A flypast is a ceremonial or honorific flight by aircraft. The term flypast is used in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. In the United States, the terms flyover and flyby are used.
Flypasts are often tied in with Royal or state events, anniversaries, celebrations, and occasionally funerary or memorial occasions. Flypasts also occur in special situations, to honour someone or to celebrate certain types of aircraft. They are tied to parades, of which they form the aerial component. Often they occur in purely display contexts at airshows, but it is the flypasts linked with civic, ceremonial and national pride, that imprint themselves on a nation's memory. Some flypasts have been described in broadcast and print media as "historic".
