Salute to that daring flypast

The 50th anniversary of rAf pilot Alan Pollock’s unauthorised lowflying display through the span of Tower Bridge has special significance for me. furious that the rAf wasn’t ‘properly’ celebrating its 50th anniversary [it was founded in 1918], he flew his hawker hunter jet at just 150ft along the thames, around several London landmarks, in an unofficial flypast that culminated in him flying through Tower Bridge. Al and I were cadets at the same time at the rAf College Cranwell and we shared a love of motorcycling. I was in the red Arrows’ crew room that day when, at about 8.30 am, the phone rang and someone said: ‘Peter, it’s for you.’ It was Al, who said: ‘What are you blokes doing today?’ I replied: ‘Just some local fly-bys.’ he grunted — looking back, that was obviously in disgust that we were not marking the anniversary in a special way. my log book says we did a 40-minute flight from Kemble over Cheltenham, rAf Lyneham and Brize Norton and Little rissington. When we saw the papers’ headlines the next day about what Al had done, it was jaw-dropping.

P. r. evans, Harrogate, n. Yorks.