With red, white and blue everywhere representing the US and UK in a year momentous celebration, one of our favourite air display teams continue to stick to a different colour palette; that of the Early Learning Centre.
Back to cover the runway in flour bombs once more, the Turbulent Team have a different approach to power, speed and altitude. They’ve got slightly less power than the Typhoon so 450 knots is slightly rounded down to, ummm, 45. 10,000’? Try 700’ at most (one of them claims to get a nosebleed if they go any higher).
They beat absolutely everyone in terms of one statistic. Display Authorised Pilots (DAs) are the best of the best and they’re given a set of limits by the CAA depending on how good they are. One such limit is the lowest altitude they can fly at. Most DAs are allowed down to 1-200 ft above ground level. The Turbs as they’re known are a different breed. They’re allowed to 3’. This is not a typo.
36 inches from the ground is required to get under the limbo, you see. This is also not a typo. They do also use the aircraft to burst balloons and generally mess about in a fashion which is a hit with children aged between 6 months an 110 years of age.
Amazingly, there is also a Royal connection to these wonderful, somewhat odd, French aircraft. The only member of the Royal Family to fly an aircraft completely solo was the late Duke of Edinburgh. History does not relate whether HRH also flew under a limbo.