Royal Navy to celebrate Centenary of Naval Aviation with flypast over HMS Illustrious in London

Friday, May 01, 2009

On 7 May 2009 the Royal Navy will be celebrating the Centenary of Naval Aviation with a spectacular flypast over the UK's strike carrier, HMS Illustrious, in London.

The Balbo formation of forty fixed wing and rotary wing Naval aircraft will be led by modern, state-of-the-art Merlin helicopters, followed by different variants of Sea King and Lynx helicopters, as well as Hawk and Jetstream aircraft passing directly over the carrier at midday.

HMS Illustrious will be paying a high profile visit to London from 6-11 May as the centrepiece of the celebrations and will be moored in the Thames at Greenwich close to the former home of the Royal Navy, the magnificent Old Royal Naval College in the heart of Maritime Greenwich.

His Royal Highness, the Duke of York KG, Commodore-in-Chief of the Fleet Air Arm and a distinguished Naval pilot who saw active service in the Falklands conflict, will be guest of honour onboard as the flypast passes over head. He will be welcomed onboard the Navy's flagship, by the Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope KCB OBE, who takes over from Admiral Sir Jonathon Band GCB ADC as First Sea Lord in July.

The Duke of York will also meet celebrated Fleet Air Arm veterans (who will be available for interview), including the Royal Navy's most decorated pilot Captain Eric Brown; Swordfish pilot, John Moffat famous for crippling the German Battleship Bismarck; Lieutenant Commander Edgar Lee, one of few remaining survivors of the daring Channel Dash operation in 1942; former Fleet Air Arm pilot Sir George Martin and veterans from Naval air operations in the Falklands War and Afghanistan.

Members of the media are invited to attend a media facility onboard HMS Illustrious on Thursday 7 May 2009 to watch the flypast from the ship at 1200 and meet current and former serving members of the Fleet Air Arm, veterans of conflicts and members of the Ship's company.

A limited number of places are also available for an early morning facility onboard HMS Illustrious leaving Greenwich Pier at 0630 and returning to Greenwich Pier at 1015.

Early Facility 7 May 0600 - 1000. Limited Numbers

The broadcast and photo opportunities on this facility will include aircraft taking off from the flight deck, interviews with aircrew and members of the Ship's company. There will be opportunities to film on the flight deck and interview the Commanding Officer. However, please note that HRH The Duke of York, guests and veterans will not be onboard at this time. Spaces on this early facility are limited and are intended primarily for Breakfast broadcasters and members of the media wishing to pre-record background pieces. The return boat will depart HMS Illustrious at 1000 for Greenwich Pier. Bids to attend this facility should be made to Carolyn Jones, Fly Navy 100 tel 01935 456750 or 07976417125 email carolyn.jones849@mod.uk

0600 Members of the media to arrive at Greenwich Pier

0600 Accreditation, security checks and allocation of passes

0630 Boat departs for HMS Illustrious

0730 HMS Illustrious to flying stations. Opportunity for members of the media to film aircraft taking off from the ship, broadcast from the flight deck/conduct interviews with the Captain

1000 Boat departs HMS Illustrious for Greenwich Pier

Main Facility 7 May 1000 - 1300

Photographic and broadcast opportunities on the main facility include aircraft landing and taking off from the flight deck, interviews with current serving members of the Fleet Air Arm, combat veterans from Fleet Air Arm actions, including the Falklands War and Afghanistan and photo opportunities of HRH The Duke of York in his capacity as Commodore-in-Chief Fleet Air Arm watching the flypast and meeting Fleet Air Arm personnel and veterans.

HRH will give a short speech immediately after the flypast. He will also cut the Centenary birthday cake with the youngest sailor in HMS Illustrious. The media will be given every opportunity to film and photograph these events but are respectfully requested to observe that the Duke of York will not conduct media interviews.

