Inspired by a chance meeting with a Red Arrows team member at the age of six, Ross Priday went on to build a distinguished Royal Air Force career before achieving his childhood dream of joining the Red Arrows. Today, as a Department for Transport Aviation Ambassador, he is helping inspire the next generation to follow their own path into aviation.

The dream

In 1977 my Mum took me to an airshow at RAF Innsworth near my hometown of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. I was six years old.

Back in the 1970s the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Display Team, The Red Arrows, were based just up the road at RAF Kemble and they were due to display at the Innsworth Airshow.

The Team’s commentator (known as Red 10) arrived in a helicopter before the display and I remember thinking how great it would be to have a job like that – flying around the country with the Red Arrows.

Before the show started I had the chance to speak to Red 10. I was a shy and quiet six-year-old and he took the time to tell me that one day I could be a Red Arrow if I worked hard at school, much to the obvious delight of my Mum who always encouraged me towards a career in the Royal Air Force.

The reality

I didn’t work hard at school. I was unhappy at school. I hated it.

The education environment never suited me and my mind was always elsewhere, dreaming about travelling the world and doing all the exciting things that I imagined that would entail.

I didn’t want a college or university education, my family never had the money to enable that, and I never had the qualifications or motivation to do it.

But I never forgot Red 10, taking the time to speak to me. It ignited a spark in me and I never looked back.

As a result, all I wanted to do from the age of six was to have a career in aviation and the obvious route into that industry in 1989 (at the age of 18) was to join the RAF.

So, I did, and in early 1990, at 19-years-old, Leading Aircraftsman Priday graduated from the RAF’s technical training school as an aircraft mechanic.

“I never forgot Red 10, taking the time to speak to me. It ignited a spark in me and I never looked back”

The Royal Air Force

Within a few months I was travelling the world, visiting Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia and many other places near and far. Places that the geography teacher at school had never told us about.

I immersed myself in the sights, the sounds and the smells and relished the excitement that these new places offered me.

I learnt new skills and made new friends along the way, many of which have remained friends to this day. I gained confidence and found my niche. I found myself.

And for the first time in many years, I liked who I was.

I worked hard in the RAF, finding a purpose that I never had in school. I gained technical and academic qualifications, and the RAF gave me the opportunity to study. For the first time in my life, I wanted to study.

I gained promotion and realised that I had made the right life choices for me. In aviation, I found my calling. I loved what I was doing, and I chased down every opportunity that my chosen industry gave me – and it gave me plenty.

In 1999, at 28-years-old, I applied for officer training and much to my surprise my application was successful.

In February of 2001, Flying Officer Priday graduated from the RAF College at Cranwell.

My Mum and Dad came to my graduation, and I remember thanking them for encouraging me to follow my dreams and ambitions.

I thrived. I loved every minute. I travelled the world. I did all the things that I dreamt of at school and many more things that I never dreamed I could do.

I studied some more and gained two degrees and at the same time became a Chartered Aerospace Engineer with the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS).

I held positions with formal airworthiness accountability and I had leadership and managerial responsibility for people.

You learn a lot about yourself when you hold responsibility for the safety and welfare of other people.

“I worked hard in the RAF, finding a purpose that I never had in school. I gained technical and academic qualifications, and the RAF gave me the opportunity to study”

The Red Arrows

In 2010, at 39-years-old, I had an unexpected opportunity. I was in the right place at the right time. The Red Arrows needed a new senior engineer officer. I applied and was successful.

For nearly three years I had the incredible privilege of flying around the world in the backseat of a Red Arrow’s jet and I made memories that will last me a lifetime.

I wore the famous red flying suit, and I had my name (Sqn Ldr Ross Priday) on the side of a Red Arrows aircraft.

I had achieved my childhood dream and it meant more to me than anyone would ever know.

In 2013 when my time with the Team came to an end it was hard to let go.

