Red Arrows 50

reD arroWs 50 Celebrating

reD arroWs

Display seasons

50 years oF eClat by tiM CallaWay

by tiM CallaWay

tHe teaM – year by year • insiDe tHe HaWK ManoeUVres anD ForMations • anCestors

ISBN: 978-1-909128-22-4

£8.99

The Red Arrows in ‘Big Battle’ low over the Mediterranean during spring training. EJ van Koningsveld Cover main photograph: The Red Arrows in the middle of the ‘Rollbacks’. Paul Heasman All uncaptioned photographs in this publication are RAFAT Photograptic Section/Crown Copyright.

Contents 6 8 10

Welcome to the Red Arrows 50th display season 50 years of eclat – Excellence in every way Born in war – RAF aerobatic teams

4 Red ARRows - 50 yeARs of eClAt

24 The Yellowjacks 28 The sports car of the air 34 Fifty years of eclat 1964 to 2014 86 RAFAT from the inside 98 Inside the Hawk

SU

PA BS G CR E 13 IBE 0

reD arroWs 50 Celebrating

Display seasons

Editor:

Tim Callaway editor@aviationclassics.co.uk Dan Savage Luigino Calario, Keith Draycott, EJ van Koningsveld, Jose van Koningsveld, Maurice McElroy, Flt Lt Martin Pert, Constance Redgrave, David I Roberts, Sqn Ldr Jim Turner

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106 110 116 122 128

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Welcome to the

Red Arrows 50th

Display Season

by Squadron Leader Jim Turner, Red 1, the leader of the Red Arrows Left: Squadron Leader Jim Turner, Red 1. Richard Addison Above: The official badge of the RAF Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows. Editor

T

he 2014 Display Season is a defining year in the history of the Red Arrows. Not only is it the 50th season of display flying for the team, it also represents the desire of the Royal Air Force to demonstrate publicly that its pilots, engineers and support staff are among the best in the world, capable of achieving excellence through hard work and teamwork.

I have been flying in the RAF for over 20 years and in that time I have been fortunate to have flown some wonderful aircraft, travelled extensively around the world on exercise and operations and met people who will be friends for life. But the highlight of my time has, without doubt, been the flying I have done on the Red Arrows and as I approach the end of what will be my final year on the team, I can sense that I will never be able to repeat the pride, job satisfaction and the sheer exhilaration of flying on the Red Arrows.

It is certainly far from being an easy job!

We all feel a constant pressure to perform, to

6

maintain the highest levels of safety and to ultimately give the taxpayer value for money.

Every time I strap into my jet before a display, I am acutely aware of the responsibility I have of leading the team safely.

As I run in to start the display, I am thinking about the weather, the cloud base and wind mostly, and the conditions of the day require subtle modifications to every show I fly. With good weather I might be able to start with a full display; that is I can fly the vertical manoeuvres that require 6000ft of airspace. I may have to adjust the position of some manoeuvres to put the loop or roll between some clouds or I may have to change to the rolling or flat displays.

We are one of the only teams in the world that can modify the display in the air and change between the three different types of display at a moment’s notice. We are also one of the only teams in the world that will display in a 1000ft cloud base. We can do this safely because we get plenty of practice with low cloud in the UK during training!

WELCOME TO THE RED ARROWS – 50TH DISPLAY SEASON

For all that though, once I have called for the smoke to come on and have pulled up into the first manoeuvre of the display, any nerves instantly drain away and I am concentrating completely on being as smooth as possible for all the pilots on my wing. At times during the display, I do get the occasional opportunity to look at the crowd although the other pilots are not allowed to do that!

By the end of the show, I am filled with exhilaration and it can take quite a while to come back down to earth.

For me personally, leading the team has presented a number of very significant challenges over the last three years, but I know that when I look back on my career in the RAF, my time with the Red Arrows will be the achievement I am most proud of.

