Under bright blue skies and scorching sunshine, people flocked in their tens of thousands to RAF Cosford on Sunday for the only official RAF Airshow this year, celebrating 100 years of the Royal Airforce.

Having sold out of its 55,000 online tickets, RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton, was a sea of noise and colour as people marvelled at not only the amazing feats of technical expertise and skill on show, but at the only surviving complete examples of a number of aircraft taking to the skies as well as rolled out of the museums.

THe home to the Defense College of Aeronautical Engineering, RAF Cosford had a hanger dedicated to showing the skills of their apprentices of STEM.

As always at the Air Show, there were stunning displays from all manner of aircraft, not least the Red Arrows, world-famous for their phenomenal skill and precision.

Opening the show were the RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team, colouring the skies as they descended in a perfect stack, showing the poise and dedication that thousands of hours of practice provides.

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One display that had the majority of those in attendance in awe was a stunt show on a helicopter, including loop-the-loops, corkscrews and other death-defying stunts, really pushing the boundaries of what you believe a helicopter should be capable of doing!

There were a few very special displays from the Battle of Britain, including a formation display with a Lancaster, Dakota, Spitfire and Hurricane flying in the Trenchard formation, which really got the crowd going.

There was so much to see and do at RAF Cosford on the day, from experiencing simulated rides, getting hands on with aircraft, vehicles and artillery, and of course the usual variety of fun 'sideshow' type games to test the aim of the unsuspecting public.

If you have never been to an airshow before, make sure that you're ahead of the game for next year at RAF Cosford.

Check out the July edition of The Phoenix Newspaper for more!