Collection 5: 85 original digital photos and videos from the Middle Wallop Air Show, the UK Army Air Corps' 'Music in the Air' concert.

A concert accompanied by air displays from historic and modern fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft.

Whilst rain had been forecast, for several days past, for the day of the concert, it could not have come with worse timing. The day dawned dull but dry. A light shower began at around 4:00pm which rapidly turned into a major downpour. But this passed and the sun came out. Unfortunately this was not to be the last. Just before the concert began, the cloud base came down to 400 feet and the rain set-in which, unfortunately, curtailed many of the flying events. The glider display flight was cancelled, as were both parachute team free fall displays. The Utterly Butterly Wing Walkers' flights took off, but were recalled after one circuit by the Flight Control. The Spitfire and Mustang flights were cancelled, as were The Red Bull Matadors' flights.

1. The venue, Middle Wallop Airfield on the Hamshire/Wiltshire border, the home of the UK Army Air Corps. The audience gathering and the weather closing in.

2. The welcoming committee, heralding the start of the concert - 4 Army Gazelles and a Lynx.

3. The welcoming committee.

4. The welcoming committee.

5. Enter the Hawker Hunter.

6. The Hunter again, with wingtip trails.

7. No, the photo is not upside down, the Hawker Hunter is flying upside down.

8. Beaver, of the Army Historic Flight.

9. Chipmunk of the Army Historic Flight.

10. Sioux helicopter of the Army Historic Flight.

11. 24 second video of all six aircraft of the Historic Flight, Beaver, Chipmunk, Auster IX, Sioux, Scout and Alouette - accompanying the Overture 'Light Cavalry' by Suppé.

12. The Beaver, Chipmunk and Auster IX of the Historic Flight.

13. The Sioux, Alouette and Scout of the Historic Flight.

14. Scout, centre picture, Sioux off to left.

15. Sioux, Scout and Alouette in the foreground, Beaver, Chipmunk and Auster IX in the background.

16. Scout in foreground, Beaver, Chipmunk and Auster IX in the background.

17. 10 second video of the Beaver, Chipmunk and Auster IX.

18. 6 second video of the Alouette.

19. 6 second video of the Beaver, Chipmunk and Auster IX.

20. Scout helicopter.

21. The Scout and the Alouette.

22. Sioux.

23. Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina Flying Boat.

24. 57 second video of the Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina Flying Boat, accompanying a musical selection from 'South Pacific', in which film the Catalina was the real star of the show.

25. Catalina.

26. Catalina.

27. Catalina.

28. Catalina.

29. Catalina.

30. Catalina.

31. Catalina.

32. Catalina.

33. Catalina.

34. Catalina.

35. Catalina.

36. Catalina.

37. Catalina.

38. Catalina.

39. Royal Aircraft Factory SE5A Biplane, one of the most successful British fighters of the First World War, and a close rival to the Sopwith Camel.

40. Sopwith Triplane.

41. 3 second video of the SE5A.

42. 9 second video of the Sopwith Triplane accompanying 'Songs from Wartime'.

43. Newport 17 Scout Biplane.

44. SE5A.

45. Sopwith Triplane.

46. Newport 17 Scout.

47. Junkers CL1.

48. SE5A.

49. Newport 17 Scout.

50. The SE5A and the Junkers CL1.

51. Junkers CL1 making smoke.

52. Junkers CL1 making smoke.

53. Junkers CL1 making smoke.

54. Junkers CL1 making smoke.

55. SE5A.

56. SE5A.

57. Vol avec les Oiseaux, or 'Flying with Geese'. Christian Moullec, a meteorologist by profession, learnt to fly a microlite in order to study the migration patterns of endangered species of birds. Now the geese accept him and his microlite as their parent and follow him around in flight.

58. 20 second video of Vol avec les Oiseaux, accompanying music from the Romance from Shostakovich's 'The Gadfdly'.

59. 18 second video of Vol avec les Oiseaux, accompanying music from the Romance from Shostakovich's 'The Gadfdly'.

60. Vol avec les Oiseaux.

61. Vol avec les Oiseaux.

62. Vol avec les Oiseaux.

63. Vol avec les Oiseaux.

64. Vol avec les Oiseaux.

65. Vol avec les Oiseaux.

66. Vol avec les Oiseaux.

67. A sea of umbrellas - a 31 second panorama of the umbrella covered audience during the interval.

68. Approach of the massed army helicopters, 45 in all (although my lens was not wide enough to capture them all), Gazelles, Squirrels, Lynxs and Apaches.

69. Approach of the massed army helicopters.

70. 1 minute 41 second video of the approach of massed army helicopters, accompanying the music of 'Mars' from Holst's Planet Suite.

71. Massed army helicopters.

72. Massed army helicopters.

73. Massed army helicopters.

74. Massed army helicopters.

75. Apache helicopter.

76. 4 second video of departure of massed army helicopters.

77. P-51 Mustang. Unfortunately, by this time, the weather was so bad that the Spitfire and Mustang were not allowed to fly - there are so few of them left and they are just too precious to risk in such bad weather. However, they taxied down the runway for the benefit of the audience. Sorry, the Spitfire went the other way whilst the Mustang came in my direction.

78. 7 second video of the Mustang. Unfortunately, the announcement that the planes would taxi down the runway led to a mad rush of people up to the flightline, all with umbrellas, and it was just impossible to get a good photo with all the pushing and shoving, plus holding an umbrella in one hand and the camera in the other. I include it here purely for the wonderful sound of that massive, 27 litre, supercharged V-12 Rolls Royce Merlin engine (yes, the same engine as used in the Spitfire).

79. And then the rain suddenly stopped, the cloudbase lifted and we had a sunset.

80. Sunset.

81. Sunset.

82. Sunset.

83. By contrast, the foul weather receding to the east, illuminated by the sun setting in the west.

84. 3 minute 57 second video of the Balloon Night Glow. Unfortunately the weather also affected this - if a balloon gets wet and is then packed away, it rots. However, the balloon team agreed to sacrifice one balloon for the benefit of the audience, whilst 3 other members of the team joined them with just their burners, which they all fired in time with the music from 'You Raise Me Up' by Lorland and Graham.

85. 2 minute 46 second video of the Firework Finale to the music of the Garnd March from Verdi's 'Aida'.

These photos are all JPEG images, digitally originated at 2832 x 2128 pixels, the videos Motion JPEG at 640 x 480 pixels, using a Fuji Finepix S602 Zoom digital camera.

This collection, plus the narrative, is offered for sale, on DVD, for private use only, at £14.99. You are not allowed to resell it, or the images it contains!

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For commercial use, or for resale, individual photos are available at commercial rates - please contact us at office@mediapipe.uk.com

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