RAF centenary fly-past: Stealth jet and Spitfire to roar over Buckingham Palace
Written by News on 10/07/2018
Around 100 aircraft will fly over Buckingham Palace today to celebrate the RAF’s centenary.
The air force was the world’s first independent air service when it was created in April 1918, after a merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
Today’s celebration is the highlight of a series of events marking the RAF’s 100-year anniversary.
The fly-past will go over central London at around 1pm and includes Puma and Chinook helicopters, the Lancaster bomber, Spitfires, Hurricanes, the A400M Atlas, Tornados, Typhoons and the new F-35 stealth fighter jet.
The Queen and other members of the Royal Family will watch the event, and there will also be a service at Westminster Abbey and a parade by more than 1,000 RAF personnel.
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Dozens of aircraft from the RAF’s history are also on display at a temporary exhibition on Horse Guards Parade, including a replica of the force’s latest state-of-the-art aircraft, the Lightning.
The stealth combat jet that is due to fly is in stark contrast to another exhibit: a single tractor engine BE2 Bi-Plane, from the 1910s.
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RAF Squadron Leader Andy Wasley told Sky News: “If you just consider how we’ve gone from tensioned canvas over wooden frames to state-of-the-art composite technology flying in the skies today, that’s 100 of years of progress.
“It’s phenomenal to see these both of these aircraft and consider where we’ve come today.”
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RAF veterans such as Jack Cook will also be at the celebration.
Mr Cook was a wireless operator in the RAF during the final few months of World War II. He was part of an operation that dropped food parcels into occupied Dutch territory,
“We took out the bombs and filled the aircraft with paniers of food instead,” Mr Cook told Sky News.
“When we went back over there, there were people coming up to us, shaking our hands and saying: ‘if it wasn’t for you, our mothers and fathers would have been dead and we wouldn’t have been born’.
“It was amazing.”
(c) Sky News 2018: RAF centenary fly-past: Stealth jet and Spitfire to roar over Buckingham Palace