The team of today is proud to continue the tradition of excellence established by past teams and we hope the public continues to enjoy watching us display for many years to come.

■ Squadron Leader Jim Turner, Red 1

The Red Arrows in ‘Big Battle’.

E J van Koningsveld

50 years of Eclat Excellence in ever y way

I

n May 1996 I walked into the Red Arrows office at RAF Cranwell to meet Squadron Leader Tony Cunnane, their genial and enthusiastic public relations officer and a man of many talents. My proposal: to provide the team with its first official website, free of charge, as the flagship for my new web company.

The site went live in June 1996 with Tony providing a wealth of material from the team’s prodigious archive and maintaining the news pages with a flow of stories over the years. I am proud to say that we ran that site, still free of charge, until March 2007 when it was absorbed in the Ministry of Defence reorganisation of web services. I do not relate this story to boast, but to explain how I learned something little known about the Red Arrows.

I have watched the team display since I first saw them at RAF Ternhill in 1965; then in the 11 years I worked on the site I learned a great deal more about them, as a team and as individuals. I watched the new pilots under training, the sheer effort they put into learning, and just how tired they were at the end of each long day.

During the season I met up with the team at locations all over the world, often during a day of three or even four displays, interspersed with long transit flights and several flypasts. At far flung locations I watched engineers change engines with a minimum of equipment, sweltering in tropical heat.

8 50 YEARS OF ECLAT – EXCELLENCE IN EVERY WAY

On many occasions the team would also be on display not as pilots and engineers, but as people, ambassadors for the RAF, for industry and in fact for Great Britain, meeting VIPs from royal families, governments and industries from all over the world. I know how tired they must have been, but in 11 years I never saw them allow it to show once.

I also saw mistakes and accidents, a natural part of human beings involved in such a complex endeavour as an aerobatic team, especially one that attained such a degree of perfection. I was also aware of the deaths that some of these sadly caused, and what this degree of excellence cost in human terms. In all of this observation, the little known fact I discovered about the team is that their professionalism and spirit extends far beyond the aircraft. It is a spirit that manifests itself in many ways.

As well as their official engagements, on every possible occasion between shows the team take time to meet with their many fans, signing just about every programme, brochure and item of clothing imaginable, chatting amiably and answering questions on just about anything, from flying a Hawk to their favourite music.

They have formed trusts and assisted many charities, attending a vast number of charitable events; the air and ground crew also organising their own fundraising challenges as varied as running marathons to

The very well titled ‘Show Stopper’, the Synchro Pair cross. Spencer Trickett

riding scooters from Land’s End to John o’Groats.

They voluntarily achieve all of this on top of their service commitments and display flying. What I learned is that being a member of the Red Arrows is far more than being a pilot or an engineer. It is a selfless commitment to a heritage and a reputation, to belonging to a team in its truest sense. In so many ways, they truly are the best of British.

All best,

■ Words: Tim Callaway

The one and only Folland Fo-139 Midge was given the British experimental serial G-39-1. Note the small intakes required by the Viper engine. Editor’s collection

The

sports car of the air

The Folland Gnat, the first Red Arrow The first aircraft flown by the Red Arrows had become something of a legend for its aerobatic qualities as well as some of the difficulties associated with flying it. The Folland Gnat was an amazing aircraft, a small, two seat jet trainer that had started life as a fighter.

T

his lithe and elegant jet was often described as the sports car of the air because it was so agile and a real joy to fly. The Folland, later Hawker Siddeley, Gnat T Mk.1 trainer began life as a design for a single seat, cheap, lightweight fighter.

The Gnat’s designer, William Edward Willoughby ‘Teddy’ Petter, had formerly worked for Westland Aircraft on such projects as the Lysander and Whirlwind, 28 THE SPORTS CAR OF THE AIR

before joining English Electric and producing the remarkable Canberra high performance jet bomber.

