Red Arrows' last flight from Kemble

2:06pm Monday 17th March 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the Red Arrows leaving their Kemble home. Charlotte Shepherd looks at the world's most famous aerobatic team.

MARCH 1983 saw an end of an era in the Cotswolds when the world-famous Red Arrows display team moved to pastures new.

"It was three years of hard work but it is the world’s best flying."

The team had been based at Kemble Airfield since 1968 and in the Cotswolds, at RAF Little Rissington, since the unit's inception in October 1966 but in 1983 the decision was made to move to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.

It was a sad day for local supporters.

The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team (RAFAT), the formal name for the Red Arrows, began life as part of the Central Flying School, based at RAF Little Rissington before moving to Kemble.

Kemble Airfield manager Glen Moreman, who is also responsible for organising the annual Kemble Airday, remembers their early days after the move to the village.

At the time he was awe-struck local schoolboy.

"The pilots had a close association with the school. We would often come to the airfield on school trips," he recalled.

"If you told people that you lived in Kemble they would look at you blankly. But if you said you lived where the Red Arrows were based, people knew where you meant."

Initially there were seven display pilots flying Folland Gnat aircraft. By 1968, when the team began flying from Kemble, it had grown to nine pilots.

The display team converted from the Gnat to the British Aerospace Hawk trainer jet in 1980, while still at Kemble.

Andy Cubin, who lives in Crudwell, was a Red Arrow pilot for three years from 1997-99.

"It was three years of hard work but it is the world's best flying," he said. "We are the best of British."

Although Mr Cubin was not based at Kemble, he did his first synchronised display there.

Even now, as a chief pilot with Delta Air, based at Kemble, he occasionally has the chance to fly with his old team when they return to the airshows.

The Red Arrows return almost every year to take part in the Kemble air show.

Unfortunately, this year the date clashes with their tour of America and Canada and the Red Arrows will miss the main airshow.

Mr Moreman said he was disappointed but consoled by the fact the team will attend an open day in September.

One set of people who will not miss the airshow are the Kemble former Red Arrow pilots, who hold their re-union there every year. A few years ago the six surviving Red Arrow pilots from the first ever line up of seven pilots met up at Kemble.

"They love it," Mr Moreman said. "One guy comes from Canada and another came from Australia. We have between 130 and 150 each year."

It may have been 25 years since the team left Kemble but there are still plenty of devoted fans who still regard Kemble as the 'spiritual' home of the Red Arrows.

THE KEMBLE TRAGEDIES:

Inevitably the practice of such skilled precision flying has not come without its cost and Kemble airfield has witnessed some of the darker days in the history of the Red Arrows.

In January 1971 four pilots, Flight Lieutenants Euan Perreaux, John Lewis, John Haddock and Colin Armstrong were killed in a mid-air collision over the runway at Kemble.

Both Colin Armstrong and John Lewis had only joined the team in October 1970 and this was to be their first display season with the Red Arrows.

All four men were buried with full military honours at the churchyard in Little Rissington.

Just seven years later, in March 1978, Flight Lieutenant Stephen Noble and Wing Commander Dennis Hazell were killed at Kemble when their aircraft struck the runway.

RED ARROW FACTFILE

* The first display by the Red Arrows was on 6 May 1965 at RAF Little Rissington.

* Since the team was officially formed in 1965, the Red Arrows have completed over 4,000 displays in 53 countries.

* The name Red Arrows' was chosen to combine two earlier teams, the famous Black Arrows and the Red Pelicans.

* All nine Red Arrows display pilots are fast jet pilots from frontline RAF squadrons.

* Each display pilot flies with the Red Arrows for three years.

* The Red Arrows guiding motto is 'Eclat' which means brilliance.