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  • Officer pilots of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, lean aginst a wing of their Hawk jet in a pre-flight briefing while a member of their ground crew positions some wheel chocks. The highly-skilled engineer is known as a 'Blue' but the 'Reds' discuss  flight plans. Eleven trades skills are imported from some sixty that the RAF employs and teaches. It is mid-day and only their flying boots and red legs are seen with the RAF roundel emblem is on the underside of the wing. The better-educated officers in the armed forces enjoy a more privileged lifestyle than their support staff. In the aerobatic squadron, the Blues outnumber the pilots 8:1. Without them, the Red Arrows couldn't fly. SOme of the team's Hawks are 25 years old and their air frames require constant attention, with increasingly frequent major overhauls due.
    Red_Arrows174_RBA.jpg
  • With the runways and former nuclear silos of RAF Scampton below, Lincolnshire, the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team swoop down to their home airfield during an In-Season Practice (ISP) training flight. Trailing white organic smoke before reforming in front of a local crowd they work through a 25-minute series of display manoeuvres that are loved by thousands at summer air shows. They curve round in a similar trajectory as seen on the bending taxi-way. Freshly-ploughed English fields with properties, roads, hedgerows and cold war nuclear solios are seen below on a perfect day for aerobatic displaying. After some time off, spare days like this are used to hone their manual aerobatic and piloting skills before re-joining the air show circuit. Since 1965 they've flown over 4,000 shows in 52 countries.   .
    Red_Arrows732_RBA.jpg
  • Banking slowly left over the agricultural Lincolnshire countryside are the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, who have commenced an In-Season Practice (ISP) training flight near their base at RAF Scampton. They turn at a gentle angle trailing white organic smoke  before reforming in front of a local crowd at the airfield and working through a 25-minute series of display manoeuvres that are loved by thousands at summer air shows. Their objective is to appear perfectly spaced from a ground perspective. Freshly-ploughed English fields with properties, roads and hedgerows are seen below. After some time off, spare days like this are used to hone their manual aerobatic and piloting skills before re-joining the air show circuit. Since 1965 they've flown over 4,000 shows in 52 countries.   .
    Red_Arrows682_RBA.jpg
  • Standing with a bloodied knife and hand is an instructor of a special US Air Force (USAF) survival course (see also Corbis image 42-18212808) who has butchered a deer near their facility at Fairchild AFB, Spokane, Washington State. The man teaches escape and evasion techniques to visiting air crew whose flying careers depend on passing this rigorous week of survival instruction. Should they be downed in hostile territory for example, they will need every skill learned here to survive possibly weeks being hunted in the wilderness so trapping and preparing fresh meat for human consumption is important for survival. Here the teachers stand around the venison which is strung up on a branch, its intestines and organs already removed by a hunting knife. .
    usaf_survival001-06-08-1995.jpg
  • It is morning in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India and on the streets around the Writers' Building, a busy fruit market is in full swing. Against the wall however, a dying skill is being shown: A man sits with his back to the bustle of the street and is hand-typing letters for those unable to write their own correspondence with his own battered typewriter. Working as a freelance typist, the man transcribes the hand-written words for a customer before the days of home PC or laptop. The Writers' Building (Mahakaran in Bengali) is the secretariat building of the State Government of West Bengal in India. The Writers' Building originally served as the office for writers of the British East India Company, hence the name. Designed by Thomas Lyon in 1780, it received its impressive Corinthian façade, an example of the Neo-Renaissance style, in 1889.
    kolkata01-18-11-1996.jpg
  • Wallers from the South West England Dry Stone Walling Association (SWEDSWA) demonstrate dry stone wallers in Priddy, Somerset. Across the UK, there are over 150,000 miles of wall in a state of disrepair. The members of SWEDSWA try to do their bit to rebuild some of those across the South West of England, demonstrating and educating their trade skills to the general public at country events such as this - a sheep fair held annually since 1348.
    priddy_fair04-21-08-2013.jpg
  • A man walks down a street practicing his Three-ball cascade skills. For the three-ball cascade the juggler starts with two balls in one hand and the third ball in the other hand. One ball is thrown from the first hand in an arc to the other hand. Before catching this ball the juggler must throw the ball in the receiving hand, in a similar arc, to the first hand. The pattern continues in this manner with each hand in turn throwing one ball and catching another. All balls are caught on the outside of the pattern (on the far left and right) and thrown from closer to the middle of the pattern. The hand moves toward the middle to throw, and back towards the outside to catch the next object. Because the hands must move up and down when throwing and catching, putting this movement together causes the left hand to move in a counterclockwise motion, and the right hand to move in a clockwise motion.
    street_juggler02-23-03-2011.jpg
  • Standing with a recently-killed deer run-over on a nearby highway, members of a special US Air Force (USAF) survival course (see Corbis image 42-18212808) pose by the gutted carcass of their animal in a forest near their facility at Fairchild AFB, Spokane, Washington State. These tough-looking men host visiting air crew whose flying careers depend on passing this rigorous week of escape and evasion instruction. Should they land in enemy territory for example, they will need all the skills learned here to survive possibly weeks in the wilderness so trapping and preparing fresh meat for human consumption is of paramount importance. Here the teachers stand around the venison which is strung up on a branch, its intestines and organs already removed by a hunting knife. They wear camouflage uniforms, face paint to look vicious, threatening and heartless. .
