Bray Air Display 2025

Irish Defense Forces - Black Knights Parachute Team

Opening the Bray Air Display, we got the Irish Defense Forces' Black Knights Parachute Team dropping in from their AW189 helicopter to land on the beach. This has become a bit of a ritual start to the event, and with the stiff breeze coming in from the south, they were able to land almost vertically - making for quite the impressive scene from the ground.

Aer Lingus - Airbus A321XLR

Aer Lingus put on a show for us with the lovely Airbus A321XLR, demonstrating its slow speed stability, impressive climb rate, and silent (relative to just about everything else we'd see that day) high-bypass turbofan engines.

Marinell - P-51D Mustang

Old warbirds are always a treat, and there's something to be said for the better part of 2000 horsepower hauling its way through the sky. This year's treat was a P-15D, with the pilot managing to effectively surprise most of the audience with their low level approach.

Irish Historic Flight Foundation - Chipmunk

The Irish Historic Flight Foundation showed up with two of their Chipmunks this year. No crazy aerobatics, and none of the thunderous roar we got from the P-51D; but a lovely addition to the roster nonetheless.

Team Raven - Van RV8

Team Raven has been a consistent feature, and every year they put on a spectacular demonstration of what an air display is all about. Excellent choreography, precise flying, never a moment's downtime between the action, and a brilliant balance of two, three, four, and six-ship maneuvers. The camera rarely does a performance of this scale justice.

Eddie Goggins - Mudry CAP-232

Known as "The Flying Dentist", Eddie regularly shows up to the Bray Air Display in his Mudry CAP-232 to show off just what this airframe's ±10G limits and 270º/second roll rate really translate into. It's quite something watching his aircraft instantly change direction, and more than a few laughs escaped while trying to photograph the shenanigans.

Irish Coast Guard

The Irish Coast Guard are a common feature at the Bray Air Display, and while they've previously showed up with one of their spectacular Sikorsky S-92 behemoths, this year they decided to present two new additions to the Rescue fleet.

Irish Coast Guard AugustaWestland AW189

The AW189 is the same airframe flown by the Irish Air Corps, presumably offering some nice benefits from a maintenance and training perspective - but something tells me the fluorescent orange and white paint scheme isn't going to be making its way into military service any time soon. According to Wikipedia, we're due to have six of these beauties operating out of Dublin, Sligo, Waterford, and Shannon.

Irish Coast Guard Beechcraft B200 Super King Air

Enabling longer-range search and rescue capabilities than the AW189s, the Beechcraft appear to be fitted with a sensor pod down the keel. Certainly an interesting addition to the fleet.

BAC Strikemaster

While we unfortunately didn't get to witness the spectacular Viggen again this year, there's always something special about a military jet showing up to play. This year we got a BAC Strikemaster flying in Royal Saudi Airforce markings (though no longer in active service).

Rich Goodwin - Jet Pitts

A fan favourite every year, Richard Goodwin brought G-JPIT , his custom built jet-powered Pitts Special, and proceeded to show off his utter lack of regard for the laws of physics. Watching his performance reminds me of my childhood watching model aircraft performing maneuvers which seemed utterly impossible.

Garda Air Support Unit - EC135

The Garda Air Support Unit's Eurocopter EC135 is a common sight over Dublin, and it was fun to see them on the other side of the camera for a change. Unlike previous years, we also got to see a bit more of what the EC135's performance envelope allows, a theme repeated for several of the helicopter performances this year thanks to the great weather.

AeroSuperBatics Wingwalkers

As with previous years, the AeroSuperBatics team showed up with an impressive performance, demonstrating that having someone strapped to the top of your aircraft doesn't mean you can't perform some impressive aerobatics.

Irish Air Corps

Irish Air Corps AugustaWestland AW189

The Irish Air Corps put on an impressive display with their AW189, showcasing some of its aerial agility and highlighting just why Ireland's aircraft are painted a deep green (and why the Irish Coast Guard variants are not).

Irish Air Corps Airbus C295

The Airbus C295 is always a delight to see, with its gorgeous winglets and broad wingspan bringing to mind images of a Condor.

Irish Air Corps Display Team

Flying Pilatus PC-9Ms, the display team was on top form this year - showcasing exquisite formation flying, an effortlessly smooth routine, and a clean example of rejoining formation.

Irish Navy

And of course, keeping an eye on events and making sure that none of the small flotilla of spectators decided to misbehave too egregiously, we had the Irish Navy's P61 LÉ Samuel Beckett anchored in the bay - with several of her RHIBs ferrying personnel to and from Bray's harbour.