International Ayr Show – Festival of Flight 2025
Scotland’s only major airshow of the year is the ‘International Ayr Show – Festival of Flight’ on the west coast. Since its current inception in 2023, the event’s reputation has grown rapidly both within the UK air display community and much more widely. In 2025, Ayr attracted international participation from France, Belgium, Canada and the United States – the latter nation bringing something not seen at a UK show before. The event also saw the return of the RAF Red Arrows providing Ayr with another notable first thanks to the relationship between the team and the event’s strategic partner, theSKYLAB.
Paul Johnson/Flightline UK reports. All photography by the author.
The International Ayr Show – Festival of Flight is one of Scotland’s biggest spectator events and an airshow that in just three years has carved out a formidable reputation amongst its peers. The two days of flying displays alongside Ayr Shorefront are the culmination of a week of events centred around the Prestwick Airport Aerospace and Space Cluster organised by STEM charity ‘theSKYLAB.’ These saw 600 pupils alongside with 270 family members visit Prestwick to engage with the many aerospace companies based there and learn about the opportunities a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers can offer them in the future. This side of the show enjoys phenomenal support from industry with the likes of BAE Systems, Leonardo, Thales, NATS, GE Aerospace supporting the event alongside local academic institutions.
The STEM theme continues through to the public event held on the Low Green in Ayr and its Shorefront. We have seen STEM areas pop up at many airshows, but Ayr’s STEM Village is particularly impressive and once again proved to very popular alongside all the usual trappings of a major seafront airshow. The flying displays are also chosen to reflect the STEM theme as well as to mark links with nearby Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
A major contribution to the STEM outreach comes from the Royal Air Force. The service contributes to all the STEM activities during the week and then at the airshow with its own village. This year the relationship between the Ayr Show and the Royal Air Force went one step further. Much to the delight of the Ayr Show organisers, the RAF Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows were allocated for both days of the event headlining the service’s contribution to the show. Early in the year, theSKYLAB approached the team to establish whether the team could use both Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to power their jets and HVO (Hydrogentreated Vegetable Oil) for their smoke oil at Ayr. Whereas the approval to use SAF was already in place, there was still some work to be done to satisfy the authorities to approve the use of HVO based smoke oil; work that had already been started by the team’s Senior Engineering Officer, Sqn Ldr Andy King and his team of ‘blues.’ Getting approval to change the types of fuel used in aircraft is a long running task, necessary to prove there would be no negative effects on the materials or systems of the Red Arrows’ BAE Systems Hawk T1 aircraft. Fortunately, theSKYLAB’s CEO Dr Geoff Coxon is Lipid Chemist and undertook a desktop study of the HVO as part of the approvals process. The approval of HVO does not only have environmental benefits, it also fits in well with the Energy Security strategy for Defence as it is essentially Diesel fuel which used in great quantities by all the armed services and in a wide range of applications. The result of this process saw the Red Arrows conduct the very first flypast anywhere in the world using both a 10% blend of SAF and HVO Smoke oil in June for the King’s Birthday Flypast. Then, the next month the first displays with the same combination at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford. The International Ayr Show was the second occasion the combination was used, and the first time ever at a civilian airshow. The team flew on both days and despite the overcast on the Sunday completed a full display with the Palm split finale.
Joining the Red Arrows were all the other Royal Air Force displays teams, all flying on both days. Despite being slightly breezy the RAF Falcons Parachute Team made two spectacular jumps into the arena on Low Green. Also, seemingly against the odds set by the weather, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight made it to Scotland displayed Avro Lancaster B1 PA474 and Supermarine Spitfire PRXIX PM631. The modern-day RAF was represented by the Grob Tutor T1 solo flown by Flt Lt Bob Dewes and the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 piloted by Sqn Ldr Nathan Shawyer. During Friday’s evening display, which this year took place under overcast skies, Nathan’s Typhoon display was particularly spectacular with the reheat flames lighting up the skies!
The Royal Navy also were well represented in the skies. The Black Cats Helicopter Display Team were present with a solo presentation of the Leonardo Wildcat HMA2. However, there was also a display from a Leonardo Merlin HM2 in the display – a very rare addition to the flying. This came from 814 Naval Air Squadron and was flown by a crew detached to HMS Gannet at Prestwick Airport. From here, the crews and their aircraft fly various missions including providing surveillance of the waters around the naval base at Faslane – the home of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
The NavyWings Heritage Flight also returned to Ayr with a solo display from their North American (CCF) Harvard IV. Further warbird action came from Marcin Kubrak’s stunning Douglas A-26C Invader captained by John Dodd. This aircraft made its UK display debut at Little Gransden two weeks prior to Ayr and has since been conducted a small tour of UK shows. As well as appearing at Ayr on Saturday, it was also flying at the Duxford Battle of Britain Airshow the same afternoon – an excellent demonstration of its high cruise speed! Bringing the heritage displays into the jet age were the wonderful pair of BAC Strikemasters from North Wales Military Air Services flown by Sean Chiddention and Ian Brett.
