All language subtitles for Secrets of Royal Travel Series 1 2of2 Secrets of the Royal Flight 1080p

♪♪

-From the earliest days
of flight,

the royal family
have taken to the skies.

-The royals and flying has been
a great love affair.

-The plane it has opened up
the whole world to them.

-When they go abroad, they are
ambassadors for Britain.

-Their favorite way to travel
for over 100 years,

the royals have loved
to fly in style.

-This is how the other
half live.

No airport queuing for them.

-And behind every journey,
whether by private jet,

chartered plane, commercial
aircraft, or helicopter,

there has been
an extraordinary team

tasked with looking after
our monarchs on the move.

-And salute the passenger once
they get off the aircraft.

-We lift the curtain

on five-star regal luxury
in the cloud.

-Only the best pilots
were allowed to fly

for the Royal Flight.

-It was like no other travel.

-We buckle up for some
turbulent times

and tell the story
of a royal love affair

that shows no sign
of abating.

-It really was quite something.
It was luxury.

-Join us as we take to the air
with the royals.

-Best thing since bubble gum.

♪♪

-The British royal family

are the most well-traveled
monarchy in history.

[ Cheers and applause ]

From a young queen
jetting around the globe

for the very first timeto the next generation of royals

taking the Windsor
brand worldwide,

plane travel has defined
a family

that's constantly on the move.

-Flight revolutionized
Queen Elizabeth's role.

I calculated it.

She's been
'round the world 42 times,

and that's
quite some air miles.

♪♪

-The royal wheels have
hit the tarmac

in over 100
different countries,

and from the moment
the cabin doors open,

the pomp and splendor of a grand
royal arrival begins.

[ All chanting ]

-It is theater.

Everybody's there,
everybody's positioned,

the red carpet
is looking perfect,

they look perfect,
everybody feels important,

and it makes the royal family

look very, very special,
as well.

-After all,
it is kind of pageantry.

It is almost a show
that they are putting on.

[ Cheers and applause ]

So that grand entrance
is very, very important.

-Long live the Queen.

The rulers of our land meet to
welcome the new queen.

♪♪

-The only person
in the British Isles

who doesn't need a passport,

the queen is the matriarch
of a family firm

who've got flying honed
to a fine art.

♪♪

-Obviously, when we go
to the airport,

especially when
it's hand luggage only,

we're trying to cram
all our toiletries

into that plastic bag.

It's never big enough.

No, the royals don't have to
worry about anything like that.

I've been on a plane with
Kate and William

where all Kate's dresses

had their own seat to make sure
they were kept flat.

They are not gonna be shoved
into the holds

just to be squashed
by everyone else's.

-Kate's excess luggage continues
a proud royal tradition.

For her 44,000-mile
commonwealth tour in 1953,

the queen's luggage alone
weighed 12 tons.

During her lifetime, her majesty
has indeed clocked up

an impressive amount
of hours spent airborne,

traveling over 1 million miles.

-Canberra is the first top
on her 80th birthday

whistle stop-tour.

It's two countries,
four cities in eight days.

-But in the hubbub
of modern air travel,

how do you provide a service
that's fit for a Queen?

Well, it all starts before the
plane has even left the ground.

-At Heathrow Airport,
which is where

all the royals travel from,
there's the Windsor Suite.

-Tucked behind an unmarked door
in the corner of Terminal 5

and complete
with polished marble floors

and a bomb-proof glass roof,

the Windsor Suite is where
the royal family kick back

before takeoff.

-It's basically like a posh
hotel lounge

where they just turn up
about 40 minutes,

an hour before, if that.

Sometimes Harry, in particular,

has literally turned up
half an hour

before a flight, screaminginto the Windsor Suite, "Quick!"

No airport queuing for them.

♪♪

-Which is lucky,
as most of the crew

would be made up
of their own staff.

Depending on the occasion,

the Queen's traveling entourage
can run up to 34 people.

-The entourage varies
from royal to royal.

-It's this juggernaut.
It's a royal juggernaut.

-The Prince of Wales,
certainly when I was there,

always had
an artist accompanying.

-Private secretary or maybe
two private secretaries.

-Charles will have, say,
three valets working with him.

-A couple or orderlies
or you'd have a hairdresser.

-They do travel with a surgeon.

Invariably, it's a Royal Naval
surgeon commander.

-And then you might have
a couple of tour managers.

So, yeah...

