Originally Posted by
233SQN
Hello all.
As child I grew up in Hounslow under the approach to LHR 28R. I have vague recollections of RAF flypasts, I think, to mark the Queen's birthday and I'm guessing it was late 60s.
I think they happened most years and were typically made up of about 9 Hunters/Javelins/Lightnings travelling East to West over London and finishing over Hounslow before departing. I'm sure it caused some fun for LHR controllers and traffic!
Are there any details anywhere? When did they stop? (aside from the one off specials) ... I would love to know what aircraft were really involved, instead if what I think i remember of 50 years ago!
I have been collecting and collating info from these flypasts for many years. The flypast you are talking about is generally known as the "Queen's Birthday Flypast", and has occurred almost every year since the early 1950s; prior to that it was known as the "Sovereign's Flypast". On one occasion in the 1950s it was cancelled because there was a national rail strike, and it has been curtailed and reduced on several occasions due to bad weather. Some of the early flypasts were 'left to right' when viewed from the balcony at Buckingham Palace. The 1959 flypast was the first to be held on a Saturday (and has been ever since); the previous ones were held on a Thursday.
Sadly, information about the flypasts during the 1960s is a bit sparse. It wasn't always Vulcans; during the 60s it often involved Lightnings and/or Hunters, and I'd still like to hear from anyone who was personally involved in
any QBFs.
I would assume that there must be some paper record of each flypast stored away somewhere, probably even OpOrders?