Chocks away, RAF photo competition winners

The winners of the annual RAF Photographer of the Year competition have been announced. There were more than 800 entries submitted by RAF personnel, including both professional RAF photographers and amateurs.

Two RAF Chinooks head out over North Sea wind farms during a low level flight to retrieve a downed pilot during a rotary training exercise. Senior Aircraftman Nicholas Egan was on hand to record the moment. The picture is one of those that earned him the award of RAF Photographer of the Year.

SAC Egan also captured the moment a Chinook helicopter from RAF Odiham landed troops from 40 Commando Royal Marines on a mountain peak in the Mojave desert during Exercise Black Alligator.

Another picture from SAC Egan shows Chinooks on the flight line at Twenty Nine Palms US Marine Corps base in California, US, beneath the Milky Way display.

The RAF Falcons display team were practicing at the Lake Elsinore sky diving centre, California, and Senior Aircraftman Matt Aherne was on hand to record the moment.

Flying Hawk T1 jets, the Red Arrows is based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and Cpl Steve Buckley photographed them as they flew over Kuala Lumpur city centre around the Petronas towers. The Red Arrows team consists of nine display pilots and more than 100 support personnel and technicians.

Senior Aircraftman Will Drummee joined the Royal Air Force as a photographer in 2015 after being a keen amateur photographer for a number of years. His picture shows members of 15 Squadron RAF Regiment moving across the hills during a training exercise at Dartmoor Training Area. Orange flares were fired into the air providing light in an otherwise pitch black landscape.

The Grob 115E is known in the RAF as the Tutor and here Senior Aircraftman Matty Smith photographed four of them in formation over rural Cambridgeshire.

While flying over West Falkland Islands Sgt Peter George shot this photograph from inside a Chinook helicopter. This picture was highly commended by the judges in the RAF Operations and Exercise category.

Warrant Officer Chris Shaw makes notes having just finished assessing the first drill check of an Initial Officer training course at Royal Air Force College, Cranwell. This picture won Laurence Platfoot of RAF Cranwell first place in the Personnel category.

Members of the public can vote for their favourite picture on the competition's website.

All photographs copyright RAF