A number of aircraft, including a Harrier will be on the flight deck and members of the media will be given the freedom to set up shots and interviews with aircraft in the background. The facility will include a finger buffet lunch and glass of champagne and will complete with the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines carrying out a Beat Retreat ceremony on the flight deck. Bids should be made to Carolyn Jones, Fly Navy 100, 01935 456750 or 07976417125 email Carolyn.jones849@mod.uk

1000 Members of the media to arrive at Greenwich Pier

1000 Accreditation, security checks and allocation of passes

1030 Boat departs for HMS Illustrious

1100 HMS Illustrious to flying stations. Opportunity for members of the media to film aircraft landing and taking off from the ship, broadcast from the flight deck and conduct interviews with invited current and former serving members of the Fleet Air Arm and celebrated veterans (Annex A)

1120 HRH The Duke of York KG and Commander-in-Chief Fleet arrive onboard HMS Illustrious by barge

1130 HRH The Duke of York and Commander-in-Chief Fleet arrive on flight deck, photo opportunity as VIPs met by Rear Admiral Simon Charlier, Chief of Staff Aviation and Carriers and Rear Admiral Fleet Air Arm

1200 Flypast

Commander-in-Chief speech

HRH The Duke of York speech

VIPs and youngest sailor in HMS Illustrious cut birthday cake

1230 The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines Portsmouth Beat Retreat on the flight deck

1330 Members of the media depart HMS Illustrious by boat for Greenwich Pier

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Media must accredit in advance for both facilities with the contacts listed above. Names are required in advance and photo ID (passport, driving licence) must be shown on the day at Greenwich Pier to gain admittance to the boat. Passes will be issued on the day by Defence Media Operations staff. Members of the media must expect stringent security checks of bags and camera equipment before embarking in HMS Illustrious.

2. Bids for Interviews Bids for interviews with the Captain Ben Key (Commanding Officer of HMS Illustrious), Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope (Commander-in-Chief Fleet), Rear Admiral Simon Charlier (Chief of Staff Aviation and Carriers), Fleet Air Arm veterans or serving Fleet Air Arm officers should be made to Carolyn.jones849@mod.uk. A list of Fleet Air Arm veterans available for interview on the flight deck of HMS Illustrious before and after the flypast is at the end of this Op Note.

3. Current footage of Naval Air Squadrons on operations in Afghanistan, Harriers of the Naval Strike Wing operating in HMS Illustrious and Naval Air Squadrons operating with the Royal Navy deployment Taurus 09 is available on request. An 8 minute film on '100 years of Naval Aviation' is also available on the Royal Navy web site royalnavy.mod.uk/flynavy100. Broadcast quality imagery and stills will be available for download from the Defence News Imagery web served throughout Thursday 7 May, commencing at 1030 with updates throughout the day. Footage uploaded to the 'latest packages' section of www.defencenewsimagery.mod.uk will include:

* General views of HMS Illustrious in the Thames

* Footage of aircraft taking off

* Interviews with veterans

* Aerial and ground based coverage of the fly past

* General views of the Centenary birthday reception and cake cutting

Members of the media wishing to access DNI can obtain a login from the MOD Press Office Bureau on 0207 218 6997 or by using the temporary username: GuestUser and temporary password: RubberDuck. A pooling arrangement will be in place for aerial footage of the flypast. Other vantage points to watch the flypast include the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, Cutty Sark Gardens and the North Bank of the River Thames on the Isle of Dogs.

4. Arrival and Departure Information Members of the media attending either facility should check in at the military tent in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College thirty minutes before the boat departure time. The tent is situated just inside the Lewin Gate adjacent to Greenwich Pier. Parking has been reserved in the Old Royal Naval College for outside broadcast vehicles/satellite trucks. There are no facilities, however, for private parking. The best way to travel to the venue is by taxi. Ask to be dropped off at the Cutty Sark and walk towards Greenwich Pier. Turn Right at the river front and Lewin gate is a few metres along the path on the right.

5. HMS Illustrious will have Merlin, Sea King and Lynx Naval helicopters and Harrier jets from the Naval Strike Wing onboard throughout her stay. Some of the helicopters will take off from HMS Illustrious on the morning of the flypast to join up with aircraft from Naval Air Squadrons based at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton and Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose to form the large formation. The aircraft will fly from east to west along the River Thames passing in front of the Old Royal Naval College and further upstream, the Houses of Parliament. The Balbo formation of forty fixed wing and rotary wing Naval aircraft will be led by

