The British are coming!
The Royal Air Force's world-famous Red Arrows aerobatic team flies over the Massachusetts Statehouse on Beacon Hill in their signature "Big Battle" formation on the afternoon of Thursday, July 9th, precisely at 3:15 PM. The team uses colored smoke in their displays and flyovers, and in this case, if you look closely, they were in the process of painting a mile-long American Flag on the sky over Boston. The Red Arrows were in the US for a brief, 5-week tour, hitting a few airshows including the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, WI, later in July, and performing ceremonial flyovers like this one to help America celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The Reds were performing a pair of displays that weekend in Brunswick, Maine, along with the US Navy Blue Angels. They would be back over Boston Harbor just 2 days later, flying over the tall ship parade.
Getting the Red Arrows to the US is a really big deal. The small training aircraft flown by most of the European teams do not have aerial refueling capability like our own Thunderbirds and Blue Angels. For that reason, they have to make a number of shorter hops over the North Atlantic, flying from Scotland to Iceland to Greenland, to Labrador. It typically takes 3-4 days with all of the stops and servicing. They also bring with them at least a couple of large transports, bringing personnel and equipment. The Brits and the French both utilize the big, Airbus A400M, which is a massive turboprop. If you have not seen a European-style display, it is quite different from what we are used to. They don't make a lot of noise or go 700 mph, but they do a lot of large, formation aerobatics with colored smoke, and most teams also feature solo routines which sometimes include maneuvers that our US fighter jocks can only dream of.
Thank you, Great Britain, for sending these fine aviators for us to watch. You didn't have to do this, but we are grateful!
The British are coming!
The Royal Air Force's world-famous Red Arrows aerobatic team flies over the Massachusetts Statehouse on Beacon Hill in their signature "Big Battle" formation on the afternoon of Thursday, July 9th, precisely at 3:15 PM. The team uses colored smoke in their displays and flyovers, and in this case, if you look closely, they were in the process of painting a mile-long American Flag on the sky over Boston. The Red Arrows were in the US for a brief, 5-week tour, hitting a few airshows including the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, WI, later in July, and performing ceremonial flyovers like this one to help America celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The Reds were performing a pair of displays that weekend in Brunswick, Maine, along with the US Navy Blue Angels. They would be back over Boston Harbor just 2 days later, flying over the tall ship parade.
Getting the Red Arrows to the US is a really big deal. The small training aircraft flown by most of the European teams do not have aerial refueling capability like our own Thunderbirds and Blue Angels. For that reason, they have to make a number of shorter hops over the North Atlantic, flying from Scotland to Iceland to Greenland, to Labrador. It typically takes 3-4 days with all of the stops and servicing. They also bring with them at least a couple of large transports, bringing personnel and equipment. The Brits and the French both utilize the big, Airbus A400M, which is a massive turboprop. If you have not seen a European-style display, it is quite different from what we are used to. They don't make a lot of noise or go 700 mph, but they do a lot of large, formation aerobatics with colored smoke, and most teams also feature solo routines which sometimes include maneuvers that our US fighter jocks can only dream of.
Thank you, Great Britain, for sending these fine aviators for us to watch. You didn't have to do this, but we are grateful!