Entertainment Swindon

With July fast approaching and RIAT25 which is this year celebrating its 40th anniversary ready to wow us with the worlds largest air tattoo up the road at RAF Fairford, I thought I’d take a look back at my four decades of the Royal International Air Tattoo.

My memories of RIAT start from 11yrs old, when I joined the Highworth Air Training Corps, then a Detached Flight of Swindon 1244 Sqn. It was joining the ATC and the reading of Bernard Cornwall books about Richard Sharp that would lead me to joining the British Army, but there and then, it was 1985, I had just started secondary school and entering into a world with the cadets that opened me up to the most amazing opportunities and experiences. I would take my first flight in a glider at what is now 29Rgt RLC in South Cerney, as well as learning to fly in then RAF trainer planes called Bulldogs, getting my hands on the cadet version of the then new SA-80, getting involved with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, climbing Snowdon and taking part in all sorts of adventure training as well as taking part with other cadets at various air shows, including the Kemble Airshow, Farnborough and of course RIAT at RAF Fairford.

The Highworth Air Cadets would over the years gain an enviable relationship with the worlds largest airshow where out cadet unit would be the only cadets allowed North Camp which for those that go to the show and know the layout on the airbase, North Camp, is the far side of the runway, where pilots, ground crew and other operations went on. All other cadets from across Swindon, Wiltshire and rest of the country were confined to the South side of the runway.

The week of RIAT would become my most favourite part of the summer, and even today 40years on, it is still my favourite part of each summer!

At 16years old I would join the British Army and it would be seven years later before I would get time to attend my next RIAT. It wouldn’t be until 2006, before I would start going regularly again to RIAT, this time full circle back with the Highworth Cadets, now 878 Sqn as an adult instructor. Highworth ATC still had its unique close relationship with RIAT, we would take cadets down to RAF Fairford daily from the Monday before the show, helping with logistics north side of the runway, based in one of the hangers and looking after the pilots. At the time I believe the airshow was sponsored by Jaguar, which meant one of my jobs would be driving a Jaguar XJS around the base chauffeuring the pilots around, and even got to meet King Hussain of Jordan when he was inspecting the Jordanian air display team, The Royal Jordanian Falcons which were based in the hanger we were also based in.

With spending more and more time in London and Miami and turning pro as an ultra-endurance athlete, I wouldn’t be back at RIAT until 2017, this time as a journalist and photographer. In 2014 I stumbled into photojournalism, heading out to the Refugee Crisis at the height of hundreds of thousands of refugees crossing across Europe, fleeing war in Iraq, Afghanistan and the rise of ISIS in Syria. I had not gone out there as a journalist or photographer, I went out there to see first hand for myself what was going on, I would travel across Europe, first landing on the Greek island of Lesvos, make my way to Turkey and into Syria, before heading back with a group of refugees that I would follow to Greece, into Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and across into Western Europe to Calais, a journey that would take the best part of ten months, and by the time I made it to Serbia, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time where no other press photographers were about, documenting the beginning of mass evictions of refugee camps by police and military across Europe.

In 2018 I would head back to RIAT as editor of The Military Times, a new online military, geopolitics and defence magazine, which I would return back for the next two years before going freelance as a press photographer and in 2023 I set up Entertainment Swindon.

As a journalist and press photographer, I’ve had so many experiences and opportunities at RIAT that have just made my love of the best airshow in the world grow more and more. I’ve interviewed Astronaught Tim Peekes, Defence Ministers, senior management of defence industry companies such as Northolt Grummand, F-18 pilots, and got back behind the scenes of the greatest airshow on earth. With RIAT25 just around the corner, I’m getting that kid before Christmas feeling.

Some of my own images over the years at RIAT:

RIAT 1997. With the UK’s 50th anniversary tribute to the USAF a central theme of RIAT97, there is one aircraft that sticks in my mind from that show, the B-2A Spirit Stealth Bomber which made its first landing in the UK that year.

I believe I took this image of the USAF B-2 Bomber on a Fugifilm Finepix AV 12mega pixel compact camera, showing you don’t always need a fancy DSLR Camera to take a good photo. At the time this was a great camera at the time and not cheap!

Quite possibly my favourite photo, I’ve ever taken! I took both days attempting this image, on the Saturday, I was just in the wrong place to get the right image and missed the explosive moment.

Luckily I had been filming the display and had the timing of where the Apache would be and when the explosives would be set off. On the Sunday, I got the perfect shot making the apache look like it had just flown right through the fiery wall inferno!

This image of a Mig 29 was taken on film, before I ever bought a digital camera, I think early 90s, not sure if this is RIAT. Often I would write on the back of the prints, date, plane and location, this image, I didn’t do it.

Old and new, the WW2 American P-51 Mustang flying alongside the F-22 Raptor in 2018. For me, as military aircraft have advanced, they may be better, faster, more agile, but they have no character, the age of the Spitfire, Mustang, Lancaster leading to the end of the 20th century with the likes of the F-14 Tomcat, the Tornado, Vulcan, Harrier, F-4 Phantom were the age of the most stunning and cool military aircraft ever! The F-35 and other 5th Gen military aircraft are obviously impressive in every way, except one, the look and character.

The Tornado, again taken on a camera with a 36 roll of film, again taken in the 90s. One of my favourite military aircraft, its huge tail and large nose and its successful operations during the 1991 Iraq War, just made it one of my favourite military planes of all time.

The Lancaster from the BBMF (The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) – one of the most iconic aircraft ever built, civilian or military, it is a thing of beauty. This was taken in 2018 on a Nikon 7200 with a 70-300mm lens.

2018 was the year the Thunderbirds came to RIAT, I’m sorry, I’m sure I’m going to be shot for this, but the USAF Thunderbirds is my favourite air display team, yes, even better than the RAF Red Arrows, I love the F-16 also, and the BAE Hawk just doesn’t give the cool vibe like the F-16 does.

The theatrics of the whole team, both the pilots and ground crew, is typical American, they put on a show on the ground too.