6. Other related events On 8 May 2009, the celebrations will continue with a Service of Thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral to pay tribute to the courage, commitment and professionalism of everyone who has served with the Royal Naval Air Service or Fleet Air Arm over the past 100 years. The service will be attended by members of the Royal Family, the Secretary of State for Defence, the Right Honourable John Hutton MP, dignitaries from the City of London, the Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope and 2,000 current serving and former serving members of the Fleet Air Arm and families. To commemorate the history of Naval aviation and the Royal Navy's links with Greenwich, there will also be a static display of Naval aircraft over the weekend Sat 9 and Sun 10 May in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College with attractions including a Sea Harrier, a Merlin Flight Simulator and a Fly Navy 100 hot air balloon. On both Sat 9 and Sun 10 May there will be a flying display over the River Thames in front of the Old Royal Naval College at 1400 each day providing spectators with a rare and exciting opportunity to see aircraft launching from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier in London.

As well as the 7 May flypast, the Fleet Air Arm will be celebrating the remarkable history of Naval aviation throughout 2009 with a number of key events around the country including a flypast at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, a new exhibition at the Fleet Air Arm Museum and a high profile visit of a Capital Ship to Liverpool in the Autumn.

Annex A

To Op Note

Dated 28 Apr 09

VETERANS AVAILABLE FOR MEDIA INTERVIEWS

Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown CBE DSC AFC FRAeS RN

Celebrated and distinguished veteran Royal Navy Test Pilot, Captain Eric Brown was 90 earlier this year. He flew with the Navy for 31 years and is the Fleet Air Arm's most decorated pilot. He holds many world records including the most types of aircraft flown, a staggering 487, and the most carrier deck landings at 2407 and was also the first Naval pilot to land a jet on an aircraft carrier. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1939 as a Fleet Air Arm pilot where he was posted to 802 Naval Air Squadron on the early escort carrier HMS Audacity. He flew the F4F Wildcat, which was known as the 'Martlet'. During his service in Audacity he shot down two Focke-Wulf FW 200 Condor maritime patrol aircraft. After World War 2 Captain Eric commanded the Enemy Aircraft Flight, an elite group of pilots who test flew captured German aircraft. That experience makes Captain Brown one of the few men qualified to compare both Allied and Axis 'warbirds' as they actually flew during the war. He flight tested 53 German aircraft, including the ME163 rocket plane and the Messerschmitt 262 jet plane.

John Moffat

John Moffat was a Fleet Air Arm Swordfish pilot, famous for crippling the German battleship Bismarck during Operation Rheinubung on 26 May 1941. He was born in Kelso in 1919 and learned to fly in Belfast at the outbreak of the first World War.

He described the attack on the Bismarck; "Then their guns erupted. They were coming at us like hail, with tracers and so on. I thought the closer we were to the water the better chance we had of surviving, so we flew at 50 feet above the sea. It must have worked because I am still here! I can't understand why that hot stuff wasn't battering us to death. But the great thing about the Swordfish was that the bullets just went through it - after all it was only made out of canvas." John Moffat served in HMS Ark Royal, HMS Argus, HMS Furious and HMS Formidable and flew with 759, 818, 820 and 824 Naval Air Squadrons.

Dave Morgan DSC

David Morgan DSC, nick named 'MOG' is now a long-haul Captain on Boeing 747 400s with Virgin Atlantic Airlines. He first got the bug for flying when his father sat him in a spitfire when he was about 7 years old, and he has been hooked ever since. He joined the Royal Navy in 1966 where he trained as a helicopter pilot before moving to the RAF in 1969 flying Wessex and later converted to the Harrier GR3 Jump Jet. In 1982 he returned to the Royal Navy as an exchange pilot on the Sea Harrier FRA2 - two months later he found himself fighting in the Falklands Conflict in the South Atlantic. Between May and June 1982 he flew more than 50 combat SHAR missions, both ground attack and Combat Air Patrol. He was credited with the shooting down of two Argentine helicopters and two A-4 Skyhawk fighters.

David was the display pilot for the Sea Harrier from 1983 through to 1992 when he left the Royal Navy to join Virgin Atlantic. David was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross DSC for his combat operations in the South Atlantic during the Falklands conflict.

