A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR RAF FAMILIES
It was in 1964 when the Royal Air Force amalgamated its display teams into one, premier unit – the Red Arrows.
The name was taken from the Black Arrows team and the colour scheme as a tribute to the Red Pelicans, while the aircraft chosen to be flown, the Gnat, had been used by the Yellowjacks.
In the first season of 1965, the Team – flying seven aircraft in a display and based at RAF Fairford – performed 65 shows.
A media event at RAF Little Rissington on May 6 was the Team’s first official display, with the first public performance in the UK on May 15 at Biggin Hill Air Fair.
The Team permanently increased to nine display aircraft in 1968 and the Diamond Nine became the Red Arrows’ trademark formation.
14 Envoy Autumn 2014
The Gnat, which had flown 1,292 displays, was replaced by the BAE Systems Hawk, a modified version of the RAF’s fast jet and weapons trainer, for the 1980 season.
Also that year, permission was given for the Team to have the motto Eclat – meaning excellence.
RAF Scampton – the station famous for its role in the 1943 Dambusters raid – became the Team’s new home in 1983, moving from RAF Kemble – its base since 1966.
Apart from a period at RAF College Cranwell between 1995 and 2000, the Lincolnshire station has been the Red Arrows’ permanent home ever since.
During the Team’s world tour of October 1995 to February 1996, the Red Arrows performed to nearly a million people in Sydney on Australia Day.
In 2002, the Red Arrows flew with a British Airways Concorde over London to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
A decade later, the Red Arrows performed another series of flypasts over the capital, for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony – seen by a global television audience in excess of one billion people – and the Athlete’s Parade.
The 4,500th Red Arrows display took place at the RAF Waddington International Air Show in July 2013 – in the Team’s 49th season.
For more information Website:
www.raf.mod.uk/reds/ Twitter: @rafredarrows Facebook: RAF Red Arrows
www.raf-ff.org.uk
©MoD/Crown Copyright 2014
©MoD/Crown Copyright 2014
©SAC Adam Fletcher RAF – Crown Copyright/MoD 2014
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