HM THE QUEEN REVIEWS THE RAF - COLOUR

(7 Aug 1977) Her Majesty the Queen completes her Silver Jubilee Reviews of the Armed Forces by reviewing the Royal Air Force at RAF Finningley. ® Watched by members of her family, the Queen presented a new 'Queen's Colour' which was then slow-marched past the Royal Dais. The Queen and Prince Philip toured the Airfield, inspecting the many aircraft assembled there and meeting members of the Aircrews. ® The day ended with a fly-past of the many types of planes operational in the Royal Air Force today. The first to fly through were 'Jet Provosts' in the formation of the numbers 25. ® The Review ended with a display by the RAF's world famous aerobatic team the 'Red Arrows'.
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[@weyman4317]

Nice to see the Labour defence secretary taking an avid interest in the proceedings!

[@padredj]

Looking to seee what they can give away to the Russians

[@TheophilusPWildbeest]

If I remember rightly the entire show was repeated for the public the next day, I was there (aged 16) with my Dad and it was great. Thanks for posting this.

[@mickb2009]

It was in fact the Public Display was actually expanded over what the Queen saw

[@airlinesecret6725]

LOL I was 16 and had just joined the RAF, RAF Honington

[@Fedaykin24]

Including the Jaguar!...shows a picture of the Tornado...

[@mrjockt]

I’m actually surprised to see a Tornado there since it was still 2 years away from entering service, I wonder which prototype it was.

[@mickeydiver17]

The Queen even came to Germany for a display. My old man got his LS&GC medal from the Queen in Germany. Also good to see the "rock apes" being good boys for a change lol

[@AtheistOrphan]

‘Men parade under the appreciative eye of Prince Edward’ - Quite.

[@cheshiredolphin]

Wonderful to watch, tragic to think that the RAF is now so depleted it couldn't put on an air show.

[@mondeo2500]

Or its too busy invading sovereign states because our puppet may is in bed with that trumping muppet.

[@padredj]

Funny that as it was Tony Blair that illegally invaded Iraq, and Afghanistan and cut the armed forces while doing so. May hasn't sent our troops into any combat zone.

[@mondeo2500]

Lots of troops still being sent to guard the poppy's in Afghanistan, wake up matey.

[@padredj]

Asking me to wake up? You were the one who made ridiculous claims that May was invading sovereign states. I suggest you wake up and learn who exactly invaded these countries before you attempt to school me on anything.

[@mondeo2500]

Still using drones to bomb Syria and other middle east countries. Libya is a good example of a ruined country and UK were up for that. May has recently sent more troops to Afghanistan and is still selling weapons to Saudies to bomb the fuck out of innocents in Yemen. Get off your high horse and see the real criminals FFS

[@trondog8503]

Great video, quite depressing to see what we once had!

[@michaelbrant1668]

77 was the year I joined the forces, back when we had some.

[@lukecomins7821]

What an absolutely splendid bit of film!

[@weyman4317]

It was famous as Mr Mulley the defence secretary fell asleep when the parade was on - showing the Labour party’s commitment to defence!

[@Keyswiz71]

And two years later between 1979 & 1997 the Conservative party showed their commitment to defence by eroding it to nothing more than a paper tiger. Flip sides of the same coin really!

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

@@Keyswiz71 After the Berlin wall came down thatcher nearly scrapped the forces, the bitch/witch!

[@mrjockt]

There were probably more aircraft on display that day than the entire strength of the R.A.F. today, it just makes you depressed thinking of all the cutbacks.

[@stijnvandamme76]

not necessarily cutback as it is a case of modern planes being much much more expensive to R&D and build.. So much smaller numbers are built Every Airforce in the world has the same reduction in numbers due to increase in complexity. John Boyd and the Fighter Mafia in the Pentagon lobbied hard in the Seventies to develop a bunch of low tech Fighters, to some extent that became the F16, but in reality the F16 was already bloated for what Boyd had in mind..

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

Yes mostly sent to the Ukrainians.

[@mrjockt]

@@JohnSmith-ei2pz The U.K. hasn’t supplied any aircraft to Ukraine as far as we know, mainly because the RAF don’t have any surplus or obsolete aircraft to give them, anything pulled from service is either sold off or scrapped within months.

