A host of young Ambassadors for a 'Festival of Flight' have travelled to Wiltshire at the invitation of Lieutenant Cdr Matt Whitfield, Commanding Officer for the Royal Navy's NFSF Hawk Squadron.
The youngsters are taking part in an annual celebration of aviation named the 'Festival of Flight', in which teenagers from across the country develop a photo-story around an aspect of flying.
They included young people from Manchester, Kirklees, West Midlands, Slough, London, Swindon and Bristol.
The Ambassadors had a chance to meet and talk to Matt, see his squadron's fast jets close up, follow the take off, get a hands-on picture of air traffic control, understand what happens in the control tower and speak to the many different people who are involved in each of these roles at the base. They also had the unique opportunity to handle and even sit in the cockpit of some of the historic aircraft which are being restored on site by Royal Navy Historic Flight Engineering Team.
The day ended with a chance to climb inside one of the Junglee helicopters shortly to be deployed in Afghanistan and begin to understand some of the challenges and difficulties faced by pilots in these settings.
The visit was organised as part of the Royal Navy's contribution to 'Festival of Flight 2010', an exhibition event produced by Heartstone which aims to present the story of manned flight starting with the first inspiration, the birds, moving on to myths and legends, and ending with examples of ultimate flight technology today.
It tells the stories of many remarkable people who fought major obstacles to win their dream to fly and demonstrates that behind the aircraft are real people who continue to 'achieve the impossible' in the current time . It is still growing as new air forces and other organisations who use aviation extend invitations to Heartstone to add their own story into 'Festival of Flight'.
Sitakumari, Director of Heartstone, says: "How the photographs are generated is a cornerstone of the success of the project's ability to work with and bring together communities and organisations representing such a disparate range of faiths, cultures and backgrounds to demonstrate 'similarities, not differences', to enable audiences to view a familiar world from a new direction and to see people, not prejudice."
The 'Festival of Flight' was incepted in 2004. Last years festival saw over six-hundred photographs exhibited in the Imperial War Museum. The next event is to be held at the Royal Armouries on April 28th 2010 in preparation for the June finale at the Yorkshire Air Museum.
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