The world-famous Red Arrows are currently touring North America \u2014 and one of Newark\u2019s own is helping ensure they put on a perfect show.<\/p>\n
As the United States celebrated the 250th anniversary of American independence on July 4, jets from the Red Arrows joined more than 150 other aircraft in a massive flypast along the Hudson River in New York City.<\/p>\n
As part of the show, the iconic Hawk T1s used their trademark red, white and blue smoke trails to transform the Manhattan skies into a giant American flag, much to the enjoyment of crowds below.<\/p>\n
Steve Smith, of Newark, is an aircraft engineer with the world-famous RAF Red Arrows. Photo: Steve Smith\/submitted.<\/p>\n
Back at base was Steve Smith, of Newark, who is a serving RAF aircraft engineer and plays an important role in ensuring the famous jets are performing at their best.<\/p>\n
Over the last few years, he has toured the UK and the world with the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team \u2014 and said being in the USA during such a historic milestone for the country was incredible.<\/p>\n
Months of preparation went into planning the American tour, and getting there was not quite as simple as hopping across the pond.<\/p>\n
The Red Arrows used vapour trails to create an American flag during the America 250 Independence Day flypast in New York City. Photo: Seth Wenig\/AP.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust getting here was such a monumental mission \u2014 it took four days to get across,\u201d Steve said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to fly from Lincolnshire up to Scotland, then to Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and then down to America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have a whole team of engineers working on maintaining these aircraft, getting them ready for events like this, and that work started months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of Steve\u2019s job, he also helps to prepare the dye canisters which produce the Red Arrows\u2019 iconic coloured smoke trails.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strive for excellence, that is our motto,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been practicing the American flag for months and it\u2019s one of those little tricks that we wanted to do to share our pride and appreciation of being here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen the reactions online, and my colleague who was on the ground in New York when it was happening said we received the biggest cheers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American people were not expecting us to go from red, white and blue into their flag, and it was really well received.\u201d<\/p>\n
The United States may have won independence from the British 250 years ago, but today, the two country\u2019s enjoy a close relationship as allies and supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a great privilege to be able to speak to people here and they absolutely love us,\u201d Steve added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as they hear our accent they\u2019re asking what we\u2019re doing and why we\u2019re here \u2014 they want to know everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a bit of a joke about them gaining independence from us, but there\u2019s a real love and so much positivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur countries are the closest of allies and as serving military personnel we have worked very closely with the US Air Force throughout our careers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team is currently based in Baltimore, but will soon be heading up to Maine then over to Michigan, before closing out its American adventure by performing at Oshkosh \u2014 which is the world\u2019s largest air show..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world-famous Red Arrows are currently touring North America \u2014 and one of Newark\u2019s own is helping ensure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1077661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5311],"tags":[609,13738,83509,49,978,659],"class_list":["post-1077660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-human-interest","tag-newark","tag-syndicate","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116888060966483071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1077660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1077661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1077660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1077660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1077660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}