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[Photo: Ian Visits]

Today is a special day. Royal Air Force celebrates its 90th Anniversary.

The main event of the day occurred exactly at 1 o'clock pm as nine Red Arrow Hawks and four Typhoons flew in formation along the Thames through London. It was spectated by a large crowd gathered along the river and on London's bridges as well as the offical party gathered at the MOD building at the Embankment.

• To celebrate this occasion, I decided to launch today a long-awaited section on this site, Photo Galleries. Fittingly, the first entry in this chapter is the photo gallery showing the anniversary flypast. The many great images contained in this collection are courtesy of many fantastic people at Flickr who shared their photos from this day. (By the way, fans of vintage aircraft and the Spitfire should be delighted by the two other galleries which offer some truly beautiful photos from other airshow displays, so don't forget to check out the entire section.)
  
  
• There is also a video clip, albeit I will have to send you over to the BBC site to view it. Watch the BBC reporter flying onboard one of Red Arrows' Hawks

[Photo: John Linwood]

Articles about this event appear in all major newspapers, read about it in Daily Mail or BBC.

If you prefer information from official sources, there is a press release from 10 Downing Street, or this news article at the MOD site. A nice touch at the Royal Air Force site is the timeline of its 90 years-long history.

Official celebrations took place at many RAF stations around the conutry, and Red Arrows were very busy putting up additional flybys - over the parade at RAF Halton on their way to London and at RAF Coningsby on the return route. There were also congratulations from the Prime Minister and a huge seven-stone cake adorned with pictures of aircraft. Also, as I write these words, guests are gathering for a dinner reception at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon.

Happy Birthday RAF.

[Photo: aburt]

Labels: history