We know of two UK formation teams with nine aircraft. One of them is operated by some aviation enthusiasts called the Royal Air Force and they like to paint their aircraft red.
The other one is the renowned (and marginally less quick) Tiger Nine. Led by one of the great masters of formation flying, Jeff Milsom, the Tiger Nine are a little slower than the other lot because their 'jets' are in fact pre-war De Havilland Tiger Moths. They also were, once, used to great extent by the RAF as a trainer of choice before and into WWII.
As these wonderful shots from Paul Johnson show, just because they're doing a tenth (literally) of the speed of the Reds, doesn't make them any less thrilling, but for those who need to blink, don't worry, you won't miss anything including the Prince of Wales Break and other suitably exciting stuff all from aircraft around 90 years old. The pilots aren't 90, by the way.
More excitement, and some grey hairs for our Air Traffic Team, comes when this lot have to all go to the same runway and take off one after the other. That may sound easy but when your aircraft doesn't have a wheel at the back and needs to turn around, things get trick, nine times over. Then there's the small task of getting nine aircraft to land, one after the other in quick succession. Watching that part is worth the price of admission alone.
