Aeroplane Monthly 2017-12

EXCLUSIVE SOPWITH CAMEL

PHOTOS

& REPORT

December 2017 Issue No 536, Vol 45, No 12

HISTORY IN THE AIR SINCE 1911

V-BOMBERS

On alert On deployment

PLUS!

TMAS S I R H C GIFT GUIDE

A PASSION FOR WARBIRDS ‘Parky’ Parkinson interviewed

DATABASE CAC AVON SABRE

NEIL WILLIAMS

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A legend remembered

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GIVE T HE

YEAR! ALL

Contents

T THAT LASTS GIF

December 2017

A subscription to makes a great gift this Christmas. Se e pages 24 and 25 for details.

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Calendar 2018

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FREE INSIDE AEROPLANE 2018 CALENDAR Superb archive images from 100 years of RAF history

FREE with

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December 2017

Superb archive images from 100 years of RAF history

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SAAF BALTIMORES Operational sorties with the ‘Pirates of the Aegean’ FAIRCHILD PILGRIM A rugged, characterful machine that recalls how crucial aviation has long been in Alaska DATABASE: CAC SABRE James Kightly describes how Australian industry gave the F-86 an IN-DEPTH PAGES Avon

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DATABASE

Creating the Aus tralian

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● Adapting a legendary fi ghter design ● In service, home and away ● A great ‘pilot’s aeroplane’

AEROPLANE DECEMBER

KEY COLLECTION

WORDS: JAMES KIGHTLY

GAVIN CONROY

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The prototype CAC Sabre, CA-26 airborne with A94-101, fuselage-side and ‘P for prototype’ airbrakes deployed markings prominent.

CAC SABRE

CA-27 Sabre Mk32 A94-983/ VH-IPN, owned by the Australian Defence Forces and operated by the Temora Aviation Museum.

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DEVELOPMENT CAC AVON SABRE

IN-DEPTH PAGES

Sabre

he North American during 1950, F-86 Sabre is but by a lack of US was scotched towards the unarguably one dollar island steppingof the and the pro-British finance great fighters stones of the Australia, the in East Indies and only history. It was well as a shortage lobby, as the restless spawning outside the USA country a fine to do so. the balance betweendesign, Sabres available of actual of Asia and Indonesia”.millions CAC was the from natural primary requirements the American production. he added, “Australia’s But, to build Australia’s company of In 1953, firepower, speed next fighter. it should be noted, expanding engineeringrapidly In fact, CAC had and manoeuvrabil been voted African Air Force the South industries are £A5 million in ity being not 1949 for a near-perfect. squadron’s worth was loaned a without completelyyet capable, design study Nevertheless, and improvement Sabres in Korea. of NAA unbalancing the development s were made, The RAAF national of a initially to gain was given Gloster economy, of all-weather fighter two-seat altitude making and Meteor F8s, performance with a pair which arrived maintaining all of Rolls-Royce and in 1951, instead. the aircraft and Tay turbojets. fighting MiG-15s speed for Due to the performance engines and Designated the in Korea. The me countless CA-23, it had Canadian company difference and items of aircraft swept wings poor tactics Canadair equipment and licence-built the against the MiG-15, required by the radar nose. This tail, and a F-86 and this RAAF several remarkably derivative was Meteor losses RAN [Royal Australian and the ambitious project also regarded resulted in No as an excellent was Navy] either in peace eventually abandoned fighter, being or in war.” adopted by the as a result of a change RAF and Pakistan, the of policy, but not before latter using it A serious proposal in the combat. North government and Australian to buy NAA-built American for Korean combat Aviation (NAA) Sabres chiefs had agreedair force was floated, but developed lack of dollar fi various further that a much scotched more versions and nance and the ultimately the d day pro-British lobbyby a fighterstraightforwar all-new F-100 option would Super Sabre. do. A Hawker fighter But prior to that was new type, the 77 Squadron preferred choice, their most powerful being having failed variant of the Australia’s Commonwea to obtain a response F-86 was created redeployed on ground attack in Australia. in the US lth operations, much Aircraft Corporation after enquiring to the pilots’ about the Pty Ltd In the late 1940s, fury. (CAC), despite Grumman Panther. the Royal a political and Australian Air Initially Beyond social focussed on the Force expectation to the Korean War, Hawker ‘buy replace the obsoleteneeded to there were British’, had established P1052, they switched other anxieties. Mustang As to the the Australian a modern Sabre A94-915with long-term relationship a P1081. The P1052 of No jet, the de 2(F) OCU’s Minister Marksmen aerobatic Havilland with Defence Production, for team. NAA. It dated CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY Vampire ultimately never design, back to CAC’s to be fully being regarded then in use Hon Sir Eric Harrison the Rt establishment developed, was throughout as in 1936 with the an interim an interim type. MP, said, “Australia’s KCVO production of step between The need was the the urgent, due to 9,000,000 people developed from Wirraway, Hawker Sea Hawk successful the occupy an early type A serious proposal Korean War. effectively in what became Hunter, the P1081 and the only a NAA’s T-6 enough NAA-built to buy being a their vast island portion of swept-wing, straight-throu www.aeroplanemonthly.c continent, with family. In the later part of equip No 77 om 85 Sabres to much of its 12,000 World War Two, gh exhaust version. Squadron, RAAF, an In for Korean combat coastline curving miles of unprecedente 1950, the AustralianFebruary was floated upward d agreement invitingly in a was reached government placed great arc to licence-build a £30,000 30/10/2017 16:21 the P-51D Mustang deposit with Hawker Siddeley in to licence-build 72 examples 86 www.aeroplane

Insights

SKYWRITERS Q&A Your questions asked and answered 82 HOOKS’ TOURS More superb colour images from Mike Hooks’ collection — this month, a selection of Klemm Kl 35Ds 98 REVIEWS A bumper crop of books and products for Christmas 106 NEXT MONTH

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NEIL WILLIAMS Remembering the extraordinary aviation exploits of one of Britain’s greatest post-war pilots, 40 years on from his death VICTORS ON ALERT Cold War tales of the Cuban Missile Crisis, ‘Western Rangers’ and more VULCAN ROUND THE WORLD It was quite a way to end an operational tour: fly a Vulcan around the globe SHUTTLEWORTH’S CAMEL Building and flying a superb reproduction of the Sopwith fighter TRANS-ATLANTIC HERONS Long-distance adventures in the fourengined de Havilland transports AEROPLANE MEETS… ANTONY PARKINSON After 11 years with the BBMF and more than three decades as an RAF pilot, ‘Parky’s’ off to the civilian warbird world

Technical Details

REGULARS

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FROM THE EDITOR NEWS • Aerospace Bristol opens • C-model Mustang airborne • Restored Re 2002 goes on show …and the month’s other top aircraft preservation news HANGAR TALK Steve Slater’s comment on the historic aircraft world FLIGHT LINE Reflections on aviation history with Denis J. Calvert

FEATURES

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103 AEROPLANE ARCHIVE: THE BURBERRY One of the less well-known exploits of DH88 Comet G-ACSS

COVER IMAGE UK: Sqn Ldr C. MacGillivray and his crew in a staged ‘scramble’ to No XV Squadron Victor B1 XH592 at Cottesmore in June 1959. IWM (RAF-T 1018) COVER IMAGE WORLDWIDE: The Temora Aviation Museum-operated, Australian Defence Force-owned CA-27 Sabre Mk32 A94-983/VH-IPN. GAVIN CONROY

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Editor From the

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t is rare for one pilot to have be said to have contributed to a been such an influence as was desire, and an ability, to discover Neil Williams. This supremely the limits. Mostly it paid off; talented, immensely driven sometimes it didn’t. There was, aviator inspired a great many for example, good reason why it people to themselves pursue wasn’t the best idea to try and take aerobatics as a discipline, and the Shuttleworth Blériot on a full to enter the world of displaying circuit of the aerodrome. But the historic aeroplanes. In both fields pleasure his flying gave millions, he was a master. As Jeanne Frazer and the contribution he made in recounts in her outstanding piece many areas of aviation, represent this month marking the 40th an outstanding legacy. So do his anniversary of Williams’ death, books Airborne and Aerobatics, true his talent shone forth while classics of their genres. performing in an astonishing When he lost his life in the array of mounts. mountains near The pleasure Neil At the one end, Madrid, ferrying there were the a CASA 2.111 Williams’ flying gave Shuttleworth to the UK in millions, and the Collection’s December contribution he made in 1977, to many ‘Edwardians’, many areas, represent an it seemed both original and replica. All unthinkable. outstanding legacy who saw him fly My colleague them remember how he was able Tony Harmsworth sums it to make them perform in a way up well. “He was such a hero no-one else could. At the other, during my childhood”, says he displayed a different kind of Tony. “Neil’s death was the virtuoso touch in demonstrating historic aviation equivalent of Dassault Falcon business jets. Very Jim Clark’s crash at Hockenheim. often the same programme would It just couldn’t happen to him”. see him flying a number of slots Tragically, it did, and millions that today would be unthinkable more were denied the pleasure of — while by all accounts a quiet watching a maestro at work. I for man, Williams was a huge one am too young ever to have presence on the air display scene. witnessed Neil Williams’ flying; I As one enthusiast told me, during wish I had. the 1970s “he was everywhere”. His test pilot background may Ben Dunnell

ESTABLISHED 1911

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Aeroplane traces its lineage back to the weekly The Aeroplane, founded by C. G. Grey in 1911 and published until 1968. It was relaunched as a monthly in 1973 by Richard T. Riding, editor for 25 years until 1998.

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CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH NORMAN BONNOR

Air Cdre Norman Bonnor joined the RAF as a Cranwell cadet in 1957 and trained as a navigator. On graduation in 1960, he was posted to No XV Squadron flying the Victor B1A at Cottesmore. He converted to the Mk2 on No 100 Squadron at Wittering in 1964. After these operational tours, Norman had several appointments in R&D and project management including working on the Phantom, Nimrod and Tornado. He commanded RAF Waddington, where he first flew in the Boeing E-3 AWACS. Norman’s last RAF appointment was to the NATO Airborne Early Warning Force HQ at Mons, Belgium.

JEANNE FRAZER

Taught to fly by the Rothmans Aerobatic Team’s flamboyant commentator, Brendan O’Brien, Jeanne emerged from her PPL training better able to loop than to navigate. Administration of the British Aerobatic Association was handled for several years by Jeanne, during which she organised all the national contests. In 1978 she negotiated commission and sponsorship of the Neil Williams Trophy with the Daily Telegraph, was contest director for the British nationals, and British team manager and head of delegation at the World Championship in Czechoslovakia. She went on to train Dave Perrin in his bid for the British title, and in the early 1980s owned and flew a Pitts S-2A.

JAMES KIGHTLY

The story of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation’s Avon Sabre is an aviation history byway with a lot of unknown and forgotten elements. This is due in part to the small numbers built, but more because it saw very limited action. This is James’s ninth Database, and he acknowledges the help from knowledgeable people on all of them, which makes compiling these accounts for a new audience a pleasure.

BILL TURNILL

Bill obtained his private pilot’s licence on Tiger Moths at Sywell in 1952. Joining the RAF, he served on No 85 Squadron’s Meteor night fighters, the reconnaissance Valiants of No 543 Squadron and then Vulcans with Nos 44 and 50 Squadrons. Retiring as a very long-serving squadron leader in 1992, he carried on working as a retired officer in defence intelligence from 1994-99.

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News

NEWS EDITOR: TONY HARMSWORTH

E-MAIL TO: [email protected] TELEPHONE: +44 (0)7791 808044 WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK

Among the exhibits at Aerospace Bristol is the replica Bristol F2B built as an apprentice project by Airbus and Rolls-Royce using original plans from the Aerospace Bristol archives. A genuine F2B is being restored in the USA for the new Filton attraction. AEROSPACE BRISTOL

Aerospace Bristol opens

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he £19-million Aerospace Bristol museum and learning centre opened to the public on 17 October on the site of the Bristol Aeroplane Company factory at what remains of Filton airfield. The industrial heritage museum — which received a £4.7-million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund — has been developed by the Bristol Aero Collection Trust to celebrate more than 100 years of aerospace design and engineering at Filton. Among an impressive collection of exhibits are the prototype Bristol 173 tandem-rotor helicopter, G-ALBN/XF785, which first flew in January

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1952 and has never before been displayed in a major museum, BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde G-BOAF, which made the last ever Concorde landing at Filton on 26 November 2003, a Rolls-Royce (originally designed by Bristol Siddeley) Pegasus turbofanpowered Sea Harrier FA2, ZD610, and a Bristol Bloodhound surface-to-air missile. A shipping container carrying the fin, undercarriage, Bristol Hercules engines and numerous other parts from a future star exhibit, Bristol 170 Freighter Mk31M NZ5911, arrived in the UK on 23 October following a sea crossing from New Zealand. It

The fuselage of ex-RNZAF Bristol Freighter Mk31M NZ5911 in the hold of a ‘ro-ro’ ferry en route to Singapore in mid-October.

will now go into temporary storage in the huge Brabazon hangar at Filton. Following on is the fuselage, which in late October was in the hold of a roll-on/roll-off ship en route to Singapore. There it will be unloaded for transfer onto another ship, which will bring it to the UK. After arrival it will

be moved from Bristol docks to Filton by night, and is expected to be home before Christmas. Acquired from Dwen Airmotive at Auckland (see News, Aeroplane February 2017), NZ5911 will become the UK’s sole example of this fondly remembered type.

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December 2017 News Warren Pietsch gets airborne in the rare P-51C Mustang 43-24907/N6555B Lope’s Hope 3rd at Bemidji, north-west Minnesota, on 16 October. RANDY RUTTGER

C-model Mustang airborne

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uring the early evening of 16 October, Warren Pietsch took the Texas Flying Legends Museum’s North American P-51C Mustang 43-24907 up for its first test flight following a three-year restoration with AirCorps Aviation at Bemidji, north-west Minnesota. Two days later, the rare C-model Mustang arrived at Ellington Field, Houston, where it will take up residence in the Texas Flying Legends hangar alongside eight other World War Two fighters, including two P-51Ds. Among the many previous fighter restorations completed by AirCorps Aviation is the combat veteran P-51D 44-63675 Sierra Sue II (see Aeroplane December 2015). Although the Texas Flying Legends P-51C did not see combat, being used as a trainer during the war, it has been painted as 42-103585 Lope’s Hope 3rd, flown by five-victory ace Lt Donald Lopez with the 23rd Fighter Group’s 75th Fighter Squadron, a unit that was the successor to Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Group ‘Flying Tigers’ in the defence of Burma and China. On 4 July

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1942 at Kunming in south-west China the 23rd FG became the first USAAF fighter unit to be activated in the field during wartime, flying Curtiss P-40s

and boasting five of Chennault’s former staff officers, five pilots and 19 groundcrewmen among its ranks. Following the

The P-51C has been painted as Lope’s Hope 3rd, flown by five-victory ace Lt Donald Lopez with the 75th Fighter Squadron

Don Lopez in the original P-51C Lope’s Hope 3rd during the war.

disbandment of the AVG that July, 25 former AVG pilots volunteered to stay on for two weeks to help train the pilots of the 23rd. New York-born Lopez volunteered for the Army Air Forces Aviation Cadet Program in May 1942, when the age limit was lowered to 18, and after gaining his wings a year later joined the 23rd FG flying P-40s. During his two years in the China-Burma-India theatre Lopez flew 101 missions, shooting down five Japanese aircraft, four of them in a P-40 named Lope’s Hope and two in the P-51C Lope’s Hope 3rd. He went on to fly F-86 Sabres in Korea, and subsequently studied for a master’s degree in aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology where one of his classmates was Frank Borman, later to achieve fame as the commander of Apollo 8. In 1972 Lopez joined the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) as assistant director of aeronautics, becoming deputy director in 1983. He was heavily involved in developing and running the museum, and was still working for NASM when he suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 84 during March 2008.

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The Reggiane Re 2002 at Vigna di Valle in the markings of the 239ª Squadriglia, part of the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force after the September 1943 armistice. GREGORY ALEGI

News December 2017

Unique Re 2002 goes on show

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n 12 October, the Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle celebrated the 40th anniversary of its inauguration with a formal ceremony attended by the Minister of Defence Roberta Pinotti and the chiefs of the country’s defence and air staffs. The highlight was the unveiling of the world’s sole complete Reggiane Re 2002 Ariete, painted to represent an aircraft serving with the Regia Aeronautica’s 239ª Squadriglia after the September 1943 armistice. The aircraft was prepared for exhibition by Celin Avio,

in the last in a series of intermittent restoration attempts. Re 2002 c/n 126, which now carries the serial MM8669, is thought to have first flown in late July 1943 and served briefly with the Regia Aeronautica before being requisitioned by the Germans. In the late 1960s the incomplete fuselage and a wing were recovered from the University of Bologna and loaned to the Caproni Museum, and during the early 1980s the kit of parts moved to Reggio Emilia, where the fuselage was reskinned. A decade later it travelled to Vigna di Valle,

with a Piaggio PXIX engine and mount, and then to Lecce. In 2014 the Ariete moved to Celin Avio, which assembled the port wing from spars built by the Feltrinelli technical school in Milan. While the fighter-bomber conveys an overall impression of power, the recently added items are largely mock-ups, and the interior is bare. Staff have privately conceded that much work is required to bring the Reggiane up to the standard of recent museum restorations, but no timescale has been announced for this. Gregory Alegi

BBMF ‘Spit’ gets desert markings Sqn Ldr Andy Millikin, officer commanding the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, carried out Spitfire LFIXc MK356’s post-major service air test at Biggin Hill on 6 October. Having arrived at The Spitfire Company (Biggin Hill) Ltd, Peter Monk’s engineering company, after the 2016 display season painted in a No 126 Squadron D-Day scheme, it has emerged in a striking desert livery. The brown (dark earth) and sand (middle stone) top surfaces and azure blue undersides, with the codes QJ-3, represent No 92 Squadron’s Spitfire IX EN152 as flown by the then Flt Lt Neville Duke in Tunisia during April-May 1943. This is the first time that a BBMF Spitfire has been painted in desert camouflage for more than 10 years, LFVb AB910 having been the last in 2003-06. MK356 was expected to be back at its RAF Coningsby base before the end of October. Adam Smith

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Spitfire LFIXc MK356 taxiing out at Biggin Hill for its air test on 6 October with Sqn Ldr Andy Millikin at the controls. ADAM SMITH

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December 2017 News

NEWS IN BRIEF C-97 TO FLY

The Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation’s Boeing C-97G 52-2718 Angel of Deliverance was due to have made its maiden post-restoration flight at Floyd Bennett Field, New York by the time this issue appears. More next month.

Another Spitfire for Duxford Spitfire IXT PT462/G-CTIX leaving Duxford after one of its previous visits for maintenance. It has now taken up residence. BEN DUNNELL

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n 9 October the Aircraft Restoration Company (ARC) announced the acquisition of Supermarine Spitfire IXT PT462/G-CTIX from Anthony Hodgson, who had owned the two-seater since 1998 and kept the distinctively liveried machine at his private airstrip near Towyn, North Wales. The Spitfire is already in familiar surroundings at Duxford, having made yearly visits to the Cambridgeshire airfield for maintenance with ARC. After being recovered from a rubbish dump on a kibbutz at Kfar-Gaza in 1983 by warbird collector Robs Lamplough, the Castle Bromwich-built HFIXe was acquired by property developer Charles Church. It was then rebuilt under the leadership of former Battle of Britain Memorial Flight/ Warbirds of Great Britain chief engineer Dick Melton to create what he considered to be the most refined Spitfire of all,

incorporating technical features which, from his vast experience on the type, he had worked out to be the best combination available to give optimum handling and operating features. Leadingedge ‘wet’ wing tanks, originally seen on the Spitfire PRXI, were installed, giving the aeroplane a much longer range than other restored Spitfires, and short-span ailerons, a feature of the MkVIII and MkXIV variants, were fitted. The fuselage was rebuilt by Melton and his team at the Charles Church (Spitfires) workshop at Micheldever, Hampshire into the same two-seat configuration that Dick and Nick Grace had fashioned for Spitfire ML407, with a more streamlined rear canopy than the original two-seaters. The aircraft made its first flight on 25 July 1987, and appeared at several events before the tragic loss of Charles Church in Spitfire V

Now wearing Royal Netherlands Navy markings, North American T-6 PH-TXN flying near Lelystad on 16 September. BEN ULLINGS

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BOEING TO WAAAM

The latest acquisition for the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum at Hood River, Oregon is Boeing 40C N5339, which was restored and operated by Addison Pemberton at Spokane, Washington.

‘EE606’/G-MKVC on 1 July 1989. In 1994 it was shipped PZL IN OZ to Bartow, Florida for new At Balgownie, New South Wales, a owners Jet Cap Aviation. It full-size replica PZL P11 fighter is came back to the UK in being constructed by members of February 1998 and was the local Polish Association. Once reassembled by ARC at complete it will be displayed at the Duxford, taking up its previous Illawarra Polish Museum, where it registration, G-CTIX, once is hoped money can be raised to again before heading off to construct a hangar. Wales. PT462 flew with No 4 Squadron, South African Air Force from Bellaria on the Italian Adriatic coast during November 1944, going on to be operated by No 253 Squadron, RAF on sweeps over Yugoslavia during April 1945, wearing the codes SW-A. It was transferred to the Italian BEN DUNNELL Air Force in June 1947, moving on to the Israeli BREITLING ENDS Air Force in April 1952. Retired WINGWALKERS BACKING at Tel Nof air base along with Following the news that Swiss the other 15 surviving Israeli chronograph company Breitling Spitfires in March 1956, it was was ending its support for the donated to the Kfar-Gaza Super Constellation Flyers kibbutz for use in the children’s Association’s Lockheed L-1049G playground.

DUTCH NAVY COLOURS FOR TEXAN

Just over a year after it was imported from Sweden, the Wings over Holland North American T-6 Texan, PH-TXN, flew again at Lelystad just in time to appear at the Royal Netherlands Navy air arm (Marine Luchtvaartdienst, MLD) 100th anniversary event at the Heldair Show Maritiem event held at Den Helder Airport in the northern Netherlands on 16 September. Wings over Holland owner Luuk van Hooijdonk and his team worked day and night to get the aircraft completed in a yellow and dayglo Royal Netherlands Navy scheme. It now represents serial 313, a former Royal Netherlands Air Force Noorduyn AT-16D that was operated by the MLD between 1965-71.

(see last month), it was confirmed in October that the firm’s sponsorship of the Breitling Wingwalkers team of Boeing Stearman Kaydet biplanes is also being concluded. The pioneering wingwalking outfit, operated by Vic Norman’s AeroSuperBatics company from the former Royal Flying Corps aerodrome at Rendcomb in Gloucestershire, will henceforth be known as the AeroSuperBatics Wingwalkers. New sponsorship is being sought. BEN DUNNELL

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The XP-82 having its two Rolls-Royce Merlins run up at Douglas, Georgia on 16 October. It last flew in 1950 while with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at the Lewis Research Centre in Cleveland, Ohio.

News December 2017

WEEZIE BARENDSE

ENGINE RUNS FOR TWIN MUSTANG PROTOTYPE

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om Reilly’s North American XP-82 Twin Mustang prototype 44-83887 had its Rolls-Royce Merlin engines run up for the first time outside Reilly’s workshop in Douglas, Georgia, on 16 October. A first flight is expected before the end of the year. Reilly acquired the XP-82 during April 2008 from collector Walter Soplata, who had kept the

wreck of this historic machine in the yard behind his house in Newbury, Ohio since 1965. No example of the Twin Mustang has flown since F-82B 44-65162 of the Confederate Air Force was badly damaged when the starboard undercarriage leg collapsed following a heavy landing at Harlingen, Texas in October 1987.

Harpoon goes on display in Italy The only Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon exhibited publicly in Europe is the centrepiece of the outdoor aviation display inaugurated on 5 October at the Piana delle Orme centre at Borgo Faiti near Latina, central Italy. The Harpoon, which is on loan from the Italian Air Force Museum, has been restored by volunteers over the past year to represent serial MM80074 during its service with the 87° Gruppo at CataniaFontanarossa airport. The Italian Air Force operated 22 Harpoons between 1953-59 in its nascent anti-submarine warfare units, but all were scrapped following their replacement with Grumman Trackers. The Harpoon on display never served in Italy, but was obtained in 1993 from The Fighter Collection at Duxford in exchange for Canadair Sabre F4 XB812, which in turn was traded to the RAF Museum for Hawker Sea Fury FB11 VX653. This Harpoon was built by Lockheed for the US Navy in April 1945, and allotted BuNo 37419. Withdrawn from use in October 1953, it became N7486C on the civil register in 1957. Although used for

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The Lockheed Harpoon on show at Piana delle Orme on 5 October. The aircraft’s turret comes from a Martin Baltimore. VIA GREGORY ALEGI

agriculture and pest control work, it remained in overall stock condition. Work concentrated on rectifying metalwork that was damaged in the long period of open storage and frequent

moves. The bomb day doors were reskinned and a Martin Baltimore turret — not identical to that originally fitted — was installed. To make the bulky Lockheed look more aggressive, a nose gun

To make the bulky Lockheed look more aggressive, a nose gun pack, found on a minority of Italian Harpoons, has been built and fitted

pack, found on a minority of Italian Harpoons, has been built and fitted. The new external display at Piana delle Orme also includes a North American T-6, a Fiat-built F-86K Sabre, Aermacchi MB326, SIAI Marchetti S211 and two examples of the Piaggio P166, an Italian Air Force pistonengined M variant and a Treasury Guard turboprop DL-3. Gregory Alegi

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

30/10/2017 14:31

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25/10/2017 11:32

News December 2017

Lancaster arrives at Trenton

The elongated nose of Lancaster Mk10AR KB882 just after its arrival at Trenton on 4 October. NAFMC

T

he fuselage, engines and propellers from Avro Lancaster Mk10AR KB882 arrived at the National Air Force Museum of Canada at 8 Wing Trenton, Ontario, on 4 October. This followed a long trip by flatbed truck from Edmundston, New Brunswick, where the machine had been on outdoor display at the city’s St Jacques Airport since being retired by the Royal Canadian Air Force during 1963. The aircraft’s wings had arrived in Trenton the previous week.

Dismantling of the bomber took less time than expected, technicians working round the clock in 12-hour shifts to get the job done Dismantling of the combat veteran bomber at Edmundston took less time than expected, with military and civilian technicians from the RCAF’s Aerospace and Telecommunications Engineering Support Squadron and the National Air Force Museum of Canada (NAFMC) working round the clock in

12-hour shifts to get the job done. Ownership of the Lancaster was transferred from the City Council of Edmundston to the NAFMC on 16 November 2016 (see News, Aeroplane January 2017). The airframe is in surprisingly good condition considering it had been outside in the harsh New

Brunswick climate for 54 years, and three of the Rolls-Royce Merlins still turned over. It will be restored into the Mk10AR (area reconnaissance) configuration in which it saw out its service days. Originally built as a Lancaster X, KB882 was rolled out of the Victory Aircraft plant at Malton, Ontario on 3 November 1944, at a time when the factory achieved the goal of producing one Lancaster a day. The bomber was flown to the UK in March 1945, joining No 428 Squadron, RCAF at Middleton St George, and went on to fly six missions over Germany, the targets being Hamburg (twice), Kiel, Hagen, Merseburg and Leipzig. It returned to Canada in June 1945 and was converted into a Mk10AR by Avro Canada in 1952, with the turrets removed and a 40in extension added to the nose to house a second navigator, and various items of equipment for the reconnaissance/aerial mapping roles. During October 1962, KB882 operated over the Atlantic during the Cuban Missile Crisis, monitoring and photographing Russian trawlers. The target unveiling date for the restoration is 1 April 2024, the 100th anniversary of King George V granting royal sanction to Canada’s air arm.

VIMY RUNS AT BROOKLANDS EVENT

The Brooklands Museum Aviation Day on 15 October saw what is thought to be the largest gathering of de Havilland Moths to have visited since the aerodrome closed for domestic and commercial use in 1939, with six Tiger Moths and a Moth Major from the Tiger Nine display team alighting on the 230m-long grass strip during the morning. This runway hasn’t seen much activity over the past few years, but, with the help of the adjacent Mercedes-Benz World, it is now hoped to make more use of it. The museum is looking to carry out various improvements including some ground works to extend it, as and when funds permit. Plans are already being made for another Brooklands Aviation Day in September 2018. The newly re-opened Brooklands motor circuit finishing straight was also used for aeronautical purposes for the first time, with several of the museum aircraft being rolled out for engine runs. Most impressive was Vickers Vimy replica

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Vickers Vimy replica NX71MY engine-running on the recently reopened pre-war motor circuit finishing straight at Brooklands on 15 October.

NX71MY, which hadn’t had its 600hp Orenda OE600 V8 engines powered up since the late summer of 2015. Also engine-running was the museum’s Sopwith Camel replica. Visitors could take the first preview tours of the new Flight Shed and Aircraft Factory, as final preparations were progressing towards the official opening of these impressive buildings in mid-November.

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

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PROJECT UPDATE

Cosford conservation centre opens up The immaculate, reconstructed nose of Hampden TBI P1344 in the MBCC at Cosford on 13 October. IAN FRIMSTON

F

rom 13-18 November the RAF Museum Cosford will stage its annual Michael Beetham Conservation Centre Open Week, which this year will give visitors the first opportunity to see the almost completed nose section of Handley Page Hampden TBI P1344.

‘Black Mike’ for Cosford show McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG1 XV582/BM, known as ‘Black Mike’, arrived at Cosford from RAF Leuchars on 26 October. The former No 111 Squadron aircraft — which was painted overall gloss black in the summer of 1989 as a tribute to ‘Treble One’s’ Black Arrows Hawker Hunter aerobatic team — is currently owned by GJD Services, and will be one of the stars in the RAF 100th anniversary static exhibition at the RAF Cosford Air Show on 10 June 2018. So too will the RAF Museum’s Boulton Paul Defiant I N1671, making an extremely rare outdoor appearance.

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To bring the type back from extinction in the UK, full-time aircraft technician Dave Carr has been working on P1344 since the spring of 2015. The nose — much of which was missing when the aircraft was recovered in 1991 from the site of its September 1942 forced landing in the far north-west of Russia — has had to be

reconstructed, using original manufacturers’ drawings. New fuselage frames and formers needed to be manufactured, the formers taking far longer to construct than the frames. Internal items such as the gunsights and cockpit instruments have come from the museum’s reserve store at Stafford, and a wiring loom will be made up and fitted when all three sections of the fuselage have been mated. Moulds for the glazing have been constructed at the MBCC and are due to go to an outside specialist for the transparencies to be blown. The nose has been painted, and the recently completed centre fuselage section is ready for paint. Work will now begin on the restoration of the rear fuselage. With the tail and wings completed, it is hoped that the finished aircraft will be ready for display in the newly rearranged Bomber Command Hall at the RAF Museum London at Hendon in approximately two years’ time. Work on the RAFM’s other early-war bomber restoration project, Wellington X MF628, is also forging ahead, with one wing now re-covered using Irish linen and painted in a Bomber Command night colour scheme. The majority of the fuselage has undergone conservation, the next step being to raise it up on jacks so that work can be begin on the underside to treat any corrosion that is present. All wooden components have been checked for delamination and varnished ready for installation once the restoration of the fuselage is done. It will be painted in a basic Bomber Command scheme devoid of any unit markings, and is expected to go on show at Cosford, having been on display at Hendon between 1972 and 2010. The MBCC will open from 13-18 November between 10.15 and 13.00hrs each day. Admission is £5.00 per person. Children under 16 go free but must be accompanied by an adult.

Phantom FG1 XV582 ‘Black Mike’ arrives at Cosford on 26 October. CROWN COPYRIGHT/RAF COSFORD AIR SHOW

www.aeroplanemonthly.com 13

30/10/2017 14:32

News December 2017

Horten emerges in Washington

T

he only Horten Ho 229 V3 flying wing jet fighter ever built went on display in the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy building at Dulles Airport, Washington DC during September, following a period of conservation work in the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar. The aircraft — which was designed for a maximum speed of 621mph under the power of two Junkers 109-004 engines of 2,205lb static thrust — never got actually got airborne before being captured by personnel from VIII Corps of the US Third Army at Friedrichsrode, central Germany, on 14 April 1945. The incomplete machine was standing on its nosewheel undercarriage with no wings, but they were soon found at a nearby location. After being shipped to the USA by sea it

The sleek fuselage contrasts with the clunky-looking front undercarriage leg of the Horten Ho 229 V3, now on show at NASM’s Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. DR ANDREAS ZEITLER

arrived at Freeman Field, Indiana during July 1945 for evaluation. The engineless Horten was allocated the enemy equipment serial FE-490, and thought was given to getting it flying as a test aircraft, but the man-hours required for the task were

estimated at around 15,000 so the plan was dropped. Oddly, the incomplete wing panels were then given a covering of low-grade plywood, and the Horten was painted in a spurious Luftwaffe scheme, with large swastikas on the upper rear fuselage.

During the summer of 1946, the Ho 229 was shipped to Park Ridge, Illinois, along with about 80 other historic World War Two aircraft, and in the old Douglas factory building the wings were attached to the fuselage for the first time. It was presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1947, but after being moved to storage at Silver Hill, Maryland in 1952 it spent 10 years outside under a makeshift awning. The airframe went inside during 1974, but the wooden outer skin had deteriorated, and various metal components were suffering from corrosion. Following the recent conservation work that has stabilised the original material there are no plans to restore the Horten, which will remain on display in its current state as the only surviving World War Two-era German jet prototype still extant.

NORWEGIAN STORCH FLIES AGAIN Following a 9,251-hour rebuild by owner Tor Nørstegård and a group of volunteers at a workshop in Fetsund, southern Norway, Fieseler Fi 156 Storch Werknummer 1816/LN-WNS made a 30-minute test flight from Kjeller airfield near Oslo with Tor at the controls on 7 October. A week later, after completing a further three hours of test flying, Tor ferried the machine to Eggemoen, 26 miles north-east of the Norwegian capital, where it will be stored for the winter. Tor’s team is closely linked to the Warbirds of Norway organisation, and the machine will be seen at displays in northern Europe during the 2018 season. During October 2007 the Storch was imported to Norway in a 40ft container from Carson City, Nevada, where it had been partrestored following a ground handling accident. It has been

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painted in the markings of a Fi 156 based at Forus near Stavanger during December 1943 with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190-equipped Stab Jagdfliegerführer Norwegen (JG 5), and wears the eagle emblem of IV./JG 5 on the engine cowling. The aircraft was one of the last examples of about 800 built at the Morane-Saulnier plant at Puteaux, just north of Paris. In August 1944 the partly completed Storch was abandoned by the retreating Germans, and on 23 November 1944 the blank dataplate was stamped ‘MS500 s/n 43’. It flew with the French forces during the last months of the war. Following its military career the machine was active as F-BJQB, before being sold in the USA during 1970 and registered N44FS. The type had a long service record in Norway: photos taken at Oslo’s Fornebu airport

Tor Nørstegård airborne in Storch LN-WNS near Kjeller on 7 October. ERIK T. HOELSATER

in April 1940 show that Fi 156s flew during the early stages of Operation ‘Weserübung’, the attack on the country. Several Luftwaffe units operated the type there, and after the war at least 35 examples were taken on charge by the Royal Norwegian Air Force. Most were in bad shape, so only

eight ended up being overhauled at Kjeller, after which they were given serial numbers KF-1 to KF-8 and became known as the Kjeller Storch. The last were retired from military service in 1954. At least two went on to fly on the Norwegian civil register, the final one being grounded during 1961.

