Squadron Leader Paul Day - In Memoriam
The following is a copy of the Obituary to Squadron Leader Paul Day
that was published in the Daily Telegraph on 28 October 2025. The original
article may be read in the Daily Telegraph Online at the following link:
Squadron Leader Paul Day, 
who has died aged 83, was a Cold War fighter pilot who served on the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) for 24 years, during which time he amassed more than 1,000 hours' flying time in the Spitfire.
The BBMF was based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire when Day was serving there on a Phantom squadron. At the time, pilots for the BBMF were drawn from the resident squadrons on the base, and Day volunteered. Initially he flew the Hurricane and then converted to the Spitfire, which he went on to display at countless air shows and on many formal occasions.
He flew a Spitfire at numerous events commemorating the Second World War and upon State occasions, notably at Trooping the Colour and the Queen's Birthday Flypast. He was the deputy leader of the RAF formation, led by the
BBMF, that flew over Buckingham Palace to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain in September 1990. The air vice-marshal leading the large formation in another Spitfire commented: "Having Paul Day keeping an eye on proceedings from just behind me in the formation was extremely reassuring."
In 2002 he piloted one of the two Spitfires that flew over the cortege of the Queen Mother as it left Westminster Abbey. In due course, he became the chief instructor for the Flight's fighter aircraft. At the end of his regular service, Day remained a reserve officer and assumed command of the Flight in 1995, a post he held for eight years, a period unlikely to be surpassed.
Paul Day was born on 4 April 1942 in Sunderland and educated at Barnard Castle School, Co Durham. He joined the RAF in 1961 and trained as a fighter pilot.
