A Royal appointment….

Our relationship with RIAT, the Royal International Air Tattoo, predates Aerotiques’ formation by decades. As the world’s largest military airshow celebrates 40 years at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, another anniversary - that of Live Aid is also being remembered.

On Saturday 13th July 1985, 72 000 people packed into Wembley Stadium, 90 000 more would gather in Philadelphia and a reported 1.9 billion more would settle down in front of their tellies to see the great and good of music raise money and awareness for African starvation, in a truly global event. 100 miles, or so west of the famous London stadium, 100 000 more people would flock to an airbase to see around 300 aircraft from all four corners of that same globe.

Tankers, F4 Phantoms and F104 Starfighters were the ‘theme’ items that year: 8 Douglas DC3s would commemorate that iconic type’s 50th anniversary. The British Airways Concorde, now languishing on Heathrow’s perimeter, G-BOAB, would arrive in its new ‘Landor’ colour scheme via a supersonic blast around the Bay of Biscay.

A teenage yours truly, with a bunch of plane spotting buddies from Southend, would hurry around the miles and miles of static aircraft, noting down registrations and serials and taking 35mm film pictures before rushing back to the minibus we’d hired to play air guitar on top of it as Status Quo blared out from a ghetto blaster, opening the monumental concert. Beer may have been involved. The jet noise would drown out the music long before the half a dozen D batteries died.

It wouldn’t be my last visit both personally and professionally. It became a regular Daddy and Daughter day ultimately costing a fortune in fairground rides and, during my tenure running nearby Gloucestershire Airport, I would be involved in the liaison with ATC regarding the large swathes of restricted airspace the event requires to keep hundreds of aircraft arriving, displaying and departing, all within less than a week, safe. That ATC specialisation would also resort in a number of air-to-air photoshoots where my ATC skills were put to good use from the right hand seat of the camera ship. A personal highlight was being able to fly a Spitfire back to its base from RIAT - a true dream come true!

The Air Tattoo can trace its origins back to 1971. The brainchild of Air Traffic Controllers Tim Prince and Paul Bowen - as a former ATCO myself, I sense kindred spirits - the pair cajoled colleagues, volunteers and around 100 aircraft to gather at North Weald, Essex raising money for the Royal Air Forces Association.

It would grow to garner ‘International’ status by 1976, moving to the long since closed RAF Greenham Common and gradually swelling in attendance. 2003 saw a World Record set with 535 participating aircraft making it the largest military airshow in the world. Honoured with Royal recognition in 1996 by Queen Elizabeth II, Her Majesty would visit again ahead of the public days in 2008 to award the RAF new colours in their 90th anniversary year. Torrential rain, however, scuppered the flypast in her honour and waterlogged the car parks, resulting in an 11th hour cancellation. Still a charitable enterprise, millions of pounds have been raised for Royal Air Force Charitable Trust, enabling tens of thousands of youngsters to inspired by STEM, aviation and aerospace.

Covid, too, would spoil the 2020 and 2021 plans and that’s where Aerotiques direct involvement began. Undeterred by the social distancing restrictions, the team at RIAT set up a ‘virtual’ airshow and asked us to ‘dress the set’ of the makeshift studio in their office. We were happy to oblige and our fuselage section wall art, tables and propellers provided the perfect backdrop to the videos and interviews that filled the hours and gave the avgeeks their much-needed aviation fix.

When the show returned proper in 2022, we were asked again to provide feature pieces for the various chalets

and pavilions that host the great and good of modern day aviation. That relationship has continued and grown, particularly as RIAT begins to focus on sustainability. Our upcycled, repurposed pieces are not only so more relevant to the event, but they begin a tangible shift away from mass-produced imported furniture and the ‘single use’ nature of modern day, large scale events.

In 2024, we were asked to bring our upcycled MD902 Explorer helicopter glamping pod, which proved to be a popular attraction in the Wingtip Garden. This year, it’s back at the Flight Deck enclosure and the Lightning Pavilion, First Class Lounge and Aviation Club Vulcan are adorned with our pieces.

This year’s highlight however, is, physically, our largest commission to date. We met with the RIAT team earlier this year and the simple brief was ‘we need the letters R, I, A and T as a centrepiece for the showground.’ We’re extremely grateful for the latitude and flexibility they’ve shown us since, giving us virtually free rein to create something we think is really special.

Collectively, we decided on a shipping container as the most suitable platform to mount the letters. It will also serve as their storage location throughout the year. Fabricating the stylised letters in mild steel was relatively straightforward and devising a mounting and locking mechanism that would secure them in place in whatever conditions the British summer could thow at them tested our engineering skills. The real challenge was finding suitable, relevant aeronautical components that would fit the shapes and that broad brushed brief. It was something of a jigsaw, with no idea how many bits we had, or what was on the front of the box!

Nevertheless, we set about our stocks and stores with a view to finding relevant pieces. We’re reasonably confident that every aircraft type or engine component we’ve used has been to RIAT before. Some are there this year. We’re also absolutely certain that at least one component has definitely wowed the crowds at the show.

Some years ago, we acquired a complete set of wings from Red Arrows BAe Hawk, XX227. They were changed in 1991 and this aircraft, as their longest serving airframe, flew a number of displays at RIAT, including that first event, 40 years ago. The underside of its wing assembly that surrounds the main landing gear bay with its unmistakable colour sits at the top of the ‘T’.

Several ex-British Airways Boeing 747s - that like their glamorous sister ship were also regular charter visitors to the show - have yielded up components while an eclectic range from the vintage de Havilland Dove to the much loved and still present Tornado also feature.

The shipping container itself, of course, presented something of a blank canvas. We clad it with 100% recycled plastic aluminium composite sheet and enlisted the help of renowned, Cheltenham-based graffiti artist, Andy ‘Dice67’ Davies. With this year’s ‘Eyes in the Skies’ theme, there really was only one suitable aircraft to feature on their piece. RAF Fairford remains home to the remarkable Lockheed U2 ‘Dragon Lady’ reconnaissance aircraft and its Dodge Charger ‘chase’ vehicle, used to guide pilots through the tricky landing process.

We’re humbled to have been asked to produce this piece and very much look forward to continuing to build our relationship ship with RIAT for many more years to come. Whether you need a giant, feature piece for your event or a simple memento of a special aircraft or flight, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

It seems our sculpture was popular! Lots of photos and selfies being taken every time we passed by…

……and the Red Arrows swung by too….