The UK's Royal International Air Tattoo has over the last three decades developed a proud reputation for bringing together the air arms of many nations for a spectacular annual display, which in July included more than 18h of flying by aerobatic display teams, bombers, fighters and helicopters from around the globe.
While all eyes were on the show's array of 327 aircraft from 24 countries, including the Lockheed Martin F-16s of the US Air Force's Thunderbirds display team and Sukhoi Su-30MKI multirole fighters from the Indian air force, a less prominent activity was the event's contribution to aviation and other charities.
Staged at Royal Air Force base Fairford in Gloucestershire - its almost constant home for more than 20 years - RIAT has since 2005 been run by the RAF Charitable Trust Enterprises (RAFCTE), which in its first two years of activity made donations worth more than £500,000 ($1 million) to the RAF Charitable Trust trading company.
Also based in Fairford, the show's organisers say the contribution to be made from the RAFCTE's commercial income for 2007 - around 75% of which is likely to have come from RIAT - should better its previous donation. "We are hopeful that the £300,000 figure that was gifted to RAFCT last year will be exceeded for 2007-8," it says, with the final sum expected to be confirmed during February.
Main beneficiaries of past RAFCT donations include the Air Cadet organisation, which received over £150,000 in the first two years, and is using the money to fund adventure training trips, flying scholarships, and to launch programmes to establish 12 regional activity centres around the UK and acquire six flight simulators. This work reflects key RIAT goals of promoting so-called "airmindedness" and encouraging recruitment into the RAF. Around 600 air cadets participate in RIAT each year, providing part of the more than 3,000-strong team of volunteers who make the event run.
In addition to its direct donations, the Air Tattoo - supported by Gulfstream and the RAF - has also helped to raise over £87,000 over the last three years for the BBC's Children in Need appeal, and also provides a free stage each year for several different charities to promote their work to a wider audience.
Flight International and flightglobal.com reported extensively from the show last July, and will do the same from the 12-13 July 2008 event. To commemorate 90 years of the RAF, the show - the first confirmed participants for which are two Dassault-Breguet AlphaJets from the Portuguese air force's Asas de Portugal display team - will immediately precede the Farnborough air show.
Source: Flight International
