Thousands of spectators stepped back in time at the weekend as they soaked up the wartime atmosphere at a world famous air show.

Saffron Walden Reporter: A Hawker Hurricane.A Hawker Hurricane. (Image: Archant)

The Imperial War Museum Duxford’s Flying Legends Air Show was a nostalgic affair brought to life by Second World War fighter planes, bomber command briefings and US Army medical personnel.

Despite a grey start to the day, the clouds broke and brilliant sunshine heralded the afternoon’s flying display, which started with 11 Spitfires taking to the skies. This was followed by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Lancaster and Spitfire, a popular combination at IWM Duxford air shows, and one of the stars of the flying display – the Boeing P-26 Peashooter, which made its only 2014 appearance at the Flying Legends Air Show. In a scene reminiscent of the latter stages of the Second World War, two Hispano Buchon (Messerschmitt Bf 109) aircraft flew in, chased by two North American P-51 Mustangs. This was followed by the poignant sight of B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B accompanied by two Mustangs, recreating the bomber and fighter combinations that would have flown into bombing raids in the Second World War.

The Vintage Village was bedecked with traditional stripy deckchairs and decorated picnic tables, which visitors used to sit back, relax and enjoy the sounds of The Winslow Concert Band performing 1940s songs and The Manhattan Dolls, direct from New York, performing wartime swing classics in true Andrews Sisters-style.

Visitors also met Laurel and Hardy, who played to the crowd with their slapstick comedy, aboard their model T Ford car.

Hair and make-up stylist Alice Cormie transformed ladies into 1940s screen goddesses with her hair and make-up demonstrations. Also in the Vintage Village, visitors were able to sit in a Spitfire and clamber aboard the Home Front Bus to see reconstructions of a 1940s living room, a wartime shop, a bombed-out street and an air raid shelter.

Members of Second World War living history groups brought RAF Duxford’s wartime past to life. Ops 1939-45, representing Battle of Britain-era pilots and ground crew, chatted to visitors at their recreated 1940s dispersal point.