-But our modern monarchs
aren't the first

to use luxury air travel

as a way to live
in the royal fast lane.

It all began with Edward VIII,
the first head of state to fall

under the spell
of this dazzling way to travel.

-When Edward came to the throne,
he was the first in the world

ever to have an aircraft unit
for the head of state.

-Not even America, not even
the American president

had its own plane
at this stage.

So it was groundbreaking
in its own way.

-It was modern.
It was thrusting.

It was forward. It was amazing.

Going about in a plane --it makes him terribly glamorous.

-You know, air travel was
the coming thing,

and he put it on the map.

-But all this was just
the beginning for a family

who would go on to
become trailblazers in the sky.

♪♪

Our royals like to travel
in style.

Queen Elizabeth II is officially
the most widely traveled

head of state in history,
and her uncle Edward VIII

was the first member
of the family

to have his own private
royal plane.

But under her father, George VI,
with the arrival of war,

the Royal Flight was to become
far more

than just a glamorous perk
to the job.

[ Air-raid siren blaring ]

-In the war, everything changed.

What had once been rather
an indulgence for the king

now became a key part
of the war effort.

-The most important role
that King's Flight would have

would be to remove the king
out of the U.K.

to a place of safety.

-But George had other plans.

With 1 1/2 million British men
conscripted to the armed forces

in the first three monthsof the war alone, as their king,

George felt his
place was on the front line.

And his personal air force

offered the perfect
means of transportation.

-Regardless of his own safety,
George was adamant that he was

going to use the plane,
go and see his troops,

and the government
was always saying to him,

"It's too dangerous.

You'll get captured.
You could get killed.

You'll get injured.
It's simply not safe."

But he was absolutely insistent.

-And all those flights were made
with tremendous secrecy.

They were launched
from airfields under dark.

No one would see them doing it.

There was no advance warning

so nobody would know
where they were going.

-Even the Allied Forces were not
to be trusted

with the details
of the Royal Flight.

-There was one occasion
when the king

was on the King's Flight
heading out to see the troops,

and, actually, the Royal Navy
didn't recognize the airplanes.

And so a shot was sent up
towards the King's Flight

because they thought perhaps
it was an enemy aircraft.

-To protect its majestic
royal cargo,

the King's Flight invested
in its own armed aircrafts.

But a quirk of royal protocolnearly rendered half the wartime

king's defenses useless.

-There was a
problem with the rear guns,

'cause they were actually
inside the royal cabin,

and the royal household
would not allow an RAF engineer

into that royal cabin
in order to fire the guns.

Eventually, it was agreed

that the steward
would be allowed.

Now, the steward wasn't even
a member of the forces.

He was actually a footman
from Buckingham Palace.

Those guns were never fired
in anger during the war,

which was probably just as well

when you asked the steward
to fire them.

-The king paid a visit
to a fighter station

where pilots were taking off

for a daylight sweep
over occupied France.

-Throughout the war, George
traveled extensively by plane,

from secret meetings in Algiers

to visiting his troops
in France and North Africa.

But soon, the RAF needed
all the help it could get,

and by 1942,
the king had to give up

his beloved squadron of planes
for the war effort.

-The King's Flight had this

very, very important part
of the operations,

and what the squadron was doing
was dropping supplies

and dropping agents
all over occupied Europe.

So that, I think, is
completely marvelous.

[ Fanfare ]

-When peace was
finally declared,

the Royal Flight could return

to servicing the demands
of the king and his family.

But life in the air
was changing fast.

Airlines had upped the ante
on their technology.

-The Royal Flight would have
been operating

relatively old airplanes,

but, very quickly,
developments were afoot.

-In 1949,
the de Havilland Comet,

manufactured on home turf
here in Hertfordshire,

took to the air.

The jet engine had arrived,

and if the royal
family wanted in on the action,

they would have
to go commercial.

-Ladies and gentlemen,
this is your captain speaking.

We're now at cruising altitude,
35,000 feet.

-The Comet had it's greatest and
biggest advertisement in 1951

with a VIP flight,
and the VIP flight featured

the three biggest
VIPs you could get --

the Queen, Princess Elizabeth,
and Princess Margaret.

All three of them went up
in the plane together.

How amazing is that?

If it's safe enough forthe queen and her two daughters,

including the heir
to the throne,

safe enough for them,
it's safe enough for everybody.