    USAF0206-08_1995.jpg
  • A young busker performs football skills on the pavement outside the National Portrait Gallery.
    street_theatre02-23-06-2010.jpg
  • In the mid-day heat, Squadron Leader Spike Jepson, leader of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, informally addresses the team's highly-skilled ground crew at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus after the whole team's success of passing PDA (or 'Public Display Authority'). The Red Arrows are then allowed by senior RAF officers to perform as a military aerobatic show in front of the general public - following a special test flight when their every move and mistake is assessed and graded. Until that day arrives, their training and practicing is done in the privacy of their own airfield at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, UK. Squadron Leader Jepson has gathered his engineers and support crew known as the Blues to congratulate and encourage them. Specialists like these outnumber the pilots 8:1 and without them, the Red Arrows couldn't fly.
    Red_Arrows162_RBA.jpg
  • Engineer airframe specialist Junior Technician Barry Pritchard of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, forms part of the team's highly-skilled group of support ground crew who outnumber the pilots 8:1. Here J/Tech Pritchard straddles the fuselage of  the Hawk jet aircraft performing a Ram Air Turbine (RAT) jack change in the squadron hangar. Eleven trades are imported from some sixty that the RAF employs and teaches. The team's aircraft are in some cases 25 years old and their airframes require constant attention, with frequent overhauls needed. In these shelters were housed the Lancaster bombers 617 Dambusters squadron who attacked the damns of the German Ruhr valley on 16th May 1943 using the Bouncing Bomb. The Red Arrows nearby offices as their administrative nerve-centre for the 90-plus displays they perform a year. .
    Red_Arrows030_RBA.jpg
  • Climbing at sub-sonic speed, a Hawk jet aircraft of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, is seen from a neighbouring aircraft during an 'In-Season Practice' (ISP), a summer training flight over the farming fields of Lincolnshire. A landscape of agriculture is behind the red airplanes as they loop after a vertical climb. The front-seated pilot and his guest passenger stare through visors towards the wing to keep a perfect 'reference', maintaining an exact formation as seen from the ground. The Red Arrows fly to within 10 feet (3 metres) apart in some formations with speeds of 480 mph (770 kph), keeping in formation is a skill they learn every winter and refine on spare days like this between public air shows. The RAF roundel, (emblem), is on the nearest wing and the other fuselage as the world falls away in perspective.
    Red_Arrows575_RBA.jpg
  • In the mid-day heat, Squadron Leader John Green is a member of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team. Here he walks out alone to his aircraft, which is lined up with some of the others jets at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus before flying out to Marka in Jordan for the first display of the year. The Red Arrows arrive each April to fine-tune their air show skills in the clear Mediterranean skies and continue their busy display calendar above the skies of the UK and other European show circuit. We see John Green carrying his flight bag and life-vest over his shoulder. He paces confidently across the bright 'apron' dressed in his famous red flying suit that the Red Arrows have made famous since 1965. He is alone and striding confidently towards the matching red eight Hawk airplanes.
    Red_Arrows093_RBA.jpg
  • Looking down vertically upon the Hawk jet aicraft of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, the team loop over agricultural countryside during an In-Season Practice (ISP) training flight near their base at RAF Scampton. Roman Ermine Street road is a diagonal line through the centre, dissecting wisps of organic white smoke left hanging in the air. Reforming in front of a local crowd at the airfield they work through a 25-minute series of display manoeuvres that are loved by thousands at summer air shows. Freshly-ploughed English fields with properties, roads, hedgerows plus former nuclear silos are seen below. After some time off, spare days like this are used to hone their manual aerobatic and piloting skills before re-joining the air show circuit. Since 1965 they've flown over 4,000 shows in 52 countries.   .
    Red_Arrows733_RBA.jpg
  • Banking hard right over the agricultural Lincolnshire countryside are the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, who have commenced an In-Season Practice (ISP) training flight near their base at RAF Scampton. They turn at a ninety degree angle, two trailing white organic smoke before reforming in front of a local crowd at the airfield and working through a 25-minute series of display manoeuvres that are loved by thousands at summer air shows. Their objective is to appear perfectly spaced from a ground perspective. Freshly-ploughed English fields with properties, roads and hedgerows are seen below. After some time off, spare days like this are used to hone their manual aerobatic and piloting skills before re-joining the air show circuit. Since 1965 they've flown over 4,000 shows in 52 countries.   .
    Red_Arrows731_RBA.jpg
  • Using a bloodied knife and hand, an instructor of a special US Air Force (USAF) survival course who has butchered roadkill deer...Near their facility at Fairchild AFB, Spokane, Washington State, the man teaches escape and evasion techniques to visiting air crew whose flying careers depend on passing this rigorous week of survival instruction. Should they be downed in hostile territory for example, they will need every skill learned here to survive possibly weeks being hunted in the wilderness so trapping and preparing fresh meat for human consumption is important for survival. Here the teachers stand around the venison which is strung up on a branch, its intestines and organs already removed by a hunting knife.
    usaf_survival01-06-08-1995.jpg
  • A man stoopes to collect a dropped tennis ball while practicing his Three-ball cascade skills.
    street_juggler06-23-03-2011.jpg
  • A young couple demonstrate their rock 'n' roll dancing skills in front of a crowd in Myatts Fields park in Camberwell, South London UK. Spinning his partner on the specially-laid flooring, the gentleman is dressed in a double-breasted suit in keeping with the 1950s theme of this fair's celebration of a newly-refurbished park. The lady wears a red dress and holds her arm out to regain balance as she is pulled back towards her dance partner. The seated crowd watch attentively beneath London Plain trees whose foliage gives welcome shade on a warm summer afternoon.