By 1950, Petter had been impressed by the power of the new lightweight turbojets then under development, and had begun to formulate a small fighter concept based on these new engines. At the time, he was employed designing the English Electric P.1, the forerunner of what would become the Lightning, Britain’s first Mach 2 fighter.

Petter was concerned about a number of trends in fighter design, not least the increasing weight, complexity and cost of new aircraft. He tried to interest English Electric in his lightweight fighter concept, but it was fully committed to the Lightning programme, so in 1951 Petter left the company and joined Folland Aircraft as managing director.

The lightweight fighter took shape around a swept wing and tailplane with a single seat cockpit, the project being boosted by official

The HAL Ajeet was a development of the Gnat that had an additional underwing pylon for the carriage of a greater variety of loads. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

Two Folland Gnat F.1s of the Finnish Air Force await refuelling.The harsh conditions in the country did not lend themselves to the maintenance difficulties already inherent in the tiny airframe. Editor’s collection

interest from the Air Ministry. In 1952, it issued Operational Requirement O.R.303, which called for a lightweight fighter intended to intercept Soviet bombers which were the perceived threat to the UK at that time.

Initial concepts to meet the requirement included a rocket powered fighter with detachable engines, but Rolls-Royce pulled out of that idea and the project looked like it was stalling. Petter’s woes were added to when, in the middle of the design phase, the Air Ministry announced the Folland fighter would be required to carry guided missiles, something not mentioned in previous discussions.

Finally, two other fighters designed to a 1948 requirement, the Hawker Hunter and Supermarine Swift, had begun flight testing and showed great promise, so interest in Petter’s little fighter rapidly began to diminish.

THE MIDGE

Typically of Teddy Petter, the setbacks merely served to fan his famous persistence, some would say obstinacy, to develop the project. He had designed the Folland Fo-141 Gnat around the 3800lb (1724kg) thrust Bristol BE-22 Saturn turbojet, but this engine was cancelled.

Consequently while the Gnat was being redesigned around a new engine, the Bristol

Siddeley Orpheus, a proof of concept design was produced to resurrect interest in the aircraft. This was the Fo-139 Midge, essentially similar to the Gnat but with a slightly shorter wing and narrower air intakes as it was powered by a 1640lb (744kg) Armstrong Siddeley Viper 101.

The Midge was built at the Folland factory at Hamble and flew for the first time at Boscombe Down on August 11, 1954, in the hands of test pilot Teddy Tennant. Despite its small size, the Midge was an advanced aircraft for the day, with flaperons, combined flaps and ailerons to reduce the landing speed, a main undercarriage that doubled as an airbrake, and a one piece canopy with a fixed armoured windscreen.

Despite its low power, the Midge was able to break Mach 1 in a shallow dive and its handling was exemplary, sensitive to the controls and incredibly agile. During its short career, the Midge was flown by pilots from Canada, India, Jordan, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States, meeting with general approbation, especially for its handling. Sadly, the only Midge was destroyed in a crash on September 26, 1955, killing the Swiss test pilot flying it at the time.

A Finnish Air Force Folland Gnat F.1 in flight, showing the much smaller fin and rudder of the single seat aircraft and the air intake mounted 30mm ADEN cannons.

Editor’s collection

THE GNAT

Alongside the Midge, the first Gnat was taking shape around the larger and much more powerful Orpheus which required a slightly larger wing to take its greater weight and deeper air intakes to cope with the increased airflow to the new engine.

Two 30mm Aden cannons were fitted to the air intakes as the main armament, but otherwise the aircraft was very similar to the Midge. The prototype Gnat F.1 single seat fighter first flew at Boscombe Down on July 18, 1955, the British Ministry of Supply ordering six evaluation aircraft. Despite the very positive reports, the fighter version was never ordered by the UK, instead it was to find success with exports to India and Finland.

The first 25 Gnats for India were built at Hamble and began to be delivered in January 1958. These were followed by 15 partly built aircraft then kits as production of the Gnat was taken over by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which produced over 100 Gnat F.1s up to January 1974.

