The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, were originally based at RAF Kemble, which was a outpost of the Central Flying School at RAF Little Rissington. However, they moved to RAF Scampton when it became the CFS Headquarters in 1983. With a move in between, they have been based there ever since.

Their first display in the UK was a press day on 6 May 1965 at Little. At a National Air Day display at Clermont Ferrand in France three days later, a French journalist described the team as "Les Fleches Rouge" - "The Red Arrows" – and that became their name.

At the end of their first ‘year’, they had made 65 appearances in Britain, France, Italy, Holland, Germany and Belgium and received the Britannia Trophy from the Royal Aero Club for their contribution to aviation.



It was in 1968 that the then Team Leader (Squadron Leader Ray Hanna AFC), wanting to add further formation capabilities, added two jets to make nine in the team. During this period the famous 'Diamond Nine' pattern was developed to become the team's trademark formation.

The Red Arrows displayed almost 1,300 times in their trademark Folland Gnat, until Hawk trainers were delivered in 1979 and have subsequently performed in the Hawk in over fifty countries.



There was talk in mid 2004 of the Red Arrows being disbanded due to their running costs. However, the contribution they make towards defence business development and their sheer public relations value means it is highly unlikely that they will be disbanded in the immediate future.

With the planned closure of RAF Scampton the future home of the Red Arrows was thought to be destined for either RAF Waddington, in Lincolnshire, or RAF Leeming, in North Yorkshire. However, in May of 2008, the Ministry of Defence announced that their new home would be RAF Waddington, thus confirming their ongoing Lincolnshire heritage.



Some astounding facts:

• One of the biggest crowds to see them were in Lisbon in June 1973, when 650,000 people were present. This was slightly exceeded (unconfirmed) in Sydney in 1996.
• The greatest number of displays flown in any year was 136 in 1995
• The smallest number of displays in one year was in 1975
• To date, they have performed over 4,000 displays (the 4,000th being performed at RAF Leuchars in Scotland in September 2006) in more than 50 countries.
• At a charity auction, a British woman paid £1,500,000 to fly with them



Click here for details RAF Waddington International Air Show