    myatts_fields_fair006-20-06-2009.jpg
  • Deep in the West Sussex countryside are a group of Territorial Army soldiers. They have stopped in a remote lane to consult their Ordnance Survey maps during a day of learning to navigate with maps and compasses. Over a weekend learn the skills needed to be part-time army volunteers known as the TA and have far to go. Together they look at maps and argue where they should go next. Looking on with mild amusement is their senior officer who accompanies them to assess their leadership skills and initiative. Behind them a road sign tells them the road ahead is a dead end to traffic. It is a very English summer landscape of lush green vegetation and grasses. The TA work as part of Britain's reserve land forces. Together with the Regular Army they provide support at home and overseas including Iraq and Afghanistan. .
    RB_102-12-06-1988.jpg
  • Wallers from the South West England Dry Stone Walling Association (SWEDSWA) demonstrate dry stone wallers in Priddy, Somerset. Across the UK, there are over 150,000 miles of wall in a state of disrepair. The members of SWEDSWA try to do their bit to rebuild some of those across the South West of England, demonstrating and educating their trade skills to the general public at country events such as this - a sheep fair held annually since 1348.
    priddy_fair08-21-08-2013.jpg
  • An airline flight-engineer occupies his own seat in the cockpit of a Boeing 747 - before the era arrived when technology made his role as a third flight crew member redundant. With a bowl of fresh fruit beside his seat, the male member of the flight-deck crew watches instruments and readings in front of the unseen pilots at the front. Wearing the three stripes designating his rank and seniority within his unspecified airline, the specialist's skills are in engineering systems that maintain efficient flight. When introduced, the Boeing 747-400 model was equipped with a two-crew glass cockpit, which dispensed with the need for a flight engineer - many of whom lost their jobs or retrained as pilots themselves.
    flight_engineer01-07-08-2000.jpg
  • A young apprentice stop near the top of a city centre chimney during a steeplejack course in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Using an elaborate system of harnesses and pulleys, the young lad is learning the skills to work safely and efficiently at dangerous heights and the town stretches below. Sponsored training is offered through the Steeplejack Industry Training Group Association and CITB-ConstructionSkills for young people aged 16. Applicants for this scheme will have to pass aptitude tests, literary and Maths assessments, and problem solving. Each year, the Steeplejack Industry Training Group and CITB-ConstructionSkills offer 12 places on training courses for trainee steeplejacks and 12 places for trainee Lightning Conductor Engineers.
    steeplejacks02-17-03-1993.jpg
  • Some of the nine Hawk jet aircraft of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, perform the 5/4 Split high during an In-Season Practice (ISP) training flight near their base at RAF Scampton. Seen through the explosive Plexiglass cockpit of a tenth plane, we see forward into deep blue sky as two sets of aerobatic pilots steer their machines from a crossover manoeuvre, their organic white smoke pouring from their jet pipes to emphasize their paths through the air. In front of a local crowd at the airfield the team work their way through a 25-minute series of display manoeuvres that are loved by thousands at summer air shows. After some time off, spare days like this are used to hone their manual aerobatic and piloting skills before re-joining the air show circuit. Since 1965 they've flown over 4,000 shows in 52 countries.   .
    Red_Arrows730_RBA.jpg
  • A young busker performs football skills on the pavement outside the National Portrait Gallery.
    street_theatre01-23-06-2010.jpg
  • On a foggy Spring morning at RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, a yellow MoD airfield telephone stands alone in the mist. Scampton is the headquarters of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team who largely have the sole use of its air space. The ageing equipment is a push-button type and its colour matches the painted stripes on the damp, concreted ground. The gloomy mist is obscuring buildings and hangars in the background and flying has been cancelled so an eerie stillness has settled on the normally busy facility that would normally host up to six red Arrows sorties (flight) a winter's day. Communications with remote areas of the aerodrome is often necessary to alert the air traffic control tower. Only qualified personnel are to use this system, just as drivers must have undertaken an MoD vehicle course.  .
    Red_Arrows399_RBA.jpg
  • Ending France's Bastille Day parade, the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, streak over the pyramid peak of the Louvre art museum in the centre of Paris. Leaving vapour trails of red, white and blue smoke to mark the 100th anniversary of the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale. They were chosen by the French authorities to close the fly-pasts. British armed forces paraded in the historic parade for the first time. Under blue skies on a perfect summer day, the squadron lined up in their classic fly-past 'V-shape' called 'Big Battle', following the straight line of the Champs Elysees then eastwards over the Parisian suburbs. Personnel from four British military units were present and French Air Force jets performed their own fly-past to open the parade, while the British Hawk jets of the Red Arrows had the honour of completing it. .
    Red_Arrows462_RBA.jpg
  • Darren Budziszewski is a Junior Technician engineer in the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team. He is seen carefully standing in the cockpit of a Hawk jet closely inspecting the Plexiglass canopy for smears and scratches. Stooping at the open surface while keeping back flat and his knees bent, its posture that the RAF teaches its employees. Darren polishes the aircraft before its pilot emerges from the building at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus. The Red Arrows ground crew take enormous pride in their role as supporting the team whose air displays are known around the world, cleaning the red airplanes on their day off, so particular are they. The image is backlit and both canopy and man are bottom-weighted to allow us to see space and sky. Specialists like Darren outnumber the pilots 8:1 and without them, the Red Arrows couldn't fly.
