Sustainability Column - Royal Air Force Charitable Trust in Focus

A common misconception with sustainability is that it is all about environmental impact, and whilst that is still hugely important and a fundamental pillar of sustainability,  social impact is another key area of focus for us. A significant part of our social impact comes from our relationship with our parent charity, the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust (RAFCT), which receives all proceeds from our event.  

The charity team, who are based at Douglas Bader House alongside (the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust Enterprises (RAFCTE)) the team who put the Royal International Air Tattoo together, aim to inspire young people to reach their full potential in air, space and technology. They do this through a range of different partnerships to help people up to the age of 25-years-old.  

Last year RAFCT agreed 15 different partnerships including their most recent with the Jon Egging Trust and Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI). 2025 also saw RAFCT announce amazing news with regards to their targets. Originally, they were aiming to reach 500,000 young people by the summer of 2026, however, last autumn they were able to surpass this by reaching over 750,000 young people which is a fantastic achievement.  

Despite being so early in the year, the team have already made a flying start with school deliveries already taking place in 2026. Last month the Trust visited Naunton Park Primary School in Cheltenham, which saw over 50 youngsters take part in Road to RIAT for the first time and it was great to see the youngsters so engaged. The programme included a task where they design a sustainable aircraft, which was then judged by members of RAFCTE’s Sustainability Working Group. During this visit we were also pleased to aid our Media team in capturing the first broadcast package for this summer’s show, with the BBC in attendance to capture the schoolchildren throughout the day.  

They spoke to our Grants Manager, Hannah Hickman who covered Road to RIAT, our range of partners and our ongoing work to bridge the STEM skills gap – which continues to be a topic of interest to the press.