A rare development of the HAL Ajeet was the two seat trainer, three of which were built in 1982 but not put into production.

Very different from the RAF’s Gnat T Mk.1, the cockpit was similar to that of the Fouga Magister but with a raised rear seat.

Editor’s collection

THE RED ARROWS – 50 YEARS OF ECLAT 29

1968

Nine of Diamonds

No longer seven, nine red Gnats were the mounts of the 1968 Red Arrows.

The increasing success of the Red Arrows in the air and on the ground led to the development of the team into the now familiar nine aircraft.

T

owards the end of 1967, team leader Sqn Ldr Ray Hanna suggested the Red Arrows would have a greater flexibility in their display if the full-time complement of pilots and aircraft was increased to nine. More varied and complex formations could be flown, and splitting the formation would allow one element of the team to be in front of an audience for the entire display, the other section reforming for their next manoeuvre.

The RAF was convinced by these arguments, and the team was officially increased to nine aircraft for all displays for the 1968 season. Although it was not a new device or unique to the Red Arrows, the now famous perfectly symmetrical Diamond Nine became their signature formation, so much so that it is now a registered trademark.

Also in this year, the Red Arrows were introduced to an aircraft they would be long associated with as a leading example of British aviation prowess, the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde. The team were invited to Filton to tour the prototype, their first look at an aircraft that would become part of many prestige team events, joining the formation to create some iconic images.

Concorde also had another effect on the 38 fifty years of eclat 1964 to 2014

The 1968 team rolling in formation, a rare colour shot.

team, as RAF Fairford was chosen to host the British development flying of the supersonic airliner. Consequently the team had to move to RAF Kemble in Gloucestershire, which was the long-term home of 5 Maintenance Unit.

The team were to operate from the airfield’s ‘G’ site for the next 16 years and were to be popular residents, the laybys on the surrounding roads often being packed with onlookers watching their practice displays.

The key personnel of the 1968 team were: Red 1 – Leader – Sqn Ldr R G Hanna

Red 2 – Flt Lt D A Bell Red 3 – Flt Lt D A Smith Red 4 – Flt Lt P R Evans Red 5 – Flt Lt F J Hoare Red 6 – Flt Lt R Booth Red 7 – Flt Lt J T Kingsley Red 8 – Flt Lt I C H Dick Red 9 – Flt Lt R B Duckett Manager – Flt Lt L G Wilcox Engineer – Fg Off D Whitby Adjutant – Flt Lt R Dench ■ Words: Tim Callaway

Royalty and the Humber bridge

1981

The 1981 Red Arrows: Back row, left to right, Flt Lt B S Walters (Red 2), Flt Lt N J Wharton (Red 5), Flt Lt I J Huzzard (Red 8), Flt Lt W Ward (Red 3); front row Flt Lt G M Nisbet (Eng), WO H G Thorne (Adj), Sqn Ldr S R Johnson (Red 6), Sqn Ldr R Thilthorpe (Manager), Flt Lt M H de Courcier (Red 4), Sqn Ldr B R Hoskins (Red 1), Flt Lt T R Watts (Red 7), Flt Lt J R Myers (Red 9).

The second full year on the Hawk saw a royal visit from King Hussein of Jordan and the opening of the Humber Bridge.

O

ne of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century was also a fast jet and helicopter pilot, as well as being a supporter of youth air training schemes and public aviation events worldwide.

King Hussein of Jordan was an admirer and friend of the Red Arrows, and made a number of visits to the team not just to witness their displays but to discuss aviation, aerobatics and formation flying with the team.

One of the king’s many visits to the team was made in 1981 when he was introduced to the Hawk and the new display.

A full programme of displays included one in front of the Queen on July 17, when the team were part of the celebrations at the opening of a new British engineering icon, the massive yet beautiful Humber Bridge.