    Red_Arrows099_RBA.jpg
  • Craning their necks skyward, both a pilot and support ground engineers of elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, gaze up to view an air display directly overhead at the Payerne Air 04 show, Switzerland. It is a perfect day for aerobatics with blue skies and during the team's two-day visit to the Swiss airfield at Payerne. Pilot Squadron Leader John Green is one of nine aviators who are collectively known as the Reds because of their famous red flying suits. The ground crew are obviously called the Blues. Payerne is home of the Swiss Air Force who host the cream of international aerobatic display flying every September to 275,000 spectators over a weekend. The picture is full of humour because John Green is looking one way and the two others look in the opposite direction, while standing next to the aircraft.   .
    Red_Arrows660_RBA.jpg
  • The elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, fly over an area known as the Cliffs on the Akrotiri peninsular of southern Cyprus. We see a barren scene of scrub and in the air, the team are in their signature 'Diamond Nine' formation, climbing up in a long arc through the blue sky and traversing above the dusty, featureless landscape where a naval Transit marker in the shape of a giant red arrow aids coastal shipping to safely navigate but which is missing some panels. The nine Hawk jets pass-by as a tight 'nine-ship' (the term used to describe nine aircraft in close formation) during a training flight in the clear Mediterranean skies. They return to this stretch of Cypriot coast each Spring to complete their rigorous winter schedule before the UK's air show display season.
    Red_Arrows288_RBA.jpg
  • Junior Technician Brian Robb, an engineer with the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, shines his torch inside the flaps of a Hawk jet aircraft checking for obstructions, RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire. Wearing ear defenders clasped to his head, J/Tech Robb peers into the wing assembly during a pre-flight inspection before the pilot emerges from for another winter training flight. Robb is a member of the team's support ground crew who outnumber the pilots 8:1 and without them, the Red Arrows couldn't fly.  Eleven trades are imported from some sixty that the RAF employs and teaches. Crouching by an RAF roundel emblem, he wears an army style green camouflage coat as protection over the biting Lincolnshire wind, and a fluorescent tabard required for any personnel working on the 'line', where the aircraft taxi to and park. .
    Red_Arrows028_RBA.jpg
  • A red Hawk jet aircraft belonging to the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, is parked outside a nearby hangar on the concrete 'apron' (where aircraft park) at the squadron's headquarters at RAF Scampton, Loncolnshire. A member of the team's support ground crew (the Blues because of their distinctive blue overalls worn at summer air shows) prepare to refuel as the last daylight fades and artificial light from the hangar illuminates the scene. Their winter training schedule is both rigorous on the aircraft and demanding on the pilots who will typically fly up to six times a day in preparation of the forthcoming summer when they display at 90-plus air shows. After the day's flying, the engineers' night shift arrive to service and maintain the aging fleet of 11 aircraft. .
    Red_Arrows013_RBA.jpg
  • In a red helmet, Squadron Leader Spike Jepson, team leader of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, plunges into the blue  Mediterranean waters for his annual Wet Drill exercise during Spring training in Cyprus. We see the pilot, small in the picture surrounded by frothing, blue water that engulfs his small body making him look vulnerable. There are lines attaching him to a boat ensuring his safety. The rehearsal is to practise a helicopter recovery after a fast-jet ejection over the sea. His RAF-issue life vest (containing a vital life-raft) has inflated when in  contact with the salt water and helps him stay afloat in the cold water. This yearly event is required of all flying personnel to ensure that any accident over water can reach a positive outcome - by the rescuing of an expensively-trained pilot or navigator. .
    Red_Arrows039_RBA.jpg
  • Air show organiser Jock Maitland of the Biggin Hill displays is to be presented with a momento by members of  the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team. We look down upon three pilots' backs (known as the Reds) who are lined up in their famous red flying suits during the ceremony and as speeches of thanks are made. A scaled model of a Hawk jet aircraft is hidden from view behind Flight Lieutenant Dave Slow's back before being handed to Mr Maitland as thanks for his contribution to the air show calendar. They stand at ease on the grass of this famous World War II airfield which saw much enemy action during the Batttle of Britain, patiently and relaxed with hands behind backs before leaving to perform their display routine in front of thousands of spectators.
    Red_Arrows727_RBA.jpg
  • A pilot of the French Air Force walks looking down along the fuselage of his C-130 Hercules oblivious to nine Hawk jet aircraft of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, who come screaming behind and 'breaking to land'. This set procedure prepares them to split up as a group, peel off seperately and land safely at the Payerne Air 04 show, Switzerland. It is a perfect day for aerobatics with blue alpine skies during the teams' two-day visit to the Swiss airfield. Payerne is home of the Swiss Air Force who host the cream of international aerobatic display flying every September to 275,000 spectators over a weekend. European display teams and air forces gathered to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Swiss military aviation. .
    Red_Arrows663_RBA.jpg
  • Seen in profile view, we are looking at the edge of a Hawk jet aircraft port wing flap set at about 45 degrees. Designed by BAE Systems and painted in the colour of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire. An original serial and issue numbers plate is riveted to its end assembly. The Hawk's classic, highly-efficient lifting wing is legendary with aeronatutical designer experts who recognise its ability to withstand excellent rates of climb and high g-forces (positive or negative gravity) routinely exerted on it by the Red Arrows team who fly more sorties (flights) and undergo more 'g' than other RAF squadron. In bright sunlight we see the graish red that is the signature colour of the team and the RAF's roundel is seen out of focus in the background to make a graphic engineering detail. .
