A Spanish Harrier II wins a RAFCTE trophy in England and flies with a small giraffe

@DefAviation ES 7·23·2024 · 21:08 0

Last Saturday I spoke to you here about the passion that exists for the Spanish Harrier IIs at The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT).

The passion for the Spanish Harrier II at the great British airshow RIAT 2024
The admired flight of a Spanish Harrier II with an F-35B, its expected replacement

The 9th Squadron of the Spanish Navy has been participating for years with its EAV-8B+ Harrier II Plus fighters in this British air festival, which is held at the RAF Fairford air base, in England, and is one of the largest events of its kind in the world. The United Kingdom retired its Harrier II from service in December 2010, and for this reason there is great nostalgia among the British public for that aircraft, which explains the expectation that the 9th Squadron aircraft generate each year, also explainable by the great skill of its pilots.

Today the Spanish Navy has announced that the 9th Squadron has won the award for the best foreign demonstration at the RIAT. The Harrier IIs achieved this award, also sporting a special decoration on their drifts for this occasion.

As indicated yesterday on the RIAT website, This trophy, known as RAFCTE, has been awarded to Lieutenant Commander Andrés Medina González del Tánago, pilot of the VA.1B-38, for this reason: "For an evocative display of a classic aircraft type, unique for its time and bringing noise, presence and nostalgia to its subline performance."

It must be said that despite flying a single-seat aircraft, the Spanish naval aviator had the opportunity to carry a small passenger: Geoffrey the giraffe, representing the charity initiative Giraffesontour.co.uk, founded in memory of little girl Louise Conway, who sadly lost her battle with leukemia in 2013, aged 9. Geoffrey was little Louise's favorite stuffed animal. Here we see the little giraffe accompanying the Spanish pilot with the prize obtained at the RIAT.

Today, this little stuffed giraffe flies alongside aviators from different countries for raise funds for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. "Geoffrey represents Louise in everything he does, but Louise sometimes goes along in picture form tool," they point out from this charitable initiative, similar to those carried out by an old friend of this blog , the British teddy bear Ted Coningsby.

If you didn't see the videos that I published on Saturday about this exhibition, here you can seea video of one of the flights of the Spanish Harrier II at the RIAT recorded by the Japanese spotter Tonk298:

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Photos: Armada Española / Giraffes On Tour.