Watch: Inside The Cockpit With Typhoon Pilot As Display Team Makes International Return

The Typhoon Display Team is heading to Finland for its first international air show since 2019.

The coronavirus pandemic grounded the team's airshows, but now, as well as Finland, the team will perform in Hungary and France before returning to display their aerial acrobatics in Bournemouth later this year. 

Ahead of deploying to Finland, 2021 Typhoon display pilot, Flight Lieutenant James Sainty, told Forces News the "whole team is very excited to deploy overseas".

"It's been a hard year for the whole country and the whole world, so it's nice to be able to deploy overseas following the turbulent times that we've had," he said.

So what can we expect from the display?

"From brakes off to airborne, 35,000ft in Mach 1.8, I can do that in less than 90 seconds, so I've brought that to my display this year," Flt Lt Sainty said.

"So you'll see me slow the jet down to 120 miles an hour in front of the crowd. I'll then light the reheats… which will give me 40,000lbs of thrust.

Watch: Red Arrows thank Finland with flypast at Kauhava Airshow.

"The aircraft will then accelerate away from the crowd into the vertical as I perform a Cuban.

"At that point there, I'll descend back down and hit 500mph as I perform my max rate turn.

"The acceleration is purely phenomenal," he added.

And the return of the air shows is a morale booster for both the public and personnel at RAF Coningsby – the Typhoon Display Team's base.

Group Captain Matt Peterson, Station Commander, RAF Coningsby, told Forces News the timing of the team's return "has been a signal to really show how we're starting to recover".

He added it has been "wonderful" to see the crowds, "the exhilarating display and… how that really affects people".

"It's been a wonderful season, albeit smaller than we'd have liked, but just what we've done so far has shown how important that it still is," he said.