A stunning flypast on Sunday featuring UAE aircraft has proved to be one of the National Day celebrations’ most popular events – and aviation experts have expressed their admiration at the skill of the pilots and the precision timing on display.
The event featured Etihad, Emirates, flydubai and Air Arabia passenger planes flying in formation with seven jets from the Al Fursan aerobatics team.
Social media was ablaze with news of the display, both before and after the pilots took to the air.
Impressive flypast four UAE aircraft on #UAENationalDay: 1 @emirates A380, 1 @EtihadAirways A380, 1 @flydubai MAX, 1 @airarabiagroup A320 plus Al Fursan aerobatics team. https://t.co/IdlDQOk17L
— Richard_on_aviation (@rschuur_aero) December 2, 2018
Residents who were lucky enough to be underneath the planes as they flew overhead expressed their delight at the sight.
The 11 aircraft, in a precise series of formations, followed a flight path that took in Ras Al Khaimah at 1.40pm, travelling via Umm Al Quwain, Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with the pilots peeling out to return to their various starting destinations as they reached Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque just before 2.30pm.
The spectacular flypast involved over 11 aircraft: a flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 (Zayed 1), an Air Arabia Airbus A320 (Zayed 2), an Etihad Airways Airbus A380 (Zayed 3) and an Emirates Airline Airbus A380 (Zayed 4), as well as 7 Al Fursan aerobatic display jets from the UAE AF pic.twitter.com/5DqmCtWfTI
— Vayu Aerospace Review (@ReviewVayu) December 2, 2018
Flypasts have been a tradition around the globe since faltering pilots first took their ramshackle early aircraft up into the skies at the start of the last century.
The practice dates back to a Trooping the Colour event in 1913 on Laffan’s Plain, near Aldershot in the UK, where planes piloted by men from the Royal Flying Corps flew past for King George V.
THE flypast. #AvGeek 👇😍🇦🇪 https://t.co/2eREZeVjrU
— Arturo Zapata #UsaCubreboca 😷 (@azapatamx) December 2, 2018
The UAE’s aeronautical endeavours showed just how far things have come.
In July this year, the largest concentration of military planes in many decades flew above London in the UK at the RAF100 parade, a celebration of a century of the Royal Air Force.
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