RAF Hercules Retirement Flypast on Wed 14 June 2023: at 10.56

There will be a flypast by three RAF Hercules aircraft (ZH868, ZH870, ZH871 - Omen) on Wednesday 14th June 2023 over Shobden airfield to mark its forthcoming retirement at the end of June 2023. Flypasts to mark the end of an era for Hercules service and 47 Squadron. 
The first Hercules arrived at Marshall's of Cambridge in December 1966 and the type will officially retire from RAF service on 30th June 2023. 
The Hercules, a four-engined turboprop military transport aircraft, was used intensively during Operation Telic in Iraq and Operation Herrick in Afghanistan and accumulated many flying hours. The C-130K Hercules was retired in October 2013 leaving the RAF with the C-130J Hercules which will now be retired at the end of June 2023. 
There will now be a transition to the twenty two RAF A400M Atlas aircraft, a larger four-engined turboprop military transport, which has a better range and payload than the Hercules and also has a very impressive short-runway performance. However, there have been concerns over some niche areas which are required by special forces missions and also some reliability issues with the A400M. 
The transition from the Hercules to the A400M Atlas has been ongoing for some time and the RAF Hercules will continue to deliver on operations until 30th June 2023. Both the C-130J Hercules and A400M Atlas are currently based at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.