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The IAA FlightFest on September 15th will have the ‘Miss Demeanour’ Hawker Hunter jet participate in the once-in-a-lifetime fly past up the River Liffey to celebrate the 60th anniversary since it first broke the air speed record.

Developed in the 1950s, the Hawker Hunter is a subsonic British jet aircraft. On 7 September 1953, the first prototype broke the world air speed record, achieving 727.63 mph (1,171.01 km/h).

The Hunter entered service as a manoeuvrable fighter aircraft and later operated in fighter-bomber and reconnaissance roles.

Mr Eamonn Brennan, Chief Executive IAA said that the inclusion of the Hawker Hunter in the IAA FlightFest not only brings colour to the event, but contributes to providing the spectators with an opportunity to see aircraft dating back over 80 years.

“FlightFest will be the most spectacular flypast in the history of Irish aviation. We have aircraft from every decade from the 1930s right up to 2013.

“Spectators will experience a close up of aviation including the six-seater De Havilland Dragon named 'Iolar' (Eagle), which carried just five passengers across the Irish Sea in 1936, the B-17 bomber, used in the Second World War in the 40s, the Hawker Hunter from the 50s and the ‘superjumbo’ A380 which carries almost 500 passengers,” he said.

Painted in strikingly loud colours, the ‘Miss Demeanour’ is renowned for its exhilarating air show performances.

Miss Demeanour is owned and piloted by the equally colourful Jonathon Whaley, a.k.a ‘Flapjack’. Talking about his jet’s offbeat paintjob, Jonathan said ‘There is a plethora of ex-military aircraft all dressed up to represent some squadron or other.
I thought it would make a change to see a Hunter painted as an art form. Custom motorbikes are often painted using a similar approach, so I decided that what I needed to find was an air brush wielding Hell’s Angel, someone who wanted a machine with a bit more horsepower to work on. The paint job is based around a Space Shuttle re-entry and involves flames that graduate to a midnight, star studded sky’.

Miss Demeanour is one of over 30 civilian, military and historic aircraft that will take part in FlightFest, a once-in-a-lifetime aviation fly past in Dublin. Others participating aircraft include a B-17 Flying Fortress, a Vulcan B2 delta wing bomber and an Airbus A380 Superjumbo.

FlightFest will be a free family day out. The fun starts at 12pm, with the fly past beginning at 2pm.

For more information, visit flightfest.ie or follow FlightFest on Facebook and Twitter.