    Red_Arrows643_RBA.jpg
  • Squadron Leader David Thomas of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, sits on the wing of his Hawk jet aircraft and concentrates on the air display at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) RAF Fairford, UK. The pressures on the pilots are enormous when thousands of people scruntinise the team's every move. Squadron Leader Thomas is Synchro Leader - the prime flyer in a partnership of two who perform some of the most spectacular manoeuvres in the Red Arrows routine, including the most physically demanding high 'G' (gravity) turns. Leaning back on the fuselage, he replays the manoeuvres through his mind. The psyching-up process mentally prepares him for the intensive show. Thomas wears his anti-g pants which squeeze blood back to his thorax and head during the turns and loops, also wearing the famous red flying suit. .
    Red_Arrows507_RBA.jpg
  • At the start of another day's work, pilots belonging to the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, walk in single-file out into the pink morning light for the first winter training flight of the day at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire. Emerging from their squadron building the aviators make their way along a pathway towards the waiting Hawk jet aircraft known the world over. Wearing winter green flying suits and carrying their helmets, their day is spent flying and de-briefing up to six times a day when weather permits. Long shadows spill over on to the airfield's cropped grass. Scampton  is one of the original World War 2 RAF stations for the Lancaster bombers the 617 Dambusters squadron who attacked the damns of the German Ruhr valley on 16th May 1943 using the Bouncing Bomb. Today, it is used almost exclusively by the team.
    Red_Arrows011_RBA.jpg
  • Automated stitching machine works on badges for the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team at Dale Techniche, Nelson, Lancashire. Every Winter, the Red Arrows place about 40 pilot suit orders and 180 blue (support ground crew) suits. Tricia adjusts her thread while the suit is complete on her work bench. The clothing factory also designs the Red Arrows badges, each requiring 15,000 stitches. All suits are made from Nomex by the Du Pont corporation, containing 5% Kevlar. Flame-retardant, they fit exactly each team member. Fouteen different measurements are taken before the first suit is cut, each one requiring approximately three metres of dyed cloth. When a suit is complete, each one is signed inside by the machinist.
    Red_Arrows078_RBA.jpg
  • An old fashioned pair of public address speakers have been attached to a no access sign overlooking the Northumberland countryside at the Kielder Air Show. Here, the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, are to perform and the squadron's commentator - known as Red 10 - will be describing the 25-minute routine performed in front of a few hundred people, probably the smallest of the Red Arrows audiences. The Hawk aircraft will be flying over the borderland between England and Scotland during this display which has attracted a local crowd to this pretty landscape. This primitive method of amplification makes for it charmingly quirky. Tangled electrical wires and an extension reel is low-tech and makeshift, vastly different to other shows where digital sound quality reproduces audio to many of thousands of spectators.
    Red_Arrows542_RBA.jpg
  • Stored temporarily in a storeroom shelf, are the front and rear sections of a Hawk jet aircraft smoke pod belonging to the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team. Grubby and old, like museum artifacts, the two items are attached to the ageing aircrafts' belly accessory that provides the team with their distinctive red, white and blue smoke (a vegetable dye and diesel fuel mixture) during their air show display routines. This version of the BAE Systems Hawks are primitive pieces of equipment, without computers or fly-by-wire technology. Nevertheless, the team's aircraft are in some cases over 20 years old and their air-frames require constant attention with increasingly frequent major overhauls due. Here the parts are separated from the middle section which are receiving a winter modification.
    Red_Arrows393_RBA.jpg
  • Specialist Corporal Mal Faulder is an armourer engineer (qualified to handle ejection seats and weaponry on military jets) but here in the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team he is seen polishing the aircraft's flying surfaces using wool and cleaning fluid on the morning of the team's PDA Day. PDA (or 'Public Display Authority'), is a special test flight when their every move and mistake is assessed and graded. Corporal Faulder is to buff up the airplane for an extra special shine on such an important day and we see the UK's Union Jack flag on the side of the diagonal stripes of the tail fin. The Red Arrows ground crew take enormous pride in their role as supporting the aviators whose air displays are known around the world. Blues like Mal outnumber the pilots 8:1. Without them, the Red Arrows couldn't fly.
    Red_Arrows129_RBA.jpg
  • Spectators at the The Princess Margaret Hospital (TPMH) on the Akrotiri peninsula, about 4 kilometres from the RAF Station at Akrotiri, admire the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, as they perform one of their first public shows of the year. RAF staff and patients are allowed on to the grass outside the hospital building for this free show, given in honour of local charity fund-raisers of the Cyprus-based RAF Association whose guests form one of the smallest crowds to watch a Red Arrows display. Here, the team perform The Twizzle manoeuvre in front of the small crowd who stand by a green fence, matching tree and palm tree stumps. The bare earth is baked hard by the lack of rain and it almost looks like a desert scene as five of the nine jets speed overhead,
    Red_Arrows136_RBA.jpg
  • A lone figure stands silhouetted against a hangar belonging to the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire. Two huge hangar doors are ajar revealing an orange glow spilling on to the concrete outside. A Hawk jet aircraft is parked awaiting overnight maintenance. Engineers talk inside as the door travels along its track. The men are the team's support ground crew and eleven trades are imported from some sixty that the RAF qualifies. The hangar dates to World War 2, housing Lancaster bombers of 617 Dambusters squadron who attacked the damns of the German Ruhr valley on 16th May 1943 using the Bouncing Bomb. This version of BAE Systems Hawks are low-tech, without computers nor fly-by-wire technology, Some of the  team's aircraft are 25 years old and their airframes require frequent overhauls due.
