Happy Birthday Royal Air Force

[FantomZorbin]

RAF 99 today ... but will it make it to 100yrs and a card from HMQ?

[Planemike]

Surely it is 99 this year, 100 next year hence all the fuss......

[oldchina]

100
Whichever way, Vera Lynn beat you all to it ...

[Wander00]

And a very good anniversary concert it was. Maybe the same for the RAF next year.

[BEagle]

In April 1968, I was doing my Special Flying Award at Cranfield. I well recall watching the TV news in my (god awful) digs in Bedford's De Parys Avenue and hearing that someone had flown through Tower Bridge. Idiot journos later showed a graphic of a target-towing Meatbox, but we soon learned that it was a Hunter.

So 5th April 2018 will mark the 50th anniversary of Al Pollock's wake-up call to Wislon's government when he flew that epic trip in his Hunter FGA9 from RAF Tangmere to RAF West Raynham via the Palace of Westminster and Tower Bridge!

See: http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/97214-hawker-hunter-through-tower-bridge.html

Will the event be commemorated? Or repeated? Somehow I doubt it - but one can but hope!

[Fonsini]

Pollock knew that he was throwing away his flying career and made the most of that last flight, but his respect for the RAF's history outweighed all that - personally I admire him, if that makes me a bad person so be it. I think a nice shiny new Tranche 3 Typhoon flying through the bridge on the 100th anniversary is just what the country needs right now, it may also remind Londoners that this is still Britain. Anyway can you even get 4 drop tanks on a Typhoon ?

On a side note, does anyone know what became of Flt Lt Pollack after the RAF discharged him ?