Yellowjacks

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The Yellowjacks were an RAF aerobatic display team who flew Folland Gnat trainers painted yellow. The team evolved into the Red Arrows. The team was formed informally in the Summer of 1963 by a group of flying instructors, lead by Flight Lieutenant Henry Prince, at No 4 Flying Training School at Royal Air Force valley in Anglesey. The two seat Gnat T1 had been in service at Valley only since February of that year, when the first 20 student pilots, selected after being awarded their "wings", from the recently graduated No 82 Entry of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, had started their advanced training on the Gnat.

Instructors and student pilots loved this rather idiosynchratic aircraft, because of its small size, but mainly because of its sensitive handling and high manoevrablity. In some respects it was almost too sensitive on the controls, but all who flew it fell in love with it, and there was a natural desire to show it off. The name adopted by the team was however disapproved of by higher authority, who recognised the concept of a Gnat aerobatic team as attractive, but felt the name and the yellow colour of the aircraft conveyed a perverse message. Is was also thought that the team had maverick instincts, and needed to be brought into the mainstream.

And so, in due course, the team was officially reformed as The Red Arrows, and grew into the iconic specialist aerobatic team with its star quality. The Gnat continued in Royal Air Force service as an advanced trainer, and in the Red Arrows, for some 20 years, when it was superseded by the British Aerospace Hawk.

See also The Black Arrows who predated the Red Arrows, flying Hawker Hunter F6 fighters. The Black Arrows were also part of the evolution of the concept of an official Royal Air Force Aerobatic team. Rather than being specially formed, they were in fact No 111 Squadron, a front line fighter squadron, tasked for a year as the official Royal Air Force aerobatic team. It was their prowess in air displays, which gained much public acclaim and which created an official climate favourable to the establishment of a permanent team.