A team built from squadron teams

The Red Arrows were formed late in 1964 as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, replacing a series of squadron and training-unit teams such as the Black Arrows, the Blue Diamonds, the Firebirds and the Yellowjacks. The new team belonged to the Central Flying School at Little Rissington. It flew for the press there on 6 May 1965 and gave its first public display three days later at Clermont-Ferrand in France. Unlike its predecessors, it was a dedicated, full-time display unit, its pilots drawn from front-line squadrons for a fixed tour.

Gnat to Hawk

The first aircraft was the Folland Gnat trainer, seven of them at first and nine from 1966. The team flew 1,292 displays on the Gnat before the first BAE Hawk T1 arrived on 17 August 1979; the Hawk, in its T1 and T1A forms, has been the team’s aircraft ever since. Each jet carries a pod that injects dyed diesel into the exhaust to produce red, white and blue smoke. The team counts nine display pilots, a tenth pilot (Red 10) who supervises and commentates, and an engineering and support team of roughly a hundred.

Kemble, Scampton, Waddington

Home moved often. Little Rissington gave way briefly to Fairford in 1966, then to Kemble, which was home until 1983. RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire followed, interrupted by a spell at Cranwell from 1995 to 2000. When Scampton closed, the team moved to RAF Waddington on 13 October 2022. By early 2024 the team had flown almost 5,000 displays in 57 countries, with long tours to North America, the Middle East and Asia.

Losses and a hard look inward

The record is not spotless. Gnat accidents in 1969, 1971 and 1978 killed seven pilots, including four in a single mid-air collision at Kemble on 20 January 1971. Hawk-era fatalities followed in 1988, 2011 (twice: Flt Lt Jon Egging in a display crash near Bournemouth, and Flt Lt Sean Cunningham in a ground ejection at Scampton) and 2018, when an engineer was killed at RAF Valley. Between 2021 and 2023 the RAF also investigated allegations of bullying, misogyny and sexual harassment within the team; redacted reports were published on 1 November 2023.

An ageing Hawk

The Hawk T1 is now an old aircraft. In 2026 the team flew most displays with seven jets rather than nine, a measure reported as a way to save airframe hours and spares so that the type can last until around 2030; no replacement had been chosen by the time of writing. Wing Commander Sasha Nash took command in January 2026, the first woman to lead the team, with Wing Commander Jon Bond flying as Red 1. The 2026 season included a short visit to the United States in June and July for the USA 250 celebrations.