Koksijde 1980's
Airshow 1984 : 5 - 7 July 1984
The airshow was being held from Thursday 5 till Saturday 7 July. The
highlights of the static display were a Canadian and German Starfighter,
a Danish Saab Draken and Seaking and 2 Woodbridge based A-10's. Koksijde
served as a storage base and the stored Belgian Starfighters could be
photographed as well. For the flying display there was a Woodbridge
A-10, a French Jaguar and Mirage F-1C and off course the Belgian displays.
As the airshow was being held during the week there were some flyby's
of German and British Phantoms as well as Belgian F-16's and Mirage
V. The Dutch participated with some NF-5's and an Orion.
Airshow 1986 : 19 July 1986
On Saturday the 19th of July 1986 the last operational Sikorsky HSS.1
in service with the Belgian Air Force, B8/OT-ZKH, made its last flight
during the airshow. The crew: Cdt. F. Phlippo, Maj. R. Peelaers and
Adj. Chef. P. Vandermeersche landed the helicopter for the last time
with 3489:80 hours on the clock, a remarkable day in the history of
Koksijde Airbase. In the static display a lot of other European helicopter
SAR units could be found. In 1986 the Spanish team Patrulla Aguila made
its first international appearance. As Koksijde is a helicopter base,
there were a lot of helicopter displays such as a formation display
of 5 German BO-105's, 5 British Lynx and the famous Dutch Grasshoppers.
Airshow 1987 : 11 July 1987
One of the highlights in the static display was the beautifully decorated
Mirage V of the 2nd Sqn based at Florennes, which celebrated their 70th
anniversary. Another special participant in the static display was a
French Meteor NF.11 which was delivered to the Brussels Air Museum afterwards.
There was a strong participation of the USA with Woodbridge A-10's,
Upper Heyford F-111's, Hahn F-16's, Bittburg F-15C's and a Huey, Blackhawk
and Chinook of the US Army.
Airshow 1988 : 16 - 17 July 1988
The 1988 airshow was not blessed with nice weather unfortunately. Traditionally
the RAF as well as the USAF supported the airshow very good. One of
the many highlights of the static display was a British Canberra used
for target towing! The Canadians showed their relatively new CF-188
hornets and a CT-133 shooting star. A nicely decorated F-16 from the
349 Sqn based at Beauvechain which celebrated their 45th anniversary
could be seen as well. Again a new team was welcomed in Koksijde, this
time Assas de Portugal flying in their T-37 T-birds.
Airshow 1989 : 8 - 9 July 1989
This edition of the yearly airshow had again a strong participation
of the Canadian Air Force. 2 CF-188 hornets and one CT-133 based in
Baden-Söllingen as well as 2 CH-136 Kiowa helicopters based in
Lahr could be seen in the static display. 2 RAF Phantom FGR.1's from
43 sqn were in Koksijde for the very last time as the unit transferred
to Tornado F-3 later that year. A great display was given by a RAF Buccaneer
S.2B from 12 Sqn based at RAF Lossiemouth.
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