    Red_Arrows074_RBA.jpg
  • Employees watch motivational circus acrobats at their corporate rally day, held for 3,000 UK staff at Excel
    Ernst+Young_Academy47-21-09-2007.jpg
  • Employees watch motivational circus acrobats at their corporate rally day, held for 3,000 UK staff at Excel
    Ernst+Young_Academy45-21-09-2007.jpg
  • A new futuristic car concept is awaitng investment by a female Iranian entrepreneur at an inventors fair in Alexandra Palace, London
    inventors_fair53-19-10-2007.jpg
  • A new crisp packet concept is demonstrated by an entrepreneur at an inventors fair in Alexandra Palace, London
    inventors_fair30-19-10-2007.jpg
  • A teenage boy of 15 years of age learns the art of reversing a a small trailer on a family farmstead in north Somerset.
    learning_reversing01-04-05-2013.jpg
  • A shipbuilder wearing a face mask, leans through the incomplete window belonging to the superstructure of a large German ferry at the Polish Gdansk shipyard - once known as the Lenin Shipyard but still the largest of its kind in modern Poland. The grimy and hazardous working conditions make for a dangerous environment in which to work. His overalls are torn from jagged steel edges and his skin is dirty. Here in 1980 the union Solidarity (Solidarnosc) was conceived and was partly responsible for a growing dissent against Communist rule, ultimately contributing towards the fall of the Berlin Wall. Lech Walesa started his political career as an electrical technician here, going on to lead Solidarity and then to become President of a democratic Poland. Today the city of Gdansk is a major industrial city and shipping port.
    gdansk_shipyard04-03-09-2007.jpg
  • Young job-seekers get advice at a graduate expo fair where company job recruiters meet young people starting work
    grad_fair06-07-03-2008 .jpg
  • A portrait of Dr Horst Zinke, at the Health Care International in Glasgow, Scotland in 1994.
    surgeon_portrait02-20-05-1994.jpg
  • RAF fighter pilot in Harrier ground attack aircraft at RAF Wittering.
    Red_Arrows242_RBA.jpg
  • Lying in undergrowth, a camouflaged British infantry soldier is seen looking down the telescopic sight of the new British-made Long Range L115A3 sniper rifle on Salisbury Plain, Warminster, England. Sniping means concealment, observation and assassination, a strategy the British are using more against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Swiss Lapua .338 inch rounds (8.59mm) travel at sub-sonic speeds of 936 metres/sec, finding its target accurately up to 1,100 metres. The rifle weighs 6.8kg with telescopic image-intensified scopes to 25x life size vision, made by Schmidt & Bender. Front-mounted 'suppressor' minimises the signature normally compromising snipers' position. At £23,000 each, a £4 million contract has been awarded to Accuracy International, to provide the Army, Royal Marines and RAF. The British say this is the best sniper rifle in the world.
    sniper_rifle16-06-03-2008 .jpg
  • An Iranian stand for entrepreneurs demonstrating fun ideas at an inventors fair in Alexandra Palace, London
    inventors_fair11-19-10-2007.jpg
  • A Lambeth council contractor repairs park railings by welding uprights.
    welder04-19-12-2013.jpg
  • A teenage boy of 15 years of age learns the art of reversing a a small trailer on a family farmstead in north Somerset.
    learning_reversing05-04-05-2013.jpg
  • Young job-seekers get advice at a graduate expo fair where company job recruiters meet young people starting work
    grad_fair44-07-03-2008 .jpg
  • Taking notes on a stand at a graduate expo fair where company job recruiters meet young people starting work
    grad_fair37-07-03-2008 .jpg
  • receiving advice from a CV clinic at a graduate expo fair where company job recruiters meet young people starting work
    grad_fair22-07-03-2008 .jpg
  • Brian Lecomber flew as a professional aerobatic pilot for 23 years, during which time his Firebird Aerobatics team completed over 2,800 solo and formation displays in front of an estimated total of 90 million spectators. They gave displays in 15 countries, and had a 100% safety record before closing in 2003. They will be remembered as one of the UK's most successful professional civilian aerobatic display company. Lecomber has been a racing motorcycle mechanic; journalist; wing-walker in a flying circus; chief flying instructor in the Caribbean; crop-spray pilot, and then a best-selling author of aviation novels. We see him in-flight performing a tight turn above southern English fields of Buckinghamshire with flying partner Alan Wade when the team was sponsored by the Rover Group.
    brian_lecomber01.jpg
  • Infantry soldiers of the British Army demonstrate their newest L115A3 sniper rifle on firing ranges of the Support Weapon School, Salisbury Plain, Warminster.
    sniper_rifle23-06-03-2008 .jpg
  • An female acrobat spontaneously stands on the shoulders of a friend at a coffee kiosk, on 2nd March 2017, in The Cut, London borough of Southwark, England.
    southwark_acrobats-03-02-03-2017.jpg
  • A woman hairdresser seemingly works on the graphics of glamourous models' hair in salon shop window.
    hairdresser02-18-01-2011.jpg
  • A newborn baby boy is carried away from his mother immediately after she has given birth to the child in the delivery ward at Kings College Hospital, Camberwell, London. Handling the crying and twisting infant with only one hand, the lady health professional takes it to a warm towel and then to some weighing scales where the baby is checked and cleaned then returned to the mum who is still on the birthing bed. From a personal documentary project entitled "Next of Kin" about the photographer's two children's early years spent in parallel universes.