♪♪

-Elizabeth, her mother,
and Princess Margaret

were guests of Sir Geoffrey
and Lady de Havilland

and became the first members of
the British royal family

to fly by jet.

Around 50% faster
than piston-engine aircraft,

a nine-stop
London-to-Tokyo by Comet

would now take 36 hours,
compared to 86 hours.

60 years on,
one of the few remaining

Comets in the world

now takes pride of place
at the de Havilland Museum.

-This is the aircraft
that really brought in the age

of luxury passenger air travel.

If you were travelingon an airliner before the Comets

came in, you were basically
traveling on a World War II

converted bomber.

They were just not a very
pleasant way

of traveling around.

The Comet changed all that,
revolutionized air travel.

-It was an incredible moment
of British pride

to have made the first airliner,
beaten America.

We've beaten
the rest of the world.

Our manufacturing was the best.

-Large picture-window views

and tables gave a feel
of comfort.

It had a galley
that could serve hot food.

Passengers dined on five-course
gourmet meals

before freshening up in private
sit-down dressing rooms.

It was luxury in the sky.

-It was fast. It flew high.
It was luxurious.

It was comfortable.
Above all, it was smooth.

It really was the Concord
of it's day.

-Suddenly, being up in a plane
was something to enjoy

rather than endure, a lavish
dinner party in the air.

And much to the delight
of Princess Margaret...

-Ashtrays fitted as standard,
of course.

Well, this was the 1950s.

-But de Havilland's success was
dramatically short-lived.

-This is the tragic scene

of the current disaster

near Calcutta.

-Soon after entering commercial
airline service,

three devastating accidents
killed everyone on board

when the planes inexplicably
exploded mid-flight.

Buckingham Palace was furious

that the Queen,
the heir to the throne,

and her sister were
put in such danger.

-What really broughtabout the downfall of the Comets

was the square windows,
because they were built

as lovely picture windows for
the passengers to see out of,

but the problem with square
windows -- they have corners,

and it was the corners
that concentrate the stress.

And that's what led to
the structural failure

of the entire aircraft.

-Although the de Havilland Comet
was redesigned,

the windows were improved,
it was too late.

By this point, people
had lost confidence in British

manufacturing of airplanes,
and the actual confidence

had moved to America.

-The British aviation industry
was hit hard,

but for Elizabeth,
this jet-powered revolution

had opened up a whole new world
of global travel.

In 1952, she set off with Philip

on a flight
from Heathrow to Kenya.

She was seen off by the king,

too ill to make
the tour himself.

Soon after they arrived,
the couple enjoyed

a brief respite
from the hectic royal schedule

at an exclusive hotel in
the heart of the Kenyan forest.

They were blissfully unaware
of the storm

that was about to break.

-It was in Kenya,
at the royal hunting lodge,

that the news of the king's
death reached his daughter.

-They'd been in the
Treetops Hotel,

which basically meant
looking down onto animals

in the watering hole,
and then her father had died.

The Queen was the first monarch
in modern history

to not be in her country
when she was proclaimed Queen.

-Elizabeth had arrived in Kenya
a princess.

Just six days later, she would
be flying back a queen.

But when she landed,
the assembled dignitaries,

including the prime minister,
Winston Churchill,

would have to wait.

-At the time,
her luggage and clothing

was for a royal tour of Africa,

so she wasn't suitably attired
to leave the aircraft.

So special mourning outfits

were brought to the aircraft
for her to wear

before she came down the steps
for the press

and the media to see her
clearly very upset.

-This extraordinary milestone
in royal history

would change protocol
for the family forever.

The Queen currently travels

with at least
three outfit changes a day,

but an all-black ensemble
for the purposes of mourning

is always included,
too, just in case.

The King's Flight no more,

Elizabeth's maiden voyage

would mark the beginning
of a near-70-year reign defined

by air travel.

-The plane has made Elizabeth
our most-traveled monarch

in history.

She sees the commonwealth

as one of her
most enjoying legacies,

so visiting it frequently --
that's very important.

-Back in 1953,
when her majesty started,

they did
60 Royal Flights in the year.

By 1985, with one extra
aircraft, we were doing 1,200.

♪♪

-The 1980s saw falling prices
in flying for everyone.

It was the birth
of package holidays

and increased competition.

Both Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair
first took to the skies.

It also marked the maiden voyage
of a plane that the royals

would get to know
very well over the next decade.

Tucked away at a museum
in Hertfordshire

is a veritable
royal workhorse, the 146.

-Wow. So, this is the 146.

Not quite the same setup
and configuration

as the Queen's Flight aircraft,
but, nonetheless, a 146.

-For air steward Dave Wright,
who accompanied the family

on over 750
Royal Flights across the globe,

this is like returning home.

-The senior principals,
or the senior royal traveling,

would always sit
in the same seat.

So, literally come up the stairs
at the back of the aircraft,

turn left.

That seat was
a principal passenger seat.

-Dave had to deliver the highest
standard of cabin service,

but with only the same space

to operate as
any other commercial jet.

-So, this is where I'd be
predominantly employed.

There would be stowages for
trolleys.

Obviously, the ovens and
a grill set up.

Refrigeration.
And, obviously, the sink.

And then,
the drawers down the side

there would be full of silver,
china, and crockery

for use in the cabin service.

-Service on most commercial
flights is delivered

by a team of cabin crew.

On the Royal Flight,

it was all down to Dave
as the lone steward.

Monogrammed tableware would be
polished to perfection,

and drinks served in
sparkling crystal glasses.

And Dave had to be ready
to meet the individual needs

of every royal under his watch.

-So, Prince of Wales, very much
into his organic food.

A lot of the time, his food
would arrive in containers.

Once his chef has provided it in
those containers,

you can't then
decant it into anything else

and make it look as good
as what it already is.

So, invariably, his royal
highness, the Prince of Wales,

would have his try
and would have his lunch served

in Tupperware containers.

Very nice.

-This was the royals's 146,

specially modified
to meet their demands.

It was down to the staff
and family

to give it some of those
creature comforts.

-As far as the royal family
are concerned, they come up

the steps into something
which is effectively home.

-On a royal tour, the
Princess of Wales, for example,

would get changed
from what she was wearing

to something
a little bit more relaxed.

-Some of them brought
their own slippers.

One female member of the family
brought her favorite shawl,

so she used to sit and wear
that when she was flying.

-The task of keeping the royals
soaring through the skies

has been described as the best
flying job in the RAF.

-I flew the Prince of Wales
primarily,

and we got on first-name terms.

He would call me Bob,
and I would call him

"Your royal highness."

-And it's all well and good
flying a well-behaved

Prince Charles
or Duke of Edinburgh,

but two boys under 10
were a very different story.

-We had the delight of flying
the young Prince William

and Prince Harry, and, of
course, like all youngsters,

they were all over the aircraft.

-The boys knew where the sweets
were kept,

and they would fill
their pockets full of sweets.

You could see their pockets
were bulging.

-And more often than not,
the air staff were contending

with friends
of the four-legged kind, too.

-Occasionally, as well as ourvery important royal passengers,

we might have some
very important royal dogs.

The household member of staff

would be seen
taking the dogs to the grass

and pleading with the dogs
to please do their business

before they went on board
the airplane.

And I'm delighted to
say, we never had one accident.

-We're a nation that loves
to fly, with up to 9,000 planes

taking to the skies
from the U.K. every day.

But if one of those
planes happens

to be carrying a member
of the British royalty,

then it will be operating
with a set of protocols

quite unlike
any other flight in the world.

From the rituals and customs
that are expected...

-There's obvious things.

You don't speak to the queen
until you're spoken to.

You don't touch the queen.

-...to the dangers and risks
of the unexpected.

-There was a convention
brought in,

really after the advent of
commercial air travel,

that the monarch and the heir
to the throne or two heirs

to the throne
really would not travel

together on the same means
of transport,

for safety reasons.

-And this is not
the only protocol

that anticipates
a bumpy ride ahead.

Alongside their
30 bags of luggage,

the queen and Prince Charles

always fly with their own
personal bags of blood.

-It's a safeguard, because
in certain parts of the world,

there's never a guarantee
that, "A,"

the type of blood
is gonna be available

and, if it is available,
whether it is clean.

-There are even unwrittenguidelines on clothing etiquette

when flying.

-The Queen apparently likes
female members

of the family to wear tights.

-They really have to
look perfect,

as if they were on
the front cover of
Vogue,

and that's how
they consider things.

-In fact, Queen Elizabeth's own
skirts are weighted in the hem

so that they don't blow up
as she descends at her

next important engagement.

But perhaps
lesser-known protocol

was the ban on a young Charles
at the departure lounge.

-Charles came to Heathrow
to wave goodbye to them,

and a photographer caught
Prince Charles crying,

waving and crying.

He didn't want to see hisparents go away for five months.

It appeared on a newspaper
the following day about --

I think it was called
"Your royal cryness."

And after that,
he was banned from ever going

to see his family
off again at any airport,

and there was no public display,

because that's not what
the royals are about.

♪♪

-But it wouldn't be too long
before Charles

embraced aviation.

Just a few years after his
unfortunate airport incident,

after a course of RAF-issue
flying lessons,

not only was the young Prince
taking to the sky himself,

but he made it clear

that the royals don't always
want to be passengers.

-The current royal family
have encompassed

and embraced aviation
tremendously.

The Duke of Edinburgh
learned to fly back in 1952,

and he's been a keen pilot
for very, very many years.

And then, following that,

the whole family
took it on board.

-Part of the attraction
of air travel must be the risk.

You know,
it's a sense of adventure.

You know, I suspect
they quite like the thrill

of putting
their life on the line.

But there might also be
a deeper psychological reason

why they're attracted to flight,

because they live most of
their life

in a gilded cage.

You know,
their life is regimented.

So when they go up in the air,
they're almost free.

You know, they're literally
spreading their wings.

-In fact, aside
from Prince Charles

and his father, Prince Philip,

both William and Harry excelled
in their military careers.

And even after
leaving the forces,

Prince William still used his
aeronautical skills for good.

-Okay. It looks like it
might be, guys,

so let the...

-Prince William,
Flight Lieutenant Wales

after he left the air force,

continued his flying career

and flew SE rescue and ambulance
helicopters in Cambridgeshire

for a number of years and,
during that time,

was a very,very popular member of the crew.

-I'm told people around
East Anglia

were trying to fall off roads

to break their legs with
the hope that Prince William

would come and pick them up,

but I'm not sure it's true.

-But being a royal doesn't
protect you

from the dangers in the sky.

-A number of royals have
actually died in air crashes.

The most famous of this wasPrince George, the Duke of Kent,

who died in 1942 when the plane

that he was flying to Iceland in
hit a mountain in Scotland.

And then later, in 1972,

Prince William of Gloucester
took part in an air show

near Wolverhampton.

Unfortunately, his two-man planeflipped over, and he was killed.

So there is a list of casualties
to air transport

for the royal family.

-In 1994, it was when Charles
took over the controls

that disaster struck.

-The Prince of Wales had a
narrow escape

when a jet he was piloting burst

a tire as it landed
and slid off the runway.

-Unfortunately, Prince Charles
was involved in an accident

with a Royal Flight,
BAE 146 aircraft, in Scotland.

-Prince Charles had taken over
the aircraft's controls,

as he often does
on such occasions.

-The royal plane dramatically
overshot the runway at Islay

in the Inner Hebrides.

-The nose wheel had landed
because it was right

beneath us, so we were
bumping along the runway,

but what we didn't realize
was, the main wheels

were still
slightly clear of the ground.

So, consequently,
when I took over,

I still couldn't stop it
going off the end.

-It was a very unfortunate
incident.

-The damage was well
in excess of £1,000,000.

But then, to be fair,
any aircraft accident

is always expensive.

-Although no one was hurt,

as the Royal Flight captain
on board,

Graham Laurie
took full responsibility.

-With hindsight, of course,
which is a wonderful thing,

I should have got him
to overshoot

and make another approach,but I actually told him to land,

so he did
exactly what he was told to do.

-A year after the crash,
Charles gave up his license

to fly for good.

But the Prince of Wales' skillas a pilot isn't the only danger

the royals face
whenever they're on the move.

-Security is always taking
into consideration

of where they travel to and
how they travel to get there.

-A majority of the transports
that they travel in

is armor-plated,
it's bullet-proofed,

and it's
bomb-proofed nowadays, as well.

They almost are sealed
in a capsule of safety.

-Both British and Zambian
security officials

know that the queen is most
vulnerable when she's up there,

when she's flying
across the country.

-The reality is,
is that on royal travel,

security is probably
the number-one aspect

that they look at, before even
comfort or reliability.

-In the '80s and '90s,
the royals were in

the full glare of the world's
media unlike ever before.

And so once the cabin doors
were closed,

flying off at
a brief moment of respite,

the royal plane
needed to provide

all the comforts of home.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-The only thing the queen
really insists on having

wherever she is
is Malvern water.

She likes Malvern water.
It's refreshing.

And they usually
take lots of it with her.

-She loves afternoon tea.
It's her favorite meal.

And she only drinks Earl Grey,

so if you were the chef on board
the royal plane,

you would definitely make sure
that you had

an entire supply of Earl Grey --
not just on the plane journey

but wherever you were
going on tour.

She particularly likes
egg-and-cress sandwiches,

cut in particular ways.

And for supper, she always likes
to start with smoked salmon.

-And having had to adjust to
spending such an extraordinary

long time up in the air,

throughout her long reign,
Queen Elizabeth II

has sworn by a secret weapon

to help keep the royal
body clock in sync.

-Barley sugar, actually.

Apparently, she says
that she thinks that

it can help with the jet lag,
as well,

which is an interesting one.

I hadn't heard that one before.

-The on-flight team knew
the best way

to help our sovereigns unwind

after a long day of taxing
public engagements.

-The Queen invariably would have
a Dubonnet for a drink.

-There's a apocryphal
stories that Charles likes

to take a pre-shaken martini

with him in a special shaker

that a valet can, you know,
pour for him

when he clicks his fingers.

-He offered me one once.

He insisted,
and you don't say no

to the Prince of Wales.

And his mixture
is putting a bit of vermouth

into the glass, swilling
it 'round, and chucking it out,

and then filling the glass
up with gin.

I thought it was
pretty revolting,

and when he wasn't looking,
I chucked it over a Yucca.

Don't know whether
the Yucca's still alive.

It might have died.

-However, when traveling

to the more obscure corners
of the world,

for the Queen's Flight,a lack of royal-quality catering

could mean serving up
a surprising specialty.

-Quite frankly, when you were
really out in the sticks

and there wasn't much to be had,

then if you could get something

that was canned,
like a Fray Bentos pie,

they would take that.

-And do you know,
they used to love it,

I think it's such
a lovely change

from all that fancy food that
comes first class.

-Mm, I won't say
they necessarily like them,

but it was something.

It was better than nothing.

-With up to 30 appointments
a week that could be anywhere

from Carlisle to Cuba,

the key for the dutiful
onboard team

was to ensure that
the royals were disturbed

as little possible.

-Whenever we were flying,
we never used the P.A.,

the Tannoy system
of the airplane,

because it was thought

that it might interrupt
a very important meeting.

-So instead of using the Tannoy,
before every trip,

navigator Bob Shields
and his team

would painstakingly write out
descriptions of the route,

weather, and timetable
on one of these blue cards.

But even expert
weather forecasters

couldn't always predict
what lay ahead.

-On one particular
overseas tour,

we were flying
with the Princess of Wales

and we were in Brazil to visit

an airfield called Cataratas.

We had left Rio
in bright sunshine,

beautiful weather, and according
to the weather office there,

it was gonna be
like that all day.

So I had sent back
one of my blue cards

and I had written it was
gonna be a fine, sunny day.

Unfortunately, on the way back
from Cataratas, the weather

started to change
and change very rapidly.

-We were heading into
rotten weather.

When I say "rotten weather,"

I mean rotten
with a capital "R,"

and every other letter
is capital.

It was chucking it down
with rain.

I mean, it was so bad, you could
hardly see.

We dropped 10,000 feet.
We just dropped.

-But Bob and his team were able
to get the royal flight back

in one piece,

unlike the shattered nerves
of it's passengers.

-And this is the actual card
that I completed the day

after we had the bad weather.

And then her royal highness,
the Princess of Wales --

she sent it back to me with
the little comment

that you can see right down
at the bottom there.

She had just written
"B"....."S,"

which was indicative
of her royal highness

and her sense of humor.

[ Laughs ]

-Just coming out now.

The Princess of Wales
and the Prince of Wales

climb aboard the Andover,
the Queen's Flight.

♪♪

-From the engineers up
to the pilots,

the Princess of Wales
was hugely popular

with the team
behind the Queen's Flight.

Joining the royal family when
aviation was in its heyday,

she'd quickly become one of the
flight's most frequent fliers,

adding some much-needed glamour

on every royal journey she took.

-It's a 10-day tour,
which promises to be

one of the busiest
ever for the Prince

and Princess of Wales.

-So, on the 31st of August 1997,
no one was prepared

when a distressing emergency
broadcast hit the headlines.

-Just to confirm the news
that Diana Princess of Wales

has died
in a car accident in Paris,

which also killed
her companion, Dodi Fayed.

-It was a shock.

I mean,
I'd flown her over 200 times,

and, you know, she was
a regular passenger.

-Graham Laurie was the pilot
on duty the morning

of her fatal accident.

It was his job to fly

Prince Charles out to France
to collect her body.

-If anyone had to do the trip,
I was glad I was able to do it.

We were using
the French Air Force base

Villacoublay just on the
outskirts of Paris.

Everyone involved
was being so helpful.

They would say,

"Please pass on our condolences
to the Prince of Wales."

-Across the county,
a shell-shocked public

woke up unable to comprehend
the tragic news.

-So it was with the reluctance,

a struggle,
and a sense of helplessness

that yesterday's truth
dawned irrefutable.

Today's ordeal was acceptance.

-And Graham was in the eye
of the storm.

-When we left Northolt
at 10:00 in the morning,

there were 47 people.

When we came back, there werebetween 400 and 600 press alone,

and it made you realize

just what a major thing
it was for the world.

-Watched by half-a-billion
people across the globe,

the coffin
of "The People's Princess"

was carried out of the aircraft,

covered with the Royal Standard.

And within 20 minutes,
Graham was back in the air,

flying the Prince up to Balmoral
to be with his young sons.

-When we landed at Aberdeen,I was doing the shutdown checks,

and I then heard
over the intercom

"The Prince is coming forward."

Now, his royal highness
came up front,

and, apparently, we spoke
for about four minutes,

but I honestly don't remember
a single thing

about that conversation.

I think we'd landed,
and as far as I was concerned,

a fairly traumatic day was over,
and I just sunk down.

Quite a day.

♪♪

-For many regal journeys,
the stately private jet

was the royal family's obvious
transport of choice

but flying fixed-wing
is not a royal's only option.

♪♪

They're also partial to a trip
in a cheeky chopper.

In fact, having had their own
from the late 1950s,

our monarchy were actuallysome of the first in the country

to adopt
this rather wobbly way to fly,

even when they weren't traveling
in it themselves.

-The royal family were
very early uses of helicopters.

While they were staying up
in Balmoral,

the mail could be delivered by
helicopter on a daily basis.

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

-Easy, speedy, and perfect
for short domestic trips

anywhere around the U.K.,

for many years,
the Windsors relied

on the bespoke royal Wessex
of the Queen's Flight.

Princess Diana was an early fan.

-Diana would visit North Sea oil
platforms, and the helicopter

would actually
land directly on the platform,

she would make her visit,

and then be flown back
to Balmoral

or wherever her
starting point was.

-The smiling Princess arrived

in what everybody's wearing
this season out here,

steel-toe-capped boots
and a rubberized survival suit.

♪♪

-One of the first helicopters
used regularly by the family

now resides
in London's RAF Museum.

-There's the old girl, exactly
as I remember her 33 years ago.

-Barry Kelly spent many years
serving as an engineer

across all aircrafts
in the Queen's Flight,

but he always had a soft spot

for the specially fitted
royal helicopters.

-A normal Wessex
has none of this.

There's lots of whirring
and noises and hydraulic oil

dripping on everybody.

It's not a very pleasant
place to be.

But these aircraft -- they're
sound-proofed,

they've got carpets,

they've got velour
on the walls,

and it's really
quite comfortable.

-Despite the luxury, there was
very little space inside.

Once they had departed, Barryhad to shed his role of engineer

and become the onboard
steward instead.

-In here, you'd have cups and
saucers and crystal glasses,

and in the lower portion of the
catering box it was called,

you'd have your flasks
and a little work surface here.

So, literally,
you'd get a cup out,

make a cup of tea,
close it all back up again.

Not very easy at about
90 miles an hour, 1,200 feet

while this thing isshaking around like a mad thing.

On one instance, we were flying

a very senior member
of the royal family.

He asked me if --
could he have an egg sandwich?

And I said, "Of course, Sir."

So stand up,
walked up to the table.

There were papers all over
the desk.

And he said,
"Put it on the end."

I said,
"Well, it's gonna fall off."

He said,
"No, just put it on the end."

"Okay, Sir."

And sat back down here
and just watched it from here

going flop on the floor.

His royal highness went, "Oh."

He said,
"Have you got another one?"

I said "Of course I have, Sir."

I gave another one
and put it in the middle

of the table this time.

I mean, it was hilarious.

♪♪

It was my duty to open
the cabin door, climb out.

Extend this handle
and that handle,

lower the step for the passenger
to leave the aircraft,

and basically perform
the protocol

and salute the passenger
once they got off the aircraft.

-Lavish helicopters
like the Wessex

are no longer in royal service,

but the monarchy still depend
on the speedy chopper

to get them from "A" to "B."

-To do short journeys,

the helicopter
is a far more effective tool

and will get people
to places much quicker

and much more comfortably.

Modern helicopters,
and particularly those used

by the royal family,
are state of the art.

-But the royal family's options
for traveling internationally

have significantly changed.

After a government investigation
into the costs

of maintaining an elite,
private air force,

in 1995, the Queen's Flight
as we know it

was disbanded and absorbed

into another regiment
in the RAF.

This question of how much
the royals spend

jetting around the world

is still very much
in the public eye today.

-Royal travel has often been
described

as the Achilles' heel
of the royal family,

because it takes upa sizable element of the budget.

It's about £5,000,000 out of
a total budget of £50,000,000.

-One of the few royal expenses
that we do get to see

are the royal
transport expenses,

when the royal is traveling
on official business,

because those are paid
by the Foreign Office.

So when it comes
to royal expenses,

those are often the ones
the most scrutinized

because people look through them
and say

"But look, why are these royals
taking a private jet to France?

Why don't they go on
first class on a normal flight

or why don't they go first class
in the Eurostar?"

So, actually, the royal travel

is one we have a particularly
unique insight into now.

-Having a plane is the ultimate
wealth signifier,

and, in a sense,
it is a plaything of the rich.

So if you're relatively wealthy,
you know,

you want a plush --

When you're young, you want
a nice, plush sports car.

If you're very wealthy,
you want a plane,

So, in a sense, it is --
There might be an element of

boys with toys to it.

-Thankfully, the younger
generation of royals

are much more media savvy,

as well as being attuned
to public opinion.

Both princes William and Harry
are more than happy

to fly economy,
just as long as no one notices.

-Harry and Meghan -- they're two
of the most famous people

in the world.

They went to Norway in the early
stages of their relationship

It was Norwegian Air.

No one on that plane knew
that Harry and Meghan were on,

because the whole plane
had boarded.

They were driven
to the back step.

They walked up.
They had baseball caps on.

Snuck into the back seats
of the aircraft.

No one even knew
they were there.

-And physical disguises aren't
the only method they use

to remain anonymous.

-Kate and William, on their 2014
tour to Australia,

traveled under the names
of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

And Prince George, who was
8, 9 months at the time,

was Baby Jones.

-The princes are probably
two of the most down-to-earth

members of the royal family
that can exist,

so for them to go
and use a budget airline

to get somewhere quickly

recognizes a certain sense
of responsibility.

Why not? Good for them.

-And with the modern royals
more than ever

traveling the world to promote
the British global brand,

this trend may be
set to continue.

-I think that for their public
duties, the younger royals

will definitely continue to
travel commercially,

because it is more
cost-effective.

And then,
normally what happens is,

they will get an upgrade
into first class.

-They also charter
privately owned aircraft

for European trips.

Aircraft are available
from the Royal Air Force,

but I think the future
for long-distance traveling

is that the royal family willcontinue to use state-of-the-art

commercial aircraft,
in the ultimate luxury.

-But even in a world where,
for the royals,

every mode of transport
now goes,

a special place will always
be reserved

for the memory of the days
when our monarchy

broke the forefront
of private air travel...

-I think almost everybody
that was on the Queen's Flight

thought it was
a magnificent job.

-...when being trusted withlooking after a royal in the air

was an honor
no one could ever forget...

-I look back now
and think how lucky

I was to be one of those people.

-...and a handpicked team of
the RAF's very best were tasked

with keeping them safe.

-I actually served 38 years
in the air force,

and my time
on the Queen's Flight

was the highlight of my career.

-This was the incredible legacy
of 100 years of royal aviation.

-And, quite frankly,
when you're on Queen's Flight,

it really was quite something.

It was luxury.
Best thing since bubble gum.

♪♪

-To order this program on DVD,
visit ShopPBS

or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available
on Amazon Prime Video.

♪♪

♪♪

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