| The Royal Navy aircraft carrier and flagship, HMS Illustrious paid a visit to Liverpool in October 2009, and as a part of the visit there was a flypast of Royal Navy aircraft and helicopters along the River Mersey on the afternoon of Friday the 23rd of October.
The Fly Past consisted of arpound 40 present and historic Navy aircraft and helicopters, which included Merlins, Sea Kings, Lynxs and Squirrel helicopters, along with Falcon and Hawk jets, 2 GR9 Harriers, 4 Firefly’s and - classic Naval favourites - the iconic Sea Vixen, Seafire and Sea Fury (according to the RN News website that is) RN News also said that the aircraft flew in a fomation known as a 'Balbo' – a large mixed formation of aircraft, named after the Italian General, Italo Balbo, who on several occasions flew large groups of flying boats across the Atlantic in the early 1930’s, and that His Royal Highness the Duke of York KG, the Commodore-in-Chief of the Fleet Air Arm, was the guest of honour onboard the Carrier as the formation flew overhead. Pictures of the visit of HMS Illustrious can be found in my Maritime Gallery, only pictures of the flying display, and a later display in front of Albert Dock by the 'Black Cats' helicopter display team are included here. Nice one RN, just wish I had 500mm lens so I could take a few more close ups, my 300mm lens was struggling a little bit trying to keep up! 
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