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

30/10/2017 14:32

December 2017 News

Firebombing Neptunes retired

T

he last Lockheed P-2 Neptune water-bombers were retired from operational service during October, bringing to a close the type’s impressive 70-year career, initially as the US Navy’s principal maritime patrol aircraft before becoming what was probably the finest air tanker of its generation. To mark the occasion Neptune Aviation staged a public event at Missoula, Montana on 30 September where six of its seven airworthy Neptunes were present. The 64-year-old P2V-5 N96278 flew two water-dropping demonstrations, each followed by a series of fast and low flypasts. Four Neptunes (N96278, N9855F,

N410NA and N1386C) then took off in rapid succession, generating magnificent ‘two turning, two burning’ sounds from their Wright R-3350 turbo-compound piston engines and underwing J-34 turbojets. They then performed the last ever flypast by four Neptunes before splitting for spirited individual passes. Neptunes N443NA and N445NA were on static display along with an example of

the type’s replacement, BAe 146-200A N478NA. Neptune Aviation’s association with the P-2 is not yet over, however, as two of the fleet are being retained for airshow appearances. N1386C will be used to give water-bombing demonstrations and N410NA will operate as a warbird after restoration to US Navy configuration. The remaining five airworthy P2Vs are being offered to museums.

64-year-old P2V-5 N96278 carries out a water-dropping demonstration at Missoula on 30 September with three of Neptune Aviation’s other charges in the foreground. KEITH GASKELL

New England DC-3 goes Eastern At the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, restoration of Douglas DC-3 N165LG has now been completed, and it recently went on show in the civilian hall next to the museum’s star exhibit, the Sikorsky VS-44 flying boat Excambian. The DC-3 has been finished in the Eastern Air Lines colours it wore in 1947, in order to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the inaugural commercial service flown into Bradley International Airport, by Eastern Airlines Flight 624. The aircraft is c/n 6314, which was one of 13 DC-3-454 transports originally ordered by American Airlines and registered NC14922. While it was still on

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

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DC-3 N165LG on display in the New England Air Museum. NEAM

the production line in Santa Monica, California, 6314 was reallocated to the US Army Air Forces as a C-49J, being delivered to the service on 14 November

1942 with the serial 43-1973. It was to remain in the continental United States during the war, operating as a troop transport. Sold off by the military in April 1945, 6314 was converted back to DC-3 configuration and was subsequently operated by Eastern Air Lines, the Purdue Aeronatical Corporation at Lafayette, Indiana, Basler Flight Services in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and finally Florida Airmotive Services at West Palm Beach. After logging 53,434 flight hours, the museum purchased the machine in November 1992, and following the ferry flight to Bradley Airport it went on display in the two-tone beige livery of Florida Airmotive.

www.aeroplanemonthly.com 15

30/10/2017 14:32

Advertising Feature

Stallion’s stellar year 2

017 has been an extremely big year for the Stallion 51 Corporation, one full of adventure, awards and anniversaries. It started with Lee Lauderback, president and chief pilot of Stallion 51, having recently become a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, an exclusive group of exceptional aviators such as R. A. ‘Bob’ Hoover and ‘Hoot’ Gibson, who nominated Lee to the organisation. April marked Stallion 51’s 30th anniversary, commemorated by inviting its almost 200 Mustang check-out graduates to a ‘homecoming’ before and during the annual Sun ’n Fun airshow in

Lakeland, Florida. Seventeen of the graduates brought their Mustangs to help celebrate Stallion’s three decades of aviation excellence, flying in formation during the show, during which Lee Lauderback was honoured with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot award for his 50 years of safe flight operations and his many contributions to aviation safety. This summer, Lee was asked to fly the rare B-model Mustang Berlin Express to Duxford, UK for the Flying Legends Air Show. The epic 5,470-mile aviation adventure started in Texas and flew over the North Atlantic ocean, landing in Greenland, Iceland

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and Scotland before reaching its final destination at Duxford; eight legs in seven days. This historic event was followed by millions of enthusiasts via social media.

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The Aviation Bookshop - at the service of all aviation enthusiasts since the 1940s

AER0-MODELLING Reference

Title

1

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1959-60

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Subtitle

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1963-64

Author

Format

Subject

Publisher

Published

Pages

Condition

£ Price

VARIOUS

HARDBACK

AERO MODELLING

MODEL AERONAUTICAL PRESS LTD

1959

160

FAIR

5.00

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1964-65

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1965-66

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1968-69

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1969-70

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1970-71

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1971-72

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1972-73

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1973-74

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1974-75

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1975-76

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1977-78

VARIOUS

AERO MODELLER ANNUAL 1978-79

VARIOUS

AN ABC OF MODEL AIRCRAFT CONSTRUCTION

C RUSHBROOKE

DURATION FLYING MODELS

F ELLIS

FLYING AND IMPROVING SCALE MODEL AIRPLANES

W MCCOMBS

HARDBACK HARDBACK HARDBACK HARDBACK HARDBACK HARDBACK HARDBACK HARDBACK HARDBACK HARDBACK SOFTBACK SOFTBACK SOFTBACK SOFTBACK SOFTBACK SOFTBACK

AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING AERO MODELLING

MODEL AERONAUTICAL PRESS LTD MODEL AERONAUTICAL PRESS LTD MODEL AERONAUTICAL PRESS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD MODEL & ALLIED PUBLICATIONS LTD HARBOROUGH JOHN HAMILTON LTD. MODEL AIRPLANE NEWS

1963 1964 1965 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1977 1978 1943 N/K 1977

160 160 160 128 128 128 128 144 144 144 144 144 144 80 72 120

GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD VERY GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD FAIR

5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 10.00

FAIR

95.00

FAIR

15.00

18

FLYING MODELS, RUBBER, CO2, ELECTRIC & MICRO RADIO CONTROL

TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR BEGINNER & EXPERT, BOOK 2

D ROSS

SOFTBACK

AERO MODELLING

AVIATION PUBLISHERS

1998

240

GOOD

5.00

19

FROG MODEL AIRCRAFT 1932-1976

THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE FLYING AIRCRAFT & THE PLASTIC KITS

R LINES / L HELLSTROM

HARDBACK

AERO MODELLING

NEW CAVENDISH

1989

272

GOOD

30.00

Secondhand Booklist Please contact us for our latest secondhand booklist.

Information published here may be subject to change. Please quote SPITFIRE when responding to this advert.

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16_AM_ADVERTORIAL_Dec17_cc C.indd 16

NEW!

NEW RELEASE SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE JAVELIN BOYS by Steve Bond The Gloster Javelin was the UK’s first line of night and all-weather air defence both at home and in RAF Germany. In the 1950s, when it replaced the Meteor and Venom, this revolutionary bomber/interceptor became the focus of many great stories told here in terrific detail. Here, author Steve Bond has interviewed a number of veterans, all with captivating tales of their time on the ai rcraft. Alongside their anecdotes is a detailed history of this unusual aircraft, accompanied by photography never seen before in print.

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AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

30/10/2017 08:06

Comment

Hangar Talk STEVE SLATER

Comment on historic aviation by the chief executive of the UK’s Light Aircraft Association

I

t was once said that the first ever air race probably happened when two pioneer pilots lined up side-by-side and removed their thumbs from the blip switches of their rotary engines. Certainly the thrills of competitive air racing predated the Great War, with aircraft circulating around the courses at aerial meetings such as those held at Le Mans, Istres and Nice in France and at locations including Brooklands and Hendon in the UK. Now it seems pylon racing may be set for a global resurgence, with aircraft, pilot and spectator interest rising around the world. Certainly, the enthusiasm shown at the Shuttleworth Collection’s Race Day displays in recent years, with vocal support for the air race demonstrations around Old Warden, hints that there may be potential for more. By happy coincidence, the day after the October 2017 Shuttleworth display saw a media event at nearby Little Gransden, ahead of what is hoped will be an international Air Race 1 World Series, with three British pilots — Trevor Jarvis, Des Hart and Yves Clarke — at the forefront of competition. The Air Race 1 World Series is intended to widen interest in Formula One air racing, a sport that has its roots in ‘midget racing’, developed during the 1940s in the USA. Following many pre-war tragedies involving high-powered, bespoke racing machinery, there was great interest in developing a more affordable, diminutive and purpose-built class of racing aircraft, powered by relatively inexpensive and reliable production engines. In October 1946 the Professional Race Pilots Association completed work on specifications for a 190-cubic inch engine displacement class, designed to allow the use of

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

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G-AXEA was one of the early Airmark-built Cassutt IIIMs seen on the British air racing scene during the 1970s. In much-modified form, the type remains competitive today. KEY COLLECTION

the 188-cubic inch Continental C-85, the most popular engine of the time. The new class was born, and then in January 1947 given a big boost when the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation announced sponsorship of three annual trophy races in the new category with $25,000 purses, the first to be held at Cleveland, Ohio, that September. The intervening months saw frantic activity by designers and

pilots Tony LeVier and Herman ‘Fish’ Salmon. No fewer than 15 of these new midget racers appeared at Cleveland, and 12 completed the qualifying tests and time trials. They produced eight exciting — and accident-free — races with top speeds exceeding 165mph. The concept continued to develop, principally as an all-American spectator sport, over the decades. The aircraft evolved

The Air Race 1 World Series is intended to widen interest in Formula One air racing, a sport that has its roots in ‘midget racing’, developed during the 1940s in the USA builders. Some, such as Bill Falck and Steve Wittman, adapted pre-war racers such as the Chester Jeep and the Wittman D-12 Bonzo. Others developed all-new designs: there was the race-winning Wittman Special Buster for Bill Brennan and Paul Penrose’s butterfly-tailed Chester Special Swee’ Pea. Perhaps the most noteworthy racers were the beautifully styled Cosmic Winds, built by Lockheed test

and engine sizes increased slightly to accommodate the ubiquitous Continental O-200 unit, which boosted speeds to more than 200mph. The sport had a brief burst of activity in the UK in the 1970s and ’80s. Having been brought over from the States by the Tiger Club during the previous decade, the rebuilt Cosmic Wind Ballerina (today owned by Pete Kynsey; see Aeroplane November 2015) was joined by

other American designs including the Midget Mustang and mid-winged Cassutt. There were also two more Cosmic Winds, and several British designs, including the Taylor Titch, Storey TSR3 and Rollason Beta. Sadly, the British series ended long ago, but — now as part of the Air Race 1 World Series — some of these designs are back in active competition, still holding their own against newer glass-fibre and carbon-composite creations. The three British pilots will be racing in November’s Air Race 1 event in Thailand at the controls of Cassutts, a design developed in the 1960s by TWA captain Tom Cassutt and based on Wittman’s original Bonzo, but newer technology is being used to bring their efforts to a global audience. It is planned that the races will be broadcast live on the internet, and I know I, for one, will be watching. ■ The February 2018 Aeroplane will include a feature on Tom Cassutt and his racer, and a retrospective on the British Formula 1 air racing series.

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25/10/2017 14:27

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Comment

DENIS J. CALVERT

Flight Line

Recollections and reflections — a seasoned reporter’s view of aviation history

D

epending on your definition of exactly when it all started, the Hawker/Hawker Siddeley/BAe/McDonnell Douglas Harrier is at least 57 years old. It was on 21 October 1960 that P1127 XP831 made its first tethered flight at Dunsfold, piloted by Bill Bedford with his right leg in plaster following a car accident. Thus was born the Harrier ‘jump jet’. To cut a very long story short, the P1127 morphed into the Kestrel that was developed into the Harrier, which was then completely rethought as the Harrier II. For Hawker Aircraft, which had produced a long line of single-seat fighters for the RAF — Fury, Hurricane, Typhoon, Hunter and many more — the Harrier was a bold move into unknown V/STOL territory. All credit to Stanley Hooker and Bristol Aero-Engines for having the confidence to start development of the BS53, as the Pegasus was initially designated, in advance of any obvious application. Hooker recalled that he then received a letter from Sydney Camm, chief designer at Hawker, stating: “Dear Hooker. What are you doing about vertical take-off? Yours, Sydney.” With a single vectored-thrust Pegasus engine employing four (two ‘hot’, two ‘cold’) nozzles, Hawker got it right first time with the Harrier. While Dassault’s Mirage IIIV had no fewer than nine engines, Hawker kept its design simple and produced an aircraft with an affordable price tag and realistic maintenance demands. The Harrier burst into the public consciousness with the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race of May 1969, when a GR1 took off from a station coal yard in central London temporarily re-christened ‘RAF

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John Farley on typical form in Harrier T52 G-VTOL during the 1974 Farnborough show. DENIS J. CALVERT

St Pancras’. The Harrier has long been a favourite airshow performer. Nobody who witnessed it will forget the ‘Farley climb’, while a generation of schoolboys have been heard to remark, “Look, it’s flying backwards”. Those same boys may also recall the character ‘Harriet Jump Jet’, a

impressive — reminder of the AV-8B’s capabilities provided by the Spanish Navy at Farnborough 2014. Airshow organisers please note; this one’s a crowd-puller. History will record the Harrier as the first truly successful fixed-wing V/STOL aircraft. Now on the close horizon is the

Handling the nozzle lever is a skill Harrier pilots are proud of, that extra something that distinguishes them from other fighter pilots schoolgirl capable of hovering under the power of her own inbuilt vectored thrust engine, in that cult comic Viz. Fame indeed. Yet no Harrier has flown at a British display since the RAF abruptly retired the type in 2010, apart from that hugely welcome — and hugely

F-35B Lightning II, for which the two-seat VAAC Harrier T4, XW175, did invaluable work in developing systems that allow the F-35B to make a virtually hands-off recovery to landing. This is close to the ‘coffee bar button’ once humorously suggested for future V/STOL

aircraft by John Farley. Many Harrier pilots feel this to be an unnecessary, if not downright bad, move. Handling the nozzle lever is a skill they are proud of, that extra something that distinguishes them from other fighter pilots. “What’s the difference between a Harrier pilot and God? Answer: ‘God doesn’t think he’s a Harrier pilot.” Today, the RAF, the Royal Navy and the Indian Navy have all retired the Harrier, leaving the US Marine Corps and the Spanish and Italian navies to continue flying it until 2025 and maybe beyond. Will the F-35B prove itself to be the second successful fixed-wing V/STOL (or STOVL, as Lockheed Martin says) type? Given the UK’s huge investment in the aircraft, one surely must hope so.

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25/10/2017 14:28

Skywriters

In association with… WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK E-MAIL TO: [email protected], putting ‘Skywriters’ in the header

In every issue, the writer of our Letter of the Month wins a £25 book voucher to spend with leading military and transport publisher Crécy. End of the line

Alan Dowsett’s article in the identified by their production (marked on the fuselage October issue brought back many R numbers beneath the cockpit window) which happy — and some sad — LETTE included 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 61 and memories of a lovely aeroplane. of the 62, all of which eventually followed As a schoolboy I well H MONT the same route to the RAF. Srs3Ms remember the front-page announcement in The Times of the from production numbers 1 to 9, Jetstream project, at a time when the excluding 8, could be identified, at least UK was busy producing many wonderful civil the first two being nearly complete with aeroplanes, from BAC, Hawker Siddeley, wings attached, but their engines were now Handley Page, Shorts, Britten-Norman, removed. Some five further fuselages could Beagle and others. Unfortunately this era not be identified. was to become the last gasp of our nation By this time Terravia had secured a hangar building complete aircraft. for the storage of parts at Sywell and had I spent 1969 as a trainee tower controller ‘rescued’ G-AXUN, G-AXUO and G-AXXS at Prestwick and took special interest in by air to the same venue. The building used photographing the Jetstreams being is called Jetstream House to this day. Others delivered to the USA by Terravia, briefly were flown to Leavesden for work and meeting both Bill Bright and the late Don eventual resale. What a shame that the 3M Bullock in the movements office while they did not progress further, as I am sure that were filing their flight plans for the next leg the large door would have readily found the to Reykjavik. variant customers in later life among small By late 1970, as the Handley Page package operators and mail carriers. collapse unfolded, I was back down south Later, I managed to fly on two genuine HP and visited the only vantage point at examples, with Capt Bill Poulter in Decca’s Radlett, where a track crossed the main G-AWVK and later — a great honour — with London railway line via an elevated bridge John Allam in Distillers’ G-BCWW (‘Double by the south-east corner of the airfield. It Whisky’), both reinforcing my love of the was from here that I took the photograph of Jetstream with its big windows, smooth the sad array of part-completed airframes flight and that wonderful noise when taxiing. which appeared in the October magazine. It I am pleased that Alan gave credit to Bill was 10 October and a combination of Bright as the vital link between HP and SAL/ airframes was visible, either being BAe. Without his belief in this fine dismantled for Bill Bright’s Terravia Trading aeroplane, the type may have passed into Services — or, in the case of the 3Ms oblivion. Fifty years after the first flight the originally destined for the USAF, the scrap Jetstream still beats modern designs for man’s axe. The former included G-AXUP and looks, with that long, low nose and graceful G-AXUR (construction numbers 49 and 50 lines — something BAe could not replicate respectively), which both went on to serve with the angular Jetstream 41! with the RAF, and others that could be Peter J. Bish

Jetstream G-AWVI arrives at Prestwick on its 3 February 1969 delivery flight.

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Flipping the ‘V’

I read with much interest the Database in the July 2017 edition on the Rolls-Royce Merlin aero-engine. Seemingly a small detail, and easily missed, was the reference to the Merlin’s PV-12 antecedent, which originally was envisaged as having an inverted ‘V’ configuration. For those readers who are interested, a black-and-white picture of the wooden mock-up appears in Spitfire: The History by Eric B. Morgan and Edward Shacklady. The eternal mystery for me remains why the British aviation manufacturers rejected this configuration, causing R-R to run for the exits at the prospect of gaining no sales for what was then a private venture. The inverted ‘V’ layout is eminently sensible for a fighter aircraft, possessing many inherent advantages. The Air Ministry’s urge for more speed needed more power and ever bigger engines, so visibility in combat inevitably diminishes with the upright ‘V’ configuration. Inverting the ‘V’-type engine restores some of the lost forward and downward vision. The fuselage engine installation cross-section forms a natural upright triangle, which, for a front-engined layout, naturally fares into the low-wing layout of a typical fighter — aerodynamically advantageous. Compare this with the awkward cylinder head bulges of the Spitfire, particularly the later Griffonengined marks. A hit on the coolant system would quickly fry a Merlin since the cylinder head is the hottest part, and therefore would be the first part to run dry and seize (if the flying attitude was upright). In the case of an inverted ‘V’, it is the last to run dry, thereby providing the possibility of

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Skywriters limping to a survivable landing. In this regard the Bf 109 was superior since it also had a dual cooling circuit. Gunfire damage to the valve cover of a Merlin would spew oil all over a fighter’s windscreen, with the risk of an immediate blaze, whereas its German counterparts from Daimler-Benz and Junkers would give you time to bale out. When the Spitfire was forced into high-altitude flying in response to changed Luftwaffe tactics, the windscreen kept misting up due to water vapour in the exhaust condensing on the outside of the windscreen. No such problem with the DB! Cockpit exhaust carbon monoxide contamination in the Spitfire was always a concern, and was systematically tested after manufacture. Again, not so with the DB601/605. An unbelievable amount of experimental effort was invested by Supermarine and R-R to fix the exhaust glare problem for night flying by fitting a bewildering array of improvised exhaust flame dampers. The DB units didn’t have this problem either. Fitted with an epicyclic reduction gear case, the propeller centre can be made higher, permitting either a larger-diameter propeller to be installed or shorter undercarriage legs, the latter with the knock-on benefit of a more compact and lighter installation. Battles are won not only in the air but also on the ground through ease of maintenance. With the inverted ‘V’, valve setting and spark plug servicing can be undertaken at standing height without having to clamber up and balance on precarious laddered stands. The question for me remains, what on earth was driving the intransigence of British aircraft manufacturers that caused R-R to ‘flip’ the PV-12, in turn denying combat aviators what would have been a vastly and inherently superior Merlin? Andre Rousseau, Auckland South, New Zealand

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The Cardington airship sheds: among the most treasured elements of our aeronautical history.

Talking of hangars…

I wonder if I might correct some of the information about the Cardington airship station given by Steve Slater in his September Hangar Talk? It is not in fact the two sheds that celebrate their centenary this year but the Cardington site, which was initially identified by Short Brothers in 1916 as a suitable location for an airship factory when the company won an Admiralty contract for two rigid airships. What is now shed 1, in which R101 was constructed, was completed in 1917, together with other parts of the works including the impressive administration block (now known as the Shorts Building). The Short Brothers undertaking was nationalised in April 1920 and subsequently became the Royal Airship Works (RAW). Although shed 1 was used for construction, the main workshops of the RAW were located behind the administration block. With the launch of the Imperial Airship Scheme in 1924 and the official decision to build two prototype airships, shed 1 was

The Spirit lives on

I was fascinated to read your magazine’s article on the Spirit of St Louis film in the July issue. I was fortunate as a youngster to be living close to a grass airfield in Killarney Racecourse, County Kerry, which was used as a base for the flying and aerial filming over Dingle Bay and Killarney. I cannot recall which Mantz aircraft landed in Killarney, but suffice to say that it was one of those offloaded from a USAF C-124 Globemaster II, probably in Shannon, and

enlarged to become 812ft long, 180ft wide and 157ft high in readiness for the construction of R101. A second shed was removed from the former airship station at Pulham in Norfolk, re-erected at Cardington and enlarged to a similar size to house the Vickers-built R100 when it was transferred from Howden in Yorkshire on completion of its maiden flight. After R101’s crash in October 1930 (not 1934), design work on the even larger R102 and R103 was put on hold, but it was not until August 1931 that a decision was taken to abandon further development of airships. R100, which had been moved into Cardington’s shed 1 in order to be cut in half and lengthened with an additional bay and gas bag, was dismantled for scrap. Cardington was put on a care and maintenance footing before becoming an RAF station in 1936. The Royal Airship Works name finally disappeared in 1938. Paul Ross, trustee, Airship Heritage Trust, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

flown to Killarney accompanied by a USAF Sikorsky helicopter which was used for aerial filming. Paul Mantz mentioned to the American crew that this aircraft had a regular tendency to float on touchdown because of the enlarged wingspan — page 24 of the article mentions this modification. I recall when the film was released seeing loads of ‘extras’ waving brand-new tweed caps as the Ryan flew overhead, supposedly in Killarney but probably in Dingle as the picture showed

large wooden boats, the type of which were not used on the Killarney lakes. The classic shot in the film for Killarney folk was the machine flying low over Ross Castle. Also, in the opening credits, the film showed the Ryan flying at dusk over some mountain ranges. I believe these were around Killarney. I wonder if someone, maybe in Devon or Cornwall, perhaps has similar memories of aerial filming of the Ryan over the UK back in 1955? Don O’Dwyer, Rochestown, Cork, Republic of Ireland

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30/10/2017 11:38

Q&A

COMPILER: BARRY WHEELER

WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK E-MAIL TO: [email protected], putting ‘Q&A’ in the header

Are you seeking the answer to a thorny aviation question, or trying to trace an old aviation friend? Our ‘questions and answers’ page might help

THIS MONTH’S QUESTIONS US Taifuns

Q

Prompted by a letter from Dr HeinzDieter Schneider concerning Prince Bernhard’s Bf 108s in October’s Skywriters pages, Brian Dunlop is trying to track down how many Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifuns arrived in the USA at the end of the war, and one in particular that appeared at Fairchild’s plant at Hagerstown, Maryland. He believes it was used by the company as a ‘hack’ before being destroyed/broken up and buried under a runway extension, but a friend salvaged the instruments — all except the Swiss Tissot type 12 clock, which Brian acquired. The best-known example taken to the USA was the Nord-built Bf 108 that was given foreign evaluation number FE-4610. It arrived aboard the Royal Navy carrier HMS Reaper in July 1945 and was ferried from Newark to Freeman Field that August, remaining there until August 1946. It survived and is now in the Planes of Fame collection at Chino, California. However, the details given in Dr Schneider’s letter relating to Bf 108D-1

Safety for the ‘erks’?

Q

A series of monochrome postcards has puzzled Bob Young. They belonged to his father Les Young, who was an RAF aircraft fitter from 1936 until after World War Two. Each

ABOVE: Evaluated at Wright Field after the war, Bf 108B FE-4610 received this high-visibility scheme with basic German insignia. It survives with the Planes of Fame museum at Chino.

Werknummer 5254 are at odds with those published in Phil Butler’s War Prizes, which cites Bf 108B-1 Werknummer 8378. Could these be two different aircraft? Another Bf 108, Werknummer 2246, arrived in America under US Navy ownership with Lt Leo Patterson registering it post-war as N54208. It eventually returned to Germany to become D-EBEI with the Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung. Can anyone confirm or correct this information and help Brian in his search for the Hagerstown Taifun?

displays a clear warning as to the incorrect way of undertaking some of the many tasks required of groundcrew, the illustrations showing pre-war aircraft such as Hawker Fury biplanes with appropriate

comments on the particular job. Ground training safety seems to be the theme, but were they produced for official use or for a more light-hearted approach to the subject?

Radium in wartime

Q

ABOVE: Some unusual postcards, about which Bob Young would like some information. They appear to be linked to safety for RAF groundcrew trainees.

A recent book, The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, tells the story of aircraft instrument manufacturing before and during World War Two and the use of ‘glow-inthe-dark’ radium paint with its deleterious effect on the workers — mainly women — who used it. The detailed application required the workers to lick the brushes,

thereby poisoning and laying waste to them all. Such a death toll prompted Andre Rousseau to ask if the Axis countries also used radioactive paint on their instruments for night operations. Knowing the danger of the paint, was this task hived off to concentration camp labourers in Germany? Did Japan have access to radium paint or was the use of internal electric lamp illumination employed instead? Has anyone researched this rather gruesome subject and, if so, does the answer exist within some lesser-known documents?

Wartime Malta

Q

Maltese historian Robert Camilleri has successfully researched material on Luqa and other airfields on Malta at the National Archives in Kew, but could not locate any information on work done on the bases by the Air Ministry Directorate of Works (AMDW). Should files exist at Kew, could anyone steer him towards appropriate references? He would also appreciate details held at other locations on the Maltese airfields.

The ‘Chicken Run’

Q

John Colbert recalls his father, who flew in the RFC and RAF in 1917-18, remembering pilots joking about an aeroplane with an unusually large number of bracing wires between the wings. It was nicknamed the ‘Chicken Run’, but what was the type?

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS • On reflection, it may well be that the colour Hawker Typhoon image on our October front cover depicts the start of a mission, rather than the successful return — the full load of rockets and sealed gun ports certainly suggest as much.

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• The reference in the November issue’s Flight Line column to the lack of remaining seafront airshows on England’s east coast other than at Clacton would better have referred to ‘the East Anglian coast’, as Sunderland, of course, still goes strong in the north-east.

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Q&A

THIS MONTH’S ANSWERS Spurious bus

Q

I n the August issue, Peter Jennings sent in a picture of a converted Albion bus mocked up to represent the ‘island’ on an aircraft carrier at RNAS East Haven, and wondered whether other Fleet Air Arm airfields used what became known as ‘HMS Spurious’. A Dennis O’Rourke in New Zealand responded with a particularly poignant story. When researching the career of Sub-Lt (A) Frederick Moncrieff Batten RNZNVR, a Grumman Avenger pilot of 852 Squadron, FAA operating aboard HMS Nabob, for his family, he discovered that after the carrier was torpedoed in August 1944 Batten was posted to 731 Squadron at East Haven, HMS Peewit. On 5 December 1944, he was flying ADDLs (aerodrome dummy deck landings) in Fairey Firefly I Z1903 when the aircraft stalled, hit the bus and burned out, killing Batten, the sole occupant.

The Orion’s ‘Dave’

Q

Recent issues included correspondence on the use of a Nakajima E8N ‘Dave’ single-float biplane aboard the German cruiser Orion. Following Maximilian Meindl’s comments in the September issue, Steven Coates provides further details on the exchange of a

A

ABOVE: Sitting firmly in the mud at Felixstowe Ferry, the giant Fairey Atalanta houseboat conversion — all 60ft of her — made a very sad picture for Arthur Ord-Hume when he visited the craft in the late 1960s.

‘Secret’ flying boats

Q A

Bill Starkey is researching houseboat conversions of large post-World War One flying boats, his appeal for information appearing in the October issue. Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume says that in 1947 there were three flying boat hulls in use as houseboats moored at Felixstowe Ferry. By 1968, only one had survived, and on a later visit Arthur could find no trace of any remains. However, he sends the adjacent photograph showing the Fairey Atalanta, which first flew in 1923, moored at the Felixstowe-Bawdsey ferry and displaying the name on the bow. Arthur assumes that one of the three hulls was the Southampton, N9899, now in the RAF Museum. He adds that Sir Richard Fairey named the aircraft Atalanta after his wife, whose name originated from Greek mythology as the supposed daughter of Iasus. Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 gyro-glider “for a Japanese aircraft, but the type is unknown”. He confirms that two Fa 330s were swapped for an Aichi E13A ‘Jake’ in order for the Germans to extend their area of reconnaissance previously flown by the shorter-legged Ar 196s from the Malay base at Penang, the ‘Jake’ having a maximum range of 1,116

miles compared with 670 miles for the Ar 196A-3. The Japanese interest in the two Fa 330s appeared lukewarm and the exchange may have been made more on a courtesy basis than an acquisition for tactical assessment.

Havoc on the mountain

Q

Stephen Thair sought information in the October magazine about the remains of a Douglas Havoc he came across during 1968 in the Welsh mountains. A fellow visitor to the wreck in 1994, Adrian Gray, reports that there is a full account of the loss of what was actually Boston Z2186 in Edward Doylerush’s book No Landing Place, including a cover shot of one of the engines. The wreck was cleared over a number of years with the wing being removed around 1995, much

A

An Aichi E13A1 of the Japanese 902nd Naval Air Group showing the type’s similarity to the German Arado Ar 196. This extended to the overall dimensions (a length of 37ft compared with the Arado’s 36ft, and a span of 47.5ft and 40ft 10in, respectively), but the range difference was quite marked.

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of the surviving wreckage going to the Douglas Boston-Havoc UK Preservation Trust located at Hinckley, Leicester. However, that organisation now appears to be defunct. A copy of the BAAC magazine Aviation Archaeologist — series two, number 25 — also has the story.

That Javelin sound

Q

Jet engine sounds from the Cold War period continue to stir memories following James MacFarlane’s question in the May issue regarding the Gloster Javelin. Alan Dowsett recalls the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire engine sound on Victor Mk1s when he worked at Handley Page. “The initial sound was the typical compressor whine, but as the engine speed increased it began to emit a loud, low-frequency note, which continued for a few seconds. By the time the engine reached ground idling speed (about 40 per cent) that noise had almost gone. This occurred four times in succession every time a Victor Mk1 started its engines”. Alan suspects that, “the noise came from either some kind of bell mode vibration being excited by the jet pipe, or an organ pipe mode in the exhaust within the jet pipe. Somebody once described a similar noise emanating from Hunters on the ground, presumably the F2 and F5 with Sapphires.”

A

Panel puzzle

Q

In the November issue, Susan Scott sought the origin of a metal panel with distinctive wording. Graham Vale swiftly responded that the item is an oil tank access panel from a Vickers Varsity. His knowledge comes first-hand as Graham is the owner of a Varsity.

A

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Whether as test, display or aerobatic pilot, Neil Williams was revered. No wonder the aviation world mourned his loss 40 years ago, and remembers him to this day as one of the greats WORDS: JEANNE FRAZER

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n 11 December 1977, the unthinkable happened close to the summit of a canyon near Burgos in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains north of Madrid. Neil Williams died piloting a CASA 2.111 — Spanishbuilt Heinkel He 111 — destined for Blackbushe, and the then brightest star of British aerobatics was extinguished. The crew included his second wife, Lynn, and two engineers. Tributes flowed to the man who had become an international idol in competition aerobatics, and whom many believed should have been crowned world champion in Kiev the previous year. When Williams captured the Leon Biancotto Trophy in 1967, he went down in history as the first British pilot ever to win a major international aerobatic contest. He was British aerobatic champion on 13 occasions, European champion twice, and his logbook listed more than 150 different types including the Mosquito, Lancaster, Spitfire and Sea Fury among the big piston-engined aircraft of World War Two and beyond, classic jet fighters such as the Hunter and Meteor, and ‘heavies’ like the Comet, VC10 and Victor. “A great pilot who knew no boundaries in his quest for perfection”, is the summary of one of his colleagues. “A diamond in the

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skies of UK airshows”, and “one of the most driven aviators I’ve ever known” are others. Many of his exploits leave one lost in admiration, while others lead one to wonder what it was that prompted him to do something or make a decision most would have dismissed as madness. Stories of the man could fill volumes. They’re inspirational, provocative, frightening, unexpected, amusing and occasionally shocking. I knew Neil only slightly and for a very short time, but fortunately am in touch with many of those who were closer, some of whom have published memoirs. Nevertheless, it occurred to me more than once in the process of producing this commemorative piece that I might have accepted a poisoned chalice: writing about a god can never be easy, and when the deity heralds from the rarefied atmosphere of a relatively obscure minority sport, worries in spades bubble to the surface. Williams’ own description of aerobatics is typically accurate and taciturn: “the ultimate union between science and art; one where man can bring a machine to life, and where a machine can enable man to experience the highest pinnacles of achievement and self-expression”. Undoubtedly his skilled technique brought life to any aeroplane, be it the Shuttleworth Collection’s 1912 Blackburn Monoplane — which, prior to his

LEFT: Neil Williams in the cockpit of one of the Rothmans Aerobatic Team’s Stampes. VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

TOP: Exiting the rear cockpit of a Tiger Moth after an early aerobatic sortie from Pengam Moors near Cardiff. VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

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NEIL WILLIAMS

ABOVE: A briefing prior to Neil’s first flight in Cosmic Wind G-ARUL Ballerina at Redhill.

VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

TOP: Leading out the British team at the 1966 World Aerobatic Championships, staged at Moscow’s Tushino airfield. With him (left to right) are Tony Haig-Thomas, Robin d’Erlanger and James Black. KEY COLLECTION

TOP MIDDLE: Building an igloo on the RAF winter survival course in Canada, circa 1955.

VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

first solo on type when he took it to altitude, had been restricted since restoration to hops along the runway — a Spitfire, or the most recent and sophisticated aerobatic type. From the personal recollections that follow, Williams’ devotion to flying and the discipline of aerobatics emerges as supreme. His capacity for self-criticism never waned, his achievements the result of a relentless striving for perfection. The freedom to perform in three dimensions was clearly his prime means of self-expression. Imagine the wild, open plains of Alberta, Canada in the mid-1930s. A short distance away from his father, a small child is playing. An eagle swoops down from the sky and grabs the child’s braces, but as the powerful bird flaps desperately to lift its prey it is batted off by the father’s shovel. The family then returns to its native Wales and Neil Williams, rather than ending up being devoured in an eyrie, survives to grow up watching aerial battles from the hills above Swansea. According to his brother,

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Lynn, it took Neil no time to be able to accurately identify every aircraft type. But it was a tough upbringing in a traditional Welsh village for an initially hated English-speaking interloper. Fights were frequent, and an indomitable spirit and strong will were needed to overcome prejudice and gain acceptance. At the age of 17, Williams started flying with the Cardiff Ultra-Light Aeroplane Club on the Tipsy B Trainer. He won an Air Training Corps scholarship, which he conducted on the Glamorgan Flying Club’s Tiger Moths. Lynn relates a couple of episodes from his brother’s early tearaway days, of looping the stone-built Taff ’s Well viaduct, and emulating the pre-war Cranwell cadet’s rite of passage in the deathdefying act of climbing from the rear cockpit of an Avro 504 in flight to tie a handkerchief around the front stick, albeit in a Tiger: “He survived only by frantically grabbing the rear

windshield to haul himself back into the safety of the rear cockpit, in the nick of time to regain control and recover the aircraft from its screaming dive”. Invited to explain the broken glass and bent frame of the rear windshield, Williams proffered the excuse of a bird strike, but a distinct absence of blood or feathers rendered his tale a bit flimsy. He was grounded for a month for endangering a valuable aircraft, which, Lynn thought, “seemed to calm him down for a while.” An engineering apprenticeship preceded RAF entry in 1955, and soon Williams was back in the land of his birth to gain his wings, reward the selectors by winning his course trophy and convert to jets. A re-crossing of the Atlantic was followed by operational conversion to the Canberra and posting to a photo-reconnaissance unit, No 13 Squadron, in Cyprus. In 1961 a shift of direction saw him transfer to an experimental squadron in the UK and the following year graduate from the Empire Test Pilots’

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School (ETPS). In conjunction with this change in his professional life, Williams joined the Tiger Club and began competing in aerobatic contests, in parallel establishing himself as one of its most highly valued display pilots. Aside from staging air displays around the country, the Tiger Club was progenitor of the British Aerobatic Association and for several years took responsibility for sending a national team to European and world contests. It also provided the team’s mounts and a large grass aerodrome, so rookie members could marvel at the spectacle of the masters rehearsing in the Redhill overhead. One who did so recollects: “I couldn’t help but watch and learn from the examples of supreme airmanship displayed almost on a weekly basis. The choices were extraordinary — formation flying, air racing, precision handling and, of course, aerobatics. For me, it was aerobatics, and the leading light was Neil Williams.” So says John Taylor, who joined in the mid-1960s and went on to make professional aerobatic display flying

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his full-time career. He counts himself lucky to have been able to glean the intricacies of his craft in what he called “the cradle of sport aerobatics”. “The first important lesson was that aerobatic flight is a personal expression of man and machine in harmony, so individual pilots are distinguishable by their style. To me, Neil always seemed to be able to extract maximum performance, and given that we’re talking mostly about 130hp biplanes — with the occasional ‘hot-rod’ monoplane like the Zlin 226 — one could easily appreciate the physical effort demanded to complete an unlimited competition or challenging display sequence.” Taylor can recall comments from contemporaries to the effect that Williams was brutal in his execution of aerobatic figures, but prefers himself to say that Neil was singular in his determination to fly accurately and just within an aircraft’s structural limits, adding that his approach as a trained

test pilot gave him important technical insight in terms of stress and loadings. A quality admired by Taylor was Neil’s ability to “finish” manoeuvres, by which he means the cleanness of stops in figures such as hesitation rolls, or the crisp ending of vertical lines, a style he chooses to extol with his own aerobatic students today. All roads at the time appear to have led to Redhill, even when the starting point was Orkney. The advice given to John Firth, if he wished to survive intimate exploration of every possible landing site there and in Shetland, was to join the Tiger Club and learn aerobatics. This he duly did, but his introduction to Neil was not aerobatics but formation flying, when as a new boy he was asked to ferry a Turbulent from Redhill to a Tiger Club airshow at South Marston. “It was hardly VMC but a clearance was coming and I agreed to do it later. Not so, the detail was now. If I was concerned for my navigation and to make sure I got there, I should formate on Neil Williams for the transit.

TOP: With Meteor T7 WH238 during jet conversion. VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

ABOVE: The aftermath of an incredible escape, when the wing of Zlin 526 G-AWAR folded up near Hullavington on 3 June 1970. VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

ABOVE LEFT: Then Shuttleworth Collection general manager David Ogilvy joins Neil for a rare ‘two-up’ trip in the replica Bristol Boxkite on 28 October 1973. Ogilvy recalls that Williams could get the Boxkite to go twice as high as any other pilot.

AIR PORTRAITS VIA DAVID OGILVY

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NEIL WILLIAMS

CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: At the controls of Spitfire LFIX MH434, a regular Williams mount during its ownership by Adrian Swire.

VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

Pitts S-1S G-AZPH was Williams’ steed for some of his greatest competition aerobatic successes, including the fourth place at world level in Kiev in 1976. Such is this aeroplane’s significance thanks to those exploits that it is now preserved in the Science Museum. KEY COLLECTION

A typically spirited display at Old Warden, here in Adrian Swire’s Dragon Rapide G-AKIF.

OWEN DINSDALE VIA MARK MILLER

He showed me exactly what I must do — keep my starboard wing tip tucked in between his Stampe’s left lower mainplane and the tailplane without chewing off his port lower aileron with my propeller, all the time, and with my unblinking eyes locked on his cockpit until he waved me away.” With another Turbulent in the number three position, the formation take-off was followed by a plunge into thick murk. Firth found that he needed continuous full throttle to keep up, and the realisation dawned that his own speed was being matched to the inch by no ordinary pilot in the Stampe. “This was a comfort as out of the corner of my eye there was nothing to see, bar one solitary flash of a transverse structure passing overhead. Eventually the murk lightened and what felt like a gentle turn was followed by my tailskid scraping concrete. An arm waved me away and I found myself trundling along the edge of a runway. The weather duly improved for the airshow, and it was only en route back to Redhill I realised that what had passed overhead was the cable across the Goring Gap. He was certainly no ordinary airman.” Williams’ mastery as a formation pilot is part of the legend. Taylor recalls being flown by him to an airshow in formation with other club Stampes, suddenly finding they were rolling inverted while unbelievably close to the lead aircraft, and then flying in vic as if nailed to the other alongside. “In later years I did the same myself, but in more capable machines with a far superior performance such as the Extra 300. To this day, I marvel at the control and precision he demonstrated.” In The Tiger Club: A Tribute, Lewis Benjamin credits him with the “brainchild” in 1964 of the club’s fiveship biplane formation, which became one of its trademark acts. Williams was also a regular performer of its innovative ‘mirror’, where one aircraft flies in tight formation beneath the other inverted, and Benjamin cited a debrief in which Williams was overheard telling his inverted partner: “You weren’t straight, you were slipping”. “No”, replied James Gilbert, “you were — I could see your ball wasn’t central”. And his skills were instantly in demand when the Rothmans Aerobatic Team was instigated in 1970.

The invitation from Manx Kelly coincided with the collapse of Handley Page, for whom Williams had become a test pilot after resigning his commission. With the company in its final days following the government’s announcement that it would not be awarded further contracts, he was asked to repatriate a Jetstream that had been undergoing trials abroad. When a starter motor went unserviceable en route, he realised that no replacement would be forthcoming. His solution was to take off on one engine with the aircraft fuelled but unloaded, start the idle engine in flight by unfeathering the propeller, and land back to load up the equipment and personnel. Back in UK airspace, Williams made contact with the planned destination of Luton to advise that he had an emergency and was diverting to Radlett. By doing so, and returning the aircraft direct to the company’s development base, he avoided the possibility of it being impounded. In 1966 Brian Smith had accompanied Neil to Moscow in the lofty role of aircraft polisher, but returned with him to Russia a decade later, ranked rather more highly as a fellow British team pilot. In the intervening years they notched up many hours of formation aerobatics in displays for the Tiger Club, and

involved in endeavours to improve equity in judging. Marking has now moved towards a highly prescriptive formula whereby deduction from the perfect 10 is prescribed for every few degrees of deviance from the expected path of a manoeuvre, but in Williams’ day the task of judging was far more subjective. Though the basic method of knocking off half a point for any obvious imperfection existed, the international environment turned a blind eye to favouritism and collusion as accepted hazards. Williams was not the only one disappointed by his fourth place at Kiev; Barry Tempest, for one, is convinced that Eastern Bloc politics of the day were responsible for his non-appearance on the podium. Tempest’s first encounter with Williams in 1961 made for a prickly start, unsurprisingly since it resulted in the latter being grounded for a month by his RAF chief flying instructor. At Little Snoring, Barry had witnessed a Tiger land to drop off a passenger, take off again without ceremony and climb to 800ft before diving back over the airfield to dish out of a low-level slow roll. Coming as it did soon after a recent aerobatic fatality on site, Tempest was incensed and formally reported to the RAF what he’d seen. Neil’s obvious resentment at the outcome took time to subside, but they co-existed as Tiger Club display participants and contest competitors. Another of Tempest’s tales has Williams flying so low in ground effect on the finishing straight of an air race that his Super Tiger’s wheels touched the plough and put up a huge cloud of dirt, thus losing him not only 5kt but probable victory. Tempest also remembers flying out to see the British team perform in the 1964 World Championship at Bilbao, which Williams and Peter Phillips had gamely elected to enter in the elegant but uncompetitive LeVier Cosmic Wind Ballerina. Benjamin expanded on the Cosmic’s unsuitability for the task when he described the pilot’s need to turn the inverted system on and off 16 times in a single sequence! The Zlin 226’s triumph in the first World Aerobatic Championship at Bratislava in 1960 had made Williams an earnest believer, and he favoured it over the 526 for two reasons: one, that drag from its fixed undercarriage proved useful in some manoeuvres; the other, that the absence of a retractable

There is no doubt about his leadership qualities and handling skills, and in competition aerobatics I don’t think his achievements have been equalled by another British pilot

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plenty more in transits across Europe. “Once he’d made up his mind about something you wouldn’t shift him”, says Brian. “There is no doubt about his leadership qualities and handling skills, and in competition aerobatics I don’t think his achievements have been equalled by another British pilot”. It was in Smith’s company at Kiev in 1976 that Williams gained the highest-ever individual British placing in a World Aerobatic Championship, and the achievement still stands. James Black was another team member and a partner in Aerobatics International, the company that owned and operated their contest aircraft. In future years James would become a highly respected international judge and chairman of the FAI’s aerobatic committee (CIVA), thereby deeply

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gear mechanism made for a lighter airframe. Thus in 1965 it was the option chosen by Tony Haig-Thomas and ‘Taff ’ Taylor when they invested in a new competition machine for Williams to also use. It was to be imported and sport a British identity. Those ambitious enough to want to transfer a previously unknown aircraft type to the UK register must steel themselves for an element of battle. Patience and cunning are useful attributes in avoiding skirmishes as the traditional sequence of events unfolds: a satisfactory ground inspection generates a flight test permission, which results in issue of a registration certificate. The first of these hurdles involves interrogation of the aeroplane’s structural integrity and powerplant, traceability of its

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pre-import history and minute attention to documentation. The CAA’s in-house team will be at the ready to undertake the test flight, champing at the bit if the aircraft is seriously rare, and their eagerness can be frustrated only if another pilot with unarguable credentials to better judge its responses is nominated. Perfect stuff to stimulate Williams’ perpetual enthusiasm for a challenge. On arrival of the 226 in the UK, his loyal RAE Farnborough engineers duly went about preparations for the CAA ground inspection. Episodes from his past reminded Williams that a wise move would be to leave some minor fault to be unearthed, and he indulged his inclination to fling down

the gauntlet. The nice CAA inspector duly went over the structural drawings, history and documents, before being cordially invited to cast an eye over the firmly static machine and raise any obvious problems. Congratulating the group on a job well done, he regretted not be being able to sign it off there and then due to lack of a rear cockpit ‘no smoking’ placard. Standing alongside, one imagines doing his best not to smirk, Williams delved into his trouser pocket to produce the missing placard, proceeded to peel off the sticky back and leaned into the rear cockpit to position it. Graciously and sportingly, the CAA man gave approval for the test flight. The authority proved a poor match for Williams when it came to that, too. Leading-edge stall-breakers

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RIGHT: Showing his aplomb in rotary-engined machinery, Neil carried out the post-restoration test flying of Desmond St Cyrien’s Sopwith Pup N5182/G‑APUP in 1973, and several displays in it thereafter.

VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

were standard in manufacture by the Czechs, but Neil had instructed his tame Farnborough team to remove them, explaining, “we want it to flick like a bastard!” Had the air test been carried out by a CAA pilot — rather than by Williams, who’d argued successfully that he was the best man for the job — its stall speed characteristics would not have been sanctioned. Whether before or after the inspection and test flight is unclear, but certainly before the aircraft competed at Moscow some months later, the generator, alternator and battery were removed too. Ever ambitious to improve an aircraft’s performance, the urgent need arose very shortly before a major contest nearly a decade later when his regular Pitts went sick and he was loaned a standard non-symmetrical two-aileron substitute. Concerned at the poor rate of roll it exhibited, Williams persuaded his engineers to increase the chord of the ailerons. The phenomenal result, while making the aircraft quite twitchy to fly, was an aircraft that out-rolled his own. Film flying became another string to Williams’ bow, thanks to which Tony Bianchi’s interest in aerobatics was kindled when they encountered one another in the 1960s. Personal Plane Services, founded by Tony’s father Doug, operated a number of World War Two-era warbirds — especially Spitfires — and Williams became involved in testing, ferrying and flying for them in productions such as A Bridge Too Far, Aces High and The Eagle Has Landed. “Neil had a unique touch”, says Tony, “and an ability to understand exactly what producers and directors wanted — a rare quality in the movie world.” Bianchi felt Williams helped him just by passing on his vast knowledge, particularly in later years when they trained together in the Zlin and Pitts. “Then, in 1976, he urged me to go solo in the Spitfire Ia [AR213], but failed to mention that my next sortie would be a close formation detail with him in the MkIX MH434, only a week later and for an evening display at the Knebworth Pink Floyd concert. We landed back at Booker at dusk with not much fuel, but because one had total trust in him, it seemed fine.” Another side of Williams that Bianchi is keen to emphasise was his cool reaction to situations that would

get others really excited, from which he instead appeared to merely derive a wry amusement. “He watched me display once when I ended up stupidly low at the bottom of the final loop in a Jungmeister. On shut-down, a grinning Neil sauntered up with his hands in his pockets to comment that running the wheels along the ground at the bottom of a loop was pointless, as it only slowed the aircraft down for the next manoeuvre. Another time I was lined up in the Zlin 526 at an aerobatic contest, when the competitor flying before me kept missing the exit direction from a spin and carried on getting lower and lower overhead. Williams came over to propose I move a hundred yards to avoid the Zlin being crashed on,

as it was needed for practice the next week, then turned and walked off without even looking back to see what happened.” Confidence is a characteristic synonymous with Williams. Shortly after returning from Spain with a Jungmann he’d selected from the batch being sold off there, he displayed it with customary brilliance at a Tiger Club event. “As he levelled out to land”, Lewis Benjamin wrote, “it registered with me that he was a tad fast and a shade too high. Suddenly he threw in a flick roll and then with complete assurance sank into a perfect three-pointer”. Benjamin recalled one of many fast and furious debates, always relished by Williams, this one about forced landing technique in a

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delicacy to leave the navigation bulb cover intact. The moment is captured magnificently, the monoplane poised on the knife-edge, in the Neil Williams Challenge Trophy. Its commission was sponsored by the Daily Telegraph in time for presentation at the 1978 British Nationals, since when it has been awarded annually to the British champion at unlimited level. The trophy was designed and executed by Lynn Williams, in rhodium plate over a wooden model and mounted on Welsh slate. Philip Meeson, a subsequent British aerobatic champion, generously funded a number of replicas for winners to keep in perpetuity. One who had the pleasure of guarding the original trophy for a year, having claimed the British title in 1995, is Diana Britten. Asked what Williams meant to her, she said: “He still has an aura, and I’m not sure there’s ever been anyone who’s matched up”. She likened his standing to that of motor racing’s Stirling Moss, existing in a category of his own, his magic somehow untouchable.

Tiger: “He was adamant that his was the best: ‘select a field, dive the Tiger to arrive over the threshold at precisely 100mph, throw it into a tight circuit to bleed off the speed, and sideslip in to land — it works every time’.” Williams’ airmanship was never better demonstrated than in 1970 when he landed the Zlin 526 following in-flight structural failure while practising for the world championships at Hullavington, in recognition of which he was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air. During pull-out to level flight after completion of an upward half vertical roll, push-over and downvertical, the spar root cracked and his port wing began to fold. The lack of a parachute denied Williams the

most sensible course of action, and he reached the inspired conclusion that an inverted circuit and approach was the only option. He rolled left and pushed, negative g snapping the wing back into position. Seconds later the engine died due to the fuel cock having been inadvertently knocked off, but he dealt with this to restore power. Safely over the threshold, he slowly flared above the grass and rolled right, again employing negative g to hold the left wing in place. It started to fold again as erect level flight was re-established and the aircraft met the ground. When it came to a halt, Williams undid his harness and escaped. Impact marks indicated that the port wingtip had progressed through the grass during the roll, but patently with sufficient

BELOW LEFT: Fast-taxiing the Strathallan Collection’s Mosquito B35 RS712. KEY COLLECTION

BELOW RIGHT: Arriving at Blackbushe in exSpanish Air Force CASA 2.111E G-BDYA. It was in a similar machine that Neil lost his life. PETER BROWN

But anyone who came into Williams’ aerobatic orbit will tell you the same thing: that he never revealed the precise technique employed to perform a particular manoeuvre. James Black recounted how, to no avail, he tried to elicit from Neil the kaleidoscopic secrets of the lomcevak, and others confirm how jealously he guarded certain areas of his expertise. When it comes to the reader’s expectation of discovering the holy grail in Aerobatics, I could be quoting almost any of those who’ve made their own mark in the sport: “the book doesn’t actually tell you how to do any of it!” Strange and curious, you might think, given Williams’ exceptional but seemingly innate ability to retrieve details of speed, height, attitude, control input, g-meter reading, fuel consumption and shape of the surrounding clouds with astounding accuracy, combined with a baffling analysis of aerodynamic loadings to the structure, in any report he was asked to produce. Even in a critical situation where the likelihood of his survival must have seemed doubtful — Hullavington being a prime example — he confidently quotes the numbers registered across the instrument panel at every second of the experience.

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ABOVE: The last display: a one-off Tiger Club appearance over the City of London for the 1977 Lord Mayor’s Show, Neil leading in the Arrow Active II G-ABVE.

VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

BELOW RIGHT: On the set of Aces High. KEY COLLECTION

Indeed, it was his accurate power of recall that enabled analysis of a condition known as ‘eyeball bouncing’, experienced by another famous test pilot, Wg Cdr Roland ‘Bee’ Beamont, during TSR2 trials. The clue lay in loss of central vision discrimination, accompanied by preservation of the peripheral visual field; among other things, this highlighted the existence of two visual systems with differing speeds of response, the discovery of which was an important influence on the design of future flat-panel digital colour displays for combat and civilian aircraft. A further contribution rendered by Williams in the field of medical science involved John Firth who, as a neurosurgeon, took more than a passing interest in the effect of g-forces on the human brain. Despite research and development of g-suits, an ongoing debate in aircrew neurology during the early 1960s concerned the mechanisms of ‘grey-out’ experienced in aerobatics, and ‘black-out’ as explored in the centrifuge. Restoration of vision from the former was prompt, as soon as the g-force was released, and intellect was unaffected. Yet in the centrifuge one could be reduced to coma or convulsion and take as long as 15 seconds to recover full intellectual capacity. Occasional convulsion raised the question: was this epilepsy? Volunteers were needed to ride the

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Farnborough centrifuge, of whom Williams was best qualified, and he did so even though all feared the possible consequences. Happily there were none, while the convulsions were found to be a normal response to the return of blood to the brain following a critical period of interruption under high g. A matter of months before he died, Williams was invited by the Czechs to join an international delegation of pilots to test the new Zlin 50. Resting on its titanium spring undercarriage, it represented a revolution in Zlin development, and his experience of flying it was enough to convince

Williams of its potential. Bianchi agrees it would have made for the perfect partnership at the next world championship: “I believe the Czechs were overwhelmed by how well he flew the aircraft, even though their older team pilots already regarded Neil as a total maestro.” It was when Bianchi and Williams took a pair of Spitfires to film a commercial that the forthcoming ferry job, to bring another Spanish Heinkel back from Madrid to Blackbushe, cropped up in conversation. A few days later, Williams rang to ask if he’d co-pilot on the trip. On the brink of agreeing, Bianchi was prodded by his mother to say that his father would prefer him to stay behind and help

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with the workload at Booker, and Neil instead took along his wife, Lynn. As if that isn’t haunting enough, coincidence had it that Doug Bianchi suffered a fatal heart attack on the same day as Neil’s final flight. Fifteen years later, Tony Bianchi found himself at Cuatro Vientos, from where the fatal CASA delivery sortie departed, and heard from a Spanish pilot who’d been involved in the accident investigation that the aircraft might have made it out of the mountains had the undercarriage not been extended due to a failure in the lock-up system. The weather was poor, and the aircraft was definitely up the wrong valley and contrary to the pre-planned route. Added to this, there were pressures to get back to the UK. Williams was booked to give a lecture that evening, and the flight engineer had left his dog locked in his car at Blackbushe in anticipation of returning the same day. Impartial observation would find no shortage of contributory factors, but Bianchi’s quote sums it up for us all: “What a waste.” Heroes are not supposed to have made mistakes. Neil, hero though he rightly remains, made more than one judgemental error in his flying career. One is recounted first-hand in his book Airborne, where he admits that foolhardiness led to his depositing Stampe G-AROZ behind a hangar at Biggin Hill mid-display in 1965. Summing up Neil as “an enigma”, Tony Haig-Thomas maintains he was, “the world’s best pilot in aircraft handling”, almost in the same breath citing, “a catalogue of prangs”, many of which were recorded as precautionary landings. He insists that Williams was never deliberately reckless, but simply had absolute faith in his own limitless ability to cope with any situation. “One of Neil’s most engaging characteristics was a magnetic ability to attract personal loyalty to the most enormous degree. People would go out of their way and frequently at their own expense to do anything for him”. Such devotion was illustrated when a piston disintegrated in the Zlin 226 at Redhill shortly before departure for a contest, and Neil’s loyal engineers had the engine up and running within two days. In Firth’s eyes, one of Neil’s greatest services to British aerobatics was to set the standard by whom all others were judged, rather in the way that certain aircraft types of the period were recognised as the ones to beat. “Another was his preparedness to openly discuss and criticise both his

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and one’s own flying at the end of a day”. His ‘what ifs’ and, in Firth’s words, “litanies of error” reflected not only his professional attitude as a test pilot, but the input he quietly put into Dr Roger Green’s development of the Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme, or CHIRP, which to this day encourages frank and honest submissions of mistakes made, in the spirit of preventing an unfortunate repetition by others. Charismatic, complex and highly driven, Williams was obsessive beyond most in his exclusive passion for flying, sometimes to the detriment of other things in his life. Most would agree that his major ambition was to win a world aerobatic championship — and then probably another one! He attracted huge respect and admiration over what now seems a relatively short career. Forty years later, the reputation he established for his extraordinary ability is a global one, and many still refer to him as Britain’s greatest allround pilot of the post-war era. In the annals of aerobatics, his divine status is not in dispute. A mere fortnight before he died, Williams’ last display appearance was for the Tiger Club, with whom he’d cavorted happily in airshow skies for 17 years. Their archives contain his meticulous briefing notes for the event, a five-ship formation flypast

over Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London for the Lord Mayor’s Show, led by Neil at the controls of the lively Arrow Active II. The wind, according to Michael Jones’ account in Tiger Club: The Redhill Saga, was equally lively and the visibility suspect, but it would have been a matter of honour to not disappoint the waiting throng lining the banks of the Thames, especially given that the incoming Lord Mayor happened to be a club founding member. Jones relates that the initial pass, followed by an immaculate steep turn and reverse pass, was greeted by deafening cheers. In retrospect, the line-up of pilots that day — Brian Smith and James Black in Tiger Moths, with Pete Jarvis and Carl Schofield in Stampes, all of whom had themselves represented Great Britain in international aerobatic contests — resonates as a strikingly appropriate swansong, the master himself closely surrounded by four of those eminently qualified to appreciate his indisputable skill and achievement in that ultimate union of science and art.

ABOVE: Neil and wife Lynn at a wall signing to commemorate the Battle of Britain at Bex, Switzerland, in 1976. The illustration depicts Spitfire MH434. VIA LYNN WILLIAMS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The author thanks Tony Beckton, Lewis Benjamin, Tony Bianchi, James Black, John Firth, Tony Haig-Thomas, Michael Jones, Brian Smith, John Taylor, Barry Tempest and Lynn Williams.

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COLD WAR VICTORS

PROJECTING The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Indonesian confrontation, ‘Western Rangers’ and new tactics — 1962-63 was quite a time to join No XV Squadron on the Victor B1A. In the first of two features this month on life in the ‘V-Force’, one of the RAF’s most experienced navigators recalls his first tour WORDS: AIR CDRE NORMAN BONNOR

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he age-old traditions of Bomber Command still applied when I arrived on No 232 Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Gaydon in June 1961 for No 36 Victor Course. On the first night, we all gathered in the officers’ mess bar, and the OCU instructors expected us to sort out our five-man crews. Across the room, I recognised a blond-haired chap — David Bywater, who, as a senior cadet, had marched me around the drill square at Cranwell and was coming through as the first first-tourist co-pilot on Victors to

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make it to captaincy. He looked like a good bet, so I bought him a beer, and we spent the rest of the evening picking out a co-pilot, a nav plotter and an air electronics officer. The ground school that summer was a breeze after Cranwell. The flying phase was a bit more serious but still great fun and, after 17 trips and 55 hours, our crew was posted to No XV Squadron at RAF Cottesmore in October. The next phase was to qualify as a combat-ready crew. This involved completing a nuclear

weapons training course, target study of both NATO and national targets, proving we could undertake first-line servicing of the aircraft if deployed or diverted, and flying 16 sorties or 60 hours undertaking various profiles and exercises to prove to the boss, OC No XV Squadron, that we were ready. January 1962 saw the unit deploying to the Far East for a month but, as the junior crew, we were not allowed to fly a Victor all that way and had to suffer the ‘rubber chicken’

BELOW: A staged image of a practice ‘scramble’ involving No XV Squadron Victor B1 XH594. AEROPLANE

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COLD WAR VICTORS

RIGHT TOP TO BOTTOM: Victor B1A XH587 on the Cottesmore ramp in early 1963, when the Rutland base was badly snowed-in with ice on the taxiways and runway. VIA NORMAN BONNOR

The scene at Tengah, Singapore in early 1964, when Victors of Nos XV and 57 Squadron went out to deter Indonesian aggression. VIA NORMAN BONNOR

meals of Transport Command on a Britannia for four legs through El Adem, Khormaksar and Gan to Butterworth. Somehow, word got out that ours had the youngest average age of all crews in the ‘V-Force’, and the press descended on us for interviews and pictures. Although it was good to see ourselves in the tabloids and broadsheets, my proudest moment was getting our photo in the Eagle comic. Finally, we got to fly a couple of Victor sorties in the very hot and humid conditions of Malaya. We quickly realised that the best technique to stay cool when returning to the circuit after five hours was to reduce the cockpit temperature before commencing descent and then turn off the air conditioning to retain the cool air. But we made a bad mistake on one of these trips. Somehow, a rat — or perhaps a large mouse — got into the cockpit, probably with our in-flight rations, and appeared on the coaming at 45,000ft. The two pilots panicked and depressurised the cockpit to kill the rodent before it could bite through some vital cables — mistake. A few hours after landing, the groundcrew was driven out of the aircraft by the smell of rotting rodent, and it took two days to find the offending corpse… The Bywater crew gained the Combat Star rating at the end of June 1962, and we were rewarded with a four-day ‘Ranger’ sortie to Karachi via Akrotiri from 20-24 August. After the Suez Crisis of 1956, this involved flying back westward from

Cyprus, then over Libya (I wonder if we would do that today) and Sudan to go around ‘Nasser’s Corner’ to avoid Egyptian airspace. On 12 October 1962, we returned from a ‘Western Ranger’ to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, just as the Cuban Missile Crisis was beginning. I was still single and living in the

officers’ mess at Cottesmore, and remember watching the situation unfold on TV with U-2 recce pictures of IRBM sites being prepared and missiles unloaded. I recall that there was a quiet recall of personnel over the weekend of 20-21 October. Apparently the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, had asked the commander-in-chief, Sir ‘Bing’ Cross, to bring the ‘V-Force’

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t the end of June 1963, we were scheduled for a ‘Western Ranger’ to Offutt via Goose Bay, but the trip didn’t go as expected. Planning was routine except that our co-pilot — Pete Armstrong, now cleared to fly in the left-hand seat — would take the first leg to Goose. We took off at midday on 25 June in XH620 but, on climb-out at about 30,000ft, the first pilot’s hatch came off. All the dust and loose articles in the cockpit were sucked out through the large hole (approximately 7ft by 4ft), and Pete pushed hard over to descend, giving us even more discomfort in the back with the resulting negative g. The buffeting noise was horrendous, making it impossible to communicate on intercom or by radio but, as we slowed down approaching 10,000ft, I realised that Dennis Halliwell

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next to me was laughing — his Gee chart had disintegrated under the tip of his pencil as he was taking a fix at the time the hatch blew, and the only piece of chart left was about 2in across. I was also conscious of someone trying to make themselves heard on the intercom. It was Pete; he desperately wanted someone to put the pins back into the main gun and top handle of his ejection seat because, with the hatch gone, he was one step into the ejection sequence. In those days, the crew chief in the sixth seat faced forward, not a very comfortable position as he was directly in the airflow from the missing hatch and he didn’t have a bonedome. The two pilots had lowered their seats as much as possible and were below the

worst of the problem — they always carried some goggles so these were passed to the ‘chiefie’, causing much hilarity in the Cottesmore control tower as through binoculars it looked as though he was sat up in an open cockpit flying the aircraft like something from the First World War. As a bomber, the Victor couldn’t dump fuel, so we spent an hour and a half in the circuit burning off the surplus to get down to max landing weight. It was raining and we were very wet by the time we finally climbed out in the squadron dispersal. The hatch was found by a farmer near the Wash some years later. We were rescheduled on the ‘Ranger’ in August, but this time with No 3 Group’s senior air staff officer, AVM ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, who wanted to go salmon fishing at Goose Bay!

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LEFT: Time for a spot of rest and relaxation for the on deployment to RAAFB Butterworth, Malaysia. From left to right: nav radar Norman Bonnor, nav plotter Ted Edwards, co-pilot Pete Armstrong, captain David Bywater and AEO Noel Belchamber. This shot was taken in January 1962 as part of the RAF publicity effort involving the Bywater crew, which had the youngest average age in the ‘V-Force’. VIA NORMAN BONNOR

squadrons to maximum readiness with the least publicity as he didn’t want to alarm the public. The engineers began to generate all available aircraft, including those in deep servicing, and load them with live weapons. As they became available over the next few days, aircrews scramble-checked them and went on alert at RS15 (readiness state 15 minutes, the same as the quick reaction alert crews). From the normal one crew on QRA on the Monday morning, we had built up to seven by the end of the week; only one No XV Squadron aircraft had not been recovered from the hangar before the crisis ended. The political situation came to a head on Saturday 27 October, during which we were called to cockpit readiness RS05 (five minutes) for an hour or so. Khrushchev backed down that afternoon; we breathed a sigh of relief. In the aftermath, High Wycombe introduced monthly nonotice exercises such as ‘Mick’ and ‘Mickey Finn’. These usually lasted up to a week, culminating in four-aircraft scrambles at Cottesmore and at least one of our dispersal bases such as St Mawgan or RAE Bedford. In the early ’60s, the tactic for penetrating Soviet early warning and surveillance systems was still based on a large wave of aircraft at high altitudes covering its approach with high-power, broadcast jamming on the many Soviet radar and communications frequencies. The Valiant and some early Victor

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B1s and Vulcan B1s had not been fully equipped with this ECM kit, so regular exercises such as ‘Spellbound’ were flown to test the capability of the force to fly in a large wave — up to 100 aircraft — with the jammers above and around the non-jammers to protect them. Clearly, this had to be tested away from main areas of population, so a facility was set up at Stornoway against which we could prove how well the jamming covered these big waves of aircraft. We didn’t have any station-keeping capability, so the positioning of individual aircraft relied entirely on the navigation accuracy of the navigational and bombing system (NBS) on board each one. These exercises were often flown at night, so the first time we did one in daylight it came as a bit of a shock to the pilots who could see many aircraft and contrails rather close by. When the run against Stornoway was complete, the jammers would be switched off, and the wave would split up and complete other planned training as individual aircraft or return to base. On one such exercise, the AEO of one of our Victors could not switch

off one of the Red Shrimp jammers and flew down the UK from Glasgow wiping out all the TV relay systems. Fortunately the press didn’t find out who caused the blackout of Coronation Street that night! The jamming finally turned off when the weight-on-wheels switch operated on landing. The other tactical change that had taken place was with regard to bombing. Previously, straight-in attacks were made using radar from an initial point some 50 or 60 miles away; however, the Soviet deployment of SA-1 ‘Guild’ missiles around Moscow and SA-2 ‘Guidelines’ around some other major cities meant that highflying aircraft could be vulnerable even at 50,000ft and above. To defeat the prediction capability of these systems, we changed our bombing tactic to a weaving approach (Type 2A), never remaining on heading for more than a minute or so. This rendered accurate bombing far more difficult as sensible corrections could only be made in the brief periods when we were straight and level. We achieved the Select crew classification at the end of 1962. By now we were one of the most experienced crews on the squadron, as many of those that had served for

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COLD WAR VICTORS

ABOVE: Victor B1A XH648 makes the famous 35,000lb drop — 35 1,000lb bombs — at the Song Song range, albeit depicted in a slightly doctored photo after a mistake in capturing the moment! This aircraft is today under restoration at IWM Duxford. KEY COLLECTION

longer had already moved on to the Victor B2 units at Wittering. Training on high-level profiles continued until late April 1963, when the decision was made to change the tactics for penetration and attack of the Soviet Union by Mk1 Victors and Vulcans to low-level, 500ft and below. The reason was the dramatic increase in deployment of the SA-3 ‘Goa’ missile system around Soviet borders and cities. This involved a very different approach to training and, in particular, to our navigation techniques. The nav plotter still used 4H pencils and Lambert’s plotting charts for the high-level phase but, for low-level, he employed chinagraph pencils and half-million topographic maps laminated with clear plastic. The normal mode of operation was for him to provide a running commentary of what the guys in the front should see and for them to confirm. My role as nav radar was still to update the NBS with regular radar fixes, but this now involved a new set of radar prediction techniques as the picture at low level was severely affected by hill shading, and the height of an object or feature was far more important than what it was made of. Thus, railway embankments and even stone walls

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became important when interpreting the picture. Our primary armament remained the 1.1-megaton Yellow Sun Mk2, which, unlike the later WE177, was not a lay-down, delayed-fuse weapon. We had to learn new bombing tactics, popping up to 26,000ft just in time to release it. Later we were cleared to do so at 12,000ft in a full-power climb and effectively throw the bomb. By the end on 1963, the Bywater crew had achieved Select Star rating, the highest and most difficult classification, which only some 10 per cent of ‘V-Force’ crews ever managed. President Sukarno of Indonesia was now starting to threaten the newly formed Malaysian Republic to divert attention from his own problems at home, so the British government decided to send a few ‘gunboats’: eight Victors in the conventional role, four from XV and four from No 57 Squadron at Honington. The crews from XV included the Boss, now Wg Cdr Marshall, and the ‘A’ Flight commander, Sqn Ldr Dave Mullarkey. However, the nav radar on this crew was due to get married around Christmas time, so I was drafted in to take part in Operation ‘Chamfrom’.

