Header image: Eurofighter Typhoon pilot Sqn Ldr Mark Long has been selected as the OC BBMF for the 2025-2027 display seasons. (Photo: RAF Coningsby Photo Section Crown Copyright)
Squadron Leader Mark Long, a Typhoon instructor with 29 Squadron at RAF Coningsby, is joining the BBMF as a new volunteer fighter pilot for four years, prior to becoming the Officer Commanding BBMF for the 2025-2027 seasons.
For this month’s Club members’ ballot prize, we’re giving away a 1:72 scale Airfix model kit of the Avro Lancaster B.III (Special), worth £38.99.
Header image: The BBMF Bomber Leader, Flight Lieutenant Neil ‘Faz’ Farrell, touches the Bomber Command brass plaque on the side of Lancaster PA474 as he climbs in. (Photo: Lisa Harding)
During the TV programme about the BBMF, ‘Flying for Britain’, presented by Sir David Jason OBE and first broadcast on ITV on 15th September, there was a brief mention of the BBMF crews touching the brass plaque on the side of Lancaster PA474 as they climb in and out, at the start and end of each sortie. Some readers may not have been aware of this tradition, almost a superstition, that has developed on the Flight in recent years and the reasons for it.
