In the seventies most USAFE air bases held an annual airshow to keep up good relations with the surrounding communities. Spangdahlem Air Base, in the German Eifel region, was no exception to that rule. On Saturday 2 June the base was open to the base personnel and their families and on Sunday 3 June the main public was welcome to look at the present aircraft on the static show and to watch fly-bys and demo teams during the airshow in the afternoon.

Static show
Spangdahlem was at that time home of the 52nd Tactical Fighter Wing, that consisted of three squadrons: the 23rd Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) equipped with F-4D/Es, the 81st TFS with F-4E/Gs and the 480th TFS operating F-4D/Es. Although the open house started at 10:00 AM, the Recce Reporters managed to talk themselves into the base at 06:00 AM, so long before the large crowds would swarm the static show. There were in total 23 aircraft participating in the static show. Looking back after 45 years, it was quite a nice collection of aircraft. Of course there was a delegation from Spangdahlem itself: one F-4D, two F-4Es and one F-4G. Most of these were used as a ‘photo booth’ during the day. USAFE was further represented with an RF-4C from Zweibrücken, an OV-10A and A-10A from Sembach, an F-111F from RAF Lakenheath and an F-15A from neighboring Bitburg Air Base. The RAF sent some of their aircraft, that were stationed at bases in Germany at that timeframe. The German Air Force sent three different aircraft types, the Danish air force four aircraft and the French flew in two Jaguar fighters. A Belgian Mirage 5 completed the lot.

Airshow
The program of the airshow was interesting. An attack flight and fly-by of numerous Spangdahlem F-4s. Demonstrations by an A-10, F-15, F-111, F-5, OV-10, C-130 and two UH-1s. As usually at air shows the highlight was saved for last, a demo team. This year The Swallows, a demo team of two Marchetti SF-260s from the Belgian Air Force, were invited to present their skills in the airspace above the Eifel.

We published an article about airshow at Spangdahlem AB in the seventies in the March 2022 issue of Full Stop Magazine