto a main road during an aerial display at the Shoreham Airshow at Shoreham Airport, England, killing 11 people and injuring 16 others. It was the deadliest air show accident in the United Kingdom since the 1952 Farnborough Airshow crash, which had killed 31 people.
The Chinook Display Team is an aerobatics display team in the Royal Air Force based at RAF Odiham. The team flies the UK variant Boeing CH-47 Chinook, and is composed of volunteers from front-line aircrew who train and execute air show performances between day-to-day primary military operations. Their regular performances are popular due to public support for the Chinook's military role, its recognizability, and the variation in display and maneuvers it provides to an air show.
Scotland