[@belvoirsafety]

Pity the commentator didn't know his Jaguar from the yet to come into service prototype Panavia MRCA/Tornado at 3:30!

[@jpmeadows4180]

+ The " '25' Jet Provosts" sounded distinctly "Piston" powered - though difficult to make out.

[@carolbridgeman138]

Absolutely brilliant thank you

[@67tomcat]

What a magnificent event and treat to watch!

[@Mostrom]

What a great show put on at the time

[@mickb2009]

I was at the Finningley At Home day in 77

[@johncone9516]

It's enough to make you cry, i'm glad i was part of it them.

[@kenstanway7625]

I was there on the day having been part of the team within the MOD which organised the RAF review. I was lucky enough to be awarded a Silver Jubilee medal in recognition of the small part I played. I seem to remember that Mulley, who was an unpopular Secretary of State, was awoken from his slumber by the arrival of the Red Arrows.

[@gmanderson2009]

The lucky dip medal, a very rare beast.

[@kenstanway7625]

@@gmanderson2009 There were many handed out like breakfast cereal freebies. But I felt I earned mine 😁.

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

The MOD that will not pay veterans pensions?

[@EmilioF1976]

This is so British, I love it. Great footage!

[@normanallinson93]

I would have liked to have seen the display but happy I was posted to Gib a few months earlier and so missed all the bull! Did see a lot of air shows at Finningley though, the best views were the ones when I managed to watch from ATC! 😀

[@paulwhite2533]

How we have fallen in such a few short years....

[@reaper378]

I was there with my dad :-)

[@ZLAKOZILLA]

5:15 the dude is sleeping in the first row ha ha ha :-)

[@GeneralTech58]

And now 45 years later RAF Finningley where this is filmed (now Doncaster Sheffield Airport) is facing closure as the owners are showing no attempts to make it work

[@andrewmonteith8794]

was there for that big show,

[@rovercoupe7104]

I was there with 346 squadron Air Training Corps. M.

[@bertiewooster3326]

Fred Mulley the defence minister fell asleep snoring his head off I know.look at 5.10

[@philplace2726]

Yeah, he got p*ssed in the Officers Mess!!! The Boss was not amused... BIG STYLE!!! He could hardly stand when he got back to Northolt... my mate was on Pax duty when he arrived.... I was at the full display for the public the day after, took my Mom n Dad and two little cousins, forced to wear my No1s! Brilliant display! A Belfast Loadmaster who recognised me in the static park asked me if I wanted to go back with them to Brize, my dad thought it was hilarious that I could hitch a lift like that. Very memorable day...

[@bobarty]

I have a connection to this my ex wife was PA to the Group Captain Tetley was his name and a Sqn Ldr who organized this at the Mod.

[@jamesnicholson8555]

Mike Nicholson Who was the person having a 'kip' sitting next to the Queen?

[@bernicarey4953]

Defence Secretary Fred Mulley. He cut £200M from the 1977 Defence Budget a couple of moths previously...

[@yan24to]

How many aircraft types does the Raf have now?F35, Typhoon,C17,A400 and a few more.Hawk.

[@rooney2184]

That was way back when we had an Air Force, before successive governments decimated it.

[@tonylockhart1963]

ken singleton yawn

[@underwaterdick]

Decimated it because we no longer needed a lot of what we had? When the cold war ended we no longer required a huge chunk of what we had. Not to mention: Technology evolves.... You don't need the air force we had back then. - ICBM's took over the role of Nuclear bombers, then submarines after that. Modern munitions are more accurately placed on target, you no longer need lots of bombers to ensure you hit your target. Fighters have been downgraded due to modern Radar and SAM developments, not to mention on board defensive aids means you are less likely to lose aircraft to enemy fire. Transport aircraft became faster and more efficient, they also have bigger holds and the general logistics of moving equipment has improved - modern military kit is designed with transportation in mind, so for example land vehicles are designed to fit in the transport aircraft of that nation and large equipment is designed to be paletised. Another huge reason for reducing numbers - the scale of the enemy and the rise of the coalition, with multiple nations fighting together on one front by pooling resources. During the cold war we needed a huge number of fighters and bombers to ensure we could rival the numbers that an enemy may have to use against us. These days technology and tactics above your enemy can do wonders. Just look at the Fleet Air Arm and their kills during the Falklands conflict - on paper we did not have the number of aircraft to go up against their air force, but we managed it. We still have the Royal Air Force, and their capabilities in many areas are world beating. Don't downgrade the force just because we have less aircraft than when we needed the numbers. Sadly it has been thinned out a little TOO much though and the struggle is keeping enough aircraft serviceable.

