95 years of Royal Netherlands Air Force is celebrated at the Leeuwarden Airshow


The annual airshow of the Royal Netherlands Air Force was held at Leeuwarden Air Base on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 June 2008 under variable weather conditions. It was rather cold for the time of year and mostly cloudy, with only a few sunny spells. Luckily it was dry on both days. The show marked the 95th birthday of the Royal Netherlands Air Foce.

“Only” 165.000 spectators
Airshows at Leeuwarden Air base usually attract fewer spectators than air shows at Gilze-Rijen and Volkel Air base, but it was a bit disappointing that only 165.000 people visited Leeuwarden Air Base on the Friday and Saturday. That was the lowest number of visitors since 1998.

Participants
Due to a large number of NATO commitments, the organization had a hard time to get some interesting participants to this years’ airshow. But with Turkish and Greek F-4s and a Hungarian MiG-29 on the static, for most aviation enthusiasts the trip to the North of Netherlands was already worthwhile.
The airshow was not the most interesting. Only three demo teams were present, from which Italian team Frecce Tricolori -with its MB339s- was the most eye-catching. Other demo teams were Polish team Iskry and the Jordanian Falcons.
The show saw a number of civilian aircraft and oldies, but also a French Mirage 2000D, a Belgian F-16 and a Spanish F-18 Hornet amongst others. The local squadrons provided a fly-by with nine F-16s together with a Dutch KDC-10.