19 June 1963 – Airshow
1963 marked the 50th anniversary of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. This was celebrated with airshows on all of the major Dutch air bases, like Woensdrecht, Eindhoven, Volkel, Twenthe, Gilze-Rijen, Leeuwarden, Ypenburg, and on 19 June Soesterberg Air Base.
The airshow was held on a Wednesday and was not as large as in previous years. But, there was still enough to enjoy for the approximately 50.000 people that visited the base that day. The official celebration of 50 years Royal Netherlands Air Force was held on 1 July 1953 with an impressive flypast of more than 150 aircraft over Soesterberg AB.
The static featured only two foreign aircraft; a F-102 from the 32nd FIS and a Belgian Fouga Magister. All the other planes were from the Royal Netherlands Air Force. In the airshow the highlights were fly-bys from Javelins from the RAF, F-101 Voodoo’s from the USAF and two F-105s from the USAF. All of the aircraft flew from other airfields. A surprise were overshoots from five Swedish Saab Drakens that were on their way from Sweden to Paris to participate in the Le Bourget airshow.
See the participating aircraft in the Movements database.
