Jan Hilgers airshow
After the Market-Garden commemorations in the morning, the Ginkelse Hei was ocupied by the ‘Jan Hilgers airshow’ in the afternoon. Because 100 years ago on July 29, 1910 Jan Hilgers was the first dutch pilot in a motorized aircraft (Blériot XI) to fly in the Netherlands very close to the Ginkelse Hei. Jan Hilgers wasn’t a very well trained pilot on motorized aircraft; because he couldn’t make turns, he only flew straight forward, landed his plane, turned the direction of the aircraft by hand on the ground and flew another hop straight forward. But this event was enough to become the first pilot of a motorized flight in the Netherlands. At the location near Ede, a preliminary airfield (‘vliegkamp Ede’) was established for civil aviation. As a memorial for this event of 100 years ago, an airshow was organized, using a small grass-strip for the light aircraft. Unfortunately heavy rain disabled the grass-strip and all light aircraft deployed from the nearby Teuge airfield. The airshow was a flashback in aviation history, which started with a Boeing Stearman biplane, followed by a range of other ‘oldies’ like the Piper SuperCub, Fokker S-11, Supermarine Spitfire, the North American P-51 Mustang and the bomber Boeing B-17 ‘Sally B’. The former Eastern-Block was represented by the Antonov-2 transport plane, the Yak-3U fighter and various Yak-52 aircraft in formation. More recent aircraft (or less old) were represented by the Saab Safir, Pitts Special, Cap10 and the Fouga Magister, while recent aircraft as theL-39 Albatros of the French Breitling team and the AH-664 Apache were the near the end of the airshow. The end of the show was performed by Cristian Moullec flying his microlight accompanied by s series geese. These geese are on the brink of extinction due to severe hunting in their migrating areas and Christian’s aim is to guide these geese to safer places to spend the winters. Late in the evening, when the strong winds relaxed, a Bleriot XI replica was flown at the Ginkelse Heide, finishing the airshow.
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