Competition for Bournemouth Air Festival as another show comes to Dorset
Compton Abbas Airfield will be the home for the 'Golden Age of Aviation’
Compton Abbas Airfield, owned by famed film director Guy Ritchie, will be hosting its first ever air show this summer.
Coined the 'Golden Age of Aviation Air Show', it will feature iconic military aircraft from both past and present.
The inaugural air show will combine the ‘charm of vintage aviation’ with ‘daring manoeuvres’ performed by skilled pilots.
Organiser, Ben Perkins told us: “There's a huge interest in vintage aviation around Compton Abbas and in Dorset.
The airfield regularly gets two and a half thousand visitors per day just to watch our normal flying experiences, so the appetite is clearly there for an airshow.
We're now applying to the Civil Aviation Authority to increase the number of display acts to get as much variety of aeroplanes as possible to offer the spectators a broader range of aircrafts to see.”
The Air Show is scheduled to take place just weeks before Bournemouth Air Festival, over August 10 and 11.
But with the future of Bournemouth Air Festival still uncertain after BCP Council announced it could be ‘the last of its kind’, Compton Abbas Air Show could capitalise.
Ben Perkins said: “We are in Compton for the long-term and we're hoping that the airshow will become an annual event like our one in Essex, so hopefully this will be the first of many.”
Meanwhile, funding has been capped by the Council for Bournemouth Air Festival at £200,000 and can only go ahead if businesses, sponsorships and donations can contribute a minimum of £100,000.
“My view is that the Bournemouth Air Festival will continue after this year and our show will run quite nicely alongside it, there’s enough to go around.”