Life is looking up for Tim (From Stroud News and Journal)

Life is looking up for Tim

IT began with just 25 planes and five volunteers. Now it is the biggest military airshow on earth.

SNJ reporter David Gibbs spoke to Selsley resident Tim Prince, co-founder and director of the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at Fairford.

Douglas Bader, King Hussein of Jordan and the Duke of Kent share a little known link. Each has been patron of the Royal International Air Tattoo, (RIAT)the latter as the current incumbent.

"King Hussein. What a man! He just exuded aviation. Every opportunity he was there. He used to fly his own aeroplanes into the show," says Tim Prince, chief executive of Royal Airforce Benevolent Fund Enterprises and director of the Royal International Air Tattoo.

This year's event on Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19 will raise between £300,000 and £400,000 for the fund, which gives away more than £20 million each year to safeguard RAF families.

"When a wife, an engineer, a doctor or a pilot falls on hard times, needs a pair of slippers or a new house or wheels, the fund will get together," says Tim.

The world famous tattoo was founded in 1971 by Tim and fellow air traffic controller Paul Bowen, who died two months ago after a long battle with cancer.

"We were both civilian air traffic controllers on a three-year training course when we were posted to a military station at Boscombe Down," Tim remembers. "We were asked to help do the air traffic control at North Weald where the RAF Association were a running a small event.

"Very quickly the old boys who ran it realised the next generation although a bit brash had enthusiasm and energy and were now it and they handed it over to us."

"There was a huge buzz the first year because we were able to do things in life you don't get a chance to do like writing to Austria asking if they wanted to come to an airshow.

""Our motto was "it can be done, why can't we?" Together they presided over the remarkable metamorphosis of a humble two-bit provincial airshow into the greatest display of aircraft on the planet employing more than 4,000 volunteers and a permanent staff of 40.

"It started off with about 25 aeroplanes and about five of us," says Tim. "The young pilots that came enjoyed themselves so much that when they climbed the ladder to become influential they sent more aeroplanes and it became a meeting place for aviators.

"We try to keep it a gathering point for like-minded aviators and for the public to come and see and enjoy what they do."

The death of his long time partner has forced Tim to re-evaluate his role. "He was the why can't we man, with his head up in the clouds and I was the one saying balance, can we afford it?" says Tim. "Now I've got to ease into being more inspirational."

RIAT is a show that on occasion has transcended the woes of the world. In 1979 as tensions in the Middle East simmered Hercules from myriad nations lined up across the tarmac to celebrate the planes' 25th birthday.

Front and centre was an Israeli Hercules flanked by one each from Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Later Tim went in search of the pilots and found an extraordinary scene. "They were all out back having a drink and telling stories and flying together," he recalls. "It does bring like-minded people nearer and promotes a nicer side of life. I realised then that this is what it was all about."

This year's tattoo is all about anniversaries - the Red Arrows' 40th, the C130 Hercules 50th, D-Day's 60th and the 100th anniversary of Entente Cordiale. RIAT is a show that honours the history of aviation.

Conspicuous by its absence this year will be Concorde. Tim laments its passing having helped organise the 50th anniversary celebrations for Heathrow where the great supersonic bird of the skies was the star of the show. "Concorde was always a treat and people always looked up," he says. "Now we have not got that but we have got the Stealth which people tend to look up at."

This year both the bomber and fighter versions of the hi-tech wonder will visit Fairford. "You will not get a chance to see in the UK anywhere else," says Tim. "The crowd goes quiet. Tens of thousands of people all noisy and chattering like sparrows go quiet when the Stealth comes onto the horizon."

Every now and again, somewhere in the world, a tragic accident of spectacular proportions takes place at an airshow, hitting world headlines and making us question the wisdom of putting aircraft and crowds together in one confined space.

"When you put planes together at an airshow you do it in a very controlled way," he says. "It's got to be spectacular for the spectators to enjoy but above all it has got to be safe.

That is paramount," says Tim. The two national jewels in our airshow crown are Farnborough and Fairford but they are distinct, according to Tim.

"Farnborough is very much the trade show where people are buying aircraft while Fairford is very much a gathering of military aviators," he says.

RIAT has become increasingly criticised by a minority of peaceniks opposed to its platform of military hardware.

"Everybody in life should have an opinion," says Tim," but military aviation is there for all sorts of purposes. It does huge amounts of humanitarian work.

"Life's never straight forward. We don't have any secrets here. It's military and civilian aircraft. We very much like to celebrate aviation rather than just the armament side of aviation.

"If we get floods we are very grateful that the military are there to help us. "There's much more to it than just the aggressive side and we try to get the balance right. It is the world's largest military airshow.

"All these countries send planes because they like its ethos. It is a gathering." Up to 30 countries from Oman to Brazil, France to the United States will send around 400 planes to this year's show attended by crowds approaching 200,000.

"The British have always had a great interest in aviation," says Tim. "In the States very few people look up when a plane passes overhead but in the UK most will."