Away from the military displays, there were a quartet of civilian flying acts. Providing the finale to Friday’s evening show were the father and son duo of Tim and Tom Dews who make up the Airborne Pyrotechnics team flying a pair of Grob 109b motor-gliders. They provided a very colourful finale to Friday’s flying as well as an elegant display with coloured smoke on Saturday. Solo aerobatics during Saturday’s display came courtesy of Jon Windover flying the rasping Yakovlev Yak-52 G-YOTS.
Giving a very tight display on Saturday was Peter Davies in his Calidus Autogyro. Due to low weight and speed of the Autogyro, Peter was able to come much closer to the crowd giving them a spectacular close look at the agility and versatility of his gyro copter.
A favourite display at Ayr is that given by Hamish Mitchell in his Reims-Cessna FR172F G-DRAM or ‘Wee Dram.’ Ayr is one of very few locations in the UK you can see a floatplane operate from the water during an airshow and it was certainly appreciated by the Ayr crowds. Hamish carries out training, adventure flying and filming in Wee Dram at various locations across Scotland including at the former First World War seaplane base on Loch Doon.
However, it was the international military participation that really marks Ayr out from other UK civilian airshows. Geoff Coxon has worked very hard to build relationships with other air arms and international units. We saw the first shoots of success from his work last year, but there was much more this year. A very popular addition to the show this year was a first visit by the Belgian Air Force with an Agusta A109BAi from 17 Squadron based at Beauvechain. It did not take part in the flying, but landed on Low Green early Saturday morning for static display after a short aerial tour of Arran. The crew stayed with their aircraft throughout the day to meet and chat with the audience on Low Green.
Another Air Arm participating for the first time was the French Air and Space Force, They sent an Extra 330SC from the Equipe de Voltige de L’armée de L’air et espace which appeared on both days. It was flown quite brilliantly by Capitaine Geoffrey ‘Bryce’ Dennis who showcased his freestyle routine that is flown at aerobatic competitions. It is a frenetic routine with some jaw-dropping tumbles and punishing negative-G flying and proved you did not need jets to draw applause from the audience. The local crowd also appreciated Bryce’s message from the cockpit as he completed his display – “Long live France, Long live Scotland!”
As in 2024, the Royal Canadian Air Force ‘Operation Reassurance’ detachment at Prestwick Airport contributed to the flying displays with three flypasts from a Lockheed Martin CC-130J Hercules II from 436 Squadron usually based at Trenton. They have become a regular sight in the skies around Ayrshire as they support missions in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East and flew at the event in part to thank the local population for friendship they have shown during their detachment.
Also returning after debuting at Ayr in 2024 was the 165th Airlift Squadron of the Kentucky Air National Guard flying the Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules. They are also frequent visitors to Prestwick and last year took the opportunity to perform some flypasts as part of the International Ayr Show while flying tasks into Europe. So well received were they last year, the crew led by Lt Col Josh Ketterer made sure their taskings brought them via Prestwick in time for the 2025 show. However, for their second visit Lt Col Ketterer went one stage by getting approvals for and working up a display; and no ordinary display at that. After an opening flypast, the aircraft turned back towards the crowd and started to fire flares, first as single flares for the next pass and larger salvoes for the third run down the display line. They completed their routine with a fourth pass at relative slow speed with the stars and stripes proudly flying from the rear ramp. We cannot recall another occasion when a US military aircraft has released flares at a European airshow, but in any case, this was something truly special and unique to the International Ayr Show and a display that went down very well.
‘International Ayr Show – Festival of Flight’ is a unique event on the UK and European airshow calendar. It’s position as the only major air display in Scotland certainly helps it attract participation and a considerable audience. But more importantly, there is a real drive by all the organisers to develop the event not only to put Ayr on a map as a destination for tourism, but also to support the next generation of aerospace employees and industry, particularly at Prestwick Airport. Considering how far they come in just three years and the amazing popularity of the event amongst industry, air arms, civilian participants and the general public, this truly is an event to keep an eye on in the future.
