I'm flying a few thousand feet over Lincolnshire with the Red Arrows,
the Royal Air Force aerobatic team. And maybe this is patriotism talking, but they are the best aerobatic
team anywhere in the world. Aircraft flying at
hundreds of miles an hour just metres apart from each other. Not just in level flight either. They do things like this. - Here at the Red Arrows,
we fly the BAE Systems Hawk T-Mk1 powered by the
Rolls Royce Adour Engine. We've flown them here in the
Red Arrows since 1980 which is obviously a reasonable time, but they are perfect for what they do. They are sprightly, they're fast, they're simple to operate, and
they're a pilot's aircraft. Today, we're going to have seven aircraft
of our total of nine in the display. We fly 6 to 11 feet apart in the air.
We're doing actually about 400 mph. The skill of formation flying is essentially
triangulating a position. So you have two references
that you're looking at. One at the front and one at
the back of another aircraft. And as long as you line up both
those references perfectly, you will be in the exact
formation position. We train for approximately seven months before we even display
anywhere near the public. We fly the same display for
almost four months of those seven, and it's a building-block approach
to get us to the stage where we are absolutely safe, professional and excellent enough
to display in front of the public. - So the question is: how is it possible to safely fly this close and
perform manoeuvres this precise? Part of it is training, trust, and talent, but part of it is a skill that
you probably already know, keeping your distance
from the car in front when you're driving on a highway. It's just that instead of
working in one dimension, these pilots are working in three. Or, if you count time, maybe even four. - My job as a team leader is to annunciate to all the team pilots where I'm going and when I'm going to do it. So we have a very metronomic
radio voice to let them know-- "Coming, right, now." "Hold-ing-the-bank, now." Hold-ing-the-bank, now. Everything is done on that cadence and the guys know when I'm
going to make that input. The actual art of formation flying, in itself,
is reasonably straight forward. So the relative motion between the aircraft
is meant to be zero. And the only time that we have any
relative movement between the aircraft is when we're asking the pilots
to change shape. For the pilots who are up there, whilst they
might be upside down at 100 feet, to them the other aircraft don't
look like they're moving at all. So you can be too high or too low,
which we call too shallow or deep. You can be too far forwards or
too far backwards, which we call short or long. And of course, this being
a three-dimensional game, you can be too close,
or too tight as we call it, or too far away from the other aircraft,
which is what we call wide. But it's also about timing. So we're trying to, as the Red Arrows,
make it look like we're one wing that's moving beautifully
in graceful formation. And to do that, the guys who are
furthest away from me as the leader need to know when I'm going to turn. I expect them to have already
started putting their inputs if they're along way away from me, and if they don't, they're behind the time
and it's going to look like a broken chair. Every formation shape and
every formation position has a different route to get out of that formation
quickly and safely enough. They're what we call the escape strategies,
but every manoeuvre is different. So the pilots are not only
remembering which manoeuvre's next but also how to escape from that manoeuvre
when it's coming up. The pilots here on my team have
an inordinate amount of trust in each other. They have a prescribed piece of airspace
next to the aircraft that they're formating on. That's what we call the box. And the pilot who's flying next to them trusts that they're never going to be outside
of that box of formation. - Thank you to the Red Arrows,
to the RAF, and Rolls Royce. At some point I'll be over
in their Starrship channel, so have a look at the links on screen
or in the description! [laughter] Oh wow! [laughter]
He's sort of become something like a Blue Peter presenter, if Blue Peter was for adults.
Also, I fucking love the Red Arrows! Tom Scott's a jammy bastard.
Wouldn't it be easier to just weld the wings together and leave the pilots to concentrate on other matters 🤔
Who is this guy and how does he get to do this shit
Red Arrows vs Blue Angels, I'm 100% down to see them compete.
EY TOM! SHUT IT IM TRYIN TO DRIVE UP ERE'
Gotta give Tom Scott some credit. He went from making videos about him making grilled cheese with an iron to flying with the royal air force in a youtube video.
Alright, everyone keeps mentioning the Blue Angels so I'm going to throw out some love for the USAF Thunderbirds. Mainly because I love the F-16
So basically... don't hit the guy flying next to you...
r/interestingasfuck