Festival of Flight for Red Arrows

Festival of Flight for Red Arrows

5 June 2019

THE Red Arrows have confirmed their appearance at this month’s Festival of Flight in Newcastle which is taking place earlier than planned.

The spectacular aerobatic display is traditionally held on the first weekend in August but has been brought forward to June 22 as the Red Arrows display team is embarking upon its largest ever tour to North America in late summer and September.

Last year’s festival was cancelled due to bad weather and organisers are hoping that bright sunshine will greet one of the world’s premier aerobatic display teams in a few week’s time for the Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s flagship tourism event.

It regularly attracts over 100,000 visitors to the resort, generating tens of thousands of pounds for the local economy.

Last week, the Red Arrows outlined their itinerary for what promises to be a busy display season, promising that spectators in Newcastle will be treated to a number of exciting new manoeuvres which is expected to include the new Concorde and Apollo formations.

Confirming on their official website that the Red Arrows will be in Newcastle in a few weeks’ time as part of a busy summer, the team says weather conditions on the day will dictate what manoeuvres they can perform.

There are three types of display the team leader can elect to fly — full, rolling or flat. 

To carry out a full, looping, display the cloud base must be above 5,500ft to avoid the aircraft entering the cloud at the top of the loop. 

If the cloud base is less than 5,500ft, but more than 2,500ft, the team will perform the rolling display, substituting wing-overs and rolls for the loops. And when the cloud base is below 2,500ft, the Team will fly the flat display, consisting of a series of flypasts and steep turns.

Spectators no doubt will be hoping for clear blue skies to allow the Red Arrows to perform their full repertoire of stunts on June 22.

While the Red Arrows team consists of 11 pilots, only nine fly in the display, backed by more than 100 support personnel and technicians.

Each of the pilots has previous operational experience flying Tornado, Typhoon or Harrier jets.