BADA Awards 2025

The 2025 BADA Awards were unveiled during REHEAT’25 hosted at Farnborough on the 13th October. These awards marked the significant contributions three individuals have made to the UK air display scene over the past half century.

BADA Trophy, to an individual or organisation that demonstrates the aims of the association, ‘To encourage, promote and advance safety and standards in British air displays’: Elly Sallingboe

So many privately owned historic aeroplanes have come and gone over the past half-century. The Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress that arrived at Duxford from France on a miserable day in March 1975 wasn’t meant to stay. It was destined for a new owner in the United States. Thank goodness it never left. That aeroplane was in the vanguard of the privately owned warbird scene in Britain. No single aircraft, surely, has ever made such a special contribution, it being unique as a four-engined heavy bomber in private hands. Ever since, through the sort of challenges – and, indeed, tragedies – that would have laid many others low, its operator has pursued with utterly single-minded determination the job of paying tribute to the huge numbers of American airmen who lost their lives in the European theatre during World War Two through ensuring the B-17 stays in our skies. Not only that, but she founded Britain’s pioneering warbird airshow, the Great Warbirds Air Display, in the wake of the tragic loss of her partner Ted White. It ran for 13 editions and was the archetype of so many other events that have followed. And if you wanted an indication of how incredible her efforts have been, where once the number of airworthy B-17s in preservation ran into double figures, now there are just three. Always she’s insisted on the highest standards, absolutely in step with the ethos of this association – but, above all, her superhuman efforts in keeping flying the B-17 named Sally B after her made this incredible personality a hugely deserving recipient of the BADA Trophy.

Miss Demeanour Award, for going the extra mile to deliver a display or event:
Henry Simpson

Henry has already done a lot in his life. He’s a trainee submarine captain, has been a storm-chaser in the US, appeared in the movie Wicked, has climbed volcanos, and more relevantly to BADA is a newly qualified AFISO in the tower at Duxford. But the reason he received this award is because of the key role he played in co-ordinating the Commemorative Air Force R4D tour this summer from the British end, acting as a highly professional and ever-helpful liaison with event organisers, and doing an enormous amount to achieve the splendid aims of the Navy to Victory tour.

Peter R. March

Peter retired this year as a Royal International Air Tattoo volunteer after 55 years, having been involved from the show’s beginning – in fact, he was the last of the original volunteers. Over that period he fulfilled many roles including souvenir programme editor, head of publicity and above all photographer, in which role he was active until the 2025 show. Through his aviation journalism, Peter has done more than most to promote air displays in the UK and overseas in the specialist media, and he is a former chairman of the Air Display Association, which today is BADA.