Tributes to air tattoo founder (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Tributes to air tattoo founder

FRIENDS and colleagues have paid tribute to Paul Bowen, the joint founder and director of the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) who died last week.

Mr Bowen, who lived in Marston Meysey, died at Fairford Hospital on Tuesday after a six-month battle with lung cancer. He was 57.

He founded the event with Tim Prince - now its chief executive - in 1971 when they both worked as air traffic controllers at Boscombe Down airfield near Amesbury.

The inaugural event was held that year at North Weald Airfield, near Epping, and featured less than 50 aeroplanes.

The tattoo then moved to Greenham Common near Newbury from 1973 to 1985.

Then when it moved to its current venue at RAF Fairford in 1985 its arrival was celebrated with a flyover combining Concorde and the Red Arrows.

Last year the two-day event - the world's largest military airshow - attracted more than 160,000 spectators and in excess of 530 aircraft.

Mr Prince, who had been friends with Mr Bowen for 36 years, paid tribute to his dynamism.

He said: "Paul always had these big ideas. I was always trying to hold him back.

"We were like chalk and cheese. We complimented each other.

"It's really because of that that it's a very hollow feeling at the moment.

"Paul was my sparring partner, we bounced ideas around a lot between each other.

"He was also a very good friend. He was quite simply the heart of the tattoo."

Group Captain Brian Hughes, RIAT chief of staff and deputy director of event services had a 28-year friendship with Mr Bowen.

He said: "He was a great showman and great entertainer.

"He had great ideas and could make them work."

In 1983 Mr Bowen and King Hussein of Jordan - who became RIAT patron the previous year - formed the Royal International Air Tattoo Flying Scholarships for the Disabled charity, in memory of Douglas Bader, King Hussein's predecessor as patron.

In 1987 Mr Bowen became chief executive of the RAF Benevolent Fund Enterprises, a limited company created to raise more funds for the charity. Between 1989 and 1990 he launched the Battle of Britain Appeal to raise more than £20 million for the RAF Benevolent Fund.

He also achieved notable firsts in aerial displays, including RIAT's 1995 VE-Day tribute which included 60 historic aircraft participating and a joint flypast at last year's tattoo by the Red Arrows and a USAF F-117A Stealth Bomber.

He became a respected consultant and airshow director, advising on aviation events worldwide.

Born in Bath in 1947 Mr Bowen was educated at Forest School, Snaresbrook.

He qualified as an air traffic controller in 1969 and later obtained a private pilot's licence.

His second wife Janet and son Guy, 25, a qualified pilot, survive Mr Bowen, whose first wife Jane died of cancer in 1983.

Family and friends will attend Mr Bowen's funeral at St Mary's Church, Fairford on June 3 and a celebration of life service will be held later this year.