Sustainability Column - Reflecting on RIAT25
- 1st Sept 2025
As I sit at my desk here at Douglas Bader House, it seems remarkable that this year’s Royal International Air Tattoo was already over a month ago. Now that we are at the start of a new season and the dust has settled, it seems an opportune moment to reflect on another successful year.
When we started our sustainability journey in 2022, we made a long-term commitment to make RIAT a more sustainable event, as part of these we wanted to focus on continual improvement as well as securing key milestones.
This year we hosted two incredibly exciting developments, the first being the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows display team performing their routine on Sustainable Aviation Fuel for the first time which was a world first. This builds on the progress made in RIAT24 where the RAF’s Typhoon completed its first public display on SAF, and I am pleased to say this was also the case for RIAT25. Not only were the Reds on SAF, but they also used HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) to create their iconic red, white and blue chemtrails across the show weekend.
As an event we are grateful to Air Space Intelligence, Intel Foundry, Team Lewis, Power Electrics and AFS Aviation for making the flights possible.
In addition to highlights in the air, we were also delighted to be joined by Vertical Aerospace at this year’s show, with their innovative VX4 prototype aircraft participating in our static display.
Arriving as an unannounced aircraft on Thursday, it was great to see the aircraft capture the imagination of our Park and View visitors when it touched down at RAF Fairford, which was also a huge moment for the Kemble-based business, as its arrival was the first time the aircraft had completed an A to B flight.
Once it had taken up its position on the static-line, I was so pleased to see so many people show an interest in the aircraft, which is an eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing), including astronaut Tim Peake who went to see and speak to the Vertical Aerospace team on the Friday afternoon.
Building on innovation, our Techno Zone was even bigger and better this year, with many exhibitors showcasing their new technologies. The STEM stand by Lockheed Martin highlighted that innovation doesn’t have to cost the Earth and was built entirely from Swedboard, a high-performance, fully recyclable cardboard material. Everything on the stand was designed to be reused or recycled, and it is great to see exhibitors progressing with sustainable exhibition design.
This year’s show was a tremendous success as we welcomed a staggering 178,000 people to RAF Fairford. As an event we know that with an audience of that size, we are in a unique position to showcase the latest developments in sustainable aviation to the public, so we are delighted to have done that again this year.
