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Irish Air Corps @ 100

By Frank Grealish / Sonya Cooley | 2022 | Various Locations, Ireland & England

Irish Air Corps @ 100
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On March 23rd 2022 the Irish Air Corps celebrated its 100th birthday.

To mark the event, and to celebrate the centenary year, a series of events were organised by the Air Corps, while air show appearances, both at home and abroad, were also planned.

While we weren't able to visit all of the events and air show attendances, we made a good stab at it. While the Centenary Flypast & Wings Day ceremonies that were held at Baldonnel on March 23rd kicked off the celebrations, the first actual event visited was a nightshoot at Baldonnel on February 21st.

Between February 21st and 30th July we photographed the Air Corps and their distinguished guests on 11 different occasions. For the purposes of this report, distinguished guests include the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), the RAF Red Arrows, the Irish Historic Flight Foundation (IHFF) and the Garda Air Support Unit (GASU).

The IHFF operates three deHavilland Chipmunk trainer aircraft painted in Irish Air Corps colours, one of these Chipmunks, 168, is actually a former Air Corps aircraft, while the GASU aircraft are based at Baldonnel, are flown by Air Corps pilots, and carry Air Corps serials, so it would have been rude to leave both of these operators out.

Irish Air Corps Centenary Parade video
The full list of events & occasions photographed are as follows:

  • Nightshoot (21 Feb)

  • Centenary Flypast / Wings Day (23 Mar)

  • Birr Fly-In (21 Feb)

  • RIAT (15 - 18 Jul)

  • BBMF & Silver Swallows (22 Jul)

  • Veterans Day Baldonnel (22 Jul)

  • Weston Open Day (23 Jul)

  • Red Arrows over Weston (23 Jul)

  • Families Day Baldonnel (23 Jul)

  • Bray Air Display (24 Jul)

  • Rush Air Display (30 Jul)

Congratulations to the Air Corps on their 100th birthday, thank you for supporting IrishAirPics.com over the last 20 or so years, hopefully we have many more years of photography to come.

A Big Thank You Goes To....
The entire Irish Air Corps organisation, but special thanks must go to the Press Officer Commandant Stephen Byrne and all the staff of the Press Office who organised and invited us to various events, escorted us, and who helped with our many photo requests.

Thanks must also go to the Air Corps crews who took us flying, posed for photos, and kept it low on take off.

Another special word of thanks must go to both Se Pardy from Millennium AES and Chris Shiel from Executive Helicopters for the photo opportunities and photoships.

Thanks to you all.

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