    ella+sam01-31-03_1998.jpg
  • A team of English tea-tasters employed by the tea company Lyons sample different blends for the PG Tips brand in the City of London, England UK. With variously-sourced teas from tea estate plantations, they smell, touch, sip, slurp then spit the hot drink out into a spitoon rather than swallow it many times repeatedly. Britons drink 35 million cups of PG Tips a day and world tea production is approximately 3.2 million tonnes a year. Kenya is the largest producer with Sri Lanka a close second. PG Tips is imported as single estate teas from around the world and blended in precise proportions set by the tea tasters to make blend 777, which can contain between 12 and 35 single estate teas at any one time depending on season..
    RB_133-21-05-1993.jpg
  • Infantry soldiers of the British Army demonstrate their newest L115A3 sniper rifle on firing ranges of the Support Weapon School, Salisbury Plain, Warminster.
    sniper_rifle24-06-03-2008 .jpg
  • Francis Rossi and musician John (Rhino) Edwards of rock band Status Quo play guitar during gig on European tour in France..
    status_quo138-15-10-2007.jpg
  • Ladies darts champion Anastasia Dobromyslova plays semi-final with arch-rival 7-times world ladies champion Trina Gulliver
    anastasia_dobromyslova26-12-04-2008.jpg
  • Window cleaner abseilers lower themselves down the Walkie Talkie building in the City of London.
    window_cleaners04-08-09-2014.jpg
  • Absiling window cleaners work high above street level of the glass sheets of Westfield City shopping centre in Stratford.
    stratford87-14-10-2011.jpg
  • Lying in undergrowth, a camouflaged British infantry soldier is seen looking down the telescopic sight of the new British-made Long Range L115A3 sniper rifle on Salisbury Plain, Warminster, England. Sniping means concealment, observation and assassination, a strategy the British are using more against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Swiss Lapua .338 inch rounds (8.59mm) travel at sub-sonic speeds of 936 metres/sec, finding its target accurately up to 1,100 metres. The rifle weighs 6.8kg with telescopic image-intensified scopes to 25x life size vision, made by Schmidt & Bender. Front-mounted 'suppressor' minimises the signature normally compromising snipers' position. At £23,000 each, a £4 million contract has been awarded to Accuracy International, to provide the Army, Royal Marines and RAF. The British say this is the best sniper rifle in the world.
    sniper_rifle02-06-03-2008 .jpg
  • Infantry soldiers of the British Army demonstrate their newest L115A3 sniper rifle on firing ranges of the Support Weapon School, Salisbury Plain, Warminster.
    sniper_rifle17-06-03-2008 .jpg
  • European Space Agency technicians at Ariane launch control monitor rocket systems hours before a satellite launch
    esa_guiana07514-08-2007.jpg
  • Absiling window cleaners work high above street level of the glass sheets of Westfield City shopping centre in Stratford.
    stratford4-14-10-2011.jpg
  • Crew room classroom of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team at their RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire headquarters. Using two scaled model Hawk jet aircraft he shows how their formation is to be flown on their next training flight. Five autumn and winter months are spent teaching new recruits manual aerobatic display flying while the older members (who rotate positions) learn new disciplines within the routine. Their leaning curve is steep, even for these accomplished fast-jet aviators who had already accumulated 1,500 hours in fighters. By Summer they need every aspect of their 25-minute displays honed to perfection. In this meeting room they meet before and after every flight discussing safety, merits and failures.
    Red_Arrows767_RBA.jpg
  • RAF fighter pilots prepare for sortie flight at crew briefing room RAF Wittering.
    Red_Arrows487_RBA.jpg
  • Standing in their cradles are three members of a National Grid Live-line electricity cable crew, protected in a conductive cage beneath the electricy cables that they maintaining. We see the sagging cables stretching to distant electricity pylons and the three human figures standing like astonauts in their protective cradles. Huge structure of girders and relays are behind them and they wear safety clothing allowing them to work comfortably inside the electrical field at close range with gloved hands. National Grid Electricity Transmission plc owns and operates the National Grid high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales.National Grid plc is a United Kingdom based utilities company which also operates in other countries, principally in the United States.
    RB_042-21-04-1995.jpg
  • Ageing guitarist Rick Parfitt of Status Quo adjusts his Marshall Amplifier during sound check on European tour in Lille, France.
    status_quo029-15-10-2007.jpg
  • Silhouette of a female darts player concentrating on throwing arrows during a ladies darts tournament
    anastasia_dobromyslova10-12-04-2008.jpg
  • Sterile technicians construct European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Jules Verne module at Kourou Spaceport.
    esa_guiana28716-08-2007.jpg
  • A young lady European Space Agency technician at Ariane launch control monitors rocket systems hours before a satellite launch
    esa_guiana08314-08-2007.jpg
  • Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi of rock band Status Quo play guitar riffs during gig on European tour in Lille, France. .
    status_quo156-15-10-2007.jpg
  • Landscape painter Rob Pointon RBSA, MAFA who calls himself a 'Plein Air Artist' in Trafalgar Square, on 20th May 2019, in London, England. Rob Pointon (b1982) has been painting since he was a child under the tutelage of his artist Grandmother, and graduated in Fine Art from Aberystwyth University before studying at The Royal Drawing School in London. Rob is an Associate member of the ROI, a member of MAFA (Manchester Academy of Fine Arts).
