When thousands flocked to airshow
They don’t do nostalgia like they used to.
Back in the 80s and early 90s thousands gathered at West Malling airfield every year, to be rendered misty eyed by wartime music as the skies above reverberated with the thunder of vintage bombers and fighter planes.
Or if you lived nearby, you could just sit in your garden and watch the planes for free. But for devotees of the old Great Warbirds show, there’s never been anything like it since, and with the old Second World War airfield now developed into Kings Hill housing estate, there never really will.
Which means the festival of nostalgia has now become the object of nostalgia itself, not least for organiser Elly Sallingboe, who put a decade of her life into show.
And yet for Elly and those who helped her, the origins of the Great Warbirds is also marred by tragedy.
Inspired by the airshows in the US, the West Malling show had been the brainchild of Elly and her partner Ted White – who had brought a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress to the UK in March 1975, and named it Sally B after his partner.
Together they formed the Sally B Supporters Club to keep the US bomber maintained and running, and things gathered momentum as Sally B found a TV role in London Weekend Television’s (LWT) We’ll Meet Again, filmed at West Malling airfield and surrounding villages. There Ted found an ideal venue for his dream of a vintage air show.
Kent County Council was soon on-board with the idea, and everything was in place when, three months before the
first show, Ted was tragically killed in an plane crash in Malta.
“He died before the first one,” recalled Elly. “I can’t even go there.
“It was so long ago, but my team just surrounded me with love and we decided to go ahead and keep going.
“He came out with the idea, everything has been orgainsed and KCC thought it was a brilliant idea, and then Ted died.
“We decided the airshow would be held in his honour and when the show took place
many of the aircraft had a teddy bear painted on their tail in his memory.”
After its tragic start, and with Ted always fondly remembered by all involved, the show grew to become a huge success and a fixture in the summer calendar – albeit one that stood permanently under the shadow of planned development at the airfield.
“It was supposed to be the biggest vintage air display anywhere,” said Elly.
“It had a nostalgic feel that
no other airshow has been able to repeat, and a feeling of friendship and love.
“It was a mixture of things you can find at other shows, but when we started it wasn’t seen.
“People dressed up in uniforms, and there were bands there.
“It was the worst job I’ve ever done in my life but it was also one of the most successful airshows in the UK so that can’t be bad.”
And Elly said the Kent
Messenger in particular played a large part in the shows success, until the airshow was forced to leave in 1992 by the development of Kings Hill. “The Kent Messenger helped me so much so I want to thank them.
“They sponsored us all the way through. I went searching for sponsors and the KM said yes.
“We had so much good will from the whole of Kent and that’s because of the KM.
“At the end we had to stop because they were building the business park. It’s just the way it is. It was 10 years we waited for them to say it was the last one so we couldn’t do anything.
“We couldn’t build up infrastructure because we didn’t know if we would have to leave the next year.” Spitfires and all manner of vintage planes starred in the show, joined by more modern aircraft and the Red Arrows, while the thundering Vulcan Bomber will also stick in the memory of many who watched the displays.
One year pop star and trained pilot Gary Newman even turned up.
But there was always only one real star – the US bomber that Elly still looks after to this day through the B-17 Preservation charity, assisted by a team of volunteers, and supported by 6,500 charity members.
“It was all about Sally B,” said Elly, who lives near Duxford in Cambridgeshire, where the Imperial War Museum has its branch for housing large exhibits.
“She was the main aircraft and she flew twice every show. “Once at the start of the show and once at the end.
“She led the big formations and took part in everything. “She’s my baby.
“I never had time to look for a man let alone having babies, so this is my baby and she will get a good home whatever happens.
“The reason why I keep this flying is not just for Ted, but to tell the British public, and to think about the young guys who came over here from America just to be killed in a big bomber.
“They came in their thousands to fly to Germany and then get killed. We should remember that.”
‘We decided the airshow would be held in his [Ted’s] honour and many of the aircraft had a teddy painted on their tail’ ‘I never had time to look for a man let alone having babies so this is my baby and she will get a good home whatever happens’