Kraków Air Show

After this show visitors moved to the theatre of the ground show: a reconstruction of a small battle between the Polish Army and the Wehrmacht which took place in September 1939 prepared by few re-enactment groups. We could see the Sd.kfz 251, Pz.kpfw.II, Flak 38 AA gun, and a few motorcycles. Some of them were copies of the original vehicles. There wa of course a lot of shouting, yelling, explosives, engine roar and fumes and gunpowder smoke. For me that smell was much better than Chanel No.5, but I do not think that many other watchers would agree with my opinion. When we got back to the air-show sector two Dorniers flew in the air: a Do-27 and a twin-engine Do-28. It is almost unbelievable what tight turns these two aircraft could make. The Do-28 also made a slow pass above the visitors. It flew so slowly that from the distance of few hundred meters it looked almost like it was hanging in the air. Just after the Dorniers, an M-28 Skutruck took off for another show, also making a few low-passes, slow-passes, and tight turns. You could see some kind of competition between the pilots who wanted to show what their planes could do and prove which is better: “If he did that, I can do the same too” was the motto of their show.

Among the old-timers displayed in this part was a De Havilland Dragon Rapide, but its flybys were much more peaceful and relaxed. Its does not mean it was uninteresting of course, especially for the WW2 enthusiasts. The last show again belonged to Jurgis Kairys in an Su-26 flying along with an An-2. The An-2 made a straight pass while Jurgis Kairys was making flying rolls around the Antonov, keeping the same distance all the time. When he landed he got long and loud applause. Without any pause two AT-3 R100s lifted into the air making a show of two acrobatic planes dancing on the sky. The last plane which I saw was the EC-120 helicopter. It was already about 3PM when the Eurocopter was in the air. To the end of the first day of this great event, the visitors could see most of the planes and pilots mentioned above in the air again, doing their shows for the second time.

If you think that there was nothing else to see than flying stuff you are wrong. Throughout the day visitors could see the static display in the form of 1:1 scale dioramas with live figures! You could see a Polish field hospital with a wounded soldier, and Polish soldiers in the uniforms from the 1939 campaign and also in the British battledress used by II Corp fighting in Italy. There were also a lot of other British soldiers including two grounded pilots of the RAF, Wehrmacht troops, American paratroopers and 1st Infantry Div., and Soviet infantrymen. The vehicles displayed were a copy of the German Panzer II tank, an American M16 half-track, a Dodge WC-52, a few Jeeps, a copy of the Polish pre-war wz.28 armoured car, a German Flak38 AA gun, an original Bren-Carrier, few Russian motorcycles styled after German ones and a lot of individual equipment.

I tried to take pictures of as much as possible, but there was much going on that it was simply impossible to be everywhere at the same time. Unfortunately I could not participate in the second day of this airshow. I hope that the report of the first day will give you at least a taste of the fantastic event in this historical place. I hope to see some Aeroscalers next year in Kraków. You must not miss it - I won't...