International Ayr Show: Festival of Flight - Full Saturday Flight Schedule
Organisers are expecting over 100,000 people to attend the Saturday of this weekend's Air Show which includes 17 aerial displays.
Last updated 9th Sep 2023
South Ayrshire Council bosses are expecting as many as 100,000 people to attend the Saturday of this weekend’s International Ayr Show: Festival of Flight.
It’s the first time since 2018 the show has come to Ayr, and this time South Ayrshire Council has taken over the organisation side, and invested £250,000.
Friday’s opening of the festival included aerial displays from Gravity Industries, the RAF Black Jack Typhoon, and Airborne Pyrotechnics.
However, Saturday has a packed flight schedule with 17 aerial displays running non-stop from 1pm until 6pm.
Director of Communities with South Ayrshire Council, Jane Bradley has been heavily involved in the organising process and says it will be a day to behold.
“We hope this will become the biggest event in Scotland”.
She told Greatest Hits Radio that when the organising process began, they intended on making it a smaller scale event, but as time went on it grew arms and legs and they have big plans for the future.
She said: “We anticipated the Friday to be quieter, but on Saturday we’re expecting over 100,000 people to come.
“We have such an enthusiastic team, and our flying display director who is fantastic had lots of ideas about who we could get involved, so we’ve now ended up with two days worth of flying and a three-day village event.
“So, it will be bigger than anything that’s been delivered before, and we do hope it will eventually become the biggest event in Scotland.”
READ MORE: International Ayr Show - Festival of Flight takes to skies over shore front
Flight Schedule for Saturday
Gravity Industries
Gravity Industries design, builds and flies Jet Suits – pioneering a new era of human flight. The first aerial display of Saturday won’t have any wings but that doesn’t make it one to miss. Kicking things off these human piloted suits will fly above the esplanade for all to see! They can reach an altitude of 12,000 feet! But that is limited for safety reasons.
– Team Raven and Gazelle Squadron Flypast
- Team Raven
- The BAC Strikemaster Pair
– OV10B Bronco Demo Team
RAF Chinook
THE RAF Chinnook helicopter is an extremely capable and highly versatile support helicopter that can be operated from land bases or ships in a range of environments spanning from the Arctic to the desert, to the Jungle. They can carry up to 55 troops or 10 tonnes of mixed cargo!
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – WW2 Spitfires
The RAF will be showcasing two of their iconic spitfires. It remains unknown which two will be attending the festival out of the six in their collection. They operate three Rolls Royce Merlin engine powered variants, which are the tuped that served in the Battle of Britain. They also operate three of the later generation Rolls-Royce Griffon powered types, which were used sometime after the end of WW2.
– Red Devils
- The Calidus Autogyro
Airborne Pyrotechnics
These planes will bring a visual spectacle to the Ayr sea front, as the team complete two displays over the weekend. On Friday they performed their dusk routine, where they attach pyrotechnics to the tips of their wing and light up the darkening sky. On Saturday they will swap over pyrotechnics for a smoke system and lay smoke trails as if drawing on a canvas.
- The Gazelle Squadron
– Royal Canadian Air Force CC130J Hercules
– The Starlings
– SE5A WW1 BIPLANE
– Rolls-Royce Heritage Flight
RAF Black Jack Typhoon
This Union Jack covered Typhoon jet will fly by towards the end of the festival and the sound will be deafening! The Typhoon has flown precision attack missions in all its combat deployments to date, but it’s most essential rols remains the provision of quick reaction aler for the UK and Falklands airspace.
The RAF Red Arrows
The famous RAF Red Arrows will close the flight schedule for this years festival. They bring a show of speed agility and precision as part of the RAF’s impressive aerobatic team and are known known as the worlds best aerobatic display. As of 2023, they have folown almost 5,000 displays in 57 countries and this year is their 59th season since their formation in 1965.