One of the largest search and rescue (SAR) training exercises ever undertaken in Ireland will open the 2015 Foynes Air Show on Sunday, 26th July.
The Irish Air Corps, Naval Service (LÉ Samuel Beck-ett), Irish Coastguard, and Search and Rescue teams from all over the country will carry out their annual exercise in front of the estimated 15,000 people expected to attend the second annual air show.
Hosted by Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Mus-eum, the Air Show will also feature aircraft dis-plays from across Europe, along with some of the world’s top aerobatic pilots.
Among the aircraft taking to the skies over West Limerick and the Shannon Estuary will be a Russian Mini MiG, authentic World War Two aeroplanes, a Hawker Hunter fighter, a P51 Mustang and James Bond’s BD-5 Micro-Jet. Meanwhile, Aer Lingus’s first plane, the Iolar, will be flying in formation for one of the first times ever at a public display with three de Havilland Chip-munks in Air Corps colours.
The Air Show will also feature the world’s only formation wingwalking display team, the Breitling Wingwalkers who will perform a sequence of formation loops and rolls while wingwalkers perform acrobatics on the wings.
The Air Show, which gets underway at 1pm and continues until 6pm, will also feature live music, food stalls and children’s entertainment. Organisers say that park and ride services will be provided throughout the event to enhance access to and from the Air Show site
Foynes Air Show, which is free to the public, was first held in 2014 when the Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum marked the 75th anniversary of the first transatlantic commercial passenger flight which took place to the Flyingboat base, located 23 miles from Limerick city.
“We look forward to host-ing a thrilling and exciting Air Show of an inter-national standard which will feature even more aircraft and participants than our hugely successful inaugural show in 2014,” commented Margaret O’Shaughnessy the Director of Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum.
“Foynes has a strong asso-ciation with international aviation and has the world’s only Flying Boat Museum featuring the world’s only replica of a B314 flying boat. The Air Show not only provides a wonderful day out for aviation enthusiasts and people of all ages, it also celebrates Foynes’s historic place in world aviation history,” she added.