[@buttonworld77]

His point remains though, we did have a pretty awesome airforce back then.

[@FallenPhoenix86]

@@buttonworld77 Compared with most countries we still do today....

[@maxwellfan55]

Lessons never learned!

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

Did the Airmen have to paint the grass green?

[@jimbobwalton1048]

Great times, we could have given the fuzzy wuzzies a right kicking on our own in those days . Where did it all go wrong ?

[@linedriver1]

Half way up a mountain in Wales!

[@77Neville]

Ah the late dear old Fred Mulley bless 'im after a jolly good lunch.

[@Box500spooks]

77Neville I was at RAF St Mawgan when we had a Royal visit by Princess Margaret a couple of years after the Royal Review. The saluting dais duly arrived, and was the one used for the Royal Review; it had a little brass plaque: “Fred Mulley slept here, 29 July 1977”

[@yan24to]

It's true we had an air force,A Royal air Force, whatever happened to it.

[@colltutor07]

We could have done some serious damage those days!

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

Certainly did to the beer supplies!

[@emmachavarria9361]

0:07 First Stop, Hollywood.

[@SB1975P]

Flyover of jet proverst, sound of piston aircraft 🤣

[@jra55417]

Hard to tell for sure from the video if they really are JPs in the 25 formation. The audio of their fly-by is for propeller-driven aircraft for sure, not jet turbines

[@rjo3737]

They were Provosts Jon, I was there!!

[@jra55417]

I don't doubt that but listen to the audio as they fly past. You're not telling me that's the sound of a JP are you? I think the BBC must have mixed up its audio recording when they edited the footage

[@belvoirsafety]

Jon, it was Movietone News, not the BBC. Movietone made cinema newsreels from the 1890s until the mid 1980s. There's several goofs in the editing, from the audio mix ups to not knowing a Tornado. But then it was 3 years before Tornado came into service. The only ones flying at that time were prototypes and development aircraft. It was supposed to be in service by then, but as always, it was several years late.

[@jra55417]

ah, yes. I didn't notice that. It's certainly a Tornado

[@johnparker4538]

I wonder if the Jet Provests shown are from the Macaws display team. I spent a week at RAF Manby where the Macaws were based, but that was in '71.

[@bollocknase]

Wish I was on the guys wage falling asleep

[@brianfearn4246]

I remember being there as a member of the air cadets and watching my brother on parade with the RAF Regiment QCS .....dose the RAF still exist???

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

No, a few bearded tattoed loons are left

[@brianfearn4246]

Defence securtery failing asleep in 1977 and dreaming 😴 about 2020

[@sabercruiser.7053]

3:33 ITS NOT A JAGUAR ITS A TORNADO BUT THE TORNADO WERE ENTER IN SERVICE IN 1979 TWO YEARS AFTER THIS FOOTAGE.

[@mackmeeter]

Back when Britain was great...

[@paulcharlesvanbrandon]

There were women in the RAF in those days.

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

Yes groomed by the officers and SNCO's

[@buffplums]

This was that crossover era when Tornado came in but didn’t become operational for at least another 10 years … when we still had a reconable fighting force

[@tonylockhart1963]

In January 1983, IX Squadron was declared operational, less than six years after the silver jubilee. Perhaps you’re thinking of the F3 version.

[@PotatoSalad614]

RAF today: woke and weak

[@geoac]

An abhorrant waste of Taxpayers money!

[@magna4100]

I suspect you are an equal waste of oxygen.

[@distortedreality4603]

I bet your fun at party's

[@bernardzevenhuizen3309]

No, money well spent!

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

Yes a display for a German immigrant family!