Folland Gnat - The Red Arrows

Prior to 1965, it had been the practice to provide official RAF acrobatic teams from existing squadrons, however, with the increasing sophistication and cost of fighter aircraft, together with the disruption to other activities, this became a tradition that the treasury saw as an unnecessary diversion of valuable resources.

It was decided, therefore, to form the first permanent display team known as the Royal Airforce Aerobatic Team administered by the Central Flying School at Little Rissington. After much deliberation and following the successful demonstrations by the Yellowjacks the previous year, the Folland Gnat was selected, being the most suitable aircraft available.

The official name chosen for the new team was the Red Arrows: Red to retain its links with the CFS display team - The Red Pelicans; while Arrows would not only be representative of the Gnat aircraft’s profile, it would also hark back to the famous Black Arrows Hunter team of 111 Squadron a few years earlier.

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For my Red Arrow build, I used the 1:76 scale Red Arrows Gnat starter kit first released by Airfix in 2012. This uses the same tooling as on their later T.1 and Yellowjacks releases. As with my last  Yellowjack creation, I decided not to fit the underwing 'slipper' tanks as these were not usually carried during display flying. Otherwise it was an out of the box build in which I even used the Humbrol supplied Post Office red paint. 

The decals and paint scheme provided with this kit, reflect that which would have been seen during  the Gnats’ final 1979 season: with the full-chord red white and blue tail fins, first applied in 1967 to replace the standard RAF tail fin flash, and the words Royal Air Force and CSF badge within a white stripe on its nose. The latter marking was added for this final season, replacing the white lightening stripes they had worn for the previous 10 years. This final change, as confirmed by Flt Lt Bob Lewis, the team's Engineering Officer 1977-1980, was brought about following the arrival of privately sponsored teams, such as the Rothmans Pitts Specials, and rumours suggesting the possible sponsorship of the nine little jets. To dispel any doubts that the Red Arrows were not for sale, the MOD decided the words Royal Air Force should be emblazoned on the fuselage.   

The last public of the season were given at the Battle of Britain shows at Abingdon and St Athan on 15 September 1979, following which, the Gnat team gave their final performance at RAF Valley. Since their formation in March 1965 The Red Arrows Gnats had completed a total of 1,292 displays and visited 18 countries.  

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The kit

Brand: Airfix

Title: RAF Red Arrows Gnat Starter set

Number: A55105 

Scale: 1:72 

Type: Full kit Released:2012 | Rebox (Changed box only)

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