Prince William, who succeeded his dad King Charles as colonel-in-chief of Army Air Corps, finally took control of the multi-million dollar gunship helicopter to celebrate his new honour on Monday.
The Prince of Wales, a former RAF search and rescue pilot and flew an air ambulance for two years, seemingly rocked his younger brother Harry with his military skills as he flied Apache from an Army airfield in Hampshire to prove the King’s words: “He’s indeed a good pilot”.
The future King’s latest move seemingly added to Harry’s worries as he was already in tense after his father’s decision to hand over his old regiment to William.
William’s debut came as he and his father put on a united front to shun rumours about their relationship amid the King and future Queen Kate Middleton’s cancer battles.
The Prince and Princess of Wales social media accounts shared the video of the future King’s milestone with meaningful caption: “A special day at @armyaircorps for the official Colonel-in-Chief handover from His Majesty The King.
“Spending time hearing about the important role of battlefield helicopters and aircraft in the @britisharmy and getting back in the Apache for an Army Air Corps capability demonstration.”
Defiance expert Philip Ingram, a former Colonel in British military intelligence, lauded William’s skills over Harry as he said getting to grips with the basics of an Apache would be relatively straightforward for ‘accomplished pilot’, William.
But the veteran officer, according to Mail, said there was a big difference between simply getting the state-of-the-art gunship off the ground and flying it into combat like Prince Harry did during his time in Afghanistan.
William appeared confident behind the stick, a body language expert has claimed his younger brother appeared to have more ‘Top Gun swagger’ when he was in the cockpit. Harry famously had to scramble away from an interview while in Afghanistan in 2013 after an alert was sounded.
Reacting to William’s post one fan wrote: “A true pilot and a marvelous future king. It was lovely to see Prince William in his uniform and flying the helicopter carrying his duties towards his country.”
