The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, known as the Red Arrows, performed a joint formation flypast with four F-35B Lightning IIs over The Mall during the 2026 Trooping the Colour ceremony, marking one of the more visually striking mixed-fleet formations in recent British airshow history. The flypast, observed from the processional route outside Buckingham Palace, combined the Red Arrows' BAE Systems Hawk T1 jets — subsonic, highly agile trainer-derived aircraft — with the RAF and Royal Navy's premier fifth-generation stealth fighter. The pairing was deliberate in its symbolism: the Red Arrows represent over six decades of British airpower heritage and precision airmanship, while the F-35B represents the leading edge of the UK's current fast-jet capability, particularly following the full operational transition of the aircraft aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth-class carriers.
From a flight operations standpoint, coordinating a mixed formation between the Hawk T1 and the F-35B presents genuine airmanship challenges. The Hawk T1 operates optimally in the 300–400 knot range for display work, while the F-35B — a supersonically capable platform — must manage significant thrust and lift-to-drag constraints when slowed to formation airspeeds, particularly given its lift fan system and the aerodynamic profile designed for very different mission envelopes. Formation leads must carefully plan altitude, speed, and spacing to maintain visual cohesion for ground observers while keeping both aircraft types within their respective safe operating envelopes. The density altitude over central London on a June afternoon, combined with restricted airspace coordination above one of the world's most controlled urban corridors, adds further operational complexity to what appears to the public as a seamless display.
The appearance of F-35Bs in the Trooping the Colour flypast reflects the aircraft's deepening integration into UK ceremonial and public-facing airpower roles. The F-35B achieved Initial Operating Capability with the RAF in 2018 and has since appeared in increasing numbers at RIAT and other UK airshows, but its inclusion alongside the Red Arrows in a monarchical ceremonial context signals a level of institutional confidence in the platform's reliability and public presentation readiness. For professional aviators, this is notable: fifth-generation aircraft that once carried significant maintenance burden and limited availability are now routinely tasked to high-visibility, non-combat display roles — a measure of how far the global F-35 fleet has matured in terms of mission-capable rates and sortie generation.
More broadly, the mixed formation reflects a wider trend across NATO air arms of pairing legacy or trainer-type display aircraft with front-line stealth fighters for ceremonial and airshow contexts. The USAF Thunderbirds and Navy Blue Angels have similarly appeared alongside F-35s at major events, and several European air forces have integrated their fifth-generation fleets into national airshow programs. For business aviation operators and corporate flight departments — many of which operate in the same restricted and temporary flight restriction environments that surround events like Trooping the Colour — these flypasts also serve as a reminder of how thoroughly central London airspace is managed and sequenced during state occasions. NOTAMs associated with the event typically impose extensive temporary restrictions across the London TMA, requiring careful pre-flight planning for any Part 91 or charter operations routing through the region on the day.