Look to the skies, as there’s a flypast of aircraft over central London tomorrow (Thur 5th May) morning.
The central London location is roughly Horse Guards Parade, so expect the planes, expected to be two Typhoon fighter jets and the RAF Voyager Vespina (with its distinctive Union Jack tail paint), to be flying over Whitehall at 11:10am on Thursday.
According to the air traffic alert, the turn points for the flypast are as follows (adjusted for British Summer Time).
514500N 0013500W BRIZE NORTON 10:43 514631N 0013837W HOLWELL 10:44 514507N 0014422W EASTLEACH TURVILLE 10:45 514250N 0012929W VCY BAMPTON 10:56 513150N 0011136W W OF GORING 11:00 512221N 0002900W VCY CHERYSEY 11:06 512304N 0002330W WALTON ON THAMES 11:07 513017N 0000742W CENTRAL LONDON 11:10 513618N 0000206W VCY BANBURY RESR 11:11 520110N 0000421W VCY ROYSTON 11:17
The likelihood, but as always, not guaranteed is that the flypast will come in over London from the southwest, heading up towards Walthamstow. As a caveat emptor, air traffic alerts are there to warn other aircraft, so the actual path taken by the flypast can be different.
The flypast is for the Japanese Prime Minister who is in the UK to sign a new defence agreement to deepen military ties in the Indo-Pacific.
It’s speculation, but RAF Brize Norton, where the flypast takes off from, looks after the same air to air refuelling planes that operate flights to the Falklands Islands, and this week, the RAF is marking the 40th anniversary of the famous Black Buck raids on Port Stanley airport.
I’m assuming it’s military, as frankly, I cannot imagine a civilian flypast getting permission to take off from RAF base and fly in formation over Whitehall.
Image shows ZZ336, the Prime Minister’s Voyager, landing and taxiing into RAF Brize Norton after being painted at Cambridge.
(c) MoD
Crying shame that xh558 couldnt be granted an air worthiness certificate to celebrate Operation Black Buck (for those that havent, read Vulcan 607 for the story)
Fun fact: the vulcan howl was from air going supersonic as it passed through the engine intakes
One one of the other travel sites I read there was excitement that this was a BA plane and at the same time that it was a Virgin plane when in fact it was Boris Force One!