The Golden Jubilee flypast rehearsal took place today
(Wednesday 29th May 2002) over RAF Marham. It was touch and go with
the weather - a torrent of rain threatened to postpone the event,
but luckily there was a cloud break just in time, so the rehearsal
went ahead as per schedule, in glorious sunshine.
For safety reasons the aircraft needed a visibility of 6 miles and
cloud cover up to 2,000 feet, each group was separated by a gap of
2 nautical miles, having individually grouped over the sea and Southern
England before finally converging over RAF Marham for their final
approach. The formation was led by a C-17 Globemaster III, and the
last aircraft to fly overhead were the Concorde and Red Arrows Display
Team, flying their Hawks. The Typhoon Eurofighter was replaced on
this rehearsal by a Hawk, though should, as planned be flying over
Buckingham Palace with the rest of the formation on Tuesday 4th June
2002.
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High in the skies over Norfolk, Concorde leads the
Red Arrows during a rehearsal for the Golden Jubilee fly-past. It was
a dramatic arrival. They flew out of a thick bank of steel-grey cloud
into a patch of bright blue sky above the UK's largest operational airbase
at RAF Marham. The first hint of their appearance through the distant
high-altitude gloom was a pair of landing lights on the leading C17
transport aircraft. The hum of their engines became a deafening crescendo
as they reached the station, which was hosting probably its most unusual
operation in a long and proud history of service to Queen and country.
Another 26 aircraft followed, in an impressive formation 14 miles long
at a speed of 310mph, passing overhead at a height of 1500ft. Bringing
up the rear was Concorde, escorted by nine aircraft of the Red Arrows
aerobatic team leaving trails of red, white and blue smoke.
"Wow! Fantastic! I can't say more than that," said Sqn Ldr
Charles Sandeman, spokes-man for RAF Marham. "You probably won't
see anything like that ever again." His station had just fulfilled
its unique role in preparation for the royal event of the century by
acting as stand-in for Buckingham Palace during a rehearsal of the fly-past
for the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
The base – once in the sights of enemy bombers during the second
world war – became a different kind of target as the 27 aircraft
flew overhead at precisely 3.55pm. Everything went according to plan
as the formation headed past the air-traffic control tower, designated
as the palace balcony for the purpose of the exercise. It is on that
balcony that the Queen and her family will stand when they watch the
main event on Tuesday at 6pm.
The object of yesterday's rehearsal was for the crews to check their
timing and to get the formation exactly right so everything goes according
to plan on the big day. It was history in the making for Marham and
a world of difference from the station's modest beginning in 1916 as
a military night-landing ground which played a vital home-defence role
in the first world war. Even greater was its involvement in the second
world war – after the airfield's construction on its current site
in 1935 – when it was a base for Wellington, Stirling and Mosquito
bombers and was attacked by the Luftwaffe. Marham became the RAF's largest
frontline station in Britain after a two-year £45m expansion and
the arrival of two squadrons from Germany last year. The main function
of its four Tornado squadrons, with 52 aircraft, is a bomber attack
role and reconnaissance, with a fifth Canberra squadron also involved
in reconnaissance.
Two Tornados and a Canberra from Marham are taking part in the fly-past,
along with a TriStar tanker, a VC10, two Jaguars from RAF Coltishall
and a Nimrod from Scotland, which were all involved in the rehearsal.
Also in the formation are BAe146 and 125s from the Queen's Flight and
a Eurofighter – replaced yesterday with a Hawk jet for the trial
run. The group of aircraft took up station off the coast near Southwold
at about 3.30pm and followed a route south of Norwich, Old Buckenham,
Shropham, Watton and Swaffham.
Sqn Ldr Sandeman explained: "A formation of this size is complicated
and fairly difficult to put together. To make sure everything is exactly
right on the day we are making sure these aircraft get some practice
at flying together." "There are examples of almost every aircraft
in service with the RAF today and we want to show Her Majesty on June
4 the RAF at its best and this is a way of putting every aircraft into
the sky at the same time. "People were able to see a lot of aircraft
they would not normally see over the skies of East Anglia and that was
one of the things that was so fascinating about it." Yesterday's
rehearsal was a modern repeat of a fly-past which took place to celebrate
the silver jubilee but which did not involve Marham. The event took
months to plan.
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