The bridge had been open to test traffic

from June 24, the official opening taking place after this.

Celebrity visits were becoming a regular part of team life and these continued in 1981, including Noel Edmonds and a BBC TV crew to film his flight with the team.

The key personnel of the 1981 team were: Red 1 – Leader – Sqn Ldr B R Hoskins Red 2 – Flt Lt B S Walters Red 3 – Flt Lt W Ward Red 4 – Flt Lt M H de Courcier Red 5 – Flt Lt N J Wharton Red 6 – Sqn Ldr S R Johnson Red 7 – Flt Lt T R Watts Red 8 – Flt Lt I J Huzzard Red 9 – Flt Lt J R Myers Manager – Sqn Ldr R Thilthorpe Engineer – Flt Lt G M Nisbet Adjutant – WO H G Thorne ■ Words: Tim Callaway

At the opening of the Humber Bridge, the Red Arrows performed a bomb burst over the top of the superb structure.

THE RED ARROWS – 50 YEARS OF ECLAT 51

Formations The art of the Red Arrows T

he Red Arrows developed a large number of formations for the full nine, seven, five, four and two aircraft over the years, many, like the famous ‘Diamond Nine’, appear regularly, some have come and gone, lasting only a few seasons.

The first part of this article will be a look at the various formation shapes and their sometimes odd, sometimes appropriate, names. Aside from the whole team flying formations as a nine-ship, there are subformations within the team.

Reds 6 and 7 detach from the main body of the team to form the Synchro Pair, while the team continues in a seven-ship formation.

Further, the team is often split into two separate formations. The front five aircraft are known as Enid, after Enid Blyton, author of the ‘Famous Five’ books, and the back four aircraft are known as Gypo.

Many more politically correct versions of the origin of this name have been touted, its real foundation being the subject of a number of good but most likely apocryphal stories. It has been retained for the simple reason that the word is very easy to hear and understand over the radio, it cannot be mistaken for any of the team leaders’ other formation or manoeuvre calls.

Once the aircraft have moved into each formation, a manoeuvre is flown, for the larger formations this is usually a loop, roll or ‘bend’, where the team fly past the audience holding the formation to show off the shape to the crowd. The most difficult positions to fly for these manoeuvres are those on the edges of the formation, especially Reds 4 and 5, as they are flying a longer path around the manoeuvre and around the formation to keep its shape while remaining in the same plane in roll.

The Red Arrows are still one of the few teams to roll five aircraft in line abreast, perhaps the most exacting demonstration of formation skills. What is not often appreciated is the planning work that goes into the display, not just to co-ordinate the sub formations to keep the action in front of the audience for the whole display, but to keep the formation changes away from the crowd as far as is possible.

This is the art of the Red Arrows and the reason their display is rightly considered one of the most exciting and professional in the world.

■ Words and diagrams: Tim Callaway

There are two elements to a Red Arrows display, the first is the formation, the shape the aircraft are arranged in, the second is what the leader does with that formation, the manoeuvre. The team leader designs and plans a new display each year, which is why the Red Arrows display remains fresh even after 50 display seasons.

Yellowjacks formations were based on those flown bY the black arrows of 111 squadron and included:

Arrow, later known as Five Arrow and later still as Enid

Half Swan

Fork

Big Tee Line Abreast

Leader’s Benefit

Card

THE RED ARROWS – 50 YEARS OF ECLAT 111

The Red ARRows begAn wiTh seven AiRcRAfT, so could bRing moRe vARieTy To The foRmATions, some of which weRe simply exTended veRsions of The foRmeR shApes, such As:

Vixen, after the shape of the de Havilland Sea Vixen fighter

Seven Arrow Half Swan

Big Tee

Rhombus

Cutlass, after the shape of the Vought F7U Cutlass fighter

The first Diamond Nines were flown in 1966 as an experiment for flypasts using the reserve pilots.This formation was to become the trademark of the team.

112 formations

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