The VE Day 80 flypast will see the Red Arrows and a host of stunning World War Two era planes zip past Buckingham Palace in a several-hundred-mile arc starting from RAD Waddington
Britain will commemorate VE Day’s momentous 80th anniversary with a display of characteristic pageantry next week, with Red Arrows set to arc across the skies
Events will honour the dead; those who gave their lives in World War Two to defeat fascism. But they will also remind us, as a group of veterans has poignantly conveyed, that “to remember is also our best hope of avoiding it ever happening again”. Bank Holiday Monday will see a procession of over 1,300 Armed Forces, uniformed services and young people march to Buckingham Palace from Parliament Square. In the sky above, the procession will finish with a flypast featuring aircraft including the celebrated Red Arrows.
A Voyager transport aircraft, Typhoon and F-35 fighter jets, as well as a P8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft are taking part in the massive display, which is set to start from around 1.45pm on bank holiday Monday. The flypast will be composed of six waves, with a Lancaster from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight leading the group.
Wave two will see a Voyager and A400M Atlas, with a C-17 Globemaster in the third. The fourth wave will include a P8 Poseidon MRA1 and two Typhoon FGR4 before the fifth features a Rivet Joint and two F-35B Lightning.
Lastly, nine Hawk of The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team ‘The Red Arrows’ will fly, as well as four Typhoon FGR4. The flypast will be performed over Buckingham Palace and The Mall in the afternoon, with viewing areas placed along the procession on both sides of the central London tourist hotspot.
Anyone not lucky enough to be there on the day will have to watch the flypast on the television, with cameras catching some of the best views. Others may be able to catch a glimpse of the planes as they travel to the final flypast destination.
As maps of the planned trip show, the planes will start out in RAF Waddington in Waddington, Lancashire, before travelling out to sea and then inland towards London. People living in towns and villages to the northeast and west of the city could see the planes until they land at around 2pm.
The list of destinations and expected timings are as follows:
- RAF Waddington: 1.05pm
- West of Martin, Hampshire: 1.07pm
- South of Great Hale: 1.09pm
- Oversea: 1.18pm to 1.32pm
- Vicinity of Woodbridge Airfield: 1.35pm
- Vicinity of Colchester: 1.39pm
- Vicinity of Woodford: 1.46pm
- Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park: 1.47pm
- Buckingham Palace: 1.48pm
- Vicinity of Brentford: 1.50pm
- East of Mickleham: 1.52pm
- Southeast of Beach: 1.58pm
- South of Longstock: 2.01pm
- Bournemouth EGHH: 2.06pm
The run up to and wind down of the flypast will span more than 200miles in total, and is expected to last for over an hour. On the same day, the King and Queen will host a tea party at Buckingham Palace for veterans and members of the Second World War generation. Around the country on Monday, VE Day 80 street parties, picnics and community get togethers are being encouraged.
