The Red Arrows will swoop over Torbay at the weekend flying just seven of their trademark scarlet Hawk aircraft instead of the traditional ‘Diamond Nine’. The Royal Air Force’s elite aerobatic team will fly with fewer aircraft for almost all of their 2026 displays in an effort to preserve their ageing machinery.
The Red Arrows will swoop over Torbay at the weekend flying just seven of their trademark scarlet Hawk aircraft instead of the traditional ‘Diamond Nine’.
The Royal Air Force’s elite aerobatic team will fly with fewer aircraft for almost all of their 2026 displays in an effort to preserve their ageing machinery.
Only the King’s birthday flypast in June and the 250th anniversary celebrations of American independence in July will get the full nine aircraft.
Displays for the English Riviera Airshow on Friday and Saturday this week (May 29 and 30) will be the team’s first in the UK after a long period of winter training. But unless there is a dramatic change of heart from the RAF, just seven Hawk T1 aircraft will make up the team.
It will mean major changes to the display programme for the Torbay Council-backed show, but Wing Commander Jon Bond, who is responsible for designing the display as team leader and the pilot of ‘Red One’, is promising thrills.
He told the team’s official website: “The 2026 show has manoeuvres not performed for 30 years, with dynamic additions and very complex flying for the pilots.
“The opening half of the routine has large, sweeping formations that use all the aircraft in the widest and longest shapes possible, to generate the visual impact Red Arrows crowds expect.
“And the thrilling display remains until the very end, with a distinctive showstopper called Cascade in the full version of the display. It was last flown in 1997 and has a powerful loop to around 6,500ft, directly in front of the crowd, which leads into a coordinated fan‑out to a wall formation.”
The team has been flying its current fleet of Hawks since 1980, and the aircraft are due to be retired in 2030. Spare parts are becoming scarce, and scaling the team back to seven aircraft will help keep the busy schedule going.
The team flew ‘seven ship’ displays in 2012 and 2022.
No decision has yet been made on what type of aircraft the Red Arrows will fly when the Hawk leaves service. British company Aeralis, which had been pitching for the contract to supply the RAF’s new jet trainer, went into administration last week.
Swedish manufacturer Saab is among the front-runners.
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