Lieutenant Commander Edgar Lee RNR

Lieutenant Commander Edgar Lee was one of only five survivors of one of the Fleet Air Arm's most daring and courageous actions, the Channel Dash. On 12 February 1942, 18 young Naval aviators in six Swordfish armed with torpedoes attacked the might of the German battlefleet in the English Channel. It was a story of unsurpassed bravery and determination. They faced insurmountable odds. Crippled and ablaze before they got into range, they flew on, delivering their attacks. All the aircraft were shot down, 13 Naval aviators died. Edgar and his pilot were rescued. Edgar's Commanding Officer, who led the attack, Lt Cdr Eugene Esmonde, was awarded the Victoria Cross. Edgar joined the Royal Navy in May 1940, two days before his 19th birthday as a Midshipman (A) RNVR. In 1943 Edgar was seconded to 106 Squadron RAF Bomber Command flying Lancaster Bombers. Six Naval Observers were seconded to 5 Group Bomber Command, three were lost and three, like Edgar returned to Naval duties at the end of 1943. Edgar was demobilised in 1947 and has continued his Royal Naval Service in the Royal Naval Reserve being promoted to Lt Cdr in 1961.

Sir George Martin CBE

Former Fleet Air Arm pilot, Sir George Martin CBE is a British record producer, arranger and composer. He is sometimes referred to as the 'Fifth Beatle' a title that he owes to his work as producer of all but one of the Beatles original records as well as playing the piano on some of the Beatles tracks - and is considered one of the greatest record producers of all time. In recognition of his services to the Music industry he was made a Knight Bachelor in 1996.

Sir George joined the Fleet Air Arm in 1943 when he was 17. He became a pilot and a commissioned officer. The war ended before Martin was involved in any combat and he left the service in 1947. He used his veteran's grant to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1947-50 where he studied piano and oboe.

CURRENT SERVING FLEET AIR ARM PERSONNEL

Lt Cdr Paul Stone RNR

Paul Stone is an experimental test pilot with over 12 years involvement in flight testing including trials for the new Joint Strike Fighter. He is a Royal Naval Reserve Pilot and in his civilian job he is the Chief Test Pilot (Combat Aircraft) for BAE Systems. Paul earned a Royal Navy flying scholarship at a young age. Following Fast Jet training he spent 4 years flying Sea Harrier FA2 on 800 Naval Air Squadron and the Sea Harrier Operational Evaluation Unit including a tour of duty in Bosnia. He was then selected to attend the prestigious Empire Test Pilot School from where he graduated in 1996, winning the McKenna Trophy for best fixed wing student.

Several years test flying culminated with a two year posting as Joint Strike Fighter Project Pilot working with Boeing Company as part of a multi national Joint Test Force. Paul participated in all aspects of the development, simulation, validation, ground check and flight testing of the X32A and B. Promoted to Commander, he spent 3 years commanding 800 and 801 Naval Air Squadrons. Retiring from regular service in 2006, Paul remains a committed RNR pilot regularly flying for the Navy.

Commander Ade Orchard RN

Commander Ade Orchard is one of the most experienced fighter pilots in the Fleet Air Arm. After joining the Royal Navy in 1986, he qualified as a frontline Sea Harrier pilot in 1990. A qualified Air Warfare Instructor, he completed two tours in the former Yugoslavia while flying from HMS Illustrious before taking up an exchange posting with the US Navy and Marine Corps in 1999. 4 years later he flew extensively during the combat phase of Operation Telic in Iraq before deploying to Afghanistan as the CO of 800 Naval Air Squadron in 2006. He wrote of his experiences in Afghanistan publishing his first very successful book 'Joint Force Harrier' last year. Commander Orchard donated all proceeds from the sale of his book to Combat Stress and the Royal Navy Historic Flight. He was awarded the OBE in the 2008 New Years Honours List and will be reading one of the prayers during the Service in St Paul's Cathedral on 8 May 2009.

HMS ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONNEL

There will be opportunities to interview personnel serving in HMS Illustrious including the Commanding Officer, Captain Ben Key, the Commander Air, Commander Mark Deller and the youngest Naval rating who will cut the 100 years birthday cake.

There will also be opportunities to speak to personnel who will be taking part in the Service of Thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral the following day including the officer of the Guard of Honour and the officer who will be carrying the Queen's Colour of the Fleet Air Arm.

Source: MoD