I've had a good look at the photos, Air Show lists on NWAN forum, 'EGGP' magazines of the early '80s and other references and come up with the following. Quite a nice varied selection of good clear shots. I wouldn't mind a few of those on the 'Airshows' thread on NWAN as they illustrate aircraft I don't have on file, however I respect the Flickr postees right to copyright
Initially missed that if you hover the mouse over the image, a caption appears after a short delay. By then I'd done much of the sleuthing without the rather helpful big clue provided! Most captions are absolutely correct, a few can be tightened to a particular date, while a one is wayward - but then I've got more resources than likely anyone else to date images of aircraft visiting Liverpool Airport.
The 3 b&ws featuring a Starways C-45/DC-4 Skymaster, EI-AKA F-27 Friendship of Aer Lingus and Bristol Freighter of BKS. The Aer Lingus Fokker and the Starways Skymaster must in the period late 1958 to December 1963. Add in the BKS Freighter and it is limited to summer 1960 or summer 1961, so July 1960 looks good.
Air Atlantique Dakota G-AMPO still in Eastern red and blue cheat-line is certainly 1982 Air Display, providing pleasure flights and operating from and onto the reopened for the Air Show runway 26 (landing over Speke Hall Avenue. Same occasion for the photo of G-AMPO towards the end of the collection.
Lancaster PA474/AJ:G, Spitfire AB901/XT:M and Tiger Moth G-AIXD all match 1982 Air Display, so agree again.
The Lancaster taxiing infront of the Control Tower could be either 1981 or 1982 Air Shows. No real doubt about the 1982 , except that:
The Jaguar GR.1 XX119/GC in 54 Sqdn markings was at the June
1981 Air Show only (the Mosquito behind RR299/HT;E was at both 1981 and 1982). The caption date is wrong (although a non-specialist without the lists I have would easily conclude the shots were all at the same event). This one threw me for a quite a while, I even went back to my original, made at the time, transcription of the ATC Logs to see if I'd made a mistake in compiling the subsequent Air Show display list - I hadn't. Strange to have only the one from 1981, numerous shots from the 1982 display, then just one from 1984 - there was no 1983 air display.
The Aviogenex Tupolev Tu-134A is difficult to date, even if the registration was clear. Aviogenex Tu-134A operated weekly (initially on a Friday night, later on Saturdays) in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1988, with start and end of season flts in 1985 and 1987. The Air Ecosse DHC-6 Twin Otter G-STUD (well, I think that was the only one in those colours?), which for a period day-stopped between mail flights, so ties the year down to between late 1979 and May 1983. So 'early 1980s' is a fair statement. Certainly must be before April 1986 as the shot is on the North Airfield.
Lightning F.3 XR718/BK1 in 11 Sqdn markings was at the
1984 Air Display. It parked on the south airfield (the air show being on the north airfield). The railings are right for those beside the 09/27 runway on the south airfield at the time. As there are no 1984 Air Display photos in the collection, fancy this could have been of the aircraft arriving on the Saturday (main Air Display was on the Sunday).
The Aerospacelines Guppy aircraft visited Liverpool in the period 1979-1989. However I most certainly agree that this shot is of F-BTGV making a pass at 11:55 along 26 during the 1982 Air Display. The following year the Guppy fleet of 3 aircraft gained a new colour scheme F-BTGV gaining a large number '3' on the tail.
The 8 photos of the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy are indeed 1980, between 12:29 on
Saturday 28th June and departure 12:05 on Monday 30th. The shots with people milling around it are on the Sunday afternoon when 70,000 people are reckoned to have filed through it! C-5A 00455 (70-455) was operated by the 436th MAW based at Dover AFB, it arrived from Ramstein, West Germany and departed for Mildenhall. I've got a number of photos of this on digital file, must sometime post them on NWAN, as there is no current coverage on the forum of the Galaxy visit.
The Concorde appears to be G-BOAD. This particular aircraft visited 5 times, indeed visited more often than any other in the BA fleet. April 1986, October 1986, April 1988, June 1992, April 1995 are the alternatives. The field can be narrowed a bit by the colour scheme and style of the titles. Straight lines on the flag quarter and just 'British' titles match my April 1986 photos, while my April 1988 shots show a return to full 'British Airways' titles. As the aircraft operated two supersonic return flights during the Grand National Day
5th April 1986 visit, that is what I would go for.
