CLEAR weather over Wellington provided almost perfect conditions for viewing a Red Arrows fly-past on Thursday (August 14).

The world famous Royal Air Force display team flew over Wellington Monument and West Buckland shortly before 12.30 pm, witnessed by hundreds of people who turned out for the brief, but free spectacle.

The aerobatics team was flying from Exeter Airport to put on a display at the Eastbourne International Airshow, one of Europe’s largest free seafront airshows.

The flightpath took the squadron of iconic red colour BAE Systems’ Hawk T.1A fast-jets over the monument and on past West Buckland and Taunton on the way to the South Coast.

The Red Arrows, based in RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, is celebrating its 60th anniversary and has flown nearly 5,000 displays in 57 countries since its formation in 1965.

Red Arrows pilots usually serve a three-year tour with the display team and must previously have flown with frontline squadrons before they can be recruited.

Pilots currently serving have completed operational tours in Afghanistan and Libya, or been part of the UK and Falkland Islands’ Quick Reaction Alert.