    trafalgar_square-09-20-05-2019.jpg
  • Using techniques developed over thousands of years, traditional thatcher lays straw on a barn roof in Suffolk, England. Balancing across the width of the roof’s surface, the man uses a Shearing Hook to lay the straw into the outer weathering coat of the roof’s slope. Using techniques developed over thousands of years, good thatch will not require frequent maintenance. In England a ridge will normally last 10–15 years. Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (Cladium mariscus), rushes and heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still the choice of affluent people who desire a rustic look for their home or who have purchased an originally thatched abode.
    thatching01-16-08-1993.jpg
  • Using a system of ropes and cables, a team of window cleaners wipe plate-glass and lower themselves from a City of London office block.
    window_cleaners04-15-02-2013.jpg
  • Using a system of ropes and cables, a team of window cleaners wipe plate-glass and lower themselves from a City of London office block.
    window_cleaners01-15-02-2013.jpg
  • A young boy sits in BAE Systems Hawk cockpit of the 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team.
    Red_Arrows624_RBA.jpg
  • Pilots of the 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team sign paperwork after winter training flight at RAF Scampton
    Red_Arrows468_RBA.jpg
  • Squadron Leader Spike Jepson, leader of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, demonstrates the Corkscrew manoeuvre to his group of pilots and visitors in the briefing room at their RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire headquarters. Using two scaled model Hawk jet aircraft he shows how their formation is to be flown on their next training flight. Five autumn and winter months are spent teaching new recruits manual aerobatic display flying while the older members (who rotate positions) learn new disciplines within the routine. Their leaning curve is steep, even for these accomplished fast-jet aviators who had already accumulated 1,500 hours in fighters. By Summer they need every aspect of their 25-minute displays honed to perfection. In this meeting room they meet before and after every flight discussing safety, merits and failures.
    Red_Arrows354_RBA.jpg
  • Infantry soldiers of the British Army demonstrate their newest L115A3 sniper rifle on firing ranges of the Support Weapon School, Salisbury Plain, Warminster.
    sniper_rifle18-06-03-2008 .jpg
  • In a sterile clean room, one module section of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) called Jules Verne, is under construction by technicians of an integration team at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The ATV cargo carrier is the world's largest and most complex orbiting spacecraft and is a new series of autonomous spaceships designed to re-supply the International Space Station with replacement cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the orbital outpost. Launched in March 2008 and self-destructed with waste during its return to earth's atmosphere that September, it delivered 4.6 tonnes of payload to the ISS, including 1,150 kg of dry cargo, 856 kg of propellant for the Russian Zvezda module, 270 kg of drinking water and 21 kg of oxygen.
    esa_guiana26916-08-2007.jpg
  • Landscape painter Rob Pointon RBSA, MAFA who calls himself a 'Plein Air Artist' in Trafalgar Square, on 20th May 2019, in London, England. Rob Pointon (b1982) has been painting since he was a child under the tutelage of his artist Grandmother, and graduated in Fine Art from Aberystwyth University before studying at The Royal Drawing School in London. Rob is an Associate member of the ROI, a member of MAFA (Manchester Academy of Fine Arts).
    trafalgar_square-10-20-05-2019.jpg
  • Landscape painter Rob Pointon RBSA, MAFA who calls himself a 'Plein Air Artist' in Trafalgar Square, on 20th May 2019, in London, England. Rob Pointon (b1982) has been painting since he was a child under the tutelage of his artist Grandmother, and graduated in Fine Art from Aberystwyth University before studying at The Royal Drawing School in London. Rob is an Associate member of the ROI, a member of MAFA (Manchester Academy of Fine Arts).
    trafalgar_square-08-20-05-2019.jpg
  • Absiling window cleaners work high above street level of the glass sheets of Westfield City shopping centre in Stratford.
    stratford6-14-10-2011.jpg
  • Absiling window cleaners work high above street level of the glass sheets of Westfield City shopping centre in Stratford.
    stratford3-14-10-2011.jpg
  • Absiling window cleaners work high above street level of the glass sheets of Westfield City shopping centre in Stratford.
    stratford10-14-10-2011.jpg
  • Pilots of the 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team zip themselves into their g-pants before training flight. G-pants counteract the effects of high gravity stresses that jet-fighters impose on the human body, automatically inflating and squeezing blood back to the thorax and head when blood drains towards the legs.
    Red_Arrows488_RBA.jpg
  • Pilot members of the 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team in post-training flight briefing during winter training.
    Red_Arrows363_RBA.jpg
  • Two RAF pilots listen to flight-briefing by 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team for whom they want to join after the candidate process.
    Red_Arrows299_RBA.jpg
  • Joystick controller at BAE Systems Hawk jet aircraft simulator test a Red Arrows pilot at the fast-jet flying training centre, RAF Valley, Anglesey, Wales. All fast-jet pilots are required to complete an emergency drill every six months. The pilot is seated in his ejector seat as if in a real jet using back-projected computer graphics representing a generic landscape below. Each aviator proves they can cope with a series of failures that operators select: Engine, hydraulic failure or bird strike.  Apart from the aircraft fuselage, the high-tech facility loads malfunctions on a pilot that he could experience in reality. The version of Hawk that the Red Arrows fly is actually a primitive piece of equipment, without computers or fly-by-wire technology.
    Red_Arrows256_RBA.jpg
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