Paul hits the heights with the Red Arrows

HIGH-flying Rotherham engineer Paul Stead will be helping to keep the Red Arrows flying next summer.

Sgt Stead (40), from Bramley, has landed a job as part of the backseat support crew with the RAF’s famous aerobatic team.

He will be leading a 10-strong team of engineers, known as Circus, and will travel as a passenger in one of the Red Arrows’ two-seaet Hawk aircraft on transit flights to more than 70 displays in the UK and Europe.

When the aircraft arrives at its display operating base, Paul will service the aircraft before it flies again.

Paul joined the RAF in 1991, and has subsequently served on fast-jet squadrons all over the United Kingdom.

He has worked on Canberra, Hawk, Tornado and Nimrod aircraft as well as completing overseas tours of RAF Bruggen, during the Balkans Conflict, and the Falklands in 1999 and 2004 respectively, and was posted to the Red Arrows in 2010.