Biggin Hill Air Show

See the Red Arrows display team at their first UK public show alongside vintage aircraft at the world famous Biggin Hill Air Fair.

Filmed in 1965, just two years after the founding of the Biggin Hill International Air Fair, this home movie captures the fledging Red Arrows acrobatic team on the day of their first UK public display. The filmmaker takes in the day's events including a Scottish bagpipe band, various vintage aircraft and a line-up of the original Folland Gnat planes used by the newly-formed RAF acrobatic team.

The Biggin Hill Air Fair ran until 2010 and was one of the largest civilian shows of its kind in the world. Also seen in the film is the 'Phoenix Flyer', a replica of a 1910 Bristol Boxkite aircraft that was built for the 1964 film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. This film is from the collection of Bexley Local Studies and Archives, a member of the London's Screen Archives Network.