Prince George had quite an adventure today when his parents took him to the Royal International Air Tattoo. (Scroll down for shorts update.)
©MOD Crown Copyright 2016 SAC Rob Bourne
This was the first time George has accompanied his parents on an official engagement in the UK.
Kensington Palace
The Prince arrived at the air show with his parents around noon.
© Nunn Syndication/Polaris
The Air Tattoo is the world’s largest military air show, staged on behalf of the RAF Charitable Trust.
©MOD Crown Copyright 2016
This is the 75th anniversary of the Air Cadets. Kate is the group’s Honorary Air Commandant.
©MOD 2016 Crown Copyright
Initially all the noise and activity seemed a little overwhelming for the Prince.
©Stephen Lock / i-Images
Putting on his ‘ear defenders’ seemed to help and it looked like he quickly adapted to the goings on.
©James Whatling/Splash News
He also needed a lift up so he could see everything.
©Nunn Syndication/Polaris
George got to sit inside an RAF Squirrel helicopter, the same aircraft his father flew when on duty in the RAF.
©Kensington Palace
Kate has previously said that George loves airplanes, that he is ‘obsessed’ with them. Today he seemed to know about helicopters; Simon Perry has more in this People story:
“I imagine his father has told him about helicopters, so he knew what that was called and kept saying, ‘tail rotor.’ It was good to see his technical knowledge! Some training going on early!” Flight Lieutenant Jim Hobkirk tells PEOPLE.
Here you see the Prince being helped into one of the renowned RAF Red Arrow jets.
©MOD Crown Copyright / Red Arrows Twitter (@RAFRedArrows)
Such a little guy in such a big plane!
©MOD 2016 Crown Copyright/LAC Lloyd Horgan
George and his parents exiting the Australian Air Force KC-30A transport seen above.
©MOD 2016 Crown Copyright LAC Lloyd Horgan
George met some of the pilots and support personnel, here he’s listening to Red Arrows Squadron Leader David Montenegro.
©MOD 2016 Crown Copyright via Red Arrows Facebook
The Prince was even given his very own Air Cadets 75th Anniversary piggy bank.
©MOD Crown Copyright 2016
Kate had George in comfortable clothes for an afternoon outdoors at an airfield.
©2016 MOD Crown Copyright
UPDATE JUL 9: George was wearing ear muffs/ear defenders by Baby Banz, an Australian company. They are available in the USA at Amazon for $28.99.
The ear muffs are may be purchased in the UK and throughout Europe via this link, and in New Zealand through this link. Our thinks to Deanna and Andrea for the info on these!
The Prince wore a pair of Trotter’s ‘Nantucket’ shoes from the Hampton Canvas Collection.
©Trotters/i-Images/Splash
The shoe is a traditional t-bar style in cotton canvas with a rubber sole, it can go in the washing machine when needed. (£15, about $20 at today’s exchange rates.)
UPDATE JULY 19: With thanks to Bojana Mojsova, it looks like George wore the Gap Solid Flat Front Shorts. Here’s a comparison of the front. (I have digitally lightened the photos of George in the shorts to better show details.)
Courtesy Bojana Mojsova/Splash News/Gap
The color is ‘deep true navy’ and the style has a button-through tab pocket on the back right, and a welt pocket on the back left.
©Splash News/Courtesy Bojana Mojsova
The front pockets are lined in an off white fabric. The shorts are 100% cotton, machine washable with a concealed adjustable waist. They originally retailed for $26.95; they’re now on sale for $16.99.
©Nun Syndication, Polaris/Bojana Mojsova/Splash
Thank you Bojana!
George was in the Mayoral belt we saw him wearing at a June polo match last year. The belt came with the shorts he is seen wearing at that polo match. It was big on George a year ago, and if you noticed today, there’s still plenty of room to grow.
©Nun Syndication/Polnaris/Mayoral
We saw the Prince in another classic white polo shirt. Update: As of July 19 we continue to hunt for the shirt.
©James Whatling, Splash News/ Robin Nunn, Nunn Syndication, Polaris
All in all it looked like the Cambridges thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the air show.
Both Photos ©Kensington Palace @KensingtonRoyal
And Prince George gave it his seal of approval with a thumbs-up.
©MOD 2016 Crown Copyright
We leave you with this 2:30 story from the BBC.
Prince George’s big day out at Fairford’s Royal International Air Tattoo. It’s his first UK public engagementhttps://t.co/9J3myBMB7s — BBC Points West (@bbcpointswest) July 8, 2016
LINKAGE:
- Learn more about the RAF Air Cadets at the group’s website here; its Facebook page is here and Twitter feed here
- The International Air Tattoo website is here; the Facebook page is here and Twitter feed here
- The Mirror’s story is here; The Telegraph’s story is here; The Daily Mail’s photo laden story is here;
- Simon Perry’s People magazine story is here
Hi, I’m here too! I read everywhere this “tail rotor” fact, but I don’t get it… Maybe because I don’t know What a “tail rotor” is! At first, I thought it might have been a baby Word for “helicopter”, but now I’m confused… Anyone Who can help me?
Amazing post, as always! It’s great to see that the kind Of shoe that I wore when I was George’s age is still around!
Hi, and thanks for commenting! The tail rotor is part of the helicopter, located at the back of the aircraft. 🙂
The tail rotor is the small rotor oriented vertically at the rear end of the fuselage.
Thanks for the lovely post — the pics are gorgeous, and I loved the video clip you have at the end. That was quick work to ID those shoes of George’s, I was puzzled when there were suggestions of StartRite as I thought they pretty much stuck to leather. These are clearly practical and comfy in the soft canvas — much better for climbing in and out of aircraft. Better — dare I suggest — than his Mum in short skirt and high heels;-)
Interesting too so see a fresh pair of shorts. Somehow on a summer’s day and reaching down almost to the knee they no longer look quite so babyish. These are very smart with their little back pockets and set off nicely with the striped belt. And the belt looks long enough to last him till he’s more than twice his present age. Good luck chasing down that polo shirt!
Lovely post! Thanks for the photo collection!
When I saw this, my mind wandered to 1-2 years from now when we will see Charlotte in a similar event 😀
Now that will definitely break the internet
Thanks for the awesome job! Best of luck with the IDs (Is the polo shirt a plain shirt with a sticker on it?)