We had only a few days to prepare for the ‘Chamfrom’ deployment to RAF Tengah in Singapore. The Honington crews involved were qualified for in-flight refuelling from Valiant tankers, so they flew with the refuelling support direct to Khormaksar where they night-stopped before continuing direct to Tengah. We had to double-stage through Akrotiri to Khormaksar, where we stayed overnight and then doublestaged through Gan to Tengah. We were rather surprised by the laid-back attitude of the RAF personnel at Tengah, who appeared to resent our presence and clearly didn’t regard the possible Indonesian threat as highly as the politicians and intelligence staffs in London. The Victor bomb bays were quickly converted to the conventional role, and we started training for visual and radar attacks with 100lb practice bombs at the China Rock range in the South China Sea and at Song Song north of Penang Island. Soon after we arrived, Far East Air Force HQ agreed that we should make our presence known to the population of Singapore and southern Malaya so, on Christmas Eve, all eight aircraft flew at 1,000ft in one-minute line astern on a route that criss-crossed

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the island several times. For the same purpose, a number of practice attacks were made from high level with sticks of 35 and 21 thousand-pounders. One of the drops of 35 was photographed by a Canberra PR7 of Tengah-based No 81 Squadron, and the resulting picture was published in the Straits Times and other local newspapers. That shot became a symbol of the ‘V-Force’, displayed in almost all Bomber Command operations blocks including at those stations operating the Vulcan, which could only carry a load of 21 1,000lb bombs! It was carefully staged over the Song Song range with the main aim of ensuring that all the bombs fell in the five-mile danger area. To achieve this, they were released at 15-millisecond intervals using the 90-way bombing system, but this would never have been done operationally as the aim of stick bombing was to have at least some overlap between the 30-50ft craters or 400ft fragmentation area depending on the target. More realistic release intervals would have been between 100 and 500 milliseconds. Unfortunately, on the day the Canberra pilot banked too steeply as the release was called and, while the Victor was perfectly centred in the many frames of the F95 oblique camera film, the first few bombs were off the bottom before the last had left the bomb bay. Fortunately, the sergeant in the photographic reconnaissance laboratory said, “Leave them with me overnight, sir”. The next day a picture showing all 35 bombs was available with no sign of the join between two frames… Because of the perceived threat of Soviet-supplied missiles in Indonesia, our training turned back to low-level operations and pop-up attacks to release ballistic 1,000lb GP bombs; the lay-down tails used later by the Vulcan were not yet available in 1963. Some attacks were made visually, using the bombsight in the nose, and others using the radar were named Type 2E. Both techniques involved a low-level approach at 500ft or below, pulling up to around 4,000ft to reduce the risk of self-damage from fragments should the first detonation of a stick set off the bombs released later. We trained for these strikes using a standard septuple carrier loaded with just four 1,000lb ‘HE Sand’ on the top row. These practice bombs were the size and weight of the operational weapon, but were mainly filled with sand rather than Amatol and included

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a small smoke charge so that the ranges could mark their impact. To simulate the first and last bombs of a stick of seven, we dropped two at a time. The range at China Rock would sight on both and provide results for us to determine how well we had straddled the raft target. On one of these sorties, after successfully dropping the first pair of bombs, we had a hang-up with one of the second pair. Our many attempts to clear it failed, so we flew back to Tengah with it still on board. As soon as we drew to a halt in dispersal, the crew chief came on to say he could do nothing with it, and would we please get airborne again and dump it?

The sergeant in the photographic reconnaissance laboratory said, ‘Leave them with me, sir’. The next day a picture showing all 35 bombs was available with no sign of the join between frames A hang-up of a large weapon was a problem that we as aircrew hadn’t considered, and it needs an explanation of how bombs were loaded on the Victor. Handley Page had designed the aircraft for ease of weapon loading, using a series of six tubes that passed through the top of the fuselage between fuel tanks into the roof of the bomb bay. A cherrypicker-type device (or Simons hoist) was used to lower a winch spike through each hole. The end was then connected to a septuple carrier

on a trolley below the aircraft, and the carrier with its bomb load was hoisted up into the bay and locked in place. Loading five such carriers was achieved very rapidly, and the same device was also used for special weapon and bomb bay tank loading. Unfortunately, this system relied on the weapon load and carrier being balanced about the central winching point. In our case, the single remaining bomb was offset from the winch point and, if an attempt had been made to lower it, the carrier would have tilted and broken through the bomb bay roof and into the fuel tanks. We took off again and, after ensuring there were no junks or ships in the area of sea southeast of Singapore, we jettisoned the whole carrier and its remaining bomb. Early in January 1964, it was agreed that eight Victors parked in a neat row at Tengah were a very tempting target for the Indonesian Air Force, so XV’s four aircraft moved to Royal Australian Air Force Base Butterworth on the mainland near Penang island. Training flights continued with lowlevel profiles culminating in Type 2E attacks and further high-level drops of 21 1,000lb bombs. The chap I had replaced was married by the end of the month and, with the honeymoon over, he rejoined his crew. I moved to FEAF headquarters at Fairy Point on the eastern side of Singapore to provide expertise on the Victor’s performance and capabilities, and rewrite the operation orders and target plans for ‘Chamfrom’ and other operational plans involving ‘V-bombers’ in the Far East. This took about four weeks, after which I was posted home to attend the Victor B2 ground school at Gaydon, followed by the flying phase on the Victor Training Flight at Wittering before joining No 100 Squadron. My time on XV was over, but what a formative experience of the ‘V-Force’ it had been.

BELOW: No XV Squadron crews deployed on Operation ‘Chamfrom’. NO XV SQUADRON

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VULCAN ROUND THE WORLD

VULCAN ROUND THE WORLD

It was quite a way to end an operational tour: fly a Vulcan round the globe, taking in a New Zealand airshow along the way WORDS: SQN LDR BILL TURNILL

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earing the end of my tour as a flight commander on No 50 Squadron early in 1971, I reckoned that my crew deserved one final, memorable, ‘Lone Ranger’ deployment. Accordingly I nominated us for a trip to Hong Kong and, much to my surprise, all the authorities concurred. A fortnight before departure, squadron leader ops called me rather maliciously to say my ‘Ranger’ had been cancelled — as an afterthought, he casually said that HQ Strike Command now wanted us instead to go to New Zealand for a display at the Nelson Air Show on 27 February. Thinking, ‘how churlish to refuse’, we promptly agreed and set about planning the route. Strike Command had unambitiously decided we should go out westabout, to return using the same American bases. We suggested the trip would have more training value and be cheaper if we continued westabout, using RAF and Australian bases, and get home on time. So, Vulcan B2 XM606 set off from Waddington on a typically dank Lincolnshire morning with the normal five-member crew — Fg Off Derek Houlson (co-pilot), Flt Lt Ian Hamilton (navigator plotter), Flt Lt Keith Everest (navigator radar) and Fg Off Ron Morris (air electronics officer) — plus two crew chiefs to keep the aircraft serviceable. Sensing this was going to be the ‘jolly’ of the year, OC line squadron tried to replace one of the chiefs with himself. Wrong! I needed someone to keep the aircraft going, not a convivial passenger, so firmly refused his machinations. Only an hour over the Atlantic, as we contemplated opening the ration boxes, the starboard main undercarriage ‘unlocked’ red light came on. Few things gain one’s attention like a red light, but the AEO could see no sign of anything untoward through his periscope. With no other indications, I decided to continue, hoping the light would go out. After another hour, it obliged and we made an uneventful descent into Goose Bay, where we stayed overnight. I asked the RAF detachment to check the undercarriage micro-switches, and next morning we took off for Offutt Air Force Base, close to Omaha, Nebraska. As our undercarriage locked up, there was the red light back again, glaring accusingly at me. Two quick circuits over the tower to ensure that the wheels were up and undercarriage doors flush, and we were onwards to Offutt for refuelling before flying on to McClellan AFB, 60nm north-east

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of San Francisco. Once more I asked our Offutt RAF detachment to check the retraction cycle, and this time they fixed our problem. Much later than expected, we finally arrived at McClellan, where we were scheduled to have the next day off in San Francisco. That day was superb, with clear skies and perfect weather for touring the city. Thus we were in a much better frame of mind taking off for the long leg across the Pacific to Honolulu and Hickam AFB, just to the east of Pearl Harbor. Keith Everest, our radar navigator, had been having problems with a scanner pressurisation leak and needed the radar to be switched off by the end of the sortie to prevent arcing of the high-voltage components. The result was that we could no longer rely on the radar for homing us in to the base after the Pacific legs. You must remember that these were the days of no satellite navigation, no GPS and no inertial navigation equipment. All we had was an unreliable Doppler, which tended to unlock over the sea, to update our ground position indicator, assisted by good old astronavigation using the periscopic sextant. It says much for Ian Hamilton’s abilities as a navigator that we were never more than one or two miles off track at the end of a five-hour leg across this vast ocean. It was no problem to find Hickam, where a planned day’s rest would set us up for the long leg to Pago Pago in American Samoa. Rest and Honolulu proved mutually exclusive; with so much to see in the brief time available, we encircled the island in a beat-up hire car, its temperature

gauge hovering in the red every time the slope exceeded the slightest fraction above the horizontal. We gave Hickam the customary Vulcan ‘farewell’ with the Olympus 301s’ favourite impression of a screaming thunderstorm, as we set off across the Pacific’s wide blue expanse for Samoa. By this time, Keith had discovered that if he left the radar switched off the scanner remained sufficiently pressurised, so he could use the radar for the final 100 miles into Samoa. As we rolled to a stop in the Pago Pago dispersal, we noticed a large Samoan policeman waiting to climb aboard. He ascended the ladder and asked me for the aircraft’s certificate of health, which should have been given to us at Hickam. None of us had the wretched document, and by now the policeman was looking distinctly unfriendly, beginning to finger his pistol. I searched through my flying suit pockets and found a receipt for the crew rations that I had stuffed away. This had an officiallooking stamp on it, and I handed it over with an air of confidence that was certainly not felt. The policeman examined the chit, which I noticed was upside-down. He smiled broadly and welcomed us to Samoa. Huge sigh of relief, rapid unpacking, and off to explore the delights of the first truly tropical island we had seen. The final leg to Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Ohakea was uneventful, but the ‘land of the long white cloud’ lived up to its name. We landed in low cloud and drizzle, but distinctly chuffed that we had arrived on time at the other end of the world without once having to stream the

LEFT: Far from home: Vulcan B2 XM606 parked at Pago Pago, American Samoa, on 2223 February 1971, during the outbound leg of its round-the-world flight. ALL PHOTOS VIA BILL TURNILL

BELOW: On the ground at Goose Bay, Labrador, XM606’s first en route stop.

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I had an attack of amnesia about the snags, considering that the whole crew deserved to CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Time to relax during the flight home, eating mezze on the seafront at Paphos — hungry pelican not pictured. Ohakea was the Vulcan’s operating base for the Nelson show appearance. The lowest of the low passes during the Nelson display. This nearly turned into a touch-and-go — but not quite… The crew of Vulcan XM606 on their Waddington home ground. From left to right: aircraft captain Bill Turnill, co-pilot Derek Houlson, nav plotter Nick Hamilton, nav radar Keith Everest and air electronics officer Ron Morris. A flypast over Ohakea, escorted by home-based Royal New Zealand Air Force A-4K Skyhawks from No 75 Squadron. RNZAF

brake parachute. The Kiwis gave us a big welcome, with interviews for television and a traditional Maori hangiī— a pig slow-cooked in a pit — as our entertainment that evening. Great hospitality was everywhere throughout our stay. An RNZAF de Havilland Devon flew me the next morning to see the airshow venue at Nelson, at the northern end of South Island. The following day we took the Vulcan up for a practice display at Nelson and a round tour of South Island, giving informal displays to most of the larger towns as we performed our ‘sector recce’. The children at the local school in Palmerston North, the town next to Ohakea, were becoming used to the roar of the Vulcan as it came back from its trips, and we made a point of circling the school a couple of times before landing. Before we left, I was handed a bag full of letters from the children, expressing their appreciation for these unscheduled appearances. The day of the display dawned bright and clear, as we set off at low level across the Cook Strait and down the fjords towards Nelson. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and smoke started to billow from some navigation box in the rear crew compartment. At the same time, a rudder feel warning light came on. After a rapid assessment, we decided we could cope without our nav equipment and, as the rudder feel was not affecting the Vulcan’s handling, on we went

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to arrive spot on time to begin the show at Nelson. We gave them the full treatment, with lots of noisy climb-outs, and low passes with bomb doors open and undercarriage down, although my ambition to do a delicate roller on the tiny runway was thwarted by my being too high and fast — probably just as well. At the end, we climbed away with a thundering roar and clouds of black smoke, making our way back to Ohakea, for our customary circuit round the school and a streamless landing. We were invited to attend an evening celebration in Nelson, flown there by Devon, before returning the next day for a trip to Rotorua. I had a sudden attack of amnesia about the snags we had experienced on our way to the display, considering that the whole crew deserved to enjoy the weekend the New Zealanders had planned for us. XM606 was put to bed and we travelled back to Nelson, albeit at a more leisurely rate than our transit earlier that afternoon. Our evening was certainly a great success. Next morning’s attempts to recover the dinner from the Vulcan captain by turning him through every known contortion available to an experienced aerobatic Tiger Moth pilot fortunately failed, although the local photographer was obviously expecting me to be less than cheerful on my return to terra firma.

Back at Ohakea, we re-embarked in the Devon for one of the many highlights of our trip, our tour of Rotorua, with its geysers and bubbling mud pools, the trout farms and the museum of Maori carvings. On Monday morning’s sudden resumption of memory I reported the problems experienced on our way to the display. HQ Strike Command was not best pleased but agreed to an extension to our stay so that we could make the requisite repairs. These were successfully carried out by our crew chiefs, Chief Technicians Watt and Lennocks, ably assisted by Ron Morris, our AEO. We bade farewell to the staff at Ohakea, probably relieved that we had not repeated the disastrous arrival of a previous visiting Vulcan (B1 XH498), which landed there in October 1959 with a badly damaged undercarriage leg after an infamous aborted touchdown at Wellington. Royal Australian Air Force Base Richmond was our next port of call, allowing us to visit the sights of Sydney. From there we crossed the bleak interior of Australia for a refuelling stop at Darwin, arriving in a tropical downpour. We achieved a quick turn-round before setting forth for Changi in Singapore. I was glad to stop for an extra day to explore the delights of that island: a new experience for most of the crew, but well-known to me from my Valiant detachment days at Butterworth with No 543 Squadron.

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en

A tyre-smoking, airbrakes-deployed touchdown at Ohakea.

STAGE BY STAGE

to

enjoy the weekend At Gan in the Maldives we had enough time to swim in the crystalclear coral reef. Some of the crew played golf on the local course with one of the hazards being low-flying fruit bats, swooping past to distract players as they teed off. I will always regret the closing-down of Gan which, for those who passed through, was the nearest to a tropical paradise that you could find, although I doubt it was viewed so favourably by those staying there unaccompanied for a year. We continued westwards to Cyprus via the island of Masirah, off the coast of Oman. Our Masirah arrival was enlivened by the presence of goats and donkeys on the runway, which had to be persuaded to leave before we could land. We never did find out the methods used, but I suppose a Land Rover accompanied by bird-scaring thunderflashes would have woken them from their afternoon slumbers. There was hardly time for a glass of ‘jungle juice’ before climbing back in for the penultimate leg to Cyprus. Five hours later, the runway at Akrotiri hove into sight, ’606 touching down on sovereign British soil amid the familiar surroundings of an RAF base. I should pay tribute to my co-pilot, Derek Houlson. Copilots tended to be at the bottom of the pecking order and had a number of unenviable tasks — ensuring the in-flight rations were of a superb quality and quantity, relieving me of the awesome task of staying awake on

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Date

From

To

Approximate distance (nm) at average 540kt

17 February

Waddington

Goose Bay

2,650

4.55

18 February

Goose Bay

Offutt

2,565

4.45

18 February

Offutt

McClellan

1,620

2.55

20 February

McClellan

Hickam

2,943

5.15

22 February

Hickam

Pago Pago

2,650

4.55

23 February

Pago Pago

Ohakea

2,160

4.00

2 March

Ohakea

Richmond

1,895

3.35

4 March

Richmond

Darwin

2,160

4.00

4 March

Darwin

Changi

2,160

4.00

6 March

Changi

Gan

2,250

4.10

7 March

Gan

Masirah

2,025

3.45

7 March

Masirah

Akrotiri

2,700

5.00

9 March

Akrotiri

Waddington

2,943

5.15

the long legs by taking over control of the autopilot (we pilots do work hard) and, most important of all, handling the imprest, the money used to fund our trip in terms of hotel accommodation, meals and so on. The Vulcan cockpit is very narrow, and it was essential that we pilots got on well together. Derek was an excellent ‘co’ in all respects, and I count myself lucky to have had him and the rest of my crew during this tour. We spent a day touring round the Troodos mountains in a hire car, before we bought as much citrus fruit as we could store in the bomb bay pannier. No tour of the island would be complete without a visit to Paphos and an obligatory mezze platter at the seafront café. The local tame pelican was wise to the tastes of the average tourist and polished off a considerable portion of the rather indifferent meal. We suspected the café owner paid out very little of his profits on feeding his ‘pet’ attraction… Our final leg back to the UK was on 9 March, and it proved as routine as one would have wanted. However, this time the crew chief asked us to stream the brake parachute so that it

Total time

would not have to be removed by the groundcrew after we landed. This was the first occasion out of 15 landings round the world that we had used the brake parachute, a tribute to the superb aerodynamic braking qualities of the giant delta-winged bomber. So ended a memorable trip for our whole crew, a happy finale for our time together at RAF Waddington on No 50 Squadron. After the initial glitches and the later near heartstopper in New Zealand, XM606 performed flawlessly, a tribute to the design of this fine aircraft and the hard work by the crew chiefs to keep it serviceable. We owed a huge debt of gratitude to the two chief technicians, McWatt and Lennocks, who accompanied us on our tour and kept XM606 serviceable throughout. They flew in considerable discomfort in the sixth and seventh so-called seats, but retained their good humour and were a great asset. Two months later, my crew went our separate ways at the end of our squadron tour. However, the trip to New Zealand, the air display at Nelson and the recovery back to the UK to complete this journey round the world will always remain the highlight of my RAF flying career.

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30/10/2017 07:59

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25/10/2017 12:08

SHUTTLEWORTH CAMEL

48 www.aeroplanemonthly.com

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AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

30/10/2017 08:16

TAMING THE LITTLE

BEAST

One First World War pilot called the Sopwith Camel a ‘little beast’. Now, thanks to the efforts of the Northern Aeroplane Workshops in completing their last project, the Shuttleworth Collection’s chief pilot has had the chance to find out for himself WORDS: BEN DUNNELL PHOTOGRAPHY: DARREN HARBAR

W

hen ‘Dodge’ Bailey, the Shuttleworth Collection’s chief pilot, took Sopwith F1 Camel reproduction ‘D1851’/ G‑BZSC into the air for the first time at Old Warden on 18 May this year, it brought one of the historic aviation scene’s most compelling stories to a close. The West Yorkshire-based Northern Aeroplane Workshops, established back in 1973, had already turned out two superb World War One fighter facsimiles for Shuttleworth: Sopwith Triplane ‘N6290’/G-BOCK and Bristol M1C ‘C4918’/G-BWJM. It had been a close, fruitful and, for those involved, memorable association. The NAW had shut up shop when the Camel was moved to Old Warden for completion during the summer of 2013, but the machine’s maiden flight marked the very end of the group’s final project, one that has set just as high a standard as its predecessors. Eric Barraclough was the mainstay and inspiration behind the NAW. Having worked for Comper, Heston Aircraft and Auster, he was steeped in aviation. “When the Bristol M1C was coming to completion, we were looking at another project”, recalls

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Robert Richardson, another NAW lynchpin. “Eric had the idea of building the first Blackburn aircraft, which was an abomination, it really was. None of us were interested in it at all. Then he suddenly turned round and said, ‘I’ve got some Camel drawings in my loft’. He seemed to have forgotten about them. “The first metal was cut when we were still on with the Bristol, in December 1995. That was at the Mirfield workshop, at Butt End Mills, but shortly after that we moved to the best workshop we ever had, at the Skopos Motor Museum in Batley. Once the Bristol was delivered, we started full-time on the Camel. There was always a merge between the various projects, one finishing and one starting.” Sadly, Eric Barraclough was only to see the early stages of the Camel build. He died in November 1997, but the standards he had always desired in NAW’s projects set the tone. Adherence to the original remained to the fore. “We built the fuselage sides first”, says Robert. “All the sub-assemblies like the wings and fuselage were done

in jigs”. The experience gained on the other Sopwith proved, he comments, “very useful indeed. The construction methods were very similar. In the early days with the Triplane we used to order all our own materials, but eventually we realised that the best thing was to do it through the chief engineer at Shuttleworth, because he’d got day-to-day contacts. It made it so much easier. “Most of the airframe is spruce, but the longerons are ash. We were fortunate right the way through all the projects that we had very capable woodworkers. The last one was a chap called Chris Lawson, who had his own woodworking company in Skipton. He and I set up the wings at Batley. We ordered the streamlined wires from Bruntons, who were making these wires during the First World War. “We fortunately had tube left over from the Triplane for the undercarriage, so we were able to utilise that. It had been specially drawn for us by a firm called T. I. Reynolds in Sheffield. There were parts coming from all over the place, apart from what we were making in the workshops. John Shaw, the chap in France who’s completed one

LEFT: Looking down the barrel of the twin Vickers guns, Roger ‘Dodge’ Bailey flies the reproduction Camel near Old Warden this past August.

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SHUTTLEWORTH CAMEL

Camel” — which, as reported in our news pages last month, sadly came to grief during its maiden flight on 24 September — “and is on with a second one, provided the casting for the windscreen and the casting that fits on to the block tube to take the air intake pipes. The front engine bearer needed to be water jet-cut, so we took the first one to a local firm. That was quite a big job. One of our members did the second one.”

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Of the metal fittings made in-house, Robert says: “CAD [computer-aided design] was available, but none of us had the expertise to use it, or CNC [computer numerical control] machines and so on. So, we did it the old way. Sopwith would have stamped these fittings out, but we drew them out on a piece of metal, cut them out with a saw, filed them up and bent them as appropriate.

“The engine was Shuttleworth’s. All we had was a crankshaft, which we used to set various things up. When we first approached Shuttleworth about the Camel project, one of the things that came to the fore very quickly was a suitable engine. The then chief engineer, Chris Morris, told us they had another Clerget — it’s turned out to be a 9Bf 140hp long-stroke, so it’s more powerful than the one in the Triplane, the 130.

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They thought they could get that airworthy, which they’ve been able to do. It took a lot of work; it needed new pistons, new cylinders, and parts of the tappets as well. [Shuttleworth engine specialist] Phil Norris is an absolute wizard on rotaries. “The first two [NAW] aircraft were done under CAA auspices, but the Camel was done under the LAA [Light Aircraft Association]. That worked out very well. One of the pilots down at Shuttleworth, Rob Millinship, was our LAA inspector — he was very good. He lives in Nottingham, and he’d come up quickly to discuss things. Usually his response was, ‘Yes, that’s fine’.” Having proved ideal for so long, conditions in the Batley premises deteriorated when they were sold off. “It was horrible in there when it was really cold, but we persisted. Then in 2013 the lease was due for renewal, and Shuttleworth weren’t prepared to renew it. It worked out very well in the end. The other side of it was that none of our members were getting any younger. It was always a disappointment that we were never able to attract youngsters”. About six NAW members were working on the Camel when it left in August 2013.

synthetic materials rather than linen. The chosen colour scheme was that of a Ruston Proctor-built example operated by No 70 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, the first front-line unit to receive the type. It carries the serial D1851 and is named Ikanopit (‘I can hop it’). Engine runs began in August 2016, leading up to the following May’s successful maiden flight. In preparation for that, ‘Dodge’ Bailey did a great amount of homework. He used three-view diagrams of different Sopwith types, all to the same scale, on acetate sheets that could be laid over one another to afford the most direct comparison: they depict the Camel, 1½ Strutter, Pup, Triplane and Snipe. Amongst other things, they showed

Aeroplane, former CAA test pilot Darrol Stinton described flighttesting a Clerget-engined Camel. A May 1968 issue of Flight International includes a piece by six-victory Royal Naval Air Service pilot Capt Ronald Sykes on flying a Bentley BR1-powered example. Best of all, ‘Dodge’ feels, are the writings of Wg Cdr Norman Macmillan, who was operational on RFC/RAF Camels on the Western Front and in Italy, and subsequently flew the type while instructing at a fighter school back home in the UK. Apart from several books, Macmillan wrote an article on his Camel experiences that, some years after his death, appeared in the October 1984 Aeroplane Monthly; it was called ‘A Fierce Little Beast’. In that feature, says ‘Dodge’, “There’s some really good advice, and counterintuitive advice: for example, to start the take-off with the stick on the carburettor intake tubes. Because the Camel cockpit is set more forward, the carburettor is closer to the pilot than in earlier types. To start the takeoff with the stick on the intake tubes means the stick is fully forward. It’s pretty unusual to do that. On most taildraggers you would start with the stick back, and some you would start with the stick kind of neutral. What I had to think when I read that was, ‘why on earth is he telling ab initio students to do that?’ “This is one of the bits that I don’t understand about the thinking at Sopwith at the time. If we overlay the Camel and the Pup in side view, you can see that the cockpit has moved from the trailing edge to under the centre-section, so the distance from

We did it the old way, drawing fittings out on metal, cutting them out with a saw, filing them up and bending them

At that point, Robert continues, “The undercarriage needed final welding. The cables were in, but they weren’t spliced. The systems weren’t in, like the air, fuel and oil systems, so that was all done down at Old Warden. That’s probably a good thing, because they’ve got to maintain it. I know they’ve had to put a small access panel on the port side, which isn’t authentic, but they weren’t able to get to the fuel filter, even going upside-down in the cockpit! “The big things as far as modern standards were concerned were that a four-point harness was put in for the pilot, rather than a lap strap, and obviously the glue. The old casein glue or pot glue that they used in the First World War is not a good idea, so we used Aerodux 500, a very good modern glue.” Now overseen by the Shuttleworth chief engineer Jean-Michel Munn, at Old Warden the Camel made visible progress towards completion. The plywood cockpit and side panels, which proved troublesome, were completed before the airframe was taken down to be covered, using

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that the Camel’s tailplane is about 60 per cent of the size of the Pup’s, and that the fin is smaller too. The tail arm is longer on the Triplane, making the tail more effective. They both preceded the Camel; its Snipe successor, meanwhile, saw the tail going back to the sizes of the previous aeroplanes, and the fin and rudder made significantly larger. “That tells you a lot about what the aeroplane’s probably going to be like”, says ‘Dodge’. “A very simple technique, but quite illuminating.” Then there were period scientific and technical papers to read, drawings made by the Germans of a captured Camel and reproduced in Flugsport to examine, and numerous references to study. In his weighty tome Flying Qualities and Flight-Testing of the

CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: The fuselage in build at the Northern Aeroplane Workshops’ premises at Alexandra Mills, Batley, in February 1999. CHRIS PAGE

February 2007: in the Batley assembly jig with wings attached, but before the flying and landing wires were fitted. ROBERT RICHARDSON

The uncovered airframe enjoying an early outing on Old Warden’s grass during September 2013. Members of the Shuttleworth engineering team refitting the wings in February 2015. From left to right in the foreground are Andy Preslent, Gareth Rutt and Rory Cook, while Phil Norris stands by the aircraft’s nose. The cockpit instruments were sourced by Shuttleworth. The black metal sections visible here along the cockpit sides provide extra support for the ash longerons. BELOW LEFT: Robert Richardson describes the Camel project as “a great marriage between NAW and Shuttleworth”, members of whose teams gathered for this photograph. Back row, left to right: David Barraclough (Eric Barraclough’s son), Rory Cook, Robert Richardson, ‘Dodge’ Bailey, Phil Norris and Gareth Rutt. Front row, left to right: John Thompson, Geoff Kilner, Rod Elliott, Andy Preslent, Jean-Michel Munn, Horace Darlington and Ian Whitwan.

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30/10/2017 08:17

NOT A SPR SHUTTLEWORTH CAMEL

ABOVE: Airborne over the lush, green expanses of Old Warden Park. There is a significant Shuttleworth connection with the Camel: the Clayton & Shuttleworth company was among those to build the type, doing so at its Lincoln works. It was one of its Camels, B7270, that was officially credited with the shooting-down of Manfred von Richthofen before evidence came to light that the ‘Red Baron’ probably fell victim to ground fire. Clayton & Shuttleworth employees were given a speciallyprinted leaflet commemorating their product’s feat.

the cockpit to the engine has changed; they moved the pilot forward. In the Pup, the area under the guns, pretty much where the centre of gravity is, is where the fuel tank is. Any aircraft designer will tell you to put the fuel tank on the centre of gravity; then, as the fuel burns, it doesn’t change the CG. Whatever made them move the cockpit forward means that the fuel tank can no longer go there so it goes behind the cockpit, well aft of the CG. When the fuel tank is full of fuel, the CG is a long way aft. That’s a clue to why the guy is saying, ‘stick fully forward’. It means that when the aeroplane is in flight it is not in trim. “Now, you have to be a bit careful about the term ‘in trim’ because it means different things to different people. To pilots, ‘in trim’ means, ‘I have trimmed the aeroplane; I can take my hands off and it flies straight, it doesn’t pitch up or pitch down’. That is, if you like, ‘controls-free in-trim’… To a flight dynamicist, ‘in-trim’ means that the sum of the moments is zero; in other words, that the aeroplane isn’t pitching, but the pilot might be holding a huge control deflection and/or force to hold it in that condition. If he lets go of the stick it wouldn’t be in trim at all; it would pitch. The Camel is like that. In order to stop the aeroplane pitching you need a relatively large stick force. What the aeroplane wants to do when you’re taking off with a full fuel tank is pitch up. “Imagine that a student used to taking off in an aeroplane with the stick back takes off in a Camel — it’s

got twice as much power, maybe three times as much, as he’s used to. It’s very lightly wing-loaded and it’ll be airborne in no time. If the stick is back and the aeroplane is ‘out of trim’ it will just pitch up as it leaves the ground, and he will just stall and crash straight away. “By putting the stick forward Macmillan knows there is no chance of the pilot putting the aeroplane on its nose, because the CG is so far aft. The first thing that happens is that he’ll see the tail coming up once the take-off starts, and then he can adjust the stick position. If he’s late, if he holds the stick back and doesn’t get it forward early enough, the aeroplane’s going to pitch up. It’s all about anticipating the reaction of the aeroplane when it gets airborne. You don’t actually leave the ground with the stick fully forward; like I say, as soon as the aeroplane’s rolling and the tail comes up you can move the stick to hold the normal take-off attitude for a taildragger. When you get airborne you’re pushing on the stick all the time to stop the aeroplane pitching up. “I am told that if you run the aeroplane right out of fuel, like they would have done, by the time it’s empty the CG has moved pretty much on to the forward limit, and now you’re pulling all the time to the point where it became quite difficult to do three-point landings. The pull force needed to get to that position was quite a lot, and you might run

out of elevator before achieving the three-point attitude. We never fly it that short of fuel, so we’ve not been there. “So, the Camel is, if you like, ‘out of trim’ with any sort of fuel in it at all, and under that ‘out-of-trim-ness’ it is also unstable. You’re dealing with an aeroplane that requires a force to maintain its attitude, but the force changes after a disturbance will likely be unpredictable. “One of the mitigations we came up with was to only use a half-tank of fuel… the other thing was that, because [this Clerget] is a really nice engine, to throttle up relatively steadily. That made the take-off a little bit more manageable. I really anticipated the aeroplane to be unpleasant in pitch, because every bit of evidence suggested it would be, and it didn’t disappoint in that regard. “I also expected turns, particularly to the right, to be compromised by the gyroscopic precession. I found on first acquaintance that even left turns were pretty unusual. These were climbing turns, because I was climbing out. I continued to climb until 3,000ft or so and then throttled back, and as soon as the power came back below about 1,000rpm the aeroplane started to get a bit more pleasant — or less unpleasant. The pitch deficiency is at its worst at high power, and pretty much has gone away by the time you’re gliding, so you don’t really notice it when you’re coming in to land. One of the things you tuck away in your head is, ‘if it all gets too much, throttle back’, which might be counter-intuitive to some people. “What was more of a surprise was how directionally sensitive the aeroplane was. There are very few aeroplanes that I have flown that behave like this; I think the Comper Swift is similar, but not as bad. Most aeroplanes you want to fly in balance, so you put the slip indicator in the centre — using the rudder, normally. Once you have put the rudder in that place, and your feet hold the rudder in that place, things won’t change unless you change the power or the speed or aileron. That’s not the case in the Camel. Having put the aeroplane in balance it doesn’t stay that way. It’s the directional equivalent of the pitch handling characteristics, in the sense that it will diverge from that condition

I expected turns, particularly to the right, to be compromised by the gyroscopic precession. I found on first acquaintance that even left turns were pretty unusual 52 www.aeroplanemonthly.com

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AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

30/10/2017 08:17

Registered Charity No. 307534

The Shuttleworth Collection of histo ric aircraft, vintag motorcycles, 19th e vehicles and -Century Swiss Ga rden and a grand period House Catch up on winter work in Engineering Workshop!

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www.shuttleworth.org/the-collection

#whereeverythingflies Old Warden Aerodrome, Bedfordshire, SG18 9EP l [email protected] l 01767 627933

Discover early aviation from the pioneers 1909-1950s, vintage cars and motorcycles at The Shuttleworth Collection. Dogs on leads welcome in some areas of the site. Look out for Kid’s trails (iBeacon trails for adults and children also available mid-December), activities and Santa (who hopes to be flying in) during the festive holiday. And don’t miss the Engineering Open Workshop on 29 & 30 December! Winter admission prices to The Collection and/or The Swiss Garden apply from 30 October 2017 until 10 February 2018. Meaning you can visit for less, and get 2 meals for £12 in The Shuttleworth Restaurant this winter!

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25/10/2017 11:51:44 25/10/2017 12:27

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25/10/2017 14:30

Sopwith F1 Camel reproduction ‘D1851’/G-BZSC Shuttleworth Collection DARREN HARBAR

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25/10/2017 14:30

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SPREAD!!!! you thought you had sorted out, and you have to put it right again. Darrol Stinton refers to that as, ‘there is no stability, it’s all control’. You not only have to control the pitch, which you were kind of expecting, but the yaw as well… “What it boils down to is that you have to be actively in the control loop all the time. Reputedly the only time a Camel will fly hands-off in-trim is when it’s inverted. I think if you were to fly it enough you would get to love it, and in one of Macmillan’s books he reckons it’s maybe 15 hours on the Camel and then you’ve adapted to the aeroplane. I haven’t got 15 hours on the Camel; I’ve probably got three, so what I’ve been relating are first impressions of a strange aeroplane.” In combat, flown by someone with the requisite experience, ‘Dodge’ says the Camel, “could be manoeuvred in a very unpredictable way, so it would be a very difficult target. Equally, they could get on the tail of a more predictable aeroplane, which couldn’t manoeuvre anywhere near as aggressively as the Camel. What the Camel couldn’t do was go fast; it couldn’t run away or chase, it just had to fight, and it did that very well in a tight dogfight. “One of the things you notice when you’re flying tight turns is that the gyroscopics of the engine start to dominate things. If the aeroplane pitches up, the gyroscopic precession causes it to yaw to the right.

Whenever you’re turning steeply, as far as the aeroplane is concerned it is pitching up to go round the turn. If you’re making a left turn, the aeroplane is pitching up so it’ll yaw right. To stop it yawing right you need to apply left rudder. When you enter the turn you use some left rudder and left stick; then, having got the bank on, the nose is pitching up and so that left rudder needs to stay on — and even a bit more. In a left turn it does not feel particularly odd. Now, in a right turn, you might need a little bit of right rudder as you start to roll in to balance, but as soon as a pitch rate appears that right rudder is no longer appropriate. You need left rudder now. In a steep right turn, if you don’t apply left rudder the nose will yaw down towards the ground. The tightness of the right turn is limited by how much left rudder you can get on. You can end up in a tight right turn, going round apparently on a sixpence, probably only just getting rid of the push force — so you’re not pulling particularly, you’re just relaxing the push force — with nearly full left rudder on, and the aeroplane is perfectly in balance. That does feel odd”. On other Sopwiths, he continues, “the gyroscopics are there, but they are less intrusive because the tail volumes are greater.” Power is, of course, a factor. “This Camel has the 140hp, long-stroke Clerget engine. Somewhere in the documentation for that engine it says

you must not use full throttle at sea level. Effectively it gives you a bit of enhanced performance at altitude that you’re not allowed to use low down. Full rpm would be 1,2001,250, and at that setting, with nearly full power on, the aeroplane is at its most cantankerous. But for what we need to do, we don’t ever need to apply that amount of power. What I’ve found is that if we take off with maybe 1,100rpm and get the climb to display height out of the way, as soon as you’re high enough come back to 1,000rpm, and then you’ve got a less challenging aeroplane.”

BELOW: The Camel demands notably careful handling in many areas of its flight envelope, but the rewards are there for the seasoned pilot.

It had been hoped to display the Camel at both of the last two Shuttleworth shows of 2017, but conditions were too windy. With all the usual provisos, it should make its public flying debut at a very appropriate occasion: the 2018 Season Premiere event on Sunday 6 May, marking the RAF’s centenary. There the fruits of so many labours will hopefully be airborne for all to see, and the exploits of one of the greatest British fighters recalled. When Sir Thomas Sopwith saw the Northern Aeroplane Workshops-built reproduction Triplane, he thought it so good that he famously declared it a ‘late-production’ example. Were the great man still alive, he would surely consider just the same to be true of this Camel.

You have to be in the control loop all the time. Reputedly the only time a Camel will fly hands-off in trim is when it’s inverted

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TRANS-ATLANTIC HERONS

Delivering de Havilland Herons to a new home in Puerto Rico brought all the ad BELOW: The two DH114 Herons involved in the second delivery flight from Coventry to San Juan — probably the former G-AREC, later N562PR, and G-ASUZ, subsequently N565PR — en route between Cape Verde and Cayenne.

I

TONY BLANKLEY

n the 1960s I was working as a licensed engineer for Executive Air Engineering at Coventry Airport, which specialised in the overhaul and maintenance of de Havilland Doves and Herons. The firm had secured a contract to supply Herons to Prinair (Puerto Rican International Airlines), which was based in San Juan and operated between Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. It called for the aircraft to be overhauled, modified to fulfil Federal Aviation Administration

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requirements, placed on the US register and ferried to San Juan. Modification to meet the FAA’s needs was fairly straightforward, the big difference being that it required the main undercarriage shock struts to be replaced. This meant removing the virtually maintenance-free rubber block sprung struts and installing standard Lockheed oil/air struts instead. Extra fuel would obviously be required for the ferry flight, so a system

was designed and built in-house. This consisted of two rectangular tanks, each holding 150 gallons, constructed of mild steel. They were installed in the fuselage, fore and aft of the main spar, with booster pumps in the base. The tanks were plumbed into the aircraft’s fuel system through the floor and into the wing root fuel gallery. The system was completed with an on/off switch and a pressure gauge mounted on the cockpit coaming in front of the right-hand seat.

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the adventure you’d imagine — and the odd nervous moment An HF radio was fitted on a small table at the forward end of the cabin, equipped with a trailing aerial used for tuning. This system called for the operator to select a frequency, then gradually extend the aerial until a maximum-strength signal was received. In theory you could then speak to the ground station. The crew consisted of one pilot plus an engineer/co-pilot/ tea boy. All heating, de-icing and autopilot equipment was removed at the customer’s request to save weight.

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Two routes were possible: the northern one via Iceland, Greenland (Narsarsuaq), and Canada (Gander and Saint John), or the southern one via Gran Canaria, Cape Verde and Brazil or Cayenne. Flight times were roughly the same at about 30 hours. Each had its pros and cons — the northern route had the advantage of always being in range of a navigation aid, but was subject to very unpredictable and nasty weather. It was not unknown for flights to be stuck for days waiting

WORDS: TONY BLANKLEY

for conditions to clear. The southern route was mostly sunshine all the way but had a huge gap in the middle of the South Atlantic of about 800 miles where the aircraft was on its own, although, as my pilot Pete observed, ”If we keep heading due west we can’t miss South America.” For the first trip in January 1968 we decided on the northern route. Pete was highly experienced, his day job being to fly a company Heron around the UK and Europe, so there wasn’t

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TRANS-ATLANTIC HERONS

ABOVE: Prinair Heron N569PR on climbout from San Juan, showing the very different profile of the nacelles for the Continental IO-520 engines that replaced the DH Gipsy Queens. RICHARD VANDERVORD

much he didn’t know about operating the type. In the light of later events, this was probably just as well. We took off from Baginton in the late morning and landed at Reykjavik after an uneventful flight, mostly between cloud layers, six hours later. Our original intention had been to night-stop at Reykjavik, but Pete got the weather and there was a front moving our way. If we left straight away we should beat it to Gander, otherwise we could be there for days. Neither of us fancied that, and we both felt fresh enough, so we decided to press on. Pete went to file a flight plan and, almost as an aside, said, “Have a look at the flight manual and see if we’re OK on this runway”. Well, the runway was fairly short and we were considerably over maximum gross weight. Pete arrived back, had a look at the numbers and said, “Give me 20° of flap at 60kt and she’ll come off like a bird”. I did and she did! The flight was uneventful for the first few hours. Then darkness fell and conditions deteriorated. It became increasingly obvious that the weather we had hoped to beat to Gander had moved much faster than forecast and we were in the middle of it. We picked up ice at an alarming rate, the windscreen was completely obscured and in the feeble light of the anti-collision beacon the wing upper surfaces resembled an Arctic landscape. At this point we wondered whose decision it had been to remove the heating and de-icing equipment. However, the Heron kept flying and Pete asked me to try and raise Gander on the HF. I duly selected the Gander frequency and extended the aerial until I got max deflection on the tuning dial. I called Gander, but after many attempts all I got was static. Eventually we got within VHF range and Pete called the tower, only to be told that they had a 150ft cloud base and quarter-mile visibility in fog, and they were not accepting traffic. Pete looked across at me and said, “We’re in the ****, mate”, which was a slight

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understatement. We had been flying for 16 hours since leaving Coventry, we were cold and tired, and had now been told that we couldn’t land. Pete called Gander and said words to the effect that although we had fuel for our alternate, we’d had enough physically and were going to attempt a landing, much to the alarm of the controller who was less than enthusiastic. We then found that the aircraft’s instrument landing system was dead, removed at the customer’s request. Our only option was a

We picked up ice at an alarming rate... in the feeble light the wing upper surfaces resembled an Arctic landscape radar-assisted talk-down. This began confidently enough, but it rapidly became clear that the operator was inexperienced or just plain nervous, to the extent that I took my headset off. Pete said, “Watch for the lights”, only he put it a little more forcefully than that. Fortunately the ice had gone, and in about my one o’clock position through the fog I saw a string of strobe lights flashing in sequence, leading us in. I informed Pete in a fairly emphatic voice and we broke cloud over the left-hand edge of the runway. Pete executed an immaculate, very low-level turn and set us down smoothly on the centreline. All we had to do then was find the terminal through the fog, which we did with assistance from a relieved controller. It was 01.30hrs local time. Next morning we inspected the aircraft, which still appeared remarkably pristine. My deliberate mistake soon became apparent, though: I had forgotten to wind the HF aerial in. The aerial itself was fine, lying streamed across the apron, but the weights at the end which stabilised

it were missing, no doubt hanging from the branch of a fir tree somewhere on the approach. The purchase of some lead fishing weights from a local supermarket rectified the problem, and we were ready to roll. The next leg, four hours to Halifax, was completed in bright sunshine. We could relax and enjoy the rugged Newfoundland countryside passing beneath us. We landed at Halifax without incident, but for reasons that now escape me we couldn’t stay and flew on to Saint John, New Brunswick, where we night-stopped. On entering the aircraft the following morning it became obvious from the strong smell of fuel that one of the tanks had sprung a leak. I traced it to a cracked weld right at the top of the rear tank. The final leg of about 10 hours to San Juan also proceeded without difficulty in beautiful weather. The initial exchange with the San Juan tower is worth recording, bearing in mind that the controller was used to Herons performing inter-island flights of about half an a hour. Pete: “Good afternoon, San Juan, this is Heron N744PR inbound from Saint John.” Tower: “Saint John?” Pete: “New Brunswick.” Tower: “Wow.” My second trip, in January 1969, was also with Pete. In the light of our previous experience we opted for the southern ‘sunshine’ route. Pete was a trained navigator and had managed to borrow a sextant and the necessary charts from an RAF mate, so we would hopefully not get lost crossing the South Atlantic. The company was dispatching two aircraft this time, with Pete and I as the lead machine, doing the navigation. The Herons were identical in specification, the only notable difference being in safety equipment carried. Pete and I had a proper fiveman dinghy, but the company couldn’t afford the considerable cost of hiring a second, so the other crew purchased a child’s plastic dinghy from the local Esso station! The management’s thinking was that if they went into the water we would drop our dinghy to them. Quite how we would achieve this we fortunately never found out. The first leg of about eight hours to Gran Canaria was uneventful — for us. Unfortunately our sister ship developed a fault after about half an hour and had to turn back. They caught up with us at about midnight, landing in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. The day afterwards saw a relatively short four-hour leg to Sal in the Cape

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Verde Islands. We took off first, and Pete most uncharacteristically made a slight error. Forgetting we were considerably overweight he selected flaps up at his normal speed and the Heron began sinking back to earth. Waiting to take off, the second crew saw this and apparently nearly had a seizure, but we had enough height to pick up speed and disaster was averted. Part of Cape Verde, Sal is completely without a source of fresh water and is where we get the word salt from. Its airport boasts a huge, twomile runway and was used as a staging post for many years for South AfricaUK traffic. It is also employed by the military as an oceanic patrol base. Now came the big one: 2,000 miles of South Atlantic to Cayenne in French Guiana. Pete planned to do this at night, when astro navigation is, I am told, much easier due to having more stars to ‘shoot’, but events forced a change of plan. We intended to leave at around 20.00hrs, which would hopefully put us in to Cayenne just after dawn. Our sister Heron took off and circled, waiting for us, but our pre-take-off power check showed a rough mag drop on the number two engine. For the uninitiated, perhaps a word of explanation is in order. All piston aircraft engines are required to be equipped with two independent ignition systems; this is achieved by fitting two magnetos, each firing a set of plugs. Power is checked by running the engine up to about three-quarter power and switching each magneto off in turn. There should then be a smooth drop in rpm of about 50, but we were getting a rough 150-200rpm. Pete looked at me: “Your call, mate.” This problem was quite common, normally caused by an oiled-up plug, which would burn off after about half an hour. With 2,000 miles of ocean ahead of us I couldn’t afford to take a chance so, reluctantly, we returned to the apron. There was nothing we could do that night, so we retired to the bar and sat on the balcony watching the lights of the other Heron circling until it had burned off enough fuel to get down to a reasonable landing weight. Next morning I inspected the scavenge filter, cleaned the plugs and ran the engine. Once again we were set to go. We had decided on a daylight crossing for our second attempt, so we got airborne at about 08.30hrs and soon settled into the cruise with the other aircraft holding station off our starboard wingtip. All went well for the

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first couple of hours, but then I noticed that the fuel pressure gauge positioned near my right shoulder on the coaming was reading zero. This was monitoring fuel flow from the long-range system, without which we would be in trouble. I went back into the cabin and, calling on my excellent training as an RAF Halton apprentice and years of experience, reached beneath the tank and gave the pump a whack with a hide-faced hammer. A shout from the cockpit proved that my diagnosis and rectification had been correct. After about four hours Pete thought it would be a good idea if we determined our position. This meant him doing his navigator thing and me putting my co-pilot’s hat on. I held the aircraft straight and level (there was no autopilot) while Pete knelt between the seats to get a sunshot through the windscreen. Now, anyone familiar with the Dove/Heron cockpit knows that to call it cramped is a gross understatement. The space between the crew seats is about 12in, so Pete would have to kneel or squat there, lean over the throttle pedestal without touching the throttles and sight through the canopy. He was not exactly slightly built, but somehow he managed it and retired to the cabin to do his calculations on the nav table (actually a fuel tank). About half an hour later he announced that we were roughly where we should be. We landed at Cayenne just under 12 hours later in the gathering dusk, much to the surprise of air traffic who were not expecting us as our flight plan

hadn’t been transmitted. Just as well we didn’t go into the water. All that remained was a smooth eight-hour leg to our final destination, San Juan. After a day’s rest we returned to the UK, where Pete needed to get back to his day job. Prinair’s first Heron, N4789C, had joined the airline in 1966. The company was then known as Aerolíneas de Ponce, which was changed to Prinair during 1967. The Heron had to fly no matter what — you can imagine the defects it was carrying. The first aircraft we supplied (the carrier’s second) was, by contrast, freshly overhauled. With its blue cheat-line, it was apparently known as ‘the Blue Bird of Happiness’. The company went on to operate what was at the time the world’s largest Heron fleet, all finished with a different-coloured cheat-line. It had 28 examples in all, joined in the inventory by first Convair 580s and later CASA C-212 Aviocars. Over the next few years the Herons were re-engined with Continental IO-520s, the original DH Gipsy Queen 30s being rugged and reliable but also heavy and thirsty; they were, after all, designed in the 1930s. One, N574PR, was given a considerable fuselage stretch. Prinair ceased operating in 1984, a couple of bad accidents and increasing competition probably causing its downfall. I recently saw a photograph of the Heron fleet parked in a corner of San Juan airport mouldering away in the tropical heat, presumably awaiting the scrap man.

BELOW: The Herons operated by Prinair had a variety of histories. N561PR had been G-AORJ with Cambrian Airways and PH-ILA with Philips, while N584PR had served with the air force of Ghana. RICHARD VANDERVORD

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meets

RICHARD PAVER

ANTONY PARKINSON

F

riday 6 October was an emotional day for Flt Lt Antony Parkinson. With a final sortie in that most cherished veteran from the summer of 1940, Spitfire IIa P7350, he brought to a close 11 years on the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Beyond that, it concluded a career of more than three decades spent flying Royal Air Force fighters of one type or another. A few days after ‘Parky’s’ official leaving do, we met at the BBMF’s Coningsby base. He’d just been up for a Chipmunk trip, helping convert a new pilot to taildraggers in preparation for their becoming a fighter pilot on the flight. But with his time in the air force coming to an end, the next door has already opened. ‘Parky’ is now chief pilot of Headcorn-based Aero Legends, and a key element of the company’s Spitfire flight operations. Given the fact that his grandfather, Horace ‘Rayce’ Parkinson, was a World War One Royal Flying Corps pilot and became part of the RAF

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After 11 years on the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, this very experienced RAF fighter pilot is joining the civilian warbird world WORDS: BEN DUNNELL when it was formed on 1 April 1918, perhaps ‘Parky’s’ chosen career is unsurprising. “Genuinely, as long as I can remember, I wanted to join the Royal Air Force. I was as keen as mustard, and joined the cadets as soon as I could. That was at Hastings Grammar School, which became William Parker School. “When I was 17, in 1982, I completed a flying scholarship at Goodwood. The RAF gave me 30 hours’ flying; I worked at Sainsbury’s to pay for the extra eight hours, and got my private pilot’s licence. Then just before I got my A-level results I had my interviews for the RAF, which were then at the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre at Biggin Hill. I was accepted and joined at 18, did my officer training, and, bizarrely, stayed in the cockpit ever since — 34 years. I’ve managed to ‘chaff and flare’ off any ground tours… “We were just about to complete officer training when they got all the pilots together in a big ante-room at Cranwell. The chosen route was Jet Provosts at Church Fenton,

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A classic Battle of Britain Memorial Flight fighter formation from the memorable anniversary summer of 2015: Spitfires P7350 and AB910, Hurricanes LF363 and PZ865. RICHARD PAVER

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AEROPLANE MEETS… ANTONY PARKINSON

RIGHT: ‘Parky’ (right) and back-seater Flt Lt ‘Rolfie’ Dunne after the final flight of Phantom FGR2 XV489. Having flown No 92 Squadron’s last diamond nine formation at Wildenrath, they landed the jet at Wattisham.

VIA ANTONY PARKINSON

BELOW RIGHT: Turning and burning in No 56(R) Squadron’s solo display Tornado F3 at the Royal International Air Tattoo 99. BEN DUNNELL

Linton-on-Ouse or Cranwell. They told us that for this course they’d got four slots to go to Texas and complete pilot training in America. We all looked at each other and thought nothing more about it, but a couple of weeks later, the same room, ‘the four people are…’ and my name was read out. I did not expect that. “Myself, a guy called Tim Couston — who went on to Buccaneers, displayed the Buccaneer, joined the Red Arrows and is now an airline pilot — and two others set off to Texas in the summer of 1984. We spent 13 months at Sheppard Air Force Base with ENJJPT, EuroNATO Joint Jet Pilot Training. I flew 130 hours on the Cessna T-37, the ‘Tweet’, and then after six months on that — which was good — you went on to the T-38 Talon. I’d just had my 20th birthday and I was let loose in the T-38, which was full-reheat and supersonic. “I love reading First Light, and about how Geoffrey Wellum, one of this country’s greatest fighter pilots, initially struggled to keep a Tiger Moth straight. I think for any pilot to say they never incurred any snags on pilot training — well, they’re probably lying, or they’re so good that I would hate them! I did OK — I managed to win the formation trophy at ENJJPT — but definitely there were moments. The book work was very academic, and the Americans were very regimented about a 70 per cent pass mark for all the ground exams. It was eye-watering how much ground school work I needed to do to get my act together. “One of my instructors I didn’t get on quite so well with compared to the one I ended up flying with, a guy called Rod Thomas, an ex-Lightning pilot and Jet Provost QFI [qualified flying instructor] on exchange there as an RAF instructor on the T-37. It was one of those moments: pilot training is a wonderful thing, because you feel yourself getting better. I will always remember the trip with Rod where lightbulbs were illuminating, where I really was getting a feel for it and the confidence in myself. Overconfidence — absolutely not, but you do need belief in yourself that you can do it. I thoroughly enjoyed flying with Rod, which is half the battle. If you

want to do it, you relax more. I think I then did better on the T-38. I slowly climbed that mountain and I got there. There are dark days where you just can’t do it, for whatever reason. But that almost makes the satisfaction of when you do achieve it, and certainly when you get your wings, a bigger moment.” Back in the UK, “We did what was meant to be a quick conversion to the Brit system at Valley on the Hawk, learning to fly the Hawk but also learning that you could have this thing called bad weather. There were a few months of that, and then it was tac weapons; I flew that at Chivenor, which was great fun, operating the aircraft as a weapon and in air combat.” The summer of 1986 saw the newly fledged fighter pilot arriving at Coningsby for the first time, joining No 228 Operational Conversion Unit/No 64 Squadron to get to grips with the Phantom. “I loved the Phantom immediately”, he says. The initial posting was to No 111 Squadron at Leuchars, flying the ex-Royal Navy FG1s. “They were coming to the end of their lives, and they’d had a hard life. There were no batteries in them, they had the drooping ailerons, they had the extendable nosewheels. But they were surprisingly good. “I intercepted six ‘Bears’ while I was there. The first was on Christmas Eve 1987, two really early ‘Bear-As’. It was busy. You would often scramble on QRA [quick reaction alert], and if a tanker launched you would get a six-hour intercept, up towards Norway and Iceland. Once I intercepted a couple of ‘Bear-Fs’, flying right the way down to the west of Ireland, tanking.” Transition to the later FGR2 version came with No 92 Squadron, stationed as part of RAF Germany at Wildenrath. That turned out to be only a year-and-a-half ’s tour, as post-Cold War cutbacks saw 92 being disbanded in the summer of 1991. “The sister squadron at Wildenrath was 19, so we were always planning to have an amazing new year’s bash when we saw 1992 in. But, sadly, the defence cuts came in. It was really quick; suddenly, 92

For any pilot to say they never incurred any snags on pilot training — well, they’re probably lying, or they’re so good I would hate them!

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was folding. We flew a diamond nine in July 1991, and I was number six, leading the box four. Four landed back at Wildenrath to go to 19, and I led a five-ship to Wattisham flying XV489/S, which had a red fin — an absolutely beautiful aircraft. It never flew again. We then got flown back to Wildenrath for a bit of a party. “I managed to get a short course on the Tornado F3. I finished on the Phantom at the end of July and I started ground school on the Tornado a week later. I almost didn’t have time to mull it over. This was back here at Coningsby on No 229 OCU. I was very excited about the F3, actually. It had a slightly difficult birth in terms of its radar and so on, but by the time I turned up on the OCU they’d just taken delivery of what they called the ‘Z-list’ [version of the Foxhunter]

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radar, which was a real quantum leap up. The radar was really beginning to perform well in terms of the trackwhile-scan and its reliability. I was impressed, and I enjoyed flying the jet. “I got posted to No 25 Squadron at Leeming, and that was an interesting time. It was the time of Operation ‘Deny Flight’ in Bosnia, which was essentially intercepting helicopters — Croatian and Serbian [Mil Mi-8] ‘Hips’, and anything else that was flying. We would transmit ‘on guard’ and fly alongside, ordering them to land. The first one I intercepted I thought, as most of us did, that they’d be down low, but this ‘Hip’ was at about 15,000ft. I thought, ‘Good grief, what are you doing up here?’ We were flying with the 1,500-litre fuel tanks for range, and tanking a lot. Four to five hours would be the norm

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for those sorties on the detachment out of Gioia del Colle. “By the summer of 1994 I was absolutely pushing to go single-seat… I massively pushed for an exchange. I was thinking of doing a Sea Harrier exchange at Yeovilton, but I got so lucky. I managed to get on the F-16 exchange with the Royal Netherlands Air Force, with 322 Squadron at Leeuwarden. “I could not have wished for a better exchange: to fly the F-16 in the European theatre, especially with the Dutch. I so loved flying the Phantom, so loved flying the F3, but my conversion and first trip in the F-16 blew my mind a bit. It was a fabulous piece of machinery; a real pilot’s aircraft. I knew it was only

going to be for two-and-a-half years, so I cherished every moment. “We have a leaving point at 38 in the RAF, and I kind of figured I’d had my share of good deals. I was going to get my CAA air transport pilot’s licence anyway. But I hadn’t instructed, and doing the licences sat quite well with becoming an instructor, so I came back to the Tornado F3”. This was with the F3 OCU, now No 56 (Reserve) Squadron, but still at Coningsby. “Yes, there was to a certain extent a comedown in performance compared to the 9g F-16, but I enjoyed it. As with Rod at ENJJPT, I always tried to have an element of fun. If you enjoy what you’re doing and you convey that, people learn better.” The chance to become the Tornado F3 solo display pilot for 1999-2000 was not one to pass up. With

ABOVE: As Red 4 in the 2002 Red Arrows, ‘Parky’ got to fly down the Mall in formation with a BA Concorde — in the hands of Capt Mike Bannister and CAA test pilot Capt ‘Jock’ Reid — to celebrate the Queen’s golden jubilee. PA IMAGES

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AEROPLANE MEETS… ANTONY PARKINSON

I’m not kidding, the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck for about an hour after the first trip with the two Lancasters ABOVE: One of the first Lancaster pair sorties during 2014, the BBMF’s PA474 leading FM213 from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, and two Spitfires; ‘Parky’ is in PRXIX PS915.

RICHARD PAVER

ABOVE RIGHT: The Synchro 75 routine mounted for the Battle of Britain anniversary in 2015 was outstanding. In Spitfire P7350, ‘Parky’ crosses with Flt Lt Ben WestobyBrooks’ specially painted Typhoon at RIAT. BEN DUNNELL

navigator Flt Lt Dave ‘Jabba’ Hake, it proved a memorable two seasons. “That was my first foray into the display world. It was a revelation, and it made my tour on the OCU”. In the second year, they won the Steedman Display Sword for best demonstration by a UK participant at the Royal International Air Tattoo. “On the display circuit, you clearly bump into the Red Arrows a few times. I was chatting to Andy Evans [a team pilot from 1997-2000], and he asked, ‘You going to apply for the Reds, ‘Parky?’ I was a flight lieutenant, I had the hours and so on. I didn’t think I’d have a sniff because I’d done an exchange and the solo display, but he said that was nothing to do with the criteria. The more I saw the Reds, the more I would give my right arm to fly with them. So I thought, ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’. I applied and I got shortlisted. “It’s a strange week, the shortlist week: there are three slots and nine of you pitch up in Cyprus. We went out from Brize Norton on the trooper. The eight other mates were a top bunch, and I was thinking I hadn’t got a chance, that I should just enjoy the week — you get lots of backseat flying — and take it from there. When I got told I was selected, I was genuinely gobsmacked. Could not believe it.

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“What can you say about the Reds? The work-up is beyond extensive. You would do three trips a day, 15 trips a week, 60 trips a month. That was just the norm, building in stepping-stones to the excitement of when you did your first nine-ship. Then it was off to Cyprus to put polish on the nine-ship, and into a summer season.” No tour on the Reds is without its particular high points. For ‘Parky’ there were visits in 2002 to Toronto and in 2003 to Langkawi, Malaysia. The other memorable occasion from 2002 was the Queen’s diamond jubilee flypast down the Mall, the nine Hawks escorting a British Airways Concorde for what turned out to be the last time. “We did a practice on Concorde’s wing over the Wash, and all of us were moved by formating on it. The boss, ‘Spike’ Jepson, said, ‘Boys, do not look at the Concorde. You’ve got to just formate and concentrate’. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take the odd peek, just to take it in… On the day itself, I can picture when a million people must have seen Concorde and the Red Arrows with smoke. Again, I shouldn’t have, but I did take a very quick look. It must have been the time when all the auto-flashes went off down the Mall and around London, because it was incredible

how the whole of the ground lit up. Dazzling, almost. It’s impossible for ‘Parky’ to look back at his time on the Reds without recalling Flt Lt Matt Jarvis. “I left at the end of ’03, and I knew I was being posted to the Typhoon, but that wasn’t going to start until the end of ’04. I was holding on No 100 Squadron, flying the Hawks, keeping current. In the April I was on holiday in America, and bizarrely got called by a mate who said, ‘You’ve got to ring ‘Spike’.’ I got through to him in Cyprus, and he said, ‘There’s a problem with ‘Jarvo’. We don’t quite know what’s up with him, but he just can’t fly’. He asked me to come back as soon as I could. “Three days later, jet-lagged from America, I was flying at Akrotiri. I did the winter work-up in nine flying days. We achieved PDA, public display authority, landed back and all met ‘Jarvo’. I was essentially in his seat in his aircraft. He was just the most wonderful mate: ‘It’s not your fault’. He always had humour, and he made it easy for me in an awkward position. Then they discovered that he was terminally ill, and he died from cancer at just 29 years old. An utter, utter top man.” The timing and ‘Parky’s’ prior experience coalesced well in terms of the Eurofighter Typhoon posting that followed. In November 2004 he

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

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went straight from his fourth year with the Reds to instruct on the Typhoon OCU, No 29(R) Squadron. These were the very early days of the type’s RAF service, 29 being stationed initially at BAE Systems’ Warton factory airfield. The move to its permanent Coningsby home was completed the following July. For ‘Parky’, it was the start of seven years on the Typhoon, during which he held QRA, joined the standards and evaluation (staneval) team, witnessed the aircraft’s evolution, and became the first pilot anywhere to reach 1,000 hours on the type. He had already exceeded that mark on both the Phantom and Tornado F3; no-one else could claim such a distinction. And older RAF fighters entered the equation, too. “At the end of 2006, my boss, Wg Cdr Al Mackay, came grinning into my office. I could tell it was good news, but he said, ‘I can’t tell you, I’m sworn to secrecy’. I gave him a Chinese burn, and he did tell me that, essentially, I’d been picked to fly Hurricanes and Spitfires for the 2007 season with BBMF. It was one of those moments that you treasure. There was the realisation that, ‘oh my God, I’ve never really flown a propeller aircraft for 20odd years’, and it being the Hurricane and Spitfire. This was just the ultimate privilege. This was the one. “A couple of weeks later I found myself in a little Chipmunk, desperately learning that I had to move my feet a lot more, even in a ‘Chippie’. The following April I started on the

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

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dear old Hurricane, LF363. It was a step into the unknown: what does a Hurricane fly like? You’re really well prepared, but it’s one of those things that you just have to get in and do. They were filming a BBC programme about the flight, and I know I bounced it on my first landing. The second trip is so much easier than the first. “In June I flew MK356, the MkIX, as my first Spitfire in the morning, and then the MkII, P7350, that afternoon. On all those trips I was pinching myself. It meets up to everything you expected it to be and more — so beautiful, so well-balanced. On the first trip, I was told, ‘Just go to 7,000ft, get a feel for it and stall it’. It was an incredibly benign stall. It’s an aircraft that is on your side, and it conveys that to you. To display, it’s wonderful. “You’re aware of the history, you’re aware that they’re priceless, you’re aware of what it means to the veterans and everybody who was associated with these aircraft. Somehow it’s there with you. You almost try and put it to the back of your mind to concentrate. Looking at my logbook I remember details of virtually every trip in thousands of flights I’ve done. “We’ve got as close an association with the veterans as we’ve ever had, and it almost seems to increase. I’ve seen Johnnie Johnson, the only surviving ‘Dambuster’, so many times now. He was at my leaving do last Saturday night, and we shared a beer

and a laugh and a chat together. These are extraordinary times, to have these guys still with us, and we utterly treasure it. When I look back on my time, it’s not just flying these incredibly beautiful aircraft, which mean so much to the country and to us; it’s that we’ve had the veterans with us. “On 19 September 2010 myself and ‘Smithy’ [Sqn Ldr Ian Smith, the then OC BBMF] flew over Westminster Abbey in a Hurricane and Spitfire. We landed at White Waltham because of crosswind issues at Northolt, but we got a lift to Northolt to meet the veterans on the 70th anniversary. There were 12 of ‘the Few’ — Geoffrey Wellum was there, Nigel Rose, Ken Wilkinson, Tom Neil… I don’t know what it was about that day, but they were on such fine form. It was as if they were 18-year-old mates again, just having a couple of beers. I’ve had so many moments with the veterans and I’ve been so privileged, but that one stands out.” The visit in 2014 of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum Lancaster to fly with the BBMF’s example does, too. “We had to do a work-up, and the weather added to the drama of the whole event. It was quite logistically difficult to do the work-up, to get a civilian display approval with the military PDA, but we managed to get it all done in three days. As part of my ops job, I was in charge of liaising with the airshow organisers. They were desperate to get the two ‘Lancs’ to Eastbourne, which was a Thursday to Sunday. We couldn’t even start the work-up until Tuesday because we needed the winds to ease, and then we had to see

BELOW: Contact and friendships with the surviving members of ‘the Few’ are always treasured, and not least with Geoffrey Wellum, pictured with ‘Parky’ in 2010. RICHARD PAVER

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30/10/2017 12:31

AEROPLANE MEETS… ANTONY PARKINSON

ABOVE: As chief pilot of Aero Legends, ‘Parky’s’ Spitfire flying is taking on new dimensions. He leads this pair in HFIXe TD314; with him is IXT NH341 in the hands of Martin Overall.

RICHARD PAVER

how it went. If the planets aligned, we might have done it on Thursday, but then we’d got to do a display approval. I said I thought we could get the two ‘Lancs’ to them on Saturday, by when the weather was looking quite nice. If we could bring it forward, we would. “We PDA-ed on the Thursday, got it all done, and the AOC [Air Officer Commanding] said, ‘If you’ve got time, go to Eastbourne this afternoon’. With the two ‘Lancs’ we took two Spitfires, myself and Dunc [Mason, OC BBMF at the time]. We had a prime slot, and we flew straight down into the slot. There were thunderstorms around; we could see lightning and torrential rain, with beautiful, blue sky between it, and everywhere we went it was blue sky. There we were at Eastbourne with two Spitfires, two Lancasters, the white cliffs at Beachy Head and an absolutely turquoise sea — we’d done it. I’m not kidding, the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck for about an hour. “We didn’t think we could land at Biggin Hill, but Southend was standing by. When we got an update on the Biggin Hill weather, they said, ‘The thunderstorms have cleared — it’s beautiful’. It was a lovely, hot, summer’s day, but it was steaming, almost like we were in the tropics. As we got out, we were all thinking, ‘This has got to be the best day of our lives’.

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“For the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 2015, I’d been picked by Dunc to fly the synchro [the pairing of BBMF Spitfire and RAF Typhoon]. We’d got permission to have the Typhoon painted in the No 249 Squadron Hurricane markings of James Nicolson VC. It was going to be me and an old mate, Ben WestobyBrooks. The whole thing was geared towards ‘P7’ [Spitfire P7350] and the camouflage-painted jet, but it had a snag and ‘P7’ had been late out, and we hadn’t got the two aircraft together. Then in June at Biggin Hill both aircraft were serviceable but we hadn’t done a display together. We had this extraordinary trip, where our five-ship of two Hurricanes and three Spitfires was going to join with the Red Arrows post their display for a 14-ship flypast. It was quite a tight join because of the airspace, but Dunc led it impeccably. We cleared off, the Reds landed, we did some more five-ship flypasts, and I joined with Ben for the synchro display. It ticked every box. “We had a 45-minute slot and, boy, did it work well. Everything was choreographed to perfection. I checked

in on frequency with Synchro 2; Ben was there waiting for me and visual. I peeled off from the four-ship with a very tight turn, which Ben joined, so we could come in for our canopyon bend and go straight in to our synchro. It was the first time I’d seen the camouflaged jet on my wing with ‘P7’s’ elliptical wing. Again, like with Concorde, like with the two ‘Lancs’, I had to go, ‘Right, ‘Parky’, you’ve got to concentrate on this show’.” Working for Aero Legends will now bring its own unique experiences and memories. Aside from displays, as chief pilot ‘Parky’ heads up a busy operation conducting passenger flights in recently rebuilt Spitfire IXT NH341, and ‘fly alongside’ experiences using HFIXe TD314 in formation with the ex-BBMF de Havilland Devon. But it’s also about passing on his enthusiasm for these machines. “That’s something I really hope to bring to the party. I want to try and impart to you what it means to me”. And that, from everything he says about his years of warbird flying, is obviously a huge amount.

It’s something I want to bring to the party at Aero Legends: I want to try and impart to you what these aircraft mean to me

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

30/10/2017 12:32

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Illustrated with photographs, drawings and specially commissioned artwork, this is a detailed account of the aircraft and technologies developed for logistics support of the British armed forces since 1945 employing aircraft as diverse as the Beverley and the Chinook. ISBN: 9781902109510, Hardback, 228 pages, £29.95

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FLYING LEGENDS 2018 CALENDAR The Flying Legends 2018 sixteenmonth calendar features legendary World War II warbirds from around the world, captured in flight by awardwinning photographer John M. Dibbs. Mr. Dibbs’ Flying Legends books and calendars are longtime bestsellers. Razor-sharp, unretouched air-to-air photography brings these old warbirds to life - you can almost hear the roar of their piston engines as they fly past the photographer. Reproduced to exacting standards, each month’s full-color picture is suitable for framing. Additionally, every month includes vintage photography and technical specifications for the aircraft.

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B-17G Reference Book

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Key Publishing’s first reference book in the new Combat Machines series is a detailed 84-page study of the famous B-17G bomber, timed perfectly for the release of Airfix’s new 1/72 kit of the type. This is a vital research and reference tool for modellers and aviation enthusiasts alike. Combat Machines B-17G r also explores the flight crews, u yo r their clothing and Medal of Honor l fo cal unt awards, as well as missions flown by ersdisco b i the RAF and USAAF’s numbered air cr bs £1 forces. Softback book, 84 pages. Su

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Spitfire 80 Special

Legendary Vulcan pilot Tony Blackman describes in layman’s terms what it was like to tame the first prototypes and to master the Vulcan aircraft. His words, descriptions and hitherto largely unpublished photographs will make people feel as he did the excitement of handling such an incredibly powerful monster always in the knowledge that he had to be in complete charge at all time as the monster could and did bite back. Softback, 224 pages.

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‘THE FLIGHT’ is a photographic commemoration of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, arguably the most famous collection of flying warbirds in the world. Featuring exclusive contemporary and historical imagery, combined with personal accounts, ‘THE FLIGHT’ offers a new and exciting volume that celebrates the work and the ethos of the BBMF. The carefully considered and specially commissioned air-to-air imagery by award winning photographer John Dibbs is supported by insightful and fascinating interviews and quotes from veteran aircrew compiled by Clive Rowley, former OC BBMF and unit historian. Hardback, 192-pages.

In this 80th anniversary year, the publishers of FlyPast magazine present a special 100-page tribute to Britain’s greatest fighter and possibly the best known combat aircraft in the world. Using extensive archive images, the best of aviation writers and researchers salute the Spitfire’s incredible heritage. Special Magazine, 100 pages.

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The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is pleased to present REUNION OF GIANTS – The Official Lancaster UK Tour Documentary! The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s Avro Lancaster, VeRA, flew from Hamilton, Ontario to meet her British counterpart, Thumper – the only other surviving flight worthy Lancaster bomber in the world – the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s (BBMF) Lancaster in England. Region-free DVD, 83 minutes.

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Enter the cockpit of the iconic British Cold War Nuclear bomber, the Avro Vulcan. Legendary RAF pilot Flt Lt Martin Withers, who commanded Vulcan 607 on the first strike to take the Falklands in 1982, provides detailed commentary throughout this DVD, taking viewers through every aspect of the Vulcan’s cockpit and flight operations procedure. With on-board footage from airshows as well as air-to-air flights. Region-free DVD, Running time 70 minutes.

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RAF Salute - Century of Air Defence Special Officially endorsed by the Royal Air Force, this publication marks the 80th anniversary of the formation of RAF Fighter Command and the RAF’s enduring commitment to the defence of Britain. An insightful overview of the RAF’s primary role, from early Royal Flying Corps operations against Zeppelin airships, through the colourful inter-war period, the Battle of Britain and on to today’s Eurofighter Typhoon. 100 page special magazine.

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I Sank the Bismark Book In the early hours of the 27th of May, 1941, the German warship Bismarck - scourge of the Atlantic ocean - was sailing towards a fateful encounter. Two days previously, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had issued the order to “Sink the Bismarck”. High winds and low visibility added to the atrocious morning weather as Fleet Air Arm pilot, John Moffat, took to the air in his open cockpit bomber. Paperback, 416 pages.

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Hawker Hurricane - The Pilot’s View DVD

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Called to Arms

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Produced by Key Publishing with exclusive access to the Royal Air Force, Royal Air Force Squadrons is a 132-page officially endorsed special magazine telling the story behind today’s flying squadrons. Special magazine, 100 pages.

Often quoted as the model for the Steve McQueen character in “The Great Escape”, by age 21, Ken had already trained to be a pilot officer; flown 56 hair-raising bomber missions by night over Germany; taken part in the siege of Malta; got married; been shot down into a remote Norwegian lake; and been captured, interrogated and sent to Stalag Luft III. Softback, 224 pages.

The Hurricane was one of the most versatile fighters of World War II and the first eight-gun monoplane fighter produced in Britain. The pilots-eye-view from in-cockpit cameras show you what it is really like to fly the 1942 Mark XII Hawker Hurricane. We also visit the evocative Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Building and interview museum staff, former Hurricane pilots and restorers. Region 2 DVD, Running time 60 minutes.

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RAF Squadrons Special

Aeroplane Binder

On a cold day in January 1944, as war raged in Europe, Betty Hussey and Jack Stoate were married. In so doing they brought together two families, whose members fought across the globe to defeat the Axis. In Called to Arms, Edward Lambah-Stoate traces the wartime experiences of nine relatives, including his parents, to present a fascinating account of the impact of conflict on the ordinary people of Britain who gallantly came forward to do their bit. Hardback, 256 pages.

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17/10/2017 15:18

SAAF BALTIMORES

PIRATES of th

The Martin Baltimore is one of World War Two’s forgotten aircraft, but it performed out

F

ABOVE: Pilot Lt L. G. van Renen (foreground) with the rest of his Baltimore crew: from left to right, wireless operator/air gunner Flt Sgt Arthur Mills, air gunner WO I. R. N. Hammond, and navigator/observer Fg Off Eddie Lowe. Hailing from Stockport, Lowe was the other RAF member of the SAAF crew. VIA ARTHUR MILLS

72 www.aeroplanemonthly.com

72-75_AM_BALTIMORE_Dec17_Craig C.indd 72

or a young lad hailing from the north of England, it must have come as quite a shock to the system. Landing ground 07 at Matruh West in the Egyptian desert was no place for the faint-hearted or easily homesick. “It was just tents”, says former wireless operator/air gunner Arthur Mills. “You couldn’t hide behind very much”. This was where he first went to war with No 15 Squadron of the South African Air Force and its Martin Baltimores, during a period when these twinengined attack bombers proved themselves among the most effective and reliable strike assets available to the Desert Air Forces. Having joined up and learned Morse code in Blackpool, Mills began the airborne phase of his training with No 4 Signals School at Madley, Herefordshire, in DH Dominies and Percival Proctors. Then it was off to No 8 Air Gunnery School at Evanton, Ross and Cromarty, where he flew in the Blackburn Botha. He qualified as a wireless operator/air gunner on 27 November 1942, his logbook describing him as: “Above average. Good knowledge of all subject. Efficient and reliable in air firing.” Further instruction came at Hooton Park, Cheshire-based No 11 Radio School, using Bothas to

teach coastal patrol techniques, and Avro Ansons for wireless telegraphy. Arthur remembers, “The station commander called me in and said, ‘You’ve done very well. I’m very pleased with you. You will go far’. I think I said to him, ‘Sir, is it Berlin, this weekend?’ I was waiting to join a bomber squadron… Four or five weeks later, I found myself in the desert, about to join No 15 Squadron of the South African Air Force. The South Africans were desperately short of signallers and air gunners.” First, though, came the required period on an operational training unit. Mills’ initial Baltimore trip was on 13 July 1943 with Sqn Ldr Mackay of No 75 OTU at Gianaclis in Alexandria, Egypt, conducting air-tosea firing. He also undertook bombing and navigational exercises, including some night flying. Soon Arthur was

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

30/10/2017 08:30

the AEGEAN

med outstandingly over the Aegean — as one crewman remembers

flying as part of a regular crew, led by pilot Lt L. G. van Renen from Strydenburg, Cape Province. “He was a great chap”, Mills remembers. Meanwhile, No 15 Squadron had been stationed in the Middle East

since January 1942, when it arrived at Amriya in Egypt. At that time it was equipped with Bristol Blenheim IVs, soon supplanted by Bisleys (otherwise known as Blenheim Vs). From a new base at Mariut they

WORDS: BEN DUNNELL

assumed the coastal reconnaissance role, participating that October alongside torpedo-armed RAF Beauforts in the successful sinking of the Italian tanker Proserpina, part of an Axis convoy bound for Tobruk. Maritime work became the squadron’s stock-in-trade: anti-shipping and anti-submarine patrols, and Allied convoy escorts, to name but a few examples. Baltimores arrived in July 1943, and the following month the unit moved to LG 07. Arthur Mills’ first flight with No 15 Squadron was a four-hour navigation exercise on 28 September 1943. “Almost immediately”, he says, “we started operations against the Aegean islands, which were occupied by the Germans. It was a busy time. We seemed to do very well. There was a lot of ‘ack-ack’, and we were lucky not to be shot down. We had no personal protective equipment, so it was quite a risky business.”

LEFT: A No 15 Squadron Baltimore coded ‘A’ taxiing at a desert aerodrome. The Martin-built attack bomber proved exceptionally reliable, the unit routinely seeing serviceability rates in the high 90 per cent range despite the tough operating environment. SAAF

ABOVE: Baltimore IV FA428 was an important aircraft for No 15 Squadron, SAAF: flown by Maj D. V. Dodd, it made the first South African reconnaissance flight over the Aegean Islands on 27 August 1943. At the time, Dodd was the unit’s acting officer commanding. FA428 crashed into the Aegean on 17 September 1943, while being flown by Lt Meijer and his crew, all of whom were lost. PIET VAN SCHALKWYK

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SAAF BALTIMORES

It was always an advantage being low and over the water. My pilot was a great one for flying down to the water. He said it was the safest place — they didn’t like attacking you there

ABOVE: Two marks of Baltimore were flown by No 15 Squadron — this is a MkV, pictured over the Italian coast in August 1943. It was more powerful than the MkIV, having 1,700hp instead of 1,600hp Wright R-2600 engines, and 0.5in as opposed to 0.303in machine guns in the wings.

VIA M. SCHOENMANN

In October, the van Renen crew started performing close convoy escorts, armed reconnaissances of the Aegean and so forth. Mills’ logbook records the sorties they undertook as the Baltimores increasingly went on the offensive. An Axis ship in Syros harbour was hit by their bombs on 19 October, in the course of a threeaircraft attack with a 1,000-tonne German motor vessel as its prime objective; on the 28th, they braved intense anti-aircraft fire to make a low-level attack on some Axis caïques (smaller fishing boats). “It was always an advantage being low and over the water”, Arthur recalls. “My pilot was a great one for flying down to the water. He said it was the safest place, and he knew what it was about. They didn’t like attacking you there.” That first month alone, Mills and his fellow crew members accumulated 60 hours 40 minutes in the course of 14 operational sorties. Fighter escorts were not then on the agenda, since, he says of the Baltimore, “It was quite a swift machine”. Sometimes they flew by night as Axis forces tried to get vessels through under cover of darkness, although, he added, “The aeroplane was never geared-up for night flying.”

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For a time it became regular practice for two pairs of Baltimores to be sent off: two on a long-range reconnaissance mission, then, one-and-a-half to two hours later, another two engaged in an offensive reconnaissance. The time gap often saw the latter pair being called on at short notice to attack caïques that came within range. The squadron’s operational review for January 1944 says: “These routes were designed to intercept the enemy’s shipping routes, but the attacks of previous months had obviously restricted small craft traffic to night sailings, while by day vessels which had not completed their journey always sheltered, usually near shore ack-ack defences, in bays which made attack and bombing approaches most difficult.” It went on: “The Rhodes Harbour recces were undoubtedly the hardest task the aircrews had. Even though by flying at deck level the aircraft probably kept out of the enemy’s effective chain of radar stations, approach to the harbour undetected was virtually impossible. The harbour’s concentration of ack-ack positions, and later fighters based on the neighbouring aerodrome

of Maritza, made the recce one of considerable difficulty — to say the least — and the fact that it was on almost all occasions carried out effectively was an exceptionally good performance on the part of the crews concerned.” Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109Es and Fs were stationed at Maritza from late January 1944 onwards. They made life increasingly difficult for the Baltimores, but No 15 Squadron fought outstandingly against the new menace. Meanwhile, a reinstated squadron detachment at Gambut provided convoy protection for supply vessels and naval forces and took part in searches for downed airmen, among other tasks. Also at LG 07 were Bristol Beaufighters of RAF Coastal Command’s No 252 Squadron, which arrived on 15 January. They provided an extra (rocket-armed) striking capability in theatre. Joint tactics were developed, using the Baltimores — with their very effective 0.5in turret guns — to give top cover for Beaufighters engaged in attacks on shipping. This was trained for extensively but never used, as numbers of suitable targets decreased. The most memorable day for the van Renen crew was 20 February

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1944. In Baltimore V FA302, they conducted a photo-recce of the Aegean, covering Leros and Rhodes harbour. They and a second machine brought back what the unit records called “some of the best photographs taken of Rhodes”, together with “a most detailed report” on vessels there and at Leros, “giving exact map references of each vessel and also ackack positions”. Then the aircraft were subjected to Luftwaffe attentions. “Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Junkers Ju 88s arrived and we were knocked about a bit”, Mills remembers. “The undercarriage was shot away, and the skipper said, ‘Hang on, I’m going to dive on top of the sea to get away’. We were followed by the odd Messerschmitt, but we had set ‘scare guns’ on the sides of the Baltimore’s fuselage as well as the turret, and they were helpful. They were operated by me, without me being able to see what I was shooting at.” According to the crew’s combat report, the quartet of Ju 88s approached out of cloud from astern. One broke away to port, two formed up on either beam and fired on the Baltimores from 800 yards out, and the fourth attacked from astern at 300 yards. The latter was shot down

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by the No 15 Squadron aircraft, the Junkers bursting into flames, hitting the water and disintegrating for a confirmed kill. Then the Bf 109s approached from the direction of Calato airfield, two of them forming up on the Baltimores’ port beam, one at 400 yards and the other at 700. After jettisoning their long-range tanks, the closer Messerschmitt opened fire. It was returned by the Baltimore, bullets being seen to hit the fighter’s nose, whereupon it broke off and spun into the sea. van Renen used evasive tactics, turning into each attack. The second pair of Bf 109s formed up to starboard, and a fifth appeared too, but was hit in its belly by fire from the Baltimore’s turret and broke off, being declared as a probable kill. The engagement thus concluded after eight minutes, whereupon the second Baltimore, flown by Lt Otto, was seen to be missing. It was later confirmed lost. van Renen’s aircraft suffered a damaged main spar. The action was the subject of one of many enthusiastic SAAF statements issued to the press. Turret gunner WO Hammond “did some remarkable shooting, completely

routing the enemy… Hammond only fired his guns three times and claimed two destroyed and one probable, which means, in estimated terms of profit and loss, that for the expenditure of a few shillings’ worth of ammunition he cost the enemy about £30,000 in aircraft apart from the pilots.” The van Renen crew completed 31 operational missions. Their last was on 20 March 1944, between Ramat David and LG 07, at the end of which their Baltimore — MkIV FA640 — was damaged in a crash-landing. A note in Mills’ logbook from squadron signals officer Capt Richardson reads: “Flt Sgt Mills demonstrated an excellent knowledge of signals, wireless operating and radar operating and in these subjects can be assessed as well above average.” His tour completed, Mills joined van Renen and Hammond in heading for South Africa, where he flew as a signaller on Ansons with No 43 Air School at Port Alfred. Post-war, Arthur spent a long time with Coastal Command, then — having always been a keen sportsman, playing cricket for the RAF at Lords — six years as a physical training instructor at Cranwell. He received the MBE for that aspect of his service. Now aged 95, he returned to the Lincolnshire station this September, having been invited to sign No 57 Squadron’s wall of honour. The exploits of Mills’ wartime South African unit, and its unsung American aircraft, are deserving of their own honour. “The Baltimore was very reliable, and quite wellequipped”, states Arthur. “In the hands of a good pilot, it could handle itself, and van Renen was a very dedicated pilot. It was a fine aeroplane, but it’s very little mentioned. On one occasion we came back and landed safely with probably about 50 shell holes in the fuselage. You think, ‘Crikey, I wonder how they didn’t get me’.” Credit came from none other than Winston Churchill himself. On 22 February 1944, just two days after the sterling efforts over Rhodes harbour, he sent his personal congratulations to the Baltimore and Beaufighter units for their work in the Aegean. As for van Renen, he — having been posted away — was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross that September “for courage, determination and devotion to duty”. The epithet could, indeed, be applied to the whole of No 15 Squadron, SAAF.

LEFT: Flt Sgt Mills in front of some of landing ground 07’s tented accommodation, which proved rather susceptible to the stronger desert winds. VIA ARTHUR MILLS

ABOVE: Arthur Mills MBE on his visit to RAF Cranwell this past September. VIA ARTHUR MILLS

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FAIRCHILD PILGRIM

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If ever you needed proof of aviation’s role in providing lifelines for remote local communities, Alaska provides it — and few aircraft played a more pioneering role than this Fairchild Pilgrim WORDS: LT COL ROBERT ‘CRICKET’ RENNER, USAF (RET)

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PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN DIBBS

The Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum’s magnificent Fairchild Pilgrim 100A is the sole airworthy example of the type.

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FAIRCHILD PILGRIM

ABOVE: Despite its rather tubby appearance, those who fly the Pilgrim report that it handles rather nicely.

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ften seen in the skies of Anchorage, Alaska, during the last few years has been a large, rare, red bird. It is an aircraft that exudes 1930s American technology and nostalgia. It is slow, ungainly, and a throwback to another era — another era of transportation, aircraft design and, indeed, of life in the Last Frontier. It is the only Fairchild Pilgrim 100A in existence today, owned and operated by the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. Built by the Fairchild Aircraft Company at Farmingdale, Long Island, New York, the Pilgrim 100 was designed as a nine-passenger commercial aircraft with a single-seat cockpit for the pilot. Its first flight was on 22 October 1930, but only one Pilgrim 100 was constructed. Several modifications were made to the original design and 16 Pilgrim 100As were built for American Airways (later,

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American Airlines). The Pilgrim was the first aircraft with steam heating, luggage racks and a toilet. The American Aircraft & Engine Corporation emerged from the Fairchild Aircraft Company in 1931 and turned out an additional batch of 10 Pilgrims. Unfortunately, like many firms, it succumbed to the Great Depression of 1932 and went bankrupt. These 10 aircraft had a larger vertical stabiliser. Six of them were designated Pilgrim 100Bs and were also bought by American Airways. Although the Pilgrim was a reliable passenger aircraft, rapid technological advances in the 1930s meant American replaced them in 1936 with larger and faster equipment. The other four examples served in the US Army Air Corps as the Y1C-24. Initially used as light cargo transport and supply machines,

the Army adapted its Y1C-24s for aeromedical evacuation. In this role, the Pilgrim carried up to four litter patients, being assigned to pilot training airfields or fighter bases as crash rescue aircraft. The Army Air Corps retired the type in the late 1930s. The Pilgrim 100 prototype was powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp, but the Pilgrim 100A used a Pratt & Whitney Hornet B. The Pilgrim 100B was powered by a Wright R-1820 Cyclone driving a two-bladed propeller. The first Pilgrim flown to Alaska carries the registration N709Y. It was one of 13 that served there in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Alaskan bush pilots of the era such as Harold Gillam, Murrell W. Sasseen, Herbert Nicholson, Lucien ‘Frank’ Barr and Oscar Winchell flew Pilgrims in Alaska during this time of rapidly changing

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air transport capabilities and expanding service to far-flung, remote villages. They liked the Pilgrim for its ability to carry a large load into small airfields. Pilgrims hauled mail, freight and passengers to isolated communities throughout Alaska’s inhospitable terrain. The type’s durability enhanced its reputation as being ideally suited to the region’s needs. Used in Alaska well into the 1960s, Pilgrims were eventually replaced with more modern and powerful aircraft as spare parts became increasingly scarce. N709Y rolled off the production line in December 1931 as the fifth Pilgrim 100A built by the American Aircraft & Engine Corporation at Farmingdale. At some point it was converted into a Model 100B. In August 1936, Murrell W. Sasseen flew N709Y from East St Louis, Illinois, to

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Alaska for Alaska Air Express (AAE), which operated it until 1940 when Star Air Lines bought AAE. The carrier changed its name to Alaska Star Airlines in 1942, and became Alaska Airlines the following year. Before the US entered the war, N709Y served the cities of Anchorage and Juneau, as well as the Kuskokwim and Iditarod regions. In 1941, the Pilgrim was used for scheduled flights out of Anchorage, Cordova and Valdez, and for feeder services to remote fishing villages out of Sitka, Petersburg and Juneau. N709Y was used in the military build-up of Alaska to haul asphalt for the construction of airfields as American involvement in hostilities gathered pace. Rough landings near Yakutat, Iditarod and Bethel required various repairs. The aircraft was modified to incorporate a Wright Whirlwind engine driving a three-

blade propeller, which increased horsepower by 40 per cent. After the war, Pilgrim N709Y did not fly for a few years until it began carrying fish for salmon canneries in Alaska and Washington. The machine was owned by Bellingham Cannery, the Marine Packing Company and then Wenatchee Air Service until it was leased by the State of Washington in the 1960s as a fire-fighting aircraft. Acquired once again by Alaska Airlines in 1970, N709Y was used as an historic aircraft for public relations purposes. The Pilgrim was purchased during 1971 by the Shenk brothers, who employed it once again to carry salmon for canneries in Washington and Alaska. It was sold later the same year to Ball Brothers Fisheries of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Over time, fish slime and water corrosion ate away at the floorboard and belly stringers, and the Pilgrim

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FAIRCHILD PILGRIM

BELOW: The ski-equipped N709Y in service with Star Air Lines after it bought Alaska Air Express. NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

was grounded in the mid-1980s. Although N709Y was listed on the US National Register of Historic Places in 1986, it nevertheless slowly began to erode and decay. The Alaska Aviation Museum acquired the aircraft in 2001, and put it in to a long restoration. Terry Holliday, one of two current Pilgrim pilots as well as a highly skilled aircraft mechanic, “got involved in the project in the winter of 2012-13. The Pilgrim sat at Lake Hood for a long time and was just getting tattered. When it came to the museum, you could stick your finger through the steel tubing.” Along with a crew of dedicated volunteers, Terry “would work on the Pilgrim early in the morning. I’d go to my aircraft maintenance shop all day, then I’d go back to the museum in the evening. As things progressed, I signed it all off. My name’s the one in the logbook. “The wings and elevators were restored in Montana. We had to scrounge for parts over the years. The belly had to be built, because they had removed it for hauling fish. After we got the airplane back, we had to do a lot of work on the front of the aircraft. Mike Skupniewitze did a lot of work on the airplane. He worked on it every day and painted it.” One of the difficulties encountered was that all the paperwork “for the Fairchild airplanes burned in a warehouse fire. Also, we had to have the seats built, because there were no seats for it. We had to use [Ford] Trimotor seats because, out of all the Pilgrim wrecks, there were no seats.” Terry continues, “The fuselage is steel tubing with a wooden frame. If you didn’t know anything about building airplanes, you’d look at it and

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FLY THE PILGRIM

You can experience this piece of 1930s American technology by visiting the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum on the shores of Lake Hood in Anchorage, and by purchasing a flight in this historic aircraft. For further information, see www.alaskaairmuseum.org.

say, ‘What do I do now?’ The entire aircraft is fabric-covered. “The original wings would fold back to cross over the fuselage for storage. The flight controls are connected very simply. You could pull one pin and push the wings back over the fuselage. It was dirt-simple. The wings are metal, fabric-covered, with no twist or adjustment in [them]. Everything was made in a die, and the only tooling for it is in Germany. The wings are like a great erector set inside — everything is welded together. Also, we had to re-do the engine mount so it would fit.”

The restoration project took more than a decade and cost in excess of $1 million. Most of the funding for the restoration came from the Rasmussen Foundation and Alaska Airlines. Twenty-nine years after its last flight, the Pilgrim took to the air again in the summer of 2013. Selected as the Pilgrim’s pilot for its maiden post-restoration flight, Terry says, “It required a lot of little adjustments to get it to fly right. The original […] Wright engine [with a two-bladed propeller] made it a lot less nose-heavy.” Now 71 years old, Terry has been flying and working on aircraft since he was 15. He was recently recognised by the Federal Aviation Administration with two prestigious awards: the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 years of flying experience and the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award for 50 years as an aviation mechanic. He flew the Pilgrim parttime in the early 1970s in Yakutat. Terry says that he, “wasn’t getting paid for it. We were hauling fuel down the beach. Everyone knew each other, and we were helping the owner out. “The thing that gets to people about that airplane is its size and that you are up there by yourself. There is no-one to check you out in it. When flying the Pilgrim, you have to make

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Although the Pilgrim now flies with a reliable Pratt & Whitney R-1340 — the same engine as equips the North American T-6/SNJ/ Harvard and the de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter, among others — John warns that, “you don’t want to be moving the throttle a lot because of the geared three-bladed propeller.” On landing, he says the lack of flaps means it can “glide a bit if you don’t have it slowed down on landing. It can also be easy to touch the tailwheel first, and it will easily fly slower than you want to fly it.”

things happen, and lead with your feet. Also, there are no flaps. None of the Fairchild airplanes had flaps. With that big, thick wing, however, it slows down quickly. Interestingly, the elevator trim rod is one long, solid rod that runs along the roof of the aircraft all the way from the cockpit back to the horizontal [stabiliser]. “The Pilgrim is stable as long as you don’t have to make an immediate hard turn. The pilot has a very commanding view, and it is very easy to fly. You can literally put your feet on the floor and it’ll go straight down the runway as long as the wind’s not blowing. There is not much torque — that long fuselage keeps it streamlined.” John Hartke, a retired USAF fighter pilot who now flies Boeing 737s for Alaska Airlines, is the only other pilot checked out on the Pilgrim. He also flies a Ford Trimotor for the Experimental Aircraft Association. Comparing the two, John says, “The Trimotor flies like a dump truck, whereas the Pilgrim is more responsive. “Sitting in the cockpit, it looks and feels completely different than it does from outside. If I was going to design a cockpit today, I would look at the Pilgrim. The pilot sits high, in front of the wing. It’s a very commanding view, except you can’t see a single flight control surface. For a tailwheel airplane, you don’t need to S-turn because you have such a good view.

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“Also, the control stick is quite tall, so you have a lot of leverage on it. The flight controls are surprisingly well-harmonised, and there is not much adverse yaw. The Trimotor, on the other hand, has heavy ailerons. With the Pilgrim, the designers got close to ideal stick force ratios for an airplane this size with manual flight controls. It is certainly not a speedster, but it flies quite nicely. It has a big enough tail that is far enough from the centre of gravity to keep the aircraft straight. If you just let it do its thing, it’s very stable. “Compared to the Trimotor, you can fly for a similar length of time and carry a similar load. The Pilgrim, however, was more at the top end of Fairchild aircraft evolution, whereas the Trimotor was oriented towards airlines that were carrying more and more passengers. The brakes, however, are a weak link in the system. You taxi with differential brakes, but when you initially apply them they lag. So, it’s easy to overcontrol. You need the brakes but they just don’t work very well.” John says the Pilgrim has, “a whole lot of storage space, and a very large useful load. Legally, you can fly with almost anything you can fit into it. You can’t say that about many aircraft. It is not a real short-field aircraft, but you can easily take off with a full load from a 2,000ft gravel strip.”

Nevertheless, John admires the machine. “Having designed it only 27 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, Fairchild did pretty well with the Pilgrim. Its big wings give it the ability to lift large payloads out of small fields, and its rugged structure can take a lot of abuse. It’s not a sexylooking airplane, but it flies great and gives the pilot a great, commanding view.” In 2013, after the Pilgrim’s return to the air, the Alaska Air Show Association sponsored a flight of historic aircraft to tour around Alaska in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first aircraft flight in the state. During that trip, Terry Holliday encountered many people who fondly remembered Pilgrim N709Y, and the impact it had on their lives. He met, “a man who had a picture of his mother on top of the wing of the Pilgrim, pouring fuel into it out of a five-gallon can. The aircraft was on skis on the Kuskokwim River. His parents had owned the aircraft for a period of time.” On a later stop in Nome, Terry stayed with an elderly man who flew as a passenger in N709Y when he was only nine years old. And in the tiny, remote village of Unalakleet (population 688), one of the Inupiaq village elders recalled working on N709Y during the 1950s. This man was in his mid-90s. Many other people there remembered N709Y flying supplies and mail to their village. Although Fairchild and the American Aircraft & Engine Corporation only produced a little over two dozen Pilgrims, this unique aircraft made a significant impact on rural Alaska. And, at the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in Anchorage, this rare red gem is still making an impact by reminding visitors of a different time in the state’s history, as well as the vital importance of aviation there.

LEFT: In period Alaska Airlines colours, the Pilgrim represents an important part of the state’s immense aviation heritage.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Terry Holliday and John Hartke, and to the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum.

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HOOKS’ TOURS

Mike Hooks began his aviation photography career in 1945 with a simple box camera, moving on to an Ensign folding camera in about 1948, and later to a Voigtlander Vito B. He converted to colour in the 1950s, and went on to build one of the UK’s most extensive archives of Kodachrome transparencies

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKE HOOKS

KLEMM Kl 35D

The very attractive gull-winged German wartime primary trainer has proved a popular post-war private owner mount MAIN PICTURE: Having its prop swung at SaarbrückenEnsheim on 8 August 1959, Kl 35D D-ELOX had an enclosed cockpit and a glider-towing hook, but an uninspiring colour scheme! One of 88 received by Sweden’s Flygvapnet as the Sk 15 with serials from Fv 5001 onwards — this example was Fv 5040 — it is today believed to be under restoration in Germany.

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Visiting the Schaffen-Diest Fly-in during July 1994, D-ECCI was formerly SE-BHX/Fv 5069. It suffered a ditching in the sea in 1997 and was taken to Hoogeveen for rebuild, being based at that Dutch airfield and kept airworthy to this day.

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Work being carried out on the engine of colourful D-EKEN (the former Fv 5059 and SE-BGW) at Bonn-Hangelar on 16 June 1958 with an SG 38 primary glider in the background.

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Jammed in a tight corner at Baden-Baden on 22 September 1966, D-EJUL illustrates that the Kl 35D’s cockpit doors could be opened on both sides. It later became HB-UBK (shown separately).

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A competitor in the World Aerobatic Championships at Hullavington in July 1970, single-seat D-EDUX was labelled ‘Super Klemm Akrobat Spezial’ and featured a sunburst pattern on the wings.

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A well-known Kl 35 on the vintage scene was HB-UBK (exD-EJUL, SE-BGB and Fv 5029), pictured at the PFA Rally at Cranfield in July 1983. It was badly damaged in a forced landing at South Mimms, near Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, on 6 July 2016 and is under restoration in Switzerland.

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Between having his wings pinned on by Lord Trenchard in 1949 to retirement in 1978, Wing Commander H. T. Price DFC flew over 550 individual aircraft – among which were 158 Meteors, 70 Vampires, 131 Hunters, and 60 helicopters of various types (notably the Whirlwind 10). He crashed one aircraft, brought five back against the odds (including engine failures over the North Sea and over the Borneo jungle), and had many close shaves. All are mentioned in the book. Copies may be obtained for £10 (including P&P) from D Price, 23 Glynrosa Road, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL53 8QS

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DATABASE IN-DEPTH PAGES

CA-27 Sabre Mk32 A94-983/ VH-IPN, owned by the Australian Defence Forces and operated by the Temora Aviation Museum.

WORDS: JAMES KIGHTLY

Development

CAC SABRE

GAVIN CONROY

Technical Details In Service

● Adapting a legendary fighter design ● In service, home and away ● A great ‘pilot’s aeroplane’

Insights Sabre A94-915 of No 2(F) OCU’s Marksmen aerobatic team. CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY

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DEVELOPMENT CAC AVON SABRE The prototype CAC Sabre, CA-26 A94-101, airborne with fuselage-side airbrakes deployed and ‘P for prototype’ markings prominent. KEY COLLECTION

Creating the Australian Sabre

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he North American F-86 Sabre is unarguably one of the great fighters in history. It was a fine design, the balance between the primary requirements of firepower, speed and manoeuvrability being near-perfect. Nevertheless, improvements were made, initially to gain altitude performance and speed for fighting MiG-15s in Korea. The Canadian company Canadair licence-built the F-86 and this derivative was also regarded as an excellent fighter, being adopted by the RAF and Pakistan, the latter using it in combat. North American Aviation (NAA) developed various further versions and ultimately the all-new F-100 Super Sabre. But prior to that new type, the most powerful variant of the F-86 was created in Australia. In the late 1940s, the Royal Australian Air Force needed to replace the obsolete Mustang with a modern jet, the de Havilland Vampire then in use being regarded throughout as an interim type. The need was urgent, due to the Korean War. A serious proposal to buy enough NAA-built Sabres to equip No 77 Squadron, RAAF, for Korean combat was floated

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during 1950, but was scotched by a lack of US dollar finance and the pro-British lobby, as well as a shortage of actual Sabres available from American production. In 1953, it should be noted, the South African Air Force was loaned a squadron’s worth of NAA Sabres in Korea. The RAAF was given Gloster Meteor F8s, which arrived in 1951, instead. Due to the performance difference and poor tactics against the MiG-15, several Meteor losses resulted in No

towards the island steppingstones of the East Indies and the restless spawning millions of Asia and Indonesia”. But, he added, “Australia’s rapidly expanding engineering industries are not yet capable, without completely unbalancing the national economy, of making and maintaining all the aircraft and engines and me countless items of aircraft equipment required by the RAAF and the RAN [Royal Australian Navy] either in peace or in war.”

A serious proposal to buy NAA-built Sabres for Korean combat was floated, but scotched by a lack of dollar finance and the pro-British lobby 77 Squadron being redeployed on ground attack operations, much to the pilots’ fury. Beyond the Korean War, there were other anxieties. As the Australian Minister for Defence Production, the Rt Hon Sir Eric Harrison KCVO MP, said, “Australia’s 9,000,000 people occupy effectively only a portion of their vast island continent, with much of its 12,000 miles of coastline curving upward invitingly in a great arc

Australia’s Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Pty Ltd (CAC), despite a political and social expectation to ‘buy British’, had established a long-term relationship with NAA. It dated back to CAC’s establishment in 1936 with the production of the Wirraway, developed from an early type in what became NAA’s T-6 family. In the later part of World War Two, an unprecedented agreement was reached to licence-build the P-51D Mustang in

Australia, the only country outside the USA to do so. CAC was the natural company to build Australia’s next fighter. In fact, CAC had been voted £A5 million in 1949 for a design study and development of a two-seat all-weather fighter with a pair of Rolls-Royce Tay turbojets. Designated the CA-23, it had swept wings and tail, and a radar nose. This remarkably ambitious project was eventually abandoned as a result of a change of policy, but not before the Australian government and air force chiefs had agreed that a much more straightforward day fighter option would do. A Hawker fighter was their preferred choice, having failed to obtain a response in the US after enquiring about the Grumman Panther. Initially focussed on the Hawker P1052, they switched to the P1081. The P1052 design, ultimately never to be fully developed, was an interim step between the successful Hawker Sea Hawk and the Hunter, the P1081 being a swept-wing, straight-through exhaust version. In February 1950, the Australian government placed a £30,000 deposit with Hawker Siddeley to licence-build 72 examples

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CAC engineer Ian Ring explained in November 1953 that only about 40 per cent of the original NAA fuselage structure remained with an identical wing and empennage, but to fit the Rolls-Royce Avon engine and two cannon rather than six machine guns the original fuselage was heavily redesigned. The Avon was new, its design still being finalised, and so secret that even the tooling data needed by Australia had to go via diplomatic bag. It’s to Rolls-Royce’s credit that the development of its first complete axial-flow turbojet proceeded as smoothly as it did. The close co-operation between CAC

Insights

Returning to Australia in December 1950, Wackett recommended to the RAAF that the Hawker design option be cancelled and the Avonengined Sabre licenceproduced instead, armed with two new 30mm ADEN cannon. Having convinced the RAAF Chief of the Air Staff at the time, Air Marshal George Jones — alongside whom Wackett had served in World War One — the Sabre project had a critical champion at the top of the air force. When the Australians stated they wished to cancel the proposed order

and Rolls-Royce, despite being half a world apart, resulted in the licenceproduction of the engine at the CAC-operated government plant at Lidcombe, New South Wales, for Australian Canberras and Sabres being an outstanding success. In the end, CAC Lidcombe made 52 Mk20 and 75 Mk26 RA-7 Avon engines for Sabres, plus Mk109 models for Canberras. CAC engineer Ian Ring, in charge of the Sabre project, explained in a paper in November 1953 that only about 40 per cent of the original NAA fuselage structure remained. “As the larger Avon engine consumes some 25 per cent more air than its smaller General Electric counterpart”, he wrote, “it was necessary to increase the size of the intake duct correspondingly. Initially, this appeared to present serious difficulties but a simple solution was achieved, in that the front fuselage was split horizontally and a wedge of structure was inserted in the split, thus dropping the lower line of the fuselage some three-and-a-half inches at the front. In order to utilise as much of the original structure as possible in this change, the fuselage frames in the region of the nose had, in most cases, extension pieces let into

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for the P1081, Hawker welcomed its being dropped and refunded the deposit, accepting that the Hunter was out of consideration as the next RAAF fighter when up against the Sabre due to the development time that it still expected. Wackett had, again, changed the government’s and air force’s minds for them. In February 1951 CAC won the contract to produce one prototype ‘Avon Sabre’ and, initially, 70 production aircraft. The CAC-built Sabre was based on the F-86F model,

Technical Details

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NAA — by this stage a trusted friend and colleague — he decided that the Sabre, then in production, was clearly the best option, though it’s not clear how much he was cognisant of what a challenge re-engining it with the Avon was likely to be. It was an attractive change, however, as the Avon was 19kg lighter than the General Electric J47-13 (as used in the F-86E under initial consideration) and had 7,500lb static thrust compared with the 5,200lb of the GE jet.

Development

of the P1081 at the CAC factory, and the type prefix of A86 was allocated (each Australian military type serial is given an in-sequence number). Having been used to advising government and the RAAF on what they should buy, the autocratic head of CAC, Lawrence Wackett DFC AFC, was unimpressed. He took on the matter with his usual energy, visiting the UK with the government’s director of aircraft production, Victor Letcher, in late 1950. Wackett quickly found that Hawker’s interest had moved on to a project known as ‘F3’, which was to become the Hunter, and that the P1052 and P1081 were “solely research aircraft on which no more has been spent than sufficient for certain highspeed flying experiments”. In the cable sent back to CAC, he went on to note that the F3 may well mature, and that the Rolls-Royce Avon (already chosen for Australia’s English Electric Canberras) could be adopted for it rather than using the Nene proposed for the P1081. At this stage he favoured the F3, and Hawker was more than happy to drop work on the otherwise orphaned ‘P’ projects, but Wackett finished by stating, “Notwithstanding consider it advisable to inspect North American Sabre on return route in order to have basis comparison.” Soon afterwards he viewed the Supermarine 541 and dismissed it, stating in a subsequent cable, “It is quite possible I shall find the Sabre is in fact the best of all. May be possible to fit the Avon in the Sabre and produce in Australia much sooner than F3. Letcher shutting eyes to this possibility by hastening through USA without visiting North American Aviation with me.” Rolls-Royce was very keen to have one of its engines go into an American aircraft. When Wackett had discussed the idea with Lord Hives of Rolls-Royce during the November 1950 visit, and when Wackett met with James H. ‘Dutch’ Kindelberger of

ABOVE: A94-901 was the initial production CA-27 Mk30, handed over to the RAAF in August 1954. CAC

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DEVELOPMENT CAC AVON SABRE

ABOVE: Aircraft Research and Development Unit test pilot Flt Lt Dick Wittmann DFC over Laverton during the first trials of the AIM-9 Sidewinder AAM on the Avon Sabre. KEY COLLECTION

their sides — completely new frames were necessary only in special cases dictated by the change in the guns. The split in the duct was covered by a wedge-shaped strip of skin and the gap in the outer surface was covered by extensions to the skin panels. This comparatively simple modification left undisturbed the complex cockpit arrangements and the nosewheel fittings in the lower half of the fuselage, thus saving hundreds of hours of engineering and tooling time. This arrangement had a secondary beneficial effect in that it improved the take-off performance since it lowered the nosewheel pivot with respect to the wing datum, thus increasing the static angle of attack of the wing.”

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It is interesting that when Rolls-Royce requested data on the intake in 1953 for its exploration of the increasingly complex area of engine capability and performance, it found the CAC Sabre’s intake tunnel as derived from the NAA version to be, “one of the most efficient intakes then in service”. However, more redesign work was required in the rear fuselage, described separately in the ‘Technical Details’ section. The prototype Avonpowered Sabre, serial A94‑101, flew on 3 August

1953. It was piloted by the RAAF pilot seconded to CAC, Flt Lt W. H. ‘Bill’ Scott, who took the aircraft to 17,000ft on that occasion. Testing took place at Avalon airfield in Victoria, and on 21 August 1953 it became the first aircraft in Australia to exceed the speed of sound, Scott diving the machine from 42,000 to 36,000ft. Another notable ‘bang’ occurred on the occasion of the first official test flight in front of the Prime Minister Robert Menzies, Minister for Defence Production Eric Harrison, CAC

In hindsight the CAC Sabre’s first official flight was the high water mark of Australian military aircraft design and production

directors, other VIPs and about 5,000 spectators at RAAF Laverton, Victoria. In hindsight this was the high water mark of Australian military aircraft design and production, with the first of the Australian-built Government Aircraft Factory (GAF) Canberras, also Avonpowered, having flown just three months earlier. Flight noted at the time how the first Avon Sabre prototype, “was not entirely Australianbuilt”. Some parts were imported, as were the first Avon engines, until Australian equipment was available for the more complex production elements. “In 90 flights no aerodynamic snags had been met or modifications called for”, the piece went on. “This is, of course, by far the most ambitious project so far undertaken by CAC, and the cost of each aircraft has been estimated as A£250,000.” The first production examples were delayed due to an incident on 16 June 1954 when aircraft inspector Raymond Santos was sucked into an engine intake, luckily escaping serious injury. Instructions were later issued to the groundcrews and aircrews of the Sabres initially issued to the Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) at Laverton that, “no person must approach within 25ft of the front or 200ft of the rear when the engine is running”, while “mesh screens are to be placed over the intake during the ground running of the engine.” The Sabre replaced the Mustang on CAC’s line, necessitating changes in production capability and the factory layout. New processes, among others, included skin dimpling, flush riveting and wing skin sculpting, making the plant the most advanced in the southern hemisphere. When the first production Sabre, A94-901, was presented for hand-over to the RAAF on 18 August 1954, the day was turned into a fete with three Sabres on show (prototype A94-101 and the first two production examples) as well as previous Australianproduced aircraft: the Tiger

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into the engine. An extensive test programme was undertaken both by CAC in Australia and Rolls-Royce in the UK. It required a complex fix, involving the gun blast nozzle being heavily redesigned to incorporate baffles, an increase in the engine’s turbine nozzle area, which increased the surge margin, and an increase in rpm restoring the thrust, coupled with a fuel dipping valve that was linked to the guns’ firing mechanism. As is well known, Hawker faced the same problem with the gun and engine combination with the Hunter. Strangely, while CAC solved its problem first, no information seems to have been shared with Hawker, even though Rolls-Royce was involved.

Two Sabres (A94-915 and -922) were tested with early versions of the British de Havilland Firestreak missile, then known as the Blue Jay, at the Woomera Rocket Range in South Australia during 1957. The Firestreak required fire control equipment to be fitted to the Sabre in an underfuselage pack, together with a ventral fin. Ultimately the simpler and more effective American AIM-9 Sidewinder was chosen instead. A late deal for 21 more Sabres was mainly placed to keep some skilled staff at CAC while the potential repercussions from British defence minister Duncan Sandys’ 1957 White Paper went through. Procurement finally topped out at 111 plus one prototype. The prototype, the only CA-26 model, was at first retained by CAC for development work, later going to the RAAF’s School of Technical Training at Wagga Wagga, NSW, and thence to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook, Victoria, where it remains on display. Early hopes for increased orders were first quashed by the end of the Korean War — 17 Sabre squadrons were unrealistically being suggested by policymakers at one stage. Though the type’s replacement, the Mirage IIIO, was much delayed, Sabre numbers remained adequate for the government’s budget. All earlier Sabres in use were modified to CA-32 standard, and retrospectively fitted with the CAC Avon Mk26 engine, first installed in A94-973. The last CAC Sabre, A94-371, completed acceptance trials on 19 December 1961.

Insights

extra fuel tankage in the solid leading edge, as trialled on two of the Mk31 versions. This finally increased capacity from 1,600 to 1,873 litres. Four hardpoints per wing allowed both longer-range tanks and bombs or other stores to be carried simultaneously, the earlier models having only one hardpoint per wing. Finally, the Avon was now surge-free. Operational experience using Sabres at high altitude in northern Australia discovered a compressor surge issue with the Avon in low temperatures nearer the equator at tropopause altitudes of -80°C rather than the normal -56°C. For the Sabre, firing the guns at altitude compounded the problem as the combustible high-velocity gasses from the cannon muzzles were drawn

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ABOVE: Trials of de Havilland’s Firestreak heat-seeking air-to-air missile for possible RAAF Sabre use were conducted at Woomera using two aircraft, including A94-915. VIA JAMES KIGHTLY

Technical Details

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Development

Moth, the Winjeel trainer, the Wirraway, Mustang, Beaufighter, Canberra, Lincoln and Australia’s first jet design, the GAF Jindivik target drone. Two of the Sabres were flown in aerobatic displays, including the now obligatory supersonic dives. Also in 1954, after a remarkable run advising (some would say telling) air force and government about aircraft purchases, Wackett was knighted. The Sabres were built at Fishermans Bend, Victoria, the original 1936 factory that now found itself on the outskirts of Melbourne, but flying had to be undertaken from the newly acquired airfield further around the bay at Avalon. The Sabres were built and checked, then split at the fuselage joint and loaded sideways onto trucks and taken down the Geelong Road in the early morning, facilitated by the removal of signs and obstacles en route. These early examples were CA-27 Sabre Mk30s, of which 22 were built. The following version, the Mk31, had a significant change with a redesigned wing, 20 being delivered between July 1955 and September 1956. Generally known as the ‘six-three’ wing, as also used on the later NAA and Canadair versions, it replaced the leading-edge slats with a ‘solid’ wing that had the chord increased by 6in at the root and 3in at the tip, and with a mid-span wing fence on the upper surface. The advantage of the solid wing was a higher top speed and greater stability through avoiding occasional asymmetric slat activation while manoeuvring at altitude, notably at high Mach, but it meant a higher landing speed as a result of the increased stalling speed. Mk30 Sabres were themselves upgraded to Mk31 standard as they went through major servicing. The last version was the Mk32, the first of 69 being delivered in September 1956. Produced in three separate batches, the last Sabre was rolled out before the end of 1961. The wing was upgraded still further, with

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TECHNICAL DETAILS CAC AVON SABRE

ABOVE: The metal frame mock-up used by CAC to help test the changes to the basic F-86F design. CAC

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Adapting a winning design

an Ring, a senior engineer with CAC, described the changes to the basic F-86F aft of the nose modifications mentioned previously: “The Avon engine has much the same dimensions as the General Electric J47, but the mounting points are very different and the weight much reduced. Consequently, it had to be positioned much further aft in the fuselage in order to preserve the original centre of gravity position. In order to have the Avon engine completely supported within the forward portion of the fuselage it was necessary to move the transport joint rearwards to the new location of the engine mounting

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trunnions — thus the rear portion of the fuselage was shortened by some 26 inches and the forward fuselage lengthened by a corresponding amount in order to preserve the original length of fuselage.” As well as the factors Ring mentioned, there was a need for fume venting in the Avon’s forward, cool section, and cooling airflow to protect the airframe around the hot aft section, to temperatures below 200°F (93°C). A set of

vents and an ejector pump for the forward section and a light air pump powered by bleed air from the engine in the aft section were used, “entraining sufficient air from the annulus to produce the necessary cooling airflow from within the fuselage”. This pump was connected to the undercarriage position, so it was only operational when the undercarriage was extended, avoiding a waste of compressor air in flight where ram air was available.

The Avon had to be positioned much further aft in the Sabre’s fuselage than the J47 in order to preserve the original centre of gravity

The fuselage between the aft wing spar and the new fuselage break point transport joint was an entirely new design within the original lines. The Avon could not support the rear fuselage cantilever-fashion with its tailpipe as the J47 partly did, so the fuselage aft of the break point had to be redesigned to be both self-supporting and to take inertia and empennage flight loads. The other major change was the choice of two 30mm cannon rather than six half-inch Browning machine guns. When the CAC Sabre was new, these cannon were secret. Four 20mm Hispano cannon were considered, but

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TECHNICAL DETAILS CAC AVON SABRE SPECIFICATIONS: CA-27 SABRE Mk32 POWERPLANT:

One CAC/Rolls-Royce Avon 26 turbojet, 7,500lb thrust 37ft 6in (11.43m) 37ft 1in (11.3m) 14ft 5in (4.39m) 302.3sq ft (28.1sq m)

WEIGHTS: Empty: Loaded: Max take-off:

12,000lb (5,443kg) 17,720lb (8038kg) 21,210lb (9,621kg)

PERFORMANCE: Maximum speed: Maximum ferry range: Service ceiling:

700mph (1,126km/h, 605kt) at sea level 1,153 miles (1,850km) 52,000ft (15,850m)

ARMAMENT: Guns:

proposed modifications or changes tested in position. As a result, the usual prototype snags were found and overcome early and more

Insights

metal fuselage structure mock-up, the actual equipment to be used being installed and the metal ribs and stringers with the

In Service

Missiles: Other:

Two 30mm (1.18in) ADEN cannon with up to 324 rounds Two AIM-9 Sidewinders 24 Hispano SURA R80 80mm rockets, up to 5,300lb (2,400kg) payload, including 1,000lb (454kg) bombs on four external hardpoints; inner hardpoint usually carried two 200-gallon drop tanks

Technical Details

DIMENSIONS: Length: Span: Height: Wing area:

easily fixed, and the piping and plumbing was even ready before the first fuselage was completed. This skeleton was also employed as a tool to train up the key assembly staff for the first production batch. Another fuselage dummy was created featuring all the aspects of the revised cooling and internal airflow system. It was shipped to Rolls-Royce in England to be tested with an Avon engine fitted in a static rig under “all conditions of engine thrust”. One of the first fuselages built was used for static testing by hydraulic rams, with the result that the changes required in relation to both the Avon engine and ADEN cannon — which effectively resulted in a new stress calculation set — passed the load and strength capability easily. As a result of this threestage mock-up process, CAC was able to take a complex task (one measure noted 268 engineering changes) and go through it quickly and, ultimately, completely effectively. The Avon Sabre’s fuselage never needed any structural modification from this design stage onwards.

Development

the then new Royal Small Arms Factory ADEN revolver cannon was regarded as the weapon for future fighters in Britain, and was attractive to Australia as a cutting-edge gun. CAC was given a pre-production ADEN from the UK to assist in the development of the gun bays and fitment in the fuselage design. Other changes were a revised cockpit layout (though retaining the NAA-type ejection seat design, with unfortunate later consequences) an increase in the fuel load and the addition of a Plessey isopropyl nitrate liquid fuel combustion starter, which allowed the aircraft to be started without an external power source. This replaced the engine’s cartridge start mechanism as used on the Canberra, which was judged unsuitable for the Sabre. One of the most notable aspects of this unusual reconfiguration job was that CAC chose firstly to trial the new shape and equipment with a wooden mock-up, equipment being represented by wooden blocks. This was replaced in the design process with a skeletal, unskinned

BELOW: No 75 Squadron Sabre A94-964 exhibited with the range of armament able to be carried by the type. RAAF

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TECHNICAL DETAILS CAC AVON SABRE CA-26 SABRE PROTOTYPE

CA-27 SABRE

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IN SERVICE CAC AVON SABRE Development Technical Details In Service

No 3 Squadron began receiving its CA-27s at RAAFB Williamtown in March 1956. KEY COLLECTION

Insights

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Operational home and away

n April 1953, Flight reported how training courses for RAAF Sabre groundcrews and aircrew were under way, the pilots undertaking a specialised two-week conversion course. Two Sabre flight simulators were ordered that July at a cost of nearly A£200,000 each, one going to No 2 (Fighter) Operational Conversion Unit at Williamtown, the other as a mobile unit to be based with different squadrons. After a display the previous day at RAAF Richmond, NSW, on 19 September 1954 the initial production Sabre, A94-901, was flown to RAAF Amberley in Queensland, a distance of more than 400 miles, in 44 minutes 31 seconds. December saw the first operational jet, A94-905, being handed over to Wg Cdr R. C. Cresswell, commanding officer of No 2(F) OTU. Three more were to follow from the ARDU, which had been evaluating them.

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With the Korean War ceasefire in place, the need for Sabres had decreased dramatically. The first operational RAAF unit to receive the type was No 75 Squadron in April 1955, with No 3 Squadron following suit in March 1956 and 77 likewise later that year. Fourth in line was No 76 Squadron, which took on Sabres in 1960. All

were significantly upgraded. Getting the short-legged Sabres there was a challenge, addressed by November 1958’s Operation ‘Sabre Ferry’. The route of some 6,000 miles went via Garbutt, Townsville and Darwin in Australia, thence to Biak in Dutch New Guinea, Guiuan in the south Philippines and Labuan in the then British Borneo before

The Butterworth deployment was in response to growing communist influence in the region, but getting the Sabres there was a challenge these units were initially stationed at Williamtown under No 78 Wing, though 3 and 77 were soon deployed to Australia’s main overseas air force base at Butterworth, Malaysia. The Butterworth deployment was in response to the growing communist influence in the region, and the facilities at the basic, former RAF base

arriving. Of 21 Sabres that left Williamtown, two spares stopped at Darwin, while the remainder flew on for several days. They were largely in flights of four, though there was one of three. Support came from high-flying Canberras providing weather information and Dakotas on search and rescue duties. These were followed by No 77

Squadron’s 16 Sabres (plus another two spares that went as far as Darwin) in February 1959. The two squadrons’ aircraft were supported by No 478 Maintenance Squadron. Responding to the Malayan emergency, the Sabre’s only combat action in RAAF service involved two inconclusive attacks on the jungle, the missions being codenamed ‘Firedog’ One and Two. The first of them saw both squadrons bombing a suspected communist position on 13 August 1959. The second was a much more complex effort. In June 1960, one flight of Sabres was to make ‘bombing runs’ and a higher flight creating sonic booms to simulate the ‘bombs’ exploding, whereupon the British Army’s Gurkha troops would move in and deal with the ‘terrified’ communists. A delay in the ground force’s action resulted in all but three of the communists escaping, and

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IN SERVICE CAC AVON SABRE

ABOVE: A USAF exchange pilot is in the cockpit of the Sabre nearest the camera. All these aircraft were based at Williamtown with No 78 Wing. KEY COLLECTION

a month later the whole emergency was declared over. In 1963-64, acute tensions with the aggressive Sukarnoled Indonesia meant that expectations of a shooting war were high. Sabres were scrambled on several occasions as Indonesian Air Force MiG-21s approached Malaysian airspace, but the Indonesian aircraft always turned back before crossing the border. The No 78 Wing Sabres had, in the meantime, been equipped with the Sidewinder missile. CAC Sabres found themselves close to ‘hot’ wars on several further occasions. One rather strange episode involved those based at Ubon. Australia was a combatant nation in the Vietnam War,

ABOVE: Lancaster VII NX611 being escorted on its delivery flight to the UK in 1965 by No 78 Wing Sabres from Butterworth. KEY COLLECTION

with military forces from its army, navy and air force. But at the Thai airfield of Ubon was an anomalous RAAF Sabre unit, deployed in 1962 to support the sovereignty of Thailand’s airspace in the face of threats from communist forces in Vietnam. It was part of Australia’s contribution to

defending fellow South-east Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) member countries. On arrival, the Sabre detachment had personnel billeted in tents while the Australian No 5 Airfield Construction Squadron upgraded the airfield to the jet force’s requirements.

BLOTS ON THE COPYBOOK

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hough a generally benign flying the canopy back and jettisoned it by machine and popular with its using the right hand-grip while tucking his pilots, there were challenges head down. After that, he raised and flying the Sabre. One was braced himself upright, chin tucked in, pilot-induced oscillations (PIOs). A lack of locked the harness with his left hand-grip, airspeed compensation in the power and squeezed the trigger, firing the seat controls and a mismatch in the dynamic catapult. Once clear, the pilot had to stability and control input phasing could release his safety harness, kick away from cause a pilot to make repeated pitch the seat and then manually open his divergences (phugoids) worse rather than parachute, either straight away or once better. At higher speeds, sometimes he had descended to a safe altitude if caused by the known — but critical — from a high-level ejection. pitch-up from the operation of the speed On 12 April 1960, pilot Sgt R. Holding brakes or combat-type reported smoke in the manoeuvring, the rapid cockpit shortly after onset of PIOtaking off from At higher speeds exacerbated phugoids Williamtown in Sabre the onset of pilotcould cause the wings to A94-937. He apparently induced oscillation‘clap hands’ above the started the ejection exacerbated phugoids sequence but he was fuselage as they broke could cause the wings off, as happened on at struck on the head by the least one occasion with canopy. The aircraft to ‘clap hands’ as they fatal consequences to rolled inverted with broke off the pilot of A94-360 in Holding falling out of the November 1961. aircraft as his seat There were other issues. On 12 harness was not fully secured, and he was September 1957, Flt Lt G. A. Boord killed. More tragically, subsequent successfully ejected from a Sabre 10,000ft investigations believed that the smoke over the sea near Williamtown after the seen was probably fog from the air controls stopped responding in a dive. conditioning system. This was the second A94-917 was the first CAC Sabre lost and of three fatal attempted ejections, all in the first ejection from the type. The early 1960, in which the pilot was hit on NAA-developed ejection seat fitted to the head by the low canopy arch. The the variant was a first-generation model, basic nature of the seat type resulted in and was very basic, more akin to an assist questions being asked in parliament, but, to bail out than a modern ejection seat despite political assurances, improved and useless below 1,000ft. To eject, the seats were never fitted during the Sabre’s pilot activated emergency oxygen, slid operational era with the RAAF. A

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modification was devised whereby the canopy glazing was instead shattered by a spring-loaded bolt. Evan ‘Willie’ Williams was one of the air force team involved. “Sqn Ldr Dick Saunders and I worked day and night one weekend to come up with ideas about safe ejection from the aircraft, and had by Monday of that weekend decided that we could satisfactorily weaken the canopy to allow the seat and pilot to punch through. We had made Perspex frames and tried various shapes of breaker bolt heads with various springs […] to obtain the desired effect. Finally we fabricated a frame we could attach to the back of the seat complete with breaker bolt.” The informal team, “took 25 canopies to Wagga for use in the static firing trials using the old A94-101 prototype Sabre nose, and firing the seat which was caught in a landing net suspended by two cranes. We had a fully articulated dummy, suited and helmeted, with pig underbelly sewn on upper thighs, arms, shoulders, etc. All these firings were successful and it was concluded that a modification should be introduced to allow this ejection sequence to be applied.” Groundcrews implemented the mod on operational Sabres, kits being supplied from Australia for the aircraft stationed out at Butterworth, Malaysia. It was proven effective soon after, safe ejections being made on 27 July 1960 from Sabres A94-961 and A94-976 after the pair collided in mid-air.

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Development Technical Details

ABOVE: These two Sabres, led by A94-951, display the later markings of No 2(F) OTU. KEY COLLECTION

ABOVE: A colourful scheme on A94-958 during its time with No 3 Squadron operating out of Butterworth. RAAF

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ABOVE: The former A94-983 became FM1983 with No 11 Squadron, Royal Malaysian Air Force. VIA JAMES KIGHTLY

FOREIGN SALES

I

n 1954, CAC was approached by the Indian government via the USA about the purchase of new-build Sabres, and on 2 July His Excellency Gen K. M. Cariappa, the Indian high commissioner, visited the CAC factory. There was the mutually advantageous prospect of a reduced unit cost for each CAC Sabre through extending the production run, but hopes were eventually quashed by the Department of Defence Production, which vetoed the sale. Eighteen ex-RAAF Sabres were donated to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia, TUDM) between 1969 and 1972. The initial 10 went into operation as No 11 Squadron, the country’s first fighter unit of its own. Those aircraft formed part of a delivery that further took in spare parts, a Sabre simulator, and 90 RAAF personnel to train the Malaysians at Butterworth. The gift was stated as costing A$10 million. Two more Sabres were supplied as non-flying training aids, and later another six airworthy Sabres were delivered before the advisory flight was disbanded in 1972. One ex-Malaysian Sabre, FM1983, was restored to flight by an RAAF volunteer team at Butterworth and later returned to Australia in airworthy condition with its original serial A94-983, as mentioned overleaf. Once tensions had eased between Australia and Indonesia, from 1973-75 the Indonesian Air Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Udara, TNI-AU) recovered from the collapse of its Soviet-era support in part by re-equipping with former RAAF Sabres, replacing unserviceable MiG-21s. Of the 23 Sabres supplied, five came later from Malaysian stock. Some 150 Indonesian personnel for the Sabre fleet were trained by the RAAF at Williamtown, while the Pakistani Air Force subsequently assumed training responsibility for the pilots as part of wider support of the TNI-AU. The type remained in TNI-AU use until 1982, when it was replaced by the Northrop F-5E Tiger II. Most survivors were sold to the USA where they were stored. As noted by the ADF Serials researchers, at least two of the TNI-AU machines, the former A94-978 and A94-987, served in all the type’s theatres of operation and with all three air forces that flew the CAC Sabre.

Insights

facilities of the airfield were upgraded and a detachment of RAAF airfield defence guards deployed. While No 79 Squadron officially defended Thai airspace, it was also used in the remarkable role of simulating North Vietnamese MiG-17-type attacks on USAF aircraft such as F-4 Phantoms exiting the war zone en route back to Ubon. Amazingly, despite the potential for accidents or ‘friendly fire’ incidents, this post-combat training enhancement seemed to have been popular and effective for both the American and Australian aircrews. An attempt to get 79 involved in the war itself was tried by the Americans, with an invitation to join the covert USAF attacks mounted out of Ubon on the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. When asked, the Thai government was prepared to allow the operations, as long as they were not publicly acknowledged, but in early 1966 the Australian cabinet decided against the idea. By 1968, the RAAF’s role was effectively unviable. With the USAF having enough — and more modern — fighters in theatre to defend its

In Service

The Sabres hailed from No 77 Squadron, then based at Butterworth. The detachment was quickly designated as No 79 Squadron after its arrival in May 1962, and with tensions in the area high the squadron members regarded themselves as being on a full war footing. The unit maintained two Sabres at two-minute armed readiness at all times from June 1962, and they were regularly scrambled against unknown aircraft coming into Thai airspace, though the Sabres themselves were not supposed to fly over the borders with neighbouring Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos. These ‘bogeys’ usually turned out to be covert CIA-funded Air America aircraft. The intensity of the Vietnam conflict was ramping up, and other Australian forces were committed there. By June 1965 the RAAF Sabre presence defending Thailand was part of a co-ordinated defence system controlled by the US Air Force detachment, which had arrived that year. Recognising that meant the North Vietnamese could regard this operation as part of the air campaign against them, so the defensive

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IN SERVICE CAC AVON SABRE interests at Ubon, and No 79 Squadron limited from pursuing intruders beyond Thai airspace as part of its rules of engagement, the Americans naturally wished to use their own forces without such restrictions. 79 was taken off alert status and disbanded by the end of July 1968. Only one Sabre, A94-986, was lost in the period, crashing after engine failure. Plt Off Mike McGrath was killed, along with a three-year-old Thai girl. Another potentially ‘hot war’ that fortunately did not escalate was in North Borneo during October-November 1965, when six Sabres of No 77 Squadron — led by the CO, Wg Cdr Les Reading, and with a 35-member maintenance party — deployed from Butterworth via Changi, Singapore, to the island of Labuan. There they took over from the Hunters of No 20 Squadron, RAF, which had been carrying out low-altitude armed patrols along the IndonesianKalimantan border with the Malay state of Sabah. This was an attempt to catch Indonesian P-51 Mustangs, which had been harassing and

attacking Malaysian villages in the border area during the ‘konfrontasi’ crisis with Indonesia. No combats eventuated. The home-based Sabres of Nos 75 and 76 Squadrons were replaced by Government Aircraft Factory-built Dassault Mirage IIIs in 1965 and 1966 respectively. The last Australian unit to fly the CAC aircraft was No 5 OTU for pilot currency purposes while awaiting enough two-seat Mirages to come on strength. The Sabre officially finishing its flying career with the RAAF on the last day of July 1971. However, one CAC Sabre remains on strength with the Australian Defence Forces (ADF), through the RAAF Museum: this is A94-983/ VH-IPN, an out-of-sequence registration acknowledging the aircraft’s isopropyl nitrate starter. It is maintained and operated by the Temora Aviation Museum in New South Wales. This aircraft is not currently flying, pending a revision to the modern ejection seat system being made to the ADF’s satisfaction, something that should be completed soon.

AEROBATIC TEAMS

F

or a type produced in small numbers, there were a remarkable number of CAC Sabre aerobatic teams, reflecting the Sabre’s wider popularity in the era of squadron-based aerobatic teams worldwide. The CAC examples that used display smoke all had variations of a cranky external pipe running down the port fuselage side like a forgotten piece of plumbing, a consequence of the tight internals of the rear fuselage.

A94-101 was taken by the RAAF Museum to Avalon for exhibition with a CAC Avon engine at the Australian International Air Show in 2007. JAMES KIGHTLY

CAC SABRE SURVIVORS

T

he prototype CAC Sabre is on show in the RAAF Museum at Point Cook, Victoria, while the first production example is preserved with the Historic Aircraft Restoration Society at Illawarra, NSW. Apart from A94-983 at the Temora Aviation Museum, mentioned earlier, the only currently airworthy example, A94-352, is operated by the Latrobe Flying Museum’s Jeff Trappett as VH-SBR. After a very longterm restoration it flew again in Victoria during 2013. About 20 further airframes are known to remain extant in Australia, with eight and nine in Malaysia and Indonesia respectively, plus single examples in New Zealand and the Czech Republic. In the USA a couple were painted in spurious US schemes, and about eight ex-Indonesian examples are stored. A couple of them have recently been sold.

No 75 Squadron’s team was the Black Diamonds, the scheme Sabre A94-983 currently flies in. It first formed in 1961 with four CA-27 Sabre Mk32s, and lasted until 1964 when the squadron converted to the Mirage III. No 76 Squadron formed the Red Diamonds (1962-64) and then the Black Panthers (1965-66). The instructors of No 2(F) OCU established the Marksmen, starting with a fouraircraft formation in 1966, and adding a fifth, solo, jet before disbanding in late

1967. Nos 3 and 77 Squadrons also formed Sabre teams, 3’s being unnamed but featuring a sabre sword across the numeral 3. The last, and only non-Australian, CAC Sabre aerobatic outfit was Spirit 78, an Indonesian Air Force team established in 1978 by fighter squadron SkU 14.

TS-8603 (formerly A94-368) was one of the Sabres flown by Indonesian Air Force aerobatic team Spirit 78. CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY

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INSIGHTS CAC AVON SABRE

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Insights

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

with the good results from the younger pilots. As the squadron fighter combat instructor I had to use all my experience to produce best results. Leading aerobatic teams was another satisfying experience. At Butterworth I led a team which performed at the Manila international display. From Williamtown I next led a Sabre team, the Black Diamonds, who were a very competent group of RAAF pilots, and included a fifth solo demonstrator, USAF Maj Steve Shiner, an exceedingly capable pilot. Among other tight manoeuvres flown, I led the team in an inverted fly-over; whilst still in tight formation, I released control pressure to induce a near-zero-g fly-over. It apparently looked most impressive!” Sqn Ldr Phil ‘Frawls’ Frawley, RAAF, now listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest active fighter pilot, flew Sabre A94-983 in the early 1990s. He wrote in 1993, “The Sabre is a delightful aircraft to fly and is a true ‘sports car’, but the Sabre also has some nasty habits; the

In Service

T

he CAC Sabre never served in the same numbers as the North American and Canadair versions, nor had the same amount of use, but balanced against that must be the fact that the Australian aircraft maintained the superb handling characteristics of the type while enhancing the effectiveness of the design in two areas that fighter pilots are never satisfied with — firepower and engine power. The late Wg Cdr Barry Weymouth, RAAF, recalled to the No 3 Squadron Association: “I have very happy memories of flying the Sabre”, adding that it, “had powerful and sensitive hydraulic flight-controls for pitch and roll; the rudder was mechanical only. Some inexperienced pilots overcontrolled during their conversion phase. Severe and rapid oscillations could induce bruising should the pilot’s harness not be tight enough! The human body was incapable of timing the necessary control corrections. “In squadron armament activities I was quite pleased

Technical Details

A great fighter

main one being that if you stall the aircraft in the approach configuration whilst turning, the Sabre will flip onto its back. The other unpleasant characteristic is the pitch stability. “However, the Avon Sabre is far superior to the MiG-15... It out-climbs, out-accelerates and out-turns the MiG-15. In a recent exercise to endorse another pilot on the Sabre we used the MiG-15 for formation practice, and as the student had flown the Sabre previously we briefed a 1-v-1 air combat tactics exercise as part of the mission, with me in the MiG and the student in the Sabre. The only proviso was that both aircraft would not use more than 4g to allow for the self-imposed limit on the Sabre. Even though on the surface this may not seem to truly represent the performance of either aircraft, it certainly in fact did, because both aircraft would need to employ energy preservation tactics which (as any fighter pilot will tell you) is something we always strive for, but in the heat of the fight we tend to overlook that in our attempt to gain a faster kill. Entry into the fight was from a head-tohead pass, and I had in my

mind that even though the MiG-15’s power to weight ratio was inferior, the fact that we were using only 4g would help me to achieve some intimidating postures at various stages of the flight; but to my complete surprise and humility, the Sabre achieved an offensive position from only 270° of a two-circle fight whereupon, despite my best defensive manoeuvring, he managed a guns kill in only one more turn. “The aircraft is easy to land as it sets itself down with the aid of a healthy ground effect, and touchdown is generally always quite smooth, even in a crosswind. The landing roll requires effective aerodynamic braking, and this is achieved by pulling the nose up until the mainwheels skip slightly; the end result is a burble as the airflow finally breaks up over the wing (90kt, aiming for this speed by 3,000ft to run). At this stage the nosewheel is lowered to the runway and judicious braking applied. The brakes on a Sabre are extremely powerful and there is no anti-skid system, it therefore being easy to blow a tyre or aquaplane on a wet runway… in summary, a classic fighter with elegant lines and a crisp performance, extremely smooth to operate and slippery through the air.”

Development

LEFT: Spirited flying by a quartet of No 2(F) OTU Sabres during 1956. KEY COLLECTION

ABOVE: The No 78 Wing Sabre team members who flew in Manila during November 1959: from left to right, Flt Lt Dennis Stenhouse, Fg Off Michael Parer, formation leader Flt Lt Barry Weymouth and Fg Off Peter Dart. KEY COLLECTION

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CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Reviews

REVIEWS RATING ★★★★★ Outstanding ★★★★★ Excellent ★★★★★ Good

★★★★★ Flawed

★★★★★ Mediocre Enough said

The latest books and products for the discerning aviation enthusiast

Javelin Boys

by Steve Bond published by Grub Street

BOOK of the MONTH

Grub Street’s ‘Boys’ books, each recalling a specific aircraft type through the eyes of those who operated them, have proved very successful — and rightly so. In many ways, this latest title on Gloster’s delta-winged all-weather fighter is among the most appealing of the lot. Far less has been put into print about the Javelin than most of the other types featured in the series, and it is a fascinating machine. None of those who recollect the ‘Dragmaster’ in this volume play down the aircraft’s undoubted failings. One involved it being banned from performing looping manoeuvres, the tailplane blanking off the elevators when the aircraft reached too high a nose-up attitude. No 46 Squadron navigator Peter Wallington remembers how, with the

A Passion for Speed

by Paul Smiddy published by The History Press The life of interwar aviatrix The Honourable Mrs Victor Bruce, otherwise known as Mildred Bruce, has been covered in print before. She was herself a prolific writer: one of her books dealt with her 1930-31 roundthe-world flight in Blackburn Bluebird IV G-ABDS (even with the Pacific and Atlantic being crossed by ship, the first such exploit successfully completed by a female aviator) and in 1977 she

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restriction firmly in place, his pilot ‘Wilbur’ Wright one day decided to roll an FAW1 onto its back from 40,000ft and pull through. “[He] pointed out that [we] would not be in the looping plane”, Wallington writes. “I’ve never seen an altimeter unwind so bloody fast in all my life. There was a lot of cursing from the front and a lot of heaving and pushing and eventually he fought it level at 2,000ft over the Channel…” This was, as Javelin Boys makes clear, far from the only deficiency. However, there are plenty of affectionate memories here as well, not least from operations in the Far East, which saw the Javelin coming as near to actual combat as it would get. With insightful text and an interesting array of photos, many drawn from personal albums, Javelin Boys is highly recommended. It both entertains and informs, a tricky balance to strike, but one achieved with aplomb here. Ben Dunnell ISBN 978-1-910690-40-6; 9.5 x 6.5in hardback; 204 pages, illustrated; £19.99

★★★★

produced an autobiographical volume. Here, Paul Smiddy ties together all the strands of Bruce’s incredibly varied life — motorsport, speedboat racing, aviation and many more — and does so entertainingly. Quite apart from having done a great deal of research, Smiddy has a very nice turn of phrase, and while admiring his subject’s achievements and personality — “I would have loved to have met her”, he writes, “and I do believe you would too” — he is far from blind to her faults. In discussing the famous feat with the Bluebird, he describes how correspondence from Bruce to her mother contradicts elements of her own book, and makes clear “that her motive for the flight was financial gain”. The odd error rankles slightly, most notably a reference to the ‘London-Sydney Air Race’ of 1934, rather than London (more correctly Mildenhall)-Melbourne. But little can detract from a thoroughly good read,

one that will be enjoyed by an audience beyond those interested in aviation. BD ISBN 978-0-7509-8366-2; 9.25 x 6.25in softback; 208 pages, illustrated; £19.99

★★★★

Alarmstart by Patrick G. Eriksson published by Amberley

Subtitled “The German Fighter Pilot’s Experiences in the Second World War”, this volume — the title of which is German for ‘scramble’ — records stories and observations from many Luftwaffe pilots. It results from the author’s contacts with the German Air Force Veterans’ Association and interviews with, and written testimonies from, veterans during the 1980s and 1990s. This is not a history, even though there are chapters for each major campaign: ‘Poland’, ‘Denmark and Norway’, ‘The Phoney War’, ‘The Battle of Britain’ and so on. Each reader will find different aspects of this volume to be his/her prime interest. For me, it was the pilots’ attitude to war that proved most compelling. Gerd Wiegand of JG 26 writes: “I shot down 33 aircraft, about which I am not proud”. Otto Stammberger, also of JG 26, regrets how he and his generation of ‘old soldiers’ are nowadays sometimes depicted as mass murderers, while much of today’s youth questions even why they took part in the war, rather than simply choosing to stay at home. Elsewhere, it is explained that Göring allowed no chaplains in the Luftwaffe and that, as a result, burial rites for fallen pilots had to be performed by ‘borrowed’ churchmen from nearby army or naval units. A fascinating read on many levels. One production error, though, is all too visible: the image of the three Bf 109s featured at the top of the front cover has been reversed. Denis J. Calvert ISBN 978-1-4456-7122-2; 9.5 x 6.4in hardback; 320 pages, illustrated; £20.00

★★★★

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Reviews Southern Aircraft (Gatwick) Ltd by Peter Amos and Brian Buss

Established just before World War Two, this company became part of the Civilian Repair Organisation (CRO), which overhauled and modified a large number of aircraft for the RAF. It was founded by J. E. Coxon under a different name and dealt in used cars; the book also details Coxon’s life in the RAF between 1922 and 1928, and then during the war. Much background was provided by the family for this selfpublished book, including some colour reproductions of his kit and medals. Having acquired its present name in February 1939, the firm offered a selection of used aircraft, while charter work and maintenance began to expand. In September 1939 it became a sub-contractor to Vickers-Armstrong producing Wellington components, while CRO tasks included the repair of civil aircraft that had been impressed — an appendix lists all types handled by the company. Throughout the book there is an excellent selection of illustrations, a large proportion of them being published for the first time. The authors are to be congratulated on collecting such a selection of material. While in many cases there are references to “is believed” and “not known”, it was a good idea to publish with the information available. Hopefully others can now add their own memories. Mike Hooks No ISBN; 8.25in x 11.75in softback; 128 pages, illustrated; £16.95 including p&p from Air-Britain

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George Lott’s Air Force 1922-1959 by AVM George Lott George Lott had a long, varied and, at times, dramatic career in the RAF, starting in 1922 as ‘No 362757 Boy Mechanic C. G. Lott’ at Halton and ending as an Air Vice-Marshal before retiring in 1959. In the intervening years he had a variety of postings, flew 81 different aircraft types and, as might be expected, has quite a story to tell. In October 1939, he was appointed

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to command No 43 ‘Fighting Cocks’ Squadron, based at Tangmere and flying Hurricanes. As a fighter pilot ‘boss’, he saw plenty of action, although his time on 43 was cut short when enemy cannon fire resulted in his losing his right eye and becoming, as he put it, a ‘monocular’. Lott’s service career — not just his flying, but married life as an RAF officer, his travels and the occasional brush with authority — is well recorded in this privately published autobiographical account, spiced with many personal recollections. The manuscript from which it was compiled was found with his papers after his death in 1989. His son David has produced the book, in which not a single word of text has been changed. It is illustrated with his own photos, letters and documents, all well reproduced. A truly fascinating time capsule. DJC No ISBN; 10.3 x 10.3in hardback; 140 pages, illustrated; £19.99 as e-book from www.georgelottsairforce.com

HHHH The Papa Mike Air Crash Mystery

by Rosalind Jones published by Craigmore Publications This sizeable paperback volume is the result of 55 years of dedication by author Rosalind Jones, whose brother was one of 39 people killed in the crash of Cunard Eagle Viking G-AHPM at Holtaheia, Norway in August 1961. To Jones’s credit, she approaches the subject at all times in a balanced, factual, objective and unemotional manner, although one can only imagine how difficult this was for her to write. The Norwegian accident report stated bluntly that the cause of the crash was “a deviation from the prescribed flight path for reasons unknown”. This, then, was her starting point to find why ‘Papa Mike’ flew off course and crashed on the mountain near Stavanger. She has been aided in this by a number of experts who similarly took up the investigative cause and brought to bear their knowledge of airline flying, air traffic control, accident investigation and so forth. The whole reads well, and is supported by good illustrations. There is even the occasional light moment; a section detailing the Viking’s safety record gives

final dispositions/fates and includes the fact that, “Four became fast food outlets. Three were converted into Hamburger stalls in Holland and one into a Hot-Dog stall in Malawi”. Not a lot of people know that. DJC ISBN 978-0-9531890-5-2; 9.0 x 5.8in softback; 464 pages, illustrated; £21.00 plus P&P from www.lanfranc-holtaheia. co.uk

HHHH SABCA

by Charles Mali and Nicolas Godfurnon published by SABCA — Société Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques The first of two volumes on the history of this Belgian company covers the period from its foundation in 1920 to the origins of its involvement with the F-104G Starfighter in 1963; part two will bring the story up to date with later jets, helicopters and so forth. It is interesting to note that SABCA shares with Boeing the distinction of being one of the only two aviation companies still operating under their original names. SABCA’s early work was on balloons and licence-production of aero engines and foreign aircraft such as MoraneSaulniers, the Avro 504, DH4 and DH9, while a big order from national carrier Sabena covered production of 10 Handley Page W8F airliners. Other military types followed, plus a number of light aircraft and the firm’s first metal type, the SABCA S-2 for Sabena. During World War Two compulsory work was carried out on German aircraft. Post-war, production of aviation equipment resumed with jet engine overhauls and work on Belgian Air Force F-84 Thunderjets; later came Hunters and the F-104G programme. This volume concludes with a look at affiliated companies, test pilots and other personalities. Throughout there is considerable detail to be found on all the relevant types, these ending with the Tipsy Nipper. There is a restricted print run of 750 copies, and the book is in Flemish and English. Many interesting illustrations are well reproduced. MH No ISBN; 8.25in x 11.75in softback; 232 pages, illustrated; £29.95 plus £6.00 postage from The Aviation Bookshop (www.aviation-bookshop.com)

HHHH

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Reviews

CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS

Classic Wings flight vouchers Duxford-based Classic Wings offers a wide variety of vintage aircraft experiences. Among them are twoseat Spitfire flights and wing-to-wing experiences in which you fly alongside a Spitfire in a Dragon Rapide or Harvard; there are Harvard, Tiger Moth and Rapide rides, trial lessons in a Cessna 152 and many more. Classic Wings’ flying season runs from March to October, so buy a voucher now and redeem it during 2018.

WK275

by Guy Ellis published by Grub Street This is a lot of book about one aircraft. It may be subtitled ‘The Restoration and Preservation of the last Supermarine Swift F4’, but that alone wouldn’t fill 160 fairly large-format pages. So, there is a lot of setting-in-context: a chapter about aviation’s pursuit of everincreasing speed, and a recap of the whole Swift programme. Not until page 114 does the story actually move on to WK275 itself: its own history, how it came to be restored to pristine condition by Yorkshire-based Jet Art Aviation, and its move last year to Doncaster Sheffield

History of the de Havilland Vampire

Mean and Green jackets

Adult jackets (sizes small to 3XL) £99 and children’s jackets £75 from www.meanandgreen.com or telephone 01902 423868

Bravo Delta Models

Bravo Delta Models specialises in hand-carved, kiln-dried, hand-painted mahogany aircraft models. The company can make any aircraft — or ship — in any scale to order. Illustrated is one of its current products, a 1:40-scale representation of Harrier GR3 XZ133 from No 1 Squadron, RAF, as operated during the Falklands War. An upcoming release, meanwhile, is a 1:28 model of Maj ‘Chuck’ Yeager’s P-51D Mustang Glamorous Glen III. Harrier model £485 from www.bravodeltamodels.com

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ISBN 978-1-910690-50-5; 10 x 8.75in hardback; 160 pages, illustrated; £20

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BOOKS IN BRIEF

For information and prices visit www.classic-wings.co.uk or telephone 01223 837453 Mean and Green has launched a new range of fur-lined flying jackets, available in both adults’ and childrens’ sizes. They have soft, dark brown leather on the outside with an acrylic fur lining and fur trim around the waist, cuffs and collar.

Airport to go on static display with the Vulcan to the Sky Trust. Ellis has obviously put in a great deal of research, but, sadly, the standard of sub-editing is not among the book’s strengths. All too many sentences read clumsily, at best. On a more positive note, production values are high, with a pleasing design and an excellent range of well-reproduced photos. WK275 rather falls between two stools: it is neither a definitive type history (Nigel Walpole’s Swift Justice is surely the best of those), nor does its subject airframe — in spite of its undoubted historical significance — provide enough matter for a dedicated volume. On balance, though, it represents a worthwhile effort. BD

by David Watkins published by Fonthill

This is the softback edition of a title that first appeared in 2013. The Vampire story is a complex one with many variants and mark numbers, numerous roles, service in countries around the world and several dead ends. The text is comprehensive and the photos, all in black and white, are decently if not spectacularly reproduced. This remains, quite simply, the best single volume on de Havilland’s first jet fighter. DJC ISBN 978-1-78155-616-0; 9.8 x 6.8in softback; 384 pages, illustrated; £27.50

HHH

On Atlas’ Shoulders: RAF Transport Projects since 1945

by Chris Gibson published by Hikoki Publications We are late in featuring this typically well-produced tome from Hikoki, which would otherwise be a Book of the Month,

but it deserves the attention of anyone with an interest in post-war British military aviation. The Atlas in the title is, of course, the Airbus A400M, which brings the text up to date. However, of most note are the many stillborn projects. Gibson has drawn on enormous quantities of archive material, and does a splendid job of pulling together a coherent narrative, never losing sight of the changing strategic requirements. Very impressive indeed. BD ISBN 978-1-90210-951-0; 12 x 8.5in hardback; 272 pages, illustrated; £29.95

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Aérospatiale/ BAC Concorde by Matt Falcus published by DestinWorld

There’s nothing especially wrong with this little paperback on Concorde, but, unfortunately, it hardly sets the pulse racing. The text is perfectly fine but not that insightful, and the image selection fair but unexciting. It may work as a basic introduction to the supersonic airliner for a non-enthusiast, but so does an internet search, which doesn’t cost a tenner. BD ISBN 978-0-9930950-9-2; 9.25 x 6in softback; 76 pages, illustrated; £9.99

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History of SOUTHERN AIRCRAFT (GATWICK) LTD, 1939 - 1962

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by Peter Amos & Brian Buss In 1935, John Coxon set up Southern Motor & Aircraft Company, which in November 1938, moved to Gatwick Airport to undertake the sale and maintenance of light aircraft and shortly afterwards, it changed its name to Southern Aircraft (Gatwick) Ltd. On the outbreak of war in September 1939, the company became part of the Civilian Repair Organisation and handled a large variety of different aircraft, besides designing and manufacturing components for RAF aircraft. Post-war, Southern Aircraft (Gatwick) Ltd, purchased various surplus RAF aircraft for refurbishment and sale and undertook other engineering activities until Gatwick Airport was closed for redevelopment in 1954.

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Archive

Ben Dunnell explores The Aeroplane’s outstanding archives to cast new light on past stories

The

BURBERRY’S RECORD A flight to equal Lindbergh’s? The Aeroplane thought so

I

n all the achievements of de Havilland DH88 Comet G-ACSS, victory in the 1934 MacRobertson International Air Race from Mildenhall to Melbourne rightly ranks highest of all. But, 80 years ago this November, the famous machine returned from a flight that deserves its own place in the annals. Trouble is, it will forever be overshadowed by both the MacRobertson win, and the remarkable feat that exceeded it. Following its use by the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Martlesham Heath during 1935-36, the Comet ended up in a sorry state. The undercarriage collapse experienced on 2 September 1936 led to the airframe being written off and sold to a London scrap merchant, one Mr Lipton. Discovering that G-ACSS was again up for sale, prominent air racing and test pilot Arthur Clouston stepped in. One account has it that he paid Lipton the £5 deposit to secure the aeroplane and then persuaded a friend, Barnet, North London-based architect Fred Tasker, to stump up the remaining £245 of the purchase price. The Comet was now Tasker’s, and he had it returned to flight by Essex Aero at Gravesend, whose founder and boss Jack Cross quoted

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just £150 for the job against de Havilland’s offer to do it for £1,000. DH Gipsy Six Series II engines were fitted, along with a tailwheel rather than a tailskid. Thus equipped, Clouston took it into the air again on 5 August 1937. Clouston had flown Hawker Furies during his time in the RAF, and was by now a civilian test pilot for the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. However, the New Zealand-born aviator was best-known for his racing and display activities. “We have known Clouston for a long time as a first-class pilot”, wrote The Aeroplane’s editor C. G. Grey. The quaint things that he used to do with his Aeronca [C3 G-ADYP], complete with dachshund, made him a name. The way he flew the little Hafner gyroplane [the ARIII] marked him as a first-class handler of any aircraft and as a genuine aerial comedian. Then, much to some people’s surprise, he put up a magnificent show in the IstresDamascus-Paris race…” Held on 20-21 August 1937, this was his first outing in the Comet, renamed The Orphan. With Flt Lt George Nelson he finished fourth, beaten only

— as recounted in our December 2016 issue — by a trio of SavoiaMarchetti S79Cs from Italy’s Regia Aeronautica. A late substitute for Clouston, Ken Waller was at the controls of The Orphan for September’s King’s Cup. The combination could only manage 12th place, averaging 214mph. Now Betty Kirby-Green entered the story. The day after gaining her pilot’s ‘A’ licence at Heston in 1937, the 31-year-old Devonian demonstrated a spirit of adventure by flying solo from Hanworth to Paris, thereby winning a £100 bet. She was not that welloff — indeed, getting the funds to hire the Moth she flew to Le Bourget had involved help from friends. But she was determined and enthusiastic, or, as The Aeroplane put it, “displayed high if useless courage”. Grey added, “Furthermore, after having won her bet, Mrs Kirby-Green got a mere male to pilot her back to England, which indicated common sense”. When she met Clouston, a plan was hatched to beat the record for a flight from London to Cape Town and back. G-ACSS was their chosen mount. Tasker wanted £1,200 to hire the machine, and support was provided by clothing manufacturer Burberry. In recognition, the Comet was

ABOVE: The press are kept back as Arthur Clouston and Betty Kirby-Green climb down from DH88 Comet G-ACSS The Burberry at a misty Croydon on 20 November 1937. Note the Junkers Ju 52/3m in the background. ALL PHOTOS AEROPLANE

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Archive

ABOVE: The two intrepid aviators receive suitable congratulation. Clouston was to set 11 further records in Comet G-ACSS in March 1938, flying it to New Zealand with Victor Ricketts.

renamed The Burberry and painted in the company’s beige house colours. Modifications were carried out in the name of weight-saving, the radio that was fitted for the Damascus race being removed, as were the motor-driven generators. “One interesting fitment”, The Aeroplane told its readers, “was a two-way air vent system to the petrol tanks. In the Damascus race the trouble from ice-accretion caused Mr Clouston less anxiety about the wings, etc, than about the vents, which threatened to freeze up and cut off the fuel supply. The new system has a two-way cock which lets in air from the cockpit during ice-formation, but cuts off the inside opening in tropical weather when it might gas the crew.” The planned day of departure from Croydon was 14 November. However, Tasker reportedly appeared in a state of some dudgeon over a missing payment of £50. Kirby-Green showed her resourcefulness by drumming up £35 in London, and the remainder from people in the Croydon Airport hotel. The Burberry duly left at 21.55hrs. “Mr Clouston had planned his schedule to avoid landing the Comet at night”, wrote The Aeroplane, “particularly on the high aerodromes, and graduated the length of his stages by the quality of the various take-offs and the time of day they were to be

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made. The whole performance was characterised by careful and competent airmanship.” Storms over France and airframe icing proved no handicap, and the first leg to Cairo was accomplished in 11 hours five minutes. After an hour on the ground the pair set off for Khartoum, which they reached just over five hours later. Deadreckoning was used for navigation all the way. “Here a delay occurred over

It is the finest performance put up by a single-handed pilot-navigator in the history of civil aviation the permits to fly across the Sudan, and they stayed seven hours instead of the four planned. Mrs KirbyGreen seems to have negotiated while Mr Clouston engineered and rested, thereby making a case for the feminine touch in record-breaking.” There followed the longest single stretch, 2,100 miles to Broken Hill, Rhodesia (now Kabwe, Zambia). Having arrived there just after 09.00hrs, Clouston and Kirby-Green

were able to progress to Johannesburg and finally Cape Town the same day, 16 November. According to The Aeroplane, “The delay at Khartoum meant hurrying the more at the stops to avoid, if possible, a night landing at Cape Town. Actually they arrived just after dark, but Clouston managed quite well.” The Comet had taken 45 hours two minutes to fly from Croydon to Cape Town. It shattered the previous benchmark of 78 hours 28 minutes, set during May 1936 by Amy Mollison in Percival Gull Six G-ADZO. The Burberry’s overall average speed was 161mph. There was little time to spend in Cape Town: just a day-and-a-half. At 06.00hrs on 18 November, G-ACSS embarked on the return leg. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it proved a little more problematic. The Aeroplane recounted, “some delay occurred at Broken Hill to correct a defect in one motor. Some of the stages were slightly shorter as Mr Clouston found the take-off too precarious from high aerodromes with full load”. This was why the Comet made an extra stop at Kisumu, Kenya, while en route between Broken Hill and Khartoum. Furthermore, “Rather longer rests were taken because both were getting tired. “The weather was good for most of the way up Africa and the schedule

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LEFT: Formalities took place on the ground before Clouston and Kirby-Green climbed out of their mount. BELOW LEFT: Several modifications were made to G-ACSS in preparation for the Cape record flights. Weight was reduced to the tune of 190lb, and the fuel system improved to prevent icing-up.

was well kept. Out from Cairo a strong headwind developed, and over the Mediterranean Clouston said that it rose to 60mph. The sea was a mass of whitecaps. In consequence they had to land for fuel at Marseille, and left there about the time they had hoped to be in London. “At Croydon the mist was thickening when the Comet came over some minutes after 15.00hrs. Clouston made three deliberate circuits before putting down the wheel and going into fine pitch, and then another before approaching. Even then he went round again and an Air France liner landed meanwhile. He evidently felt his fatigue and was taking no chances on spoiling things at the very end.” It was now 20 November. The headwind was largely why the average flying speed for the return journey was reduced to 130mph, giving a time for Cape Town to London of 57 hours 23 minutes. Again it represented an enormous improvement on the previous record, H. L. Brook having taken 39 hours more for his May 1937 flight in the ex-Amy Mollison Gull G-ADZO. With police “good-naturedly” keeping a keen throng of pressmen and “newsreel merchants” back behind a cordon, the Comet taxied in and was switched off. Various formalities took

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place, and that was that — apart from the admiring reports that followed. That by C. G. Grey was typical. “For a long time past we have had a surfeit of ‘newspaper’ records”, he wrote, “made under this, that or the other queer circumstances by pilots of either sex over distances or courses which are not recognised at all as records. This time we can congratulate a first-class pilot on a first-class performance without any qualifications or reservations. Our only difficulty is to find adequate adjectives without becoming fulsome.” While Grey was generous towards Kirby-Green, giving her “full marks […] for having rattled her moneybox so successfully in raising funds to finance the trip” and respecting her courage, he pointed out that her “experience as a pilot is not such as to persuade anybody that she could handle a high-speed twin-motored monoplane in any but a straight line. We must therefore assume that her piloting consisted in holding the machine straight while Clouston did his navigational sums. “Therefore, while giving her full credit for her part in the performance, 99 per cent of the credit for its success must go to Clouston, who had to take the machine off heavily loaded from high-level aerodromes,

and had to get it down safely in most variegated weather. “His landing at Croydon as described hereafter displayed sheer airmanship, and his landings in Africa are described as being of the same kind. Little things of that sort rather than a dashing get-off or a flashy landing are the marks of the high-class airman. “Add to that the fact that the Comet had no radio and that Clouston reached his airports every time through sheer navigation, and I think that any experienced long-distance pilot will admit that his is not only a record-breaking performance but is the very finest that has been put up by a single-handed pilot-navigator in the history of Civil Aviation. “The only thing that approaches it as a feat of individual skill is Lindbergh’s finding of Paris in the dark after flying from New York. And Clouston had to find his mark halfa-dozen times, not only once”. No wonder Grey called Clouston, “the finest British pilot of to-day.” In the annals of London-Cape Town records, Alex Henshaw’s 1939 solo flights in Percival Mew Gull G-AEXF rightly take the limelight. But The Burberry, Clouston and Kirby-Green should be remembered too.

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EDITORIAL

AEROPLANE

RAPIDE AIRBORNE AGAIN

LI S HIN

Average monthly sale 1 January to 31 December 2016, 22,620 copies

AEROPLANE DECEMBER 2017

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INTRODUCING A NEW SERIES FROM OSPREY PUBLISHING

AIR CAMPAIGN REVEALING MAPS ILLUSTRATE THE CONTEXT AND CONSTRAINTS OF EACH CAMPAIGN 32

DEFENDER’S CAPABILITIES Fighter Command Operations Room (Bentley Priory)

Fighter Command Filter Room (Bentley Priory)

artillery interface system was history’s first IADS. Fighter Command’s radar, command and control, and interceptor/AA their locations and tracks being determined by Incoming raids were detected by long range Chain Home EW radars, to FC HQ Filter Room. FC HQ was responsible intersecting range arcs from neighbouring CH radar stations and passed BBC transmitters to eliminate them as possible for notifying Group HQs, sounding air raid alarms, and shutting down raid to a Sector Controller for interception and navigational aids for the attackers. Group HQ assigned each incoming interceptors and, using radio, vectored them to engage alerted the appropriate AA batteries. Sector Controllers scrambled

Bromley

E SECTOR

Debden

OPPOSITE RAF IADS: HOW IT WORKED

North Weald

Bentley Priory

No 11 Group Operations Room (Uxbridge)

Canewden Northolt

Rochforfd Hornchurch

Uxbridge

the incoming raid.

Sector Operations Room

Gravesend

Croydon

Manston

Kenley

A SECTOR

Detling

HF/DF Stations

Biggin Hill

D SECTOR

West Malling Hawkinge Observer Corps Reporting Centres

C SECTOR

Swingate

Dover Lympne

B SECTOR

Rye

Westhampnett

Brighton Poling

Tangmere

Attempting to create a long-range ‘fighter’ from the obsolescent Bristol Blenheim light bomber, the Mark IF quickly proved completely inadequate and was soon relegated to becoming a radarequipped night fighter. (Private Collection)

very first day equipped with the type and learned the hard way that it was no fighter. On the Westfeldzug, 600 Squadron attempted to interfere with the Luftwaffe’s airborne of Hitler’s Westfeldzug IFs were shot assault on Rotterdam’s Waalhaven airfield. Tragically, five out of six Blenheim two captured. out of the sky by Bf 110s (I./ZG 1) with the loss of six crewmen killed and fully realized By this time the need for a radar-equipped ‘night fighter’ had become ground-based and in developmental programmes that rivalled the advance of the RAF’s Air radar system, by 26 July some 70 Blenheim IFs were modified with the rudimentary a maximum Interception (AI) Mk III radar. Considered ‘partially reliable’, the AI Mk III had the reach beyond was which range, minimum 800–1,500ft a to down miles 3–4 of range that of of the aircraft’s four .303 Brownings. The Blenheim’s speed, which barely matched that the first German bombers, was also patently inadequate. So it was with great hopes testing by the Bristol Beaufighter Mk IF, with the improved AI Mk VI, was received for Fighter Interception Unit (FIU) at Tangmere on 12 August. air attacks Finally, the third component needed to effectively engage and defeat Luftwaffe While the over England was these fighters’ ability to locate and close with enemy bombers. track them coastal EW radar network could detect the incoming raids and the observers could raid with their overland (on clear days), getting the interceptors into a position to disrupt the quickly eight-gun batteries would be the actual key to success. ADGB exercises in 1935–36 – individually proved the futility of allowing fighter formation leaders to ‘dead reckon’ inaccurately) estimate an intercept heading and duration time to fly to it – a (usually was developed predicted intercept point. Once an effective means of locating the fighters – then the – using a comprehensive high frequency direction finding (HF/DF) network

Pevensey

Intersecting range arcs are used to determine inbound targets’ locations

Incoming raid from Luftflotte 2

RAF HQs RAF Sector Stations Satellite airfields Incoming raid from Luftflotte 3

“Chain Home” Early Warning (EW) Radar Stations “Chain Home Low” Radar Stations Land-lines

N

Radio Transmissions Airborne Fighters

10 miles

0

10km

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NEWLY DESIGNED AERIAL BIRD’S-EYE VIEWS SHOWING KEY MISSIONS IN 3D Adlerangriff (Eagle Attack) phase I

RAF FIGHTER COMMAND UNITS

The main attack, 15 August 1940

THE AIR CAMPAIGNS THAT CHANGED HISTORY Analyzing the goals of the attacking air commanders, the aircraft they had to work with, the opposing air defences, how they planned the attack and how the pilots actually fought it, this new series sheds light on why air campaigns have been won and lost.

4. 1730–1750hrs: Luftflotte 3 launches two major raids, simultaneously striking Portland naval base and airfields in No. 10 Group’s Y-Sector. While 47 Stukas (I./ StG 1 and II./StG 2) dive-bomb docks, barracks and oil storage facilities at Portland (not shown), 27 Ju 88s (I. and II./LG 1), escorted by 40 Bf 110s (II./ZG 2 and II./ZG 76) and 60 Bf 109s (JG 2), penetrate inland near Portsmouth, forcing their way through defending Hurricanes (43, 249, and 601 Sqns) and Spitfires (609 Sqn). The Bf 109 escorts return to base early due to fuel limitations and the bomber formation splits, half bombing Middle Wallop while the others hit Worthy Down and Odiham. Bombing destroys three Blenheim IFs (604 Sqn) at Middle Wallop, but losses are heavy with five Ju 88s falling to Hurricanes (601 Sqn) and two more failing to return. 5. 1830–1850hrs: attempting to exploit Park’s disrupted fighter defence, behind a large ‘Freie Jagd’ sweep (JG 26) Luftflotte 2 sends Staffel-strength formations of He 111s (KG 1) and Do 17s (KG 2) that hit West Malling (by mistake) and Hawkinge and the radar stations at Dover, Rye, and Foreness. Little damage is done but no losses are incurred. The sweep engages Hurricanes (151 Sqn), shooting down three for no loss. 6. 1850–1900hrs: under the cover of the late afternoon raids, ErprGr 210 crosses the coast at Dungeness, heading north-west towards London to attack the Kenley sector station. Approaching the city’s suburbs, they turn left and commence a diving attack, mistakenly, on Croydon Airport, a satellite field for No. 111 Squadron. No. 111 Squadron has just scrambled and quickly intercepts the raiders, shooting down seven ‘Jabos’ for no loss.

No. 10 Group: A. No. 249 Squadron B. No. 609 Squadron

No. 11 Group: C. Nos. 43 and 601 squadrons D. No. 64 Squadron E. No. 111 Squadron (orbiting Croydon) F. No. 1 Squadron G. No. 32 Squadron H. No. 17 Squadron

Middle Wallop

A 2 1

No. 12 Group: K. No. 19 Squadron

Fowlmere/Duxford

Worthy down I

Debden

North Holt

4

F E

North Weald

E

2. 1545–1550hrs: losing only two Do 17s (6./KG 3) to RAF interceptors, KG 3 strike Eastchurch (III. Gruppe) and Rochester (I. and II. Gruppen) airfields and the Short Brothers Stirling bomber factory at the latter. The airfields are devastated and Stