Why Northolt, West London is Great

RAF Northolt is a Royal Air Force station located east by northeast of Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, in West London, UK. Approximately north of London Heathrow Airport, it also handles a large number of private civilian flights.

RAF Northolt is actually situated in neighbouring South Ruislip; most early RAF airfields were named after the nearest railway station, in this case Northolt Junction which is now called South Ruislip.

The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force, based at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, UK (soon to be RAF Waddington). They were formed in late 1964 as an all-RAF team, replacing a number of unofficial teams that had been sponsored by RAF commands.

The Red Arrows badge shows the aircraft in their trademark diamond nine formation, with the motto Éclat, meaning "brilliance" or "excellence".

The Red Arrows were equipped with seven Folland Gnat trainers which were inherited from the RAF Yellowjacks display team. This aircraft was chosen because it was less expensive to operate than front-line fighters. In their first season, they flew at 65 shows across Europe. In 1966, the team was increased to nine members, enabling them to develop their Diamond Nine formation. In late 1979, they switched to the BAE Hawk trainer. The Red Arrows have performed over 4,000 displays worldwide in 53 countries.Official Red Arrows website. "Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows". Retrieved 3 April 2008.

At a charity auction, a British woman paid £1,500,000 to fly with them.

The Polish War Memorial is a memorial erected to remember the contribution of airmen from Poland who helped the Allied cause during World War II.

It is situated beside the A40/A4180 roundabout junction near RAF Northolt between Ruislip and Northolt, formerly in the English county of Middlesex, now in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The Polish War Memorial is often used by locals as a landmark when giving directions, as it is prominently situated by a major road junction on one of the main routes into London. Other Polish war memorials exist within the United Kingdom, including those at Invergordon, Scotland.

The Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain supported the Allied powers during World War II. A group of Polish officers who remained in Britain after the war formed the Polish Air Force Association and decided to erect a memorial. A committee, led by Air Vice Marshal Izycki, raised the necessary funds mostly from British people, and the memorial was unveiled on 2 November 1948 by Lord Tedder, Chief of the Air Staff, after a speech by Viscount Portal of Hungerford in which he said that it was a sad blow that many Polish veterans were unable to return home, as their country had been occupied by the Soviet Union. He added that it would be to the mutual advantage of Britons and Poles that the latter were to make their home in Britain.

The memorial was designed by Mieczys?aw Lubelski, who had been interned in a concentration camp during the war. The memorial is made from Portland stone with bronze lettering and a bronze eagle - the symbol of the Polish air force. The names of 1,243 Poles who died during the war were inscribed on the memorial, and a further 659 names added between 1994 and 1996, when the memorial was refurbished and rededicated.

Polish presidents Lech Wa??sa and Aleksander Kwa?niewski have both visited the war memorial to lay a wreath, in 1991 and 2004 respectively[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3684897.stm]