Promoted again, I moved on, leaving the Red Arrows behind me. I just hope that maybe I inspired somebody during my time on the Team in the same way that Red 10 inspired me in 1977.

In 2016, at 44-years-old, Wing Commander Priday left the RAF to pursue a career in civilian aviation.

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A new direction

In everyone’s career, there is a point in time where you become more valuable for what you know, rather than what you do.

I had gained almost 30 years of experience, and I started my own business as an aviation expert.

I had opportunities to work in consultancy and training, safety and human factors, insurance and law and many other disciplines.

Very quickly, I found myself with opportunities to take up positions as a director with other businesses and as the world locked down with COVID-19 in early 2020, I had shareholding interests in four different companies.

In 2021 I sold two of them and made a little bit of money. I closed another that didn’t work out and I kept the most successful one as a long-term venture.

I have since started up another business with a colleague and this too has proven to be very successful, delivering human performance training and consultancy to many different industries, including aviation.

Time to reflect

At 54-years-old, as the record-breaking heatwave gripped the UK in June of 2026, I reflected on my career.

Today my professional time is split equally between being a chief executive for a small business that provides risk advisory, training and consultancy services to many different industries and being a technical director for dispute resolution providing technical expert services to the legal world in aviation.

My professional life today

In early 2026 I had the privilege of becoming an Aviation Ambassador for the UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT), and in June I also accepted an invitation to take up the role of the head of the education and skills committee with the Royal Aeronautical Society.

As a chief executive of a successful small business, I employ a growing team of associate consultants and we work globally, with contracts in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe and across the UK.

We have worked with airports, airlines, ground handling, air traffic control, birdstrike and wildlife teams, airport security, fuel providers, offshore helicopter operators, air taxi designers and others.

As a technical director for a dispute resolution company, I have gained further professional qualifications in civil law and procedure to allow me to provide professional advice to legal teams involved with aircraft accidents, contractual disputes, personal injuries and property damage litigation.

In both roles, I speak at conferences and events around the world, and I am currently preparing to deliver talks in Cleveland, Ohio and in Nairobi, Kenya.

My career has also offered me the opportunity to become a professional public speaker onboard cruise ships around the world – not something that my quiet and shy younger self would ever have dreamt possible.

Aviation Ambassador

As an Aviation Ambassador I have been given a unique opportunity to give something back to an industry that has given me so much over the years.

Being the head of the education and skills committee at the RAeS provides further opportunity to do the same. It feels like my career has gone ‘full circle’ and I now spend time speaking with schools, colleges and young people about how they can aspire and access fulfilling careers in the aviation industry.

I love having this opportunity – it is incredibly rewarding and allows me to share the passion and knowledge that I have retained after a lifetime in aviation.

“As an Aviation Ambassador I have been given a unique opportunity to give something back to an industry that has given me so much over the years”

How do you measure success?

My career is not remarkable or unique – not at all. Many other young men and women have followed similar career paths.

But my story is important nonetheless, because what it does demonstrate is that ‘success’ in life is achievable for anyone. If I can do it then so can anybody.

Yes, I’ve worked hard. Yes, I’ve made sacrifices. Yes, I’ve taken risks along the way, and yes, maybe I have been lucky as well.

Success for me has been finding an industry and a career that offers me a huge variety of opportunities (and still does).

Aviation has given me options throughout my life. I enjoy what I do and, as a result, I’m occasionally good at it too, so I am told.

Materially I have everything I need. Professionally, I don’t feel that I have ever had to work a day in my life. Personally, aviation has always been in my blood and always will be.

I am eternally grateful to Red 10 in 1977, to my parents and to those professional colleagues who believed in me when many others didn’t.

Under-achieving at school doesn’t mean that we have to under-achieve in life.

Aspire.

Follow your dreams and Reach for the Skies.

READ MORE PROFILES FROM THE DFT’S AVIATION AMBASSADORS HERE AND WHAT THE ROLE MEANS TO THEM