New Red Arrows Jet

[andymadmak]

I know it’s not economic to do, but I would have loved the replacement for the Red Arrows Hawks to be the Tranche one Typhoons that are going to be with drawn from frontline service soon. I bet a Typhoon looks fantastic in red!
I have read that the replacement is going to be the Aeralis jet.. is that likely true or are there other viable contenders?

(Always assuming that the Red Arrows actually get a new ride and are not phased out when the Hawk goes)

[Eric Mc]

Agreed - would look great.

Not going to happen, sadly.

[tangerine_sedge]

I'm optimistic that the Red Arrows will continue in some form. The RAF will always need training aircraft (until drones take over!), so they'll just end up flying whatever the RAF chooses for it's future fast jet trainer.

They're never giong to use 'proper' fast jets as the operating costs would just be too high for the number of hours they must fly every year.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

Eric Mc said:

Agreed - would look great.

Not going to happen, sadly.

May have been viable - possibly - to have one painted up like that for airshows though. They do, do a fair few over the course of the year.

[wolfie28]

Eric Mc said:

Agreed - would look great.

Not going to happen, sadly.

Indeed.

The spares and support alone required to run 10 plus Typhoons would be huge. Add reliability and the complex nature of the aircraft makes it neigh on impossible to do.

[Soloman Dodd]

Build a squadron of modern replica Spitfires, painted bright red.

Aerobatics overhead with Merlin engines - epic.

[Eric Mc]

Soloman Dodd said:

Build a squadron of modern replica Spitfires, painted bright red.

Aerobatics overhead with Merlin engines - epic.

The late Spencer Flack had a go back in the 80s -

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 13th September 10:56

[JoshSm]

andymadmak said:

I have read that the replacement is going to be the Aeralis jet.. is that likely true or are there other viable contenders?

I wouldn't bet on it, they've been fking about for ages, keep changing their ideas, and while they've been great at announcing various partnering agreements everyone involved has tended to stay quiet when those have withered, probably to save face.

Maybe it'll come to fruition but if it was going to go anywhere I was expecting to see more stuff actually exist by this stage, like it did on other projects. Instead all I saw happening was a slow dribble of effort then it went silent.

Still waiting to see if I'm vindicated that it was all grand ambition and nothing much else, leeching off the partners to keep it ticking, and getting involved at all was a waste of time & effort better spent on real things.

On the upside the renders did look the part in red.

[Elroy Blue]

There's only four Tranche 1s left in service anyway. The rest have been scrapped

[hidetheelephants]

avia news said:

Of the remaining 49 aircraft, the MoD announced that four will continue to serve with No. 1435 Squadron in the Falkland Islands, performing air defense missions until 2027. Ten Typhoons will be reassigned as spares, supporting the more advanced Tranches 2 and 3 versions still in active service. The remaining aircraft will be divided among various uses: 17 will be decommissioned, 12 will be stored pending disposal, and four will be converted into ground-based training equipment. In addition, two aircraft are being considered for sale.

The 12 disposals should be donated to Ukraine.

[Simpo Two]

hidetheelephants said:

The 12 disposals should be donated to Ukraine.

Does Ukraine have the ability to maintain and fly them operationally?

[Tony1963]

Soloman Dodd said:

Aerobatics overhead with Merlin engines - epic.

Overhead? When did that last happen? Everything is too far away, too high, and almost always turning away from the crowd.

When I used to go to airshows (gave up ten years ago) I used the Red Arrows display as a chance to go to the toilets!

[Simpo Two]

Tony1963 said:

Overhead? When did that last happen? Everything is too far away, too high, and almost always turning away from the crowd.

When I used to go to airshows (gave up ten years ago) I used the Red Arrows display as a chance to go to the toilets!

Bah. When I went to Duxford 30 years ago you could park in the lane to the south of the runway and watch them all go right over your head for free. Jumpers for goalposts etc... what a straitjacketed world we've stumbled into, thanks to insurance companies and the compensation culture.

[Soloman Dodd]

Tony1963 said:

Overhead? When did that last happen? Everything is too far away, too high, and almost always turning away from the crowd.

When I used to go to airshows (gave up ten years ago) I used the Red Arrows display as a chance to go to the toilets!

[RedAndy]

I always wanted the Harriers to become the Red Arrows. Imagine some of the stunts being done flying backwards, or the diamond just stopping mid air and then going the other way in mid roll. That's be quite something to see.

[IanH755]

Simpo Two said:

hidetheelephants said:

The 12 disposals should be donated to Ukraine.

Does Ukraine have the ability to maintain and fly them operationally?

Short answer - No - but posters like the one you replied to are only interested in "saying something they think will get them internet praise from their echo chamber" rather than saying something that actually might be worthwhile. Once you spot the same old names saying the same old silliness its easy to ignore them and bypass their silliness.

The longer answer is one given time and again whenever people say "send it to Ukraine" unironically - all it would do is hurt Ukraine, diluting their already under-strain AF, and making them less effective for the next 2+ years at least which is the average time taken to remove experienced pilots/groundcrew from the front line, re-train them to the new aircraft, get them back into Ukraine and experienced, all whilst the jets get lower and lower in number because they lack the supplies to keep them flying and it'd be much longer for new pilots/groundcrew etc etc etc - stuff HTE and their ilk cares nothing about, as long as their ego gets a boost from the positive feedback given by others in the echo chamber who generally react angrily when people outside point this out to them. The entire NP&E Ukraine thread is rammed full of these types, making it virtually unusable nowadays, as anyone pointing this out gets accused of being pro-Russian rather than being (more correctly) "anti-moron".

There's even a Simpsons meme about "send it Ukraine" its become such a ridiculous statement but that doesn't stop it being said -

[Austin Prefect]

tangerine_sedge said:

I'm optimistic that the Red Arrows will continue in some form. The RAF will always need training aircraft (until drones take over!), so they'll just end up flying whatever the RAF chooses for it's future fast jet trainer.

They're never giong to use 'proper' fast jets as the operating costs would just be too high for the number of hours they must fly every year.

When the Red Arrows first started the RAF had over a hundred fast jet trainers so finding a dozen for an aerobatic team wasn't too much of a problem. Currently they have 40 including 12 allocated to the Red Arrows. Budgeting for 28 replacement trainers will be tough enough without nearly half as many again for an aerobatic team.

[Dashnine]

Simpo Two said:

Tony1963 said:

Overhead? When did that last happen? Everything is too far away, too high, and almost always turning away from the crowd.

When I used to go to airshows (gave up ten years ago) I used the Red Arrows display as a chance to go to the toilets!

Bah. When I went to Duxford 30 years ago you could park in the lane to the south of the runway and watch them all go right over your head for free. Jumpers for goalposts etc... what a straitjacketed world we've stumbled into, thanks to insurance companies and the compensation culture.

But more directly by an arrogant pilot dumping a plane on a traffic junction at Shoreham.

[hidetheelephants]

Simpo Two said:

hidetheelephants said:

The 12 disposals should be donated to Ukraine.

Does Ukraine have the ability to maintain and fly them operationally?

They didn't have the ability to maintain and operate F16s until they were assisted to acquire these abilities;

[Tony1963]

Soloman Dodd said:

Looks like a flypast rather than a display.