Editing Red Arrows (section)

==Aircraft==
[[File:Red Arrows Display New Tail Fin Design MOD 45158585.jpg|thumb|left|A Hawk T1A of the Red Arrows with new 2015 colour scheme]]
The team use the same two-seat training aircraft used for advanced pilot training, at first the [[Folland Gnat]] which was replaced in 1979 by the [[BAE Hawk|BAE Systems Hawk T1]].<ref name="hawk">{{cite web|url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/behindthescenes/hawkaircraft.cfm|title=Red Arrows - Royal Air Force|website=www.raf.mod.uk|access-date=6 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905052259/https://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/behindthescenes/hawkaircraft.cfm|archive-date=5 September 2017 }}</ref>

The Hawks in 1979 were assembled at [[RAF Bitteswell]] in [[Leicestershire]]; the site had 1,100 workers. The first of the ten  Hawks was delivered on Friday 17 August 1979,<ref>''Coventry Evening Telegraph'' Saturday 18 August 1979, page 14</ref> with the ninth 'XX266' being delivered on 15 November 1979.

The full set of Hawks would be shown to the public at Bitteswell on 18 November 1979, which was moved to 15 November 1978. The Hawk had less acceleration than the Gnat.<ref>''Coventry Evening Telegraph'' Saturday 20 October 1979, page 12</ref>

British Aerospace (Hawker Siddeley before 1977) at Bitteswell had been the engineering 'home' of the unit since the era of the Gnats in 1968. The winter overhaul would be at Bitteswell, from 1968. After a Gnat had left Bitteswell, it would have another 1,000 hours of flying life. The aircraft would be totally stripped of red paint, and repainted red only once flight tests were acceptable. Team pilots would visit Bitteswell.<ref>''Coventry Evening Telegraph'' Tuesday 24 September 1968, page 7</ref>

The Gnat Orpheus engine was built by Rolls-Royce at Anstey, and serviced there, with components made in Coventry. The Hawk Adour engine was built in Derby.

Hawks would be sent for repair to Bitteswell.155 Hawks were being delivered to the RAF, with 20 more after November 1979. 1980 was the first Hawk season. [[Margaret Thatcher]] visited the site on 27 June 1980, sitting in a Hawk jet. In late March 1982 it was announced that the 567-acre Bitteswell site would close in 1983, due to widespread defence cuts, one week before the Falklands war. It had been a repair site since 1956. It is now a huge distribution centre.

The Hawks are modified with an uprated engine and a modification to enable smoke to be generated; diesel is mixed with a coloured dye and ejected into the jet exhaust to produce either red, white or blue smoke.<ref name="hawk" />
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