Radom International Airshow 2023, Poland

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[Adam]

Highlights video of the show:


I'd summarise Radom by saying there are a lot of things about the flying display that are great, and there are plenty of attractions that can't be seen elsewhere, but there are also quite a few serious shortcomings with the event. Traffic control on Saturday was poor, the showground was hugely over-crowded, entry queues were enormous, the 500ml water limit was absurd and the lack of available water inside the showground was unforgivable in that context.

In some respects the show is a shadow of its former self - just one big jet aerobatic team this year, compared to five in 2018 and 2015, for example. However, the organisers seemed determined to surpass the normal 9hr run time of the flying display, stringing Saturday's show out for 11 hours, despite having less content to work with. That resulted in some odd scheduling and a staccato, gappy flying display on Saturday evening especially, and a large number of light civilian aircraft in the line up that really didn't have much impact at a venue of this size. The flying generally - but especially the civilian aircraft - felt very high and distant compared to watching the same aircraft at other events in the region. The night show was definitely 'Leszno lite' featuring most of the same acts, but pared down with less pyro and generally less interesting routines (the C-130 being a great example: two high passes at Radom to seven much lower ones at Leszno. Or Aerosparx, flying their 'Leszno routine', but at twice the height and without any ground-fired pyro). Communication from the organisers also needs improvement and I do think they need to be more careful about not teasing participation that is not 100% confirmed: a MiG-29 night display, Lithuanian C-27 flying display and unspecified aircraft from Italy, Korea and the UAE were all announced to a mix of excitement and scepticism, but failed to materialise.

Luckily, the good bits were very good, more than counterbalancing the show's weaker elements. Some particular personal highlights: the Finnish F-18 and Belgian F-16, Czech W-3, Polish C-130 flare dump and Patrouille Suisse. Seeing groups of MiG-29s and Su-22s in the air was also very memorable these days. While it would have been nice if Poland's Soviet-era equipment had appeared a bit less fleetingly, the Polish Air Force deserve major plaudits for their solo displays, two of which were brand new teams making their debut at Radom (M346 and C295M, although the latter only flew on Saturday). The Air Parade was also a nice only-at-Radom feature, featuring 64 fighters, trainers, helicopters and transports, albeit it was substantially smaller than previous editions with fighter formations of just three to four aircraft, rather than the usual 6.

I feel like I've scratched the Radom itch and left feeling largely satisfied, although I can't say I've got much desire to go back next time.

[Adam]

90 minutes of highlights from Radom: