The Royal Air Force has targeted a major gay festival in a bid to find the next Top Gun. It is the first time the air force has tried to recruit gay people after a court ruling overturned a ban on employing homosexuals in the armed forces.

Eight RAF officers operated a float at Manchester’s Gay Pride extravaganza over the recent Bank Holiday weekend.

Until January 2003 it was legal for the armed forces to reject gay and lesbian officers. But the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the ban breached gay peoples’ right to respect for private life.

A spokesperson from the RAF said: “We have recruitment policies that recognise that people from different backgrounds can make positive contributions. An individual’s sexual orientation is none of the RAF’s business.”