ICE CREAMS, craned necks and the roar of jet engines - just some of the sights and sounds of this weekend's Sunderland International Airshow.

Europe's biggest free airshow roars into the region with a million visitors expected to cram on to Seaburn seafront.

Billed as the region's biggest and best ever, the 12th annual crowd-puller has the kind of programme to draw gasps from even the most cynical observer.

Star performers are the world-renowned Red Arrows display team, the RAF's front line fighter planes, the Tornado and Jaguar, plus an appearance by the hovering Harrier jump jet.

The event will also feature for the first time a choreographed show by helicopter display team, the Blue Eagles.

For those with a romantic memory of the past there will also be the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - a flypast featuring the Spitfire and Hurricane.

Air show director Peter Chapman said an event of this size would be a massive boost for the local economy.

He said: "In recent years we've had about a million visitors, making it the biggest event of its kind in Europe.

"Depending on the weather, we will hopefully get the same, or more, and that would be a tremendous boost for the local economy.

"It's a great way to promote the city of Sunderland and the North-East in general.

"The city is changing and this shows that it is doing it in the right way."

Event coordinator Sue Henderson, who has been organising the show since it was a two- hour event in 1989, said it was now on a scale unimagined more than a decade ago.

She said: "About 250,000 people came for the first show and we had six policemen on duty.

"Now, there will be about 120 officers policing it and we have to close the coast road for the whole of the weekend.

"But it's not a numbers game - whoever comes is coming for a good time and that's all that matters."

Many of the roads around the main site at Cliffe Park will be closed before and after the Saturday and Sunday shows.

More details on park-and-ride schemes and road closures are available from Sunderland Tourist Information Centre, on 0191-553 2000.