The date provided for BBMF Dakota ZA947/AI is spot on, Saturday 29th June 2008, f&t Coningsby and a lively display over the former North Airfield site as part of the Airport's 75th Anniversary celebration and FoLA 'Air Fair' on the old north airfield apron.
The two Hot Air Balloons, G-BHAT 'Witter' and G-BGHS 'Champion' were during the morning of the 1982 Air Display.
At first I thought it would be difficult to date the 3 x 'Red Arrows' shots - but then noticed 2 x Genair Bandeirante aircraft on the apron - so dates two shots at least definitely to the 1982 Air Display. Could have been 1981 as the 'Red Arrows' were there - but only 1 Genair Bandeirante. The 'Red Arrows' did not take part in the 1984 Air Display.
With a clearer registration the Dan Air Boeing 727 landing on 27 could be tied down to within a handful of visits. Although in the final Dan Air colours with a black edge to the cheat line, that is not enough. Dan Air's Boeing 727s visited in the period July 1973 until the airlines demise 1992.
The Mosquito RR299/HT:E and a camouflaged Hawk must be the 1982 Air Display with XX351 from 1 TWU at Brawdy in the static park.
As already pointed out the caption date of the visit by Folland Gnat T.1 aircraft of the 'Red Arrows' is impossible, as by 1982 they had moved onto BAe. Hawk T.1 aircraft. The US Army UH-1 Iroquois parked on the 'finger' apron is a clue, as is the lack of any fences and tents etc out on the airfield that would be associated with an air display visit. Dating is helped considerably by the detail that the 'Red Arrows' only called 3 times while flying Gnats. Twice they were here for Air Displays in 1972 and 1973, but their visit in
1978 was an overnight stop, arriving Friday 18th August, departing the following day. From the shadows showing that the sun was over in the SE, the shots must have been in the morning, so taken on
Saturday 19th August 1978 before the 'Red Arrows' departed to display at the Southport Flower Show. There was also a U.S.Army UH-1H based at Liverpool overnight and at weekends 15th to 25th August that year, just to confirm the 1978 date.
Finally Guppy F-BPPA. In that colour scheme (no big fleet number on the tail) that aircraft operated from Liverpool on 12 occasions in the period July 1979 to June 1982. So 'early '80s' as on the caption covers that period nicely. However with a brightly coloured Bell 206 Jet Ranger Helicopter and a US Army Beech U-21 parked out on the 'fingers' it could be possible to narrow the visit down to a single date. So I've run through all 12 dates in the logs and find just one with both a Beech U-21A (0-18025) and a Jet Ranger helicopter (G-NOEL) present too. A visit to Google and look up G-NOEL a Jet Ranger and bingo - there are pictures of G-NOEL in exactly those green and red colours! So the date is
Monday 19th April 1982, all 3 aircraft night stopped, however the sun appears to be setting behind the photographer (who is facing SE), not from in front, so is the Monday evening. The U-21A arrived at 1625 and departed the next morning at 0845, the Guppy landed 1828 and departed next day as 1338, while the Jet Ranger was in from the morning through to the 21st. Yes, G-NOEL is a personalised registration for Noel Edmunds, DJ and TV personality.
Some may be interested in finding more on the types illustrated, so a few links to threads around the Nostalgia section.Liverpool Airport Air Shows:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/130 Tupolev Tu-134 visits to Liverpool:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/16960/soviet-designed-types-liverpool-airportAerospaceline Guppy visits to Liverpool:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/851Folland Gnat visits to Liverpool:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/5983Concorde visits to Liverpool:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/125The 2008 'Air Fair':
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/10361960 airlines at Liverpool:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/20188/complete-visiting-aircraft-review-19601961 airlines at Liverpool:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/20251/complete-visiting-aircraft-review-1961Starways at Liverpool:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/3790The Dublin Route (Aer Lingus & BKS at Liverpool):
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/7090 
