The African Aerospace and Defence (AAD) expo, a biennial event that has been held in South Africa from 2000 after joining with the then Defence Expo (Dexa) and is billed as the premier Defence and Aerospace exhibition held in Africa. Consisting of two distinct events, being a trade show and an airshow. Traditionally the trade show is held on the first three days of the expo and is not open to the public. Many military and defence dignitaries attend to view the latest developments in the armaments industry and network with various interested parties.
The last two days (typically the Saturday and Sunday) are open to the public and are also the main airshow days. Some flying, for demonstration purposes, is carried out during the trade days but they are not formal airshows.
Portent of things to come
The day preceding the airshow days is the traditional validation day where the various acts and displays demonstrate their routines for scrutiny by the flight display director to ensure that these displays meet safety requirements and confirm the suitability of the displays for the show box. The month of September is known as the start of spring in South Africa although the highveld weather (Pretoria and Johannesburg are situated on the highveld region of South Africa) can be temperamental. Some of us, of a certain age, can recall a warm spring day turning viciously cold with snow many years ago.
This year was no different, severe weather warnings were issued with the possibility of snow and very cold conditions. The weatherman was mostly spot-on with his predictions and the snow arrived in Kwa-Zulu Natal with icy freezing conditions and rain for the interior of the country. A strong crosswind of up to 30 knots and low overcast put paid to many of the validations on Friday with the various aerobatic teams buttoned up at their home bases due to IMC conditions.
These conditions carried over to the Saturday and had a major adverse effect on the airshow. With an extremely low cloud base and a bitterly cold wind, this placed a major damper on the airshow. For safety reasons virtually no fixed wing aircraft performed their routines, and the crowd were entertained with a continuous sequence of helicopter displays in the hopes that the weather would lift enough to allow fixed wing operations. Fiona and I surrendered to the inevitable and left the base around 2pm for the comfort of our warm home. Whilst we were driving out a solo Hawk display was performed.
Reasonable weather
After the terrible Saturday conditions Sunday promised to be better. Although still very cold in the early morning, the cloud base had lifted sufficiently for an airshow to be held, and what an airshow it was. The airshow visitors were in for a treat from start to finish with most of South Africa’s top solo and formation display teams in attendance. We were treated to a constant flow with a mix of civilian aerobatics interspersed with South African Air Force (SAAF) flying displays.
Big bangs and action attract the crowds and AAD 2024 did not disappoint. The South African military and SAAF performed a simulated battle scenario with air and ground assets demonstrating their various capabilities. With the inclusion of much simulated battlefield noise (explosions etc) the huge crowd were thoroughly entertained. Later in the afternoon the South African Police Services performed a simulated high jacking utilising ground and air assets for the apprehension of the perpetrators as well as recovery and release of the high-jacked hostages.
In a most welcome treat for the aviation enthusiast the privately owned North American T2B Buckeye and Hawker Hunter made an appearance although the Aermacchi MB326 Impala, ZU-IMP, which accompanied the T2B from their home base in Oudtshoorn did not fly, forgoing her planned slot to allow the Buckeye to be displayed due to scheduled display slot on the Saturday being cancelled. Thank you, airshow boss.
FlySafair, in commemoration of their tenth anniversary as an airline (previously they were known as Safair) performed an amazing flypast with their special livery Boeing 737-800 flanked by four Bae Hawk Mk120 from the South African Air Force.
Special displays were the first display in Africa by the Chinese PLAAF Xi'an Y-20 Kunpeng Strategic airlift transporter. The SAAF has a requirement to replace/ augment their current airlift capability and this aircraft, along with the Brazilian Embraer C-390 aircraft are under consideration to fulfil this role. The Embraer had made an appearance at AAD 2024 during the trade days but had departed for home on the Friday afternoon. The Zimbabwean Air Force, who have been a long-time supporter of AAD had a K-8 trainer both on static display as well as in the flying display.
As the sun was setting at the end of an extremely successful airshow the Puma Energy Flying Lions performed their signature dusk show to the backdrop of a glorious sunset. The Rooivalk Attack helicopter followed this display, culminating with a flare display before the mass jet formation of 3 SAAF Gripen fighters leading a 6-ship Hawk formation completed the days displays.
The various officials who put this show on must be congratulated, they never gave up with the adverse weather conditions and pulled out all the stops to provide a most enjoyable airshow that met and surpassed all expectations. Brian Emmenis, of Capital Sounds, along with a host of specialist commentators ensured that the crowd was kept up to date and informed with all the relevant information of the displays.
As a closing for the die-hards there was a solo balloon night glowdeo against the backdrop of a fireworks display.
