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1st October 2019 - The Red Arrows - an Inside View Eric Ward The President welcomed members to the first meeting of the new session on Tuesday 1 October and introduced our guest speaker Eric Ward whose talk was titled The Red Arrows – an inside view. With a personal involvement with The Red Arrows over forty years, now a squadron in its own right within the RAF, we learnt of its creation out of the many aerobatic groups representing disparate squadrons across the RAF, named by a combination of the Black Arrows and Red Pelicans aerobatic team names as they then existed. Despite the team’s extraordinary professionalism in the air there was a commercial vacuum on the ground resolved by the creation of a Charitable Trust which holds the trademarks to the team’s name and also Diamond 9, the team’s signature flypast highpoint formation, thus creating licensing opportunities that support the Trust. In 2011 the team’s iconic status and future was placed on a firm financial footing by the involvement of the Private Sector, nine Blue Chip companies, the Diamond Nine. Patrons of The Red Arrows these companies travel to countries where the team is performing, on their own sales missions. The concept has been hugely successful and remains uniquely British. The Red Arrows are based at RAF Scampton. Bill Allen gave the vote of thanks. The next meeting is on the 15 October. All are welcome when we meet to hear Bill Fitzpatrick whose talk is titled Clyde Steamers. |