The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
Look up! It’s the Red Arrows
Ahead of their Jubilee surprise, lead pilot ‘Red 1’ takes readers on a wild ride
THE RED ARROWS by Wing Commander David Montenegro 288pp, Century, T £16.99 (0844 871 1514), RRP £20, ebook £9.99
One highlight of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this year will be the birthday parade flypast and at its centre, naturally, will be the Red Arrows, trailing magnificent plumes of red, white and blue vapour.
If you have ever wondered how the effect is produced, Wing Commander David “Monty” Montenegro is here to tell you. Dyed diesel is released into the exhaust of the scarlet Hawk jets. Like everything associated with the RAF’s legendary aerobatic display team, precision is needed to get it right. At least if a mistake is made with the colours, the results will not be fatal – which is not the case with most of the fine calculations involved in a Red Arrow display.
Monty, who joined the Red Arrows in 2009, was selected as “Red 1” – leader of the nine-man team – in 2015. The “Reds” are the elite of an elite. To apply, you have to be one of the small band of RAF fast-jet jockeys, rated above average or better with 1,500 flying hours and at least one frontline operational tour under your belt. On top of that, you have to satisfy an interview board that you have the right stuff – extraordinary skill and superb physical reactions, of course, but also a very high degree of emotional intelligence, if esprit de corps is to be maintained. Among the essential virtues listed by Monty is a rather surprising one – humility. Everyone, Red 1 included, has “to be able to take criticism and deliver it constructively, own up to any mistakes and learn from them”.
His new book is the ultimate insider guide, relating with great enthusiasm and insight what it means to be inside the cockpit as you scream through the skies at 350 to 450 miles per hour, within what feels like touching distance of your wingman, making continual nanosecond decisions that will result in certain death if you get them wrong.
Like many airmen, Monty was bitten early by the aviation bug. At 12, he went to an air show at Biggin Hill and was transfixed by the Tornados, Jaguars and Harriers. “The noise of those jet engines, my body vibrating with the afterburners, was overwhelming,” he writes. “My schoolboy brain was fizzing... ‘This is awesome – imagine flying that!’”
Many kids will have had the same urge, but to turn that ambition into reality requires not only innate skill, but immense dedication. From school, Monty won an RAF scholarship to Manchester where he studied politics and theology, while flying with the university air corps. Then it was on to Cranwell before joining his first squadron.
As he points out, the formation flying that is at the heart of the displays has been an intrinsic part of RAF culture from 1920 onwards and in the interwar years huge crowds flocked to Empire Air Day shows at stations around the country. Then as now, these performances served many purposes, keeping the RAF in the public eye and acting as an instrument of soft power by demonstrating British defence capability and technological excellence. They were also a fantastic recruiting tool, propelling thousands of lads into the ranks of the wartime and peacetime RAF.
Flying in tight patterns was also initially seen as valuable preparation for combat – although when theory was put to the test in Battle of Britain, the Fighter Boys threw away the training manuals and devised their own tactics.
Since their formation in 1964 the Reds have become ambassadors for the entire RAF. They have flown the flag all over the world, performing displays in 57 countries to date. So far, only 160 pilots can claim membership of this exclusive club, including Kirsty Murphy, the first female member, who joined in 2009.
The risk of death and injury is constant, and 12 team personnel have died in practices and performances. Monty was involved in a mid-air collision which saw his team mate eject safely and also at a display in Bournemouth in 2011 when Flight Lt Jon Egging was killed, apparently after almost blacking out as a result of massive G-forces.
The show will always go on. The Red Arrows devised one of their most famous formations, in which the aircraft line up in ranks of three to make the “Diamond Nine”, to celebrate the Queen’s 2012 Jubilee celebrations. There are rumours that they are planning another innovation to mark this year’s event. Whatever it is, it will surely live up to the standard set by legendary Kiwi Red Arrows veteran Ray Hanna, who declared: “If the crowds have time to lick their ice creams, we aren’t doing our jobs properly!”