Newly Discovered Airshows, and RAF Team Pilots

[Dave Homewood]

Papers Past added ten more years of The Press newspaper to their online archive recently, 1962-1971. I have found a heap of air pageants that I did not have before. I also discovered three more New Zealand pilots in the RAF who flew with jet aerobatic display teams - S/L Roy LeLong led the No. 43 Squadron "Fighting Cocks" Hunter team: S/L Ian McKee led "The Red Pelicans" Jet Provost team: and F/L Euan Perreaux was a Kiwi that I wasn't aware of who flew with The Red Arrows.

I believe that there were three Kiwis together in the 1969 Red Arrows team, Ray Hanna as leader, Ian Dick and Euan Perreaux!

Sadly in 1971, Euan Perreaux was killed in a collision during a Red Arrows practice that killed four of the team's pilots. 🙁

Here is the link to the Kiwis in Foreign Display Teams page:
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Airshow_Display_Foreign_Teams.htm

Most of the new entries are on the 1960's page here. If you can add to any of them with details, aircraft serials, pilot names, photos etc, I am keen to hear from you.
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Airshow_History_1960s.html

And there are some new airshows added to the 1970's page here
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Airshow_History_1970s.html

[Damon]

On the PPrune forum on 27.72006 , Stinky Pete posted :

The 20th of January 1971 brought the blackest day in the history of the Red Arrows when four pilots were killed in a mid-air collision between two Gnats over the runway during an opposition manoeuvre called the `Roulette', where the closing speed of the jets is around 700mph. They apparently clipped each other’s wings with disastrous consequences. Flight Lieutenants Euan Perreaux (30); John Haddock (27), Colin Armstrong (26) and John Lewis (27) died that fateful day. Euan Perreaux had joined the team in October 1968 and John Haddock in September the following year. Both Colin Armstrong and John Lewis only joined the team in October 1970 and this was to be their first display season with the Red Arrows. All four men were buried with full military honours at the little country churchyard in Little Rissington on January 26th.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Damon. A few differences in detail there. But a very sad occasion for sure.

[Damon]

Great to see some of the Airshow and Teams pages getting more information. Nice work.

[Dave Homewood]

I have been adding quite a lot of new info to the pages as and when I find them over the past few years, mainly thanks to Papers Past from the 1920's now through to the 1970's. It's amazing just how many places used to hold airshows that don't any more.

It's interesting looking at the development of Rangiora Aerodrome from a farm paddock bought be some interested local townsfolk who developed it into a vibrant airfield specifically by holding airshows to raise cash for the project.

[oj]

I am not very savvy with accessing these newspaper archives.
Can anyone list for me the Air Pageants at Thames from 1958 to 1961.
There might have been only one?

[Dave Homewood]

I never found any for Thames OJ. But that does not mean there were not any. just that the newspapers that covered them may not be on Papers Past.

[oj]

There was one. I was there with Warwick. The Thames Star newspaper is not digitised for archive back that far. One has to go to the Thames "Treasury" and get them to pull out the hard-copy. I had done that for some other research but it is not a five-minute job!
I thought I had written about that Thames Aero Pageant previously. I will have a trawl back ...

[zoomer]

Mar 5, 2022 22:33:24 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Papers Past added ten more years of The Press newspaper to their online archive recently, 1962-1971. I have found a heap of air pageants that I did not have before. I also discovered three more New Zealand pilots in the RAF who flew with jet aerobatic display teams - S/L Roy LeLong led the No. 43 Squadron "Fighting Cocks" Hunter team: S/L Ian McKee led "The Red Pelicans" Jet Provost team: and F/L Euan Perreaux was a Kiwi that I wasn't aware of who flew with The Red Arrows.

I believe that there were three Kiwis together in the 1969 Red Arrows team, Ray Hanna as leader, Ian Dick and Euan Perreaux!

Sadly in 1971, Euan Perreaux was killed in a collision during a Red Arrows practice that killed four of the team's pilots. 🙁

Here is the link to the Kiwis in Foreign Display Teams page:
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Airshow_Display_Foreign_Teams.htm

Most of the new entries are on the 1960's page here. If you can add to any of them with details, aircraft serials, pilot names, photos etc, I am keen to hear from you.
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Airshow_History_1960s.html

And there are some new airshows added to the 1970's page here
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Airshow_History_1970s.html