AN airman from the North-East is spending this summer flying with the world-famous Red Arrows.

Corporal Graeme McGregor-Smith, who is from Consett, County Durham, has been chosen to join the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team.

He will join the Red Arrows as part of their back-seat support crew and is one of a ten-strong team of engineers known as the ‘Circus Blues’.

They have each been assigned to a specific aircraft and pilot throughout the 2015 display season.

Corporal McGregor-Smith will be travelling as a passenger in one of the Red Arrows’ two-seat Hawk aircraft in transit flights to over 80 display venues throughout the UK and Europe, flying at speeds of more than 350mph.

Once his aircraft arrives at the display’s operating base, he is responsible for servicing the aircraft before it can fly again.

Corporal McGregor-Smith said: “The job can get tiring as we work long hours when we are away but it is definitely the greatest achievement of my career so far.

“I feel very privileged to be able to fly in the jet and represent the Royal Air Force around the UK and overseas.”

The Red Arrows will be performing their exhilarating display of death defying stunts for over a million people at Sunderland International Air Show next month, as well as many others around the country, before returning to the region for the Great North Run in September.

Formed in 1964, the Red Arrows replaced a number of unofficial display teams that had been sponsored by RAF commands and have now performed over 4,600 displays in 56 countries around the world.

Corporal McGregor-Smith grew up in Consett and attended Moorside Comprehensive School before joining the RAF in 2002 and has previously completed tours in the Falkland Islands, working with Tornado F3 and Merlins.

Corporal McGregor-Smith said: “I was surprised but really happy to be selected for Circus as I’d only been on the squadron for just over a year.”