A Lynx helicopter of the Royal Navy's Black Cats helicopter display team at the 2015 Yeovilton Air Show
The Black Cats are an exciting four-man helicopter display team who thrill audiences at air shows with their dynamic flying displays in Lynx helicopters. The Black Cats are the Royal Navy’s Helicopter Display Team flying front-line Lynx maritime attack helicopters. The Team started in 2001 as the ‘Lynx Pair’ and have been the first official Royal Navy flying display team since the ‘Sharks’ disbanded in the mid-1990s. The aircrew and engineers are all volunteers from 702 Naval Air Squadron and the Lynx Wildcat Maritime Force based at the Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton in Somerset. The name ‘Black Cats’ is derived from the fierce cat depicted on the 702 Naval Air Squadron emblem and the term ‘blackcatting’ which is naval slang for one-upmanship – doing or owning something better than someone else. The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to the development of both battlefield and naval variants. The Lynx went into operational usage in 1977 and was later adopted by the armed forces of over a dozen nations, primarily serving in the battlefield utility, anti-armour, search and rescue and anti-submarine warfare roles. The Lynx has the distinction of being the world's first fully aerobatic helicopter. In 1986, a specially modified Lynx set the current Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's official airspeed record for helicopters. As of 2014, this record remains unbroken In addition to a wide number of land and naval-orientated variants of the Lynx, several major derivatives have been produced, including civilian versions The Lynx seen here is an upgraded maritime attack version based on Super Lynx 100.
Size: 5184px × 3456px
Location: RNAS Yeovilton, Yeovil, Somerset, UK
Photo credit: © Niall Ferguson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 702, air, black, cats, display, helicopter, , lynx, naval, navy, royal, squadron, team, yeovilton
