RAF trust launches Race to RIAT, FPV sim series for young cadets

The Royal Air Force Charitable Trust has turned FPV sim racing into a straight path to one of aviation’s biggest stages. Race to RIAT opened on April 20 with a six-track VelociDrone series for school pupils and RAF Air Cadets aged 14 to 16, and the 16 fastest racers will earn places in a grand final at the Royal International Air Tattoo this summer.

The format gives the competition real sporting stakes from the start. Instead of waiting for a local club or a physical race venue, young pilots can enter from anywhere in the United Kingdom, build speed on the simulator, and chase a spot in the final, which will be staged on the Inspire Stage at RIAT. That setup makes the series feel less like a classroom add-on and more like a proper ladder, with each track from April 20 through June 14 acting as another cutline on the way to Fairford.

For drone racing, the detail that matters is the pathway. VelociDrone gives beginners a controlled entry point, but the event is not only about lap times. The trust and its partners, the British Esports Federation and DXC Technology, have built the series around cyber and digital skills, engineering understanding, problem solving and air mindedness, all of which map cleanly onto the demands of competitive FPV and the wider aviation workforce. It is a recruitment funnel as much as a race, using sim racing to identify teenagers who can handle pressure, precision and rapid decision-making.

That is why the RAF backing gives Race to RIAT more weight than a typical school STEM initiative. The trust says it exists to promote the RAF and inspire young people in air, space and technology, and it has set a target of reaching 500,000 young people with STEM educational engagements by 2026 and 500,000 a year after that. Race to RIAT fits into that larger push, while also extending a pattern the trust has already established through Road to RIAT, its separate primary-school STEM competition that is open to UK state schools and accredited by Industrial Cadets.

The final lands inside a bigger aviation moment. RIAT 2026 runs from July 17 to 19 at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, and the airshow says 2026 marks 30 years since it received royal status. For the young racers who advance, the payoff is not just a trophy run on a simulator. It is a public audition for aviation, technology and competitive drone racing on a stage that already carries global prestige.