Princess Kate's charming response to Prince Louis's fighter pilot dream
The Princess of Wales viewed aircraft and met serving personnel and their families at RAF Coningsby during her first visit to the military base in Lincolnshire
The Princess of Wales took the controls of a flight simulator and performed a loop the loop on her first visit to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. Kate, who wore a grey trouser suit and navy stilettos, also gamely climbed narrow stairs to peer inside the cockpit of a fully armed Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon. And she shared how her youngest son Louis is keen to become a fighter pilot, but added: "I'm going to tell them (her children) it takes eight years and a lot of hard work."
The future Queen, 43, was visiting the RAF station for the first time since becoming Royal Honorary Air Commodore in August 2023. She began her visit with a private briefing from Group Captain Paul O’Grady, Station Commander and Warrant Officer Nikki Nolan, Station Warrant Officer on the past 18 months of activity.
She then entered the Quick Reaction Alert hangar to view a Typhoon with one of its pilots, Wing Commander Luke "Wilko" Wilkinson, Acting Commander Air. Kate appeared engrossed as he pointed out military hardware including missiles attached bellow the wings. She then climbed the stairs for a closer look at the controls, appearing to reassure her guide that her heels would not stop her. On the ground, she met two further QRA pilots and site manager Stephen Walker, and a group of engineers: Chief Tech Si Duke; Sgt Katey Hardt; Cpl Justin Davies; Air Specialists, Class 1, Harry Melbourne, Kyle Jordan and Cameron Thomson.
Kate was dressed in grey to be given a tour of the aircraft hangar
First visit to RAF Coningsby
The team works to protect UK airspace. Coningsby is one of two QRA fighter stations in the UK, alongside RAF Lossiemouth.
When a potential threat or unidentified aircraft is detected by airspace controllers, pilots and ground crews at the station quickly prepare Typhoons to intercept them.
Fighter jets scrambled from Coningsby can reach London within 10 minutes.
The station was recently awarded the Stainforth Trophy for demonstrating excellence on operational activities.
Kate was shown a Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon aircraft
Viewing the aircraft
The Princess met a cross-section of Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) personnel. QRA is the Royal Air Force's 24/7 mission to protect UK airspace. When airspace controllers detect a potential threat or an unidentified aircraft, they trigger an alert, prompting pilots and ground crews at RAF Coningsby to quickly prepare Typhoons for interception.
Next Kate headed to the Typhoon Future Synthetic Training Facility, where instructor Geraint White invited her to step inside the futuristic simulator.
"Would you like a go?" he asked, to which she replied: "Yes, I'd love to."
Inside she told him she had not used a simulator to fly a plane before, but had tried one used to train helicopter pilots.
But the Princess seemed to take to her simulated flight with ease and appeared to enjoy her virtual climb from RAF Coningsby enough to perform the aerobatic stunt.
Speaking afterwards, Group Captain Paul O’Grady said: "She seems to be a natural pilot so we might have to get her qualified and get her flying a Typhoon, if she's up for it."
The Princess, who wore an RAF badge on her blazer, also chatted to two trainee pilots on secondment from RAF Valley, where Prince William was stationed Between 2010 and 2013.
"How are you finding Valley?" she asked Jack Hanby and Dan McPhail.
They told her they had met the Prince when he returned to Anglesey last year.
Prince William, who served there as an RAF Search and Recue pilot, previously served as Honorary Air Commandant at Coningsby.
Kate's connection to the Royal Air Force predates her marriage, however. Her paternal grandfather Peter Middleton was an RAF fighter pilot who served in World War II and later as Prince Philip's co-pilot during a two-month tour of South America in 1962.
In "The Lounge" - a communal space for those living at the station - she met Wing Commander Nick Startup, Officer Commanding, Base Support Wing and members of RAF Coningsby's Welfare Team, and personnel including aviators from Junior Ranks, to hear about their roles and experiences on site.
Kate heard about mental health support services on offer to personnel and how sport and exercise play a key role. Told a walking trip to Mont Blanc had recently been organised, she said: "I have done that with my father." Told it was a really good trip to do, she joked, "character building."
She was presented with three toy Typhoons and key rings for her children, saying: "They will be very upset that I've seen a Typhoon without them!"
Despite having arrived an hour late due to bad weather, the Princess was in no hurry to leave and spent around 20 minutes shaking hands and chatting to some of the 700 families who live on or around the base.
She shared her own family's enthusiasm for aviation along the way, telling ten-year-old Robin Sansum that her children had envied her outing to see military aircraft.
"My children were very sad," she said, "The boys particularly."
Robin's stepmum Jo Sweeney, a business support officer at RAF Coningsby, said: "She was saying that Louis fancies becoming a pilot."
Kate was heard to say: "I'm going to tell them it takes eight years and a lot of hard work."
As she moved down the line of well-wishers, she was handed dozens of bouquets of flowers, drawings and a piece of embroidery.
"I'm not going to be able to move into my home with all these flowers!" she joked.
Accepting the hand-stitched piece from one little girl, the Princess told her: "I like sewing and I know the effort that takes to get the stitches so neat. You've taken a lot of care over that."
When a young boy told her he enjoyed playing football at school, she replied: "That's what our boys are playing at the moment. Charlotte is playing hockey."
As she left, around 90 minutes later than originally planned, Kate told her hosts: "I'm sorry, I totally outstayed my welcome!" Group Captain Paul O'Grady said of her visit: "It's been absolutely brilliant, having the Honorary Air Commodore here, Princess Catherine. It's her first visit to Coningsby and to give her a demonstration of what it is that operationally we deliver for the UK and for the Royal Air Force, but also, more importantly for me, it's meeting the men and women that deliver it. And they've had a fabulous time and enjoyed meeting her."
Princess Kate visits RAF Coningsby for the first time
He added: "Prince William's been here before and so she was talking about the fact that he'd been here, and she'd been delighted to get a chance to come along today, and certainly, very animated about her children, who are really into aviation. So there was a lot of conversations along those lines."
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