Once in a while there's an airshow that's special, special for different reasons, like the 50^th edition of the airshow or maybe an old vintage plane will put on it's last display.

The Jan Hilgers Memorial Airshow, held September 18^th 2010 is one of those special airshows. The show commemorates the first ever flight above Dutch land by a Dutchman, above the city of Ede to be exact, flown in a Bleriot XI. This flight ook place on the 29^th of July 1910.

Not only is this airshow meant to commemorate the first ever flight by a Dutchman, but also celebrate a 100 years of flight. Besides that the memorial service for Operation Market Garden was also held this day, with airborne droppings from armed forces around the world.

The first half of the day the Operation Market Garden drop were held, the second half of the day the airshow was held.

Almost everybody knows about world war 2's, Operation Market Garden, for those who don't here's a brief explanation. Operation Market Garden was the largest airborne operation of all time. Goal of the operation was to seize a number of bridges across the Maas river. In the beginning the operation was a success, but later on the ground troops were slowed down, by the demolition of one of the bridges. At Arnhem, allied troops encountered stronger forces than anticipated. Alot of the Allied forces lost a huge number of men. The remembrance of this operation is a yearly event, with still quite a lot of WW2 veterans present. For more info on the operation I suggest reading one of the many books available on the subject.

A total of about 700 para's from British, American, Dutch and German armed forces jumped from planes of modern times, like C-130 Hercules, but also the C-47 Dakota, a plane which you see fly at a number of airshows, but seeing people jump from that plane is a sight to behold. It gives you a brief glimpse of what the soldiers who fought at operation Market Garden saw, a big field, with maybe flashes from the muzzles of German soldiers on the ground. It's truly a spectacular sight.

Veterans watched the whole display, some smiling, some letting go a tear.

After the remembrance was over, it was time to start the airshow. The show was opened by Maurits Hilgers, grandson of Jan Hilgers and the son of one of the organisers. The show was opened with fireworks, after which the Bleriot XI should have flown, unfortunately due to too windy conditions it couldn't fly, a real shame, but as with all airshows, safety first.

First up was the Boeing Stearman, flown by Hans Nordsiek, Hans's Stearman is a true beauty, not only from the sky, but also up close, with good attention to details, like the beautiful detailed cockpit. A great start of the show, with plenty of loops and other aerobatics which gets the old barnstorming feel back.

Another one of the participants were the Dutch Thunder Yaks, having their first demoflight under that name. First up was Robert de Vries as Thunder 1 with a great solo-display, showing the capabilities of the Yak-52. Most spectacular to see are the tumbles or Lomchevac's as they are called officialy. After his solo display the other 3 Yak's of the team came back for a great formation flight. Despite being their first official display at an airshow, the flying was very tight, be it with some bumps during the display. For a first display a very clean and enjoyable display. The break at the end of the display was a great crowd pleaser. I hope to see much, much more of this very prommising team.

The Antonov AN-2 is a big, read biggest bi-plane in the world. You might think it's slow and sluggish, it can fly slow, but it can also fly fast and it's maneuverability might surprise you. The display was absolutely stunning. The AN-2 banked with 90 degree angles performing very steep dives, quite a spectacular sight, but also flew so slow, you were affraid it would drop out of the sky.

Now for one of my personal favourite moments of the airshow. The World War 2 warbirds, the Supermarine Spitfire, the P-51 Mustang, the Yak-3U and the mighty B-17.

The Spitfire was the first of the warbirds to do a display, from what I could see, the plane has had an overhaul. Since some of the markings were painted over with nice silver paint. The display itself shows that this old warbird is still more than capable of doing barrel rolls and pulling some G's as it went up in the sky.

The P-51 “Damn Yankee” was supposed to fly, but unfortunately this P-51 had technical issues, which grounded the plane. Fortunately the organisers of the Sanicole airshow were more than happy to lend a hand, by sending the Scat VII from Belgium. I must say it was an action packed display, somehow a bit more action than I usually see from a P-51.

The Yak-3U was flown by Rick de Graaf, the Yak-3U is an old warbird, completely restored. It's a big plane, with plenty of punch. The paint scheme is perfectly done. Last year the plane had a small mishap involving damage to the gear and wingtip. Fortunately it's back in the sky again and let's hope for years and years to come.

One of my favourites was the display of the B-17, Sally-B, the B-17 played such an important role during world war 2, in huge formations they flew to Germany to bomb factories, power plants or German defences. Risky operations, they had escorts like the P-51, but German defences were heavy.

The Jan Hilgers Memorial Airshow also consisted of several display teams, like the before mentioned Dutch Thunder Yaks.

One of the other teams were the Fokker Four, a team, normally consisting of four Fokker S-11's, during this airshow they flew with three of them. Most of the pilots are either ex- or active airforce pilots. The show is put together very well, it basically shows every maneuver the S-11 can make. The show might surprise you and this demo shows an important part of Dutch aviation history.

The show was almost over, but two favourites had yet to do their demo, the RNLAF Apache Solo Display Team and the Breitling Jet Team.

The “old” Apache Solo Display Team was operational till 2005 when it had it's last display. The team was shut down due to operational issues. Fortunately this year the team was activated again, the display pilots being Major Raymond “Casper” Laporte and Captain Roland “Wally” Blankenspoor. The AH-64D Apache is a well known attack helicopter, being able to carry a wide range of weaponry.

The display itself is amazing, you will see an attack helicopter do aerobatics, yes, that's right, aerobatics. Loops, rolls all done with relative ease. It's hard work in the cockpit though. The flares are an important part of the show as it makes the whole display that much more spectacular. Let's hope they'll be back for a new show in 2011.

The Breitling Jet Team was excellent as usual, this is one of two civil jet display team in the world, the other being the Patriots in the United States. The team consist of 7 L-39 Albatros trainer jets, great jets for formation aerobatics. The flying is tight and plenty of spectacular passes, breaks and more. The paint scheme was changed, a beautiful paint scheme, it's like you're looking at black and white planes with a tad of yellow in it. I hope they'll keep this scheme for years to come.

The very last participant was Christian Moulec with his geese by his side. The slowest display, but what a sight. Seeing the geese fly in formation with Christian's small plane is just an amazing sight. Christian loves nature and it shows, even at airshow every second he gets he tries to find nature. He actually went into a small forest to take photos of birds during the airborne memorial. In the future it might be possible to fly in a two-seat light aircraft together with Christian and the geese as rumour has it that this is a new light aircraft he is about to purchase.

This gave you an overview of what the airshow and memorial was like. From an organisers point of view, the organisers pulled of a stunning feat. An airshow of this size with these participants, funded by sponsors and being totally free for all spectators is, as far as I know, a first in Dutch civil airshow history. I have deep respect for them and I really do hope, besides all the stress that involves organising an airshow, that we will see a new one next year or maybe as a bi-annual event.

A big thanks to the organisers for their kindness and hospitality.