Bray Air Display 2023 Theme and Line-Up announced
The Bray Air Display the biggest airshow on the island of Ireland will return this year on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th of July at Bray Beach. The popular Air Display is held every year, but the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to COVID-19 and the 2023 edition of the show had flying displays on Sunday only. This will be the first time since 2019 that the Bray Air Display will have 2 full days of Air Displays. Entry to the event is free.
The Bray Air Display is one of Ireland’s largest free events, it attracts the largest single-family audience of over 100,000 people over two days. It’s estimated that the two-day event contributes €3.5 million to the local economy. In addition to being a free family event, the festival aims to inspire the next generation of aviation enthusiasts to pursue careers in one of Ireland’s leading industries.
The Airshow is a community-organised event that is the lead tourism event in County Wicklow. In 2017 the Bray Air Display was recognised as ‘Best Festival / Event Experience over 50,000 people’ at the prestigious, national Irish Tourism Industry Awards, in 2018 and 2019 the event won Silver in the ‘Best Tourism Initiative’ category at the All-Ireland Community and Council Awards.
The event takes place along Bray’s iconic Victorian promenade with the magnificent Bray Head as the backdrop. Besides air displays the event will also feature on-the-ground family entertainment including an amazing funfair, helicopter pleasure flights, Fan Zone, corporate hospitality as well as superb artisan street food.
Transport infrastructure enables easy access to the event with the Bray train station within walking distance from the beach.
Irish Air Corps AW139 at the Bray Air Display 2023
Program
The theme for this year’s Bray Air Display is 60 years of helicopter operations by the Irish Air Corps. With its then-large rural communities, a particularly bad winter in 1962/63 prompted The Dáil to approve an order for the SAR-equipped Alouette III. It was to be the mainstay of Irish Air Corps rotary wing operations from Nov 1963, when the first two of three initially ordered, were based at Baldonnel. Today the Irish Air Corps operate a fleet of 10 modern helicopters which operate seven days a week carrying out a wide variety of roles for the Air Corps.
The Bray Air Display will start with the ground entertainment from 12 noon daily followed by the airshow at 3 pm on both days. The headline act this year will be the RAF Red Arrows which will perform a flypast on Saturday and a full display on Sunday. Another RAF display will be coming from the Battle of Britain Memorial flight with their Avro Lancaster Second World War heavy bomber and two world war II fighters the Spitfire and the Hurricane.
More historic aircraft will be coming from the Irish Historic Flight Foundation which will display their three de Havilland Chipmunk aircraft developed shortly after the Second World War and the Boeing Stearman bi-plane, a primary trainer flown by the United States and several Allied nations during World War II.
The iconic Duxford-based Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat will also make a flying return to Bray this year. Another iconic aircraft coming across from the UK will be the P-51D Mustang ‘Miss Helen’, this is one of the most historic surviving examples of this iconic long-range Second World War fighter.
Ireland’s very own aerobatic champion Eddie Goggins aka The Flying Dentist will perform his jaw-dropping aerobatics on the Mudry CAP 232 and Sean Bennett will perform graceful flypasts with the historic Boeing-Stearman bi-plane.
Unsurprisingly the Irish Air Corps will showcase most of its inventory at the show with a number of different aircraft. Although it’s not confirmed yet what aircraft will be performing at the show we can certainly expect to see the pride and joy of the Irish Air Crops the Silver Swallows aerobatic demonstration team flying four Pilatus PC-9M turboprop training aircraft. Given the 60 years of helicopter operations by the Irish Air Corps theme, we can certainly expect to see the Air Corps Eurocopter EC-135 and AgustaWestland AW139 Helicopters. We can also certainly expect to see the true workhorse and the largest aircraft of the Irish Air Corps the Casa CN235-100 MPA Maritime Patrol Aircraft, an aircraft that first entered service in 1994 and conduct maritime patrol, aeromedical, search and rescue and normal transport tasks within the Air Corps. This year marks the end of the CASA CN 235 MPAs service to the Irish Air Corps after 28 years of service so Bray Air Display might be the last opportunity to see those aircraft before they are replaced with more modern C-295 MPA/Persuaders. Following their successful debut display at Bray last year we can also expect to see the brand new Irish Air Corps Demonstration Team Shadow flying three Pilatus PC-12s. The Irish Air Corps PC-12 can perform a wide variety of roles, including passenger, cargo, medical and surveillance operations. These are facilitated by a large cargo door, special mission platforms and air ambulance equipment.
LÉ William Butler Yeats a Samuel Beckett-class offshore patrol vessel of the Irish Naval Service docked close to Bray Beach during the 2022 airshow
More helicopter action will be coming from the Irish Coast Guard which will perform the Search and Rescue demo with their Sikorsky S-92 and the Garda Air Support Unit will perform a rare dynamic demonstration with a single Eurocopter EC135.
The Irish Parachute Club and the Black Knights Army Parachute Team (Sunday only) will also be back this year with their freefall jump onto Bray Beach.
Another very welcome addition to the Bray Air Display 2023 will be the Saab AJS 37 Viggen from the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight. The AJS-37 Viggen is a Swedish double-delta supersonic attack aircraft from the late Cold War. It was the backbone of the Swedish Air Force during the Cold War, serving as the main attack and anti-ship platform. The AJS is the 90’s upgrade of this 70's era aircraft, adding several advanced weapons and systems functionalities.
The Royal Jordanian Falcons have become the Bray Air Display regulars and it is not a surprise that the team will be once again performing at the show with their four Extra 330LX aircraft. Another team returning to Bray this year will be the British Team Raven flying six homebuilt Vans RV-8 aircraft. To round off the line-up the fantastic Aerosuperbatics WingWalkers will be performing their unique formation wing-walking display on their two Stearman bi-planes.
Click here for more details about the Bray Air Display 2023
