Every few years, Base Aérienne 103 Cambrai, in the ‘Pas de Calais’ -region in France, organizes an airshow. This year the ‘Meeting Aérien’ was organized on 2 July 2006.

The Cambrai airshow
The airshow in the North of France usually attracts thousands of spectators. Not only many local visitors, but also aviation enthusiasts like to visit the Cambrai airshow, mainly because Cambrai has a lot to offer for photographers. The aircraft on the static display are hard to capture, but the aircraft that participate in the airshow are nicely lined up and easy to photograph on a flight-line. Photographing on the taxi-track is also possible, so the local fighters that participate in the show can also be nicely photographed.  

The 2006 edition
Three years after the last show in 2003, Cambrai opened its gates again in 2006. On a very hot summer day, where temperatures exceeded the 30 degrees Celsius by far, around 40.000 spectators visited the airbase. Unfortunately, this years’ edition was not as interesting as the Cambrai airshow usually was. The static show was not too bad with for example Belgian, Danish and Dutch F-16s, USAF F-15s, RAF Jaguars and a Tornado, German F-4Fs and also lots of French Mirages. The show part however, was a bit disappointing. The only interesting planes in the airshow were a Belgian and Dutch F-16, a French C-160, two Alpha Jets, a French E-3 and only five local Mirage 2000Cs that performed a simulated base-attack. A Swiss PC-7 team and team Breitling also were part of the show, which was closed by the inevitable Patrouille de France.