Red Arrows prepare to pay tribute to Queen in Torbay
Torbay’s English Riviera Airshow promises to be a spectacular occasion – and there will be an added royal Jubilee bonus for spectators,
ASPECIAL tribute to the Queen will be part of the Red Arrows displays at the English Riviera Air Show next month.
The RAF’s premier aerobatic team is scheduled to fly twice over Torbay during the Platinum Jubilee weekend – once on each day of the air show on June 4 and 5.
During the displays, the nine scarlet Hawk jets will trail their red, white and blue smoke in a special tribute to the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, but the full details are still shrouded in secrecy.
“No spoilers,” says Flight Lieutenant Will Cambridge, down the line from an airfield somewhere in Greece. “But there will be a nod to the Jubilee during the display.”
The Red Arrows, recognised as the world’s best aerobatic team, are hard at work in Greece right now, perfecting the new 2022 display which will thrill the crowds over Torbay at the start of a long season.
Training in Greece more or less guarantees good weather, and the pilots are currently putting in long hours in the cockpit.
Their “brief-flight-debrief-repeat” routine sees them in the air for three flights a day, five days a week, practising every detail of the display until it meets their exacting standards.
Each year the display is different, and this year’s will feature new formations as well as the special and so-far secret Jubilee tribute.
“It’s really coming together well,” says Will. “We’re only in the second week, and the show is a lot tighter already. We’re at the point where we’re trying to perfect the display. We’re always aiming for the perfect show.”
Joining the RAF in 2006, the 39-year-old from Bromley in Kent was selected to fly fast jets and has served time in Tornado and Typhoon cockpits. “I first saw the Red Arrows when I was six or seven years old,” he says.
“I thought it was the most fantastic thing ever! I never dreamed I would end up flying with them, but I maintained that love of flying, and then when I joined the RAF I was selected to fly fast jets. I did the training, flew on the front line and clocked up my 1,500 hours in fast jets.
“I visited the Red Arrows and it was only then that I thought: ‘I might actually have a shot at this’.”
Will duly applied to the Red Arrows, and joined a shortlist of 30 or so ace pilots. After a formal interview and a short but intense flying test, during which he says he was the most nervous he has ever been in aircraft, he made the team.
He joined the Red Arrows late in 2019, and should have made his debut in the team in the summer of 2020, only for the Covid-19 pandemic to cause practically a whole season of shows to be axed. Now he is champing at the bit to make a start on the full 2022 season.
“Every time we get to display to the public, it’s a real honour and privilege,” he says. “The Red Arrows are iconic, and there’s an element of nostalgia about them.
“Every time I go flying, I’m lucky enough to see that up close. It’s what everyone dreams of.”
The whole team is looking forward to its first Torbay displays since 2019. “Some shows are bigger than others,” says Will, who flies at Red Four in the display. “We really get up for them. Torbay, in particular, has so many people, and it’s a fantastic place to display.”
Other aircraft confirmed for the show so far include an RAF Chinook helicopter and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight of Spitfires, Hurricanes and a Lancaster bomber.