The Red Arrows will be taking part in an historic flypast over Buckingham Palace to mark the King's Coronation on Saturday, but people across huge swathes of the south of England may also get to see them too.
More than 60 military aircraft will form a flypast on May 6, 2023 and restrictions will be in place on the airspace above the North Sea, East Anglia and London .
The six-minute flypast for the King's Coronation will include the world-famous Red Arrows, 16 helicopters, the historic Spitfires of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the RAF's brand-new P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.
Joint RAF and RN crewed F-35B Lightning II jets and transport aircraft from the RAF's Air Mobility Force. It will be the first flypast involvement of the RAF's new Envoy IV CC1 aircraft.
The route will take the planes over parts of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex on the way to London before heading out of the capital towards Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire as they disperse.
The flypast route has been split into zones and has been given a time slot when airspace is restricted. This means no other planes will be overhead during the select periods.
The key towns in each zone are identified, but the exact details of the route will not be revealed in advance for security reasons.
Area A: 1.15pm to 3pm North Sea and Norfolk Coast
Area B: 1.45pm to 3pm Thetford, Norfolk and Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Area C: 2pm to 3pm Ipswich, Suffolk
Area D: 2pm to 2.45pm Colchester and Chelmsford, Essex
Area E: 2.10pm to 2.45pm London
Area F: 2.20pm to 3pm Croydon and Surrey
Area G: 2.20pm to 3pm Reading, Berkshire and Swindon, Wiltshire
Area H: 2.20pm to 3pmGloucestershire and Oxford, Oxfordshire
Area I: 2.20pm to 3pm Marlborough, Tidworth, Wiltshire
According to FlightRadar24 it will be easy to track the flypast on their website, by selecting ‘Military and Government’ under categories.
They say: "Selecting ‘Military and Government’ under categories will filter your view to display these aircraft.
"Take a look at the Greater London area and you should see the flypast routing in from East to West.
"For an even more detailed view, head to custom filters, and select ‘aircraft type’.
"You can now enter the individual types that will feature in the flypast. Again, take a look at the areas to the east, center, and west of London."
They also warn: "Whilst most aircraft participating in the flypast will appear on Flightradar24, some may not for various reasons.
"Aircraft operating in close formation will often use the lead aircraft’s transponder only as a way to avoid collision advisories, so a flight of six aircraft may appear as one aircraft.
"Other aircraft may not be equipped with ADS-B and some of the helicopters in particular may be flying below our coverage area during some portion of the flypast."
Today (Friday), forecasters said there is a 70% chance of showers at the same time the flypast is due to take place.
Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Wigston said "it's 50/50" as to whether the flypast scheduled to fly over The Mall and Buckingham Palace after 2.15pm will take place if there is rain and low cloud.
Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin said: "There will be outbreaks of rain in London from 8am onwards, nothing too heavy, it's just going to be a bit grey, damp and drizzly.
"It won't rain all morning, just a bit on-and-off with some drizzle, it may stop for half an hour or so and come back again, that kind of thing.
"It will probably stay like that into the afternoon before it perhaps gets a little brighter but generally staying drab for most of the day."
He added: "All the different aircraft have different criteria based on the cloud so it's obviously a call for the RAF to make, but it does look a little bit brighter come the afternoon compared to the morning.
"The cloud will be a little higher and there is a better chance of a drier spell, but the chances of sunny weather is almost zero and the chances of showers at that time is around 70%."
Sir Michael had said: "The weather isn't looking brilliant, but there's nothing we can do about it.
"We have to be safe, we have to make sure that we aren't taking any unnecessary risks.
"We'll make a weather call one or two hours before the actual moment, but if there's rain and low cloud then it will be almost impossible to get it through.
"It's 50/50 at the moment, but we have lots of options, the decision will be made, at this stage we're hoping for the best."
A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson also said: "The latest weather information will be obtained from both the Met Office and from our helicopters performing weather checks in advance of the main flypast on Saturday.
"If suitable, the flypast will continue as planned. If not, then there are options available to reduce the numbers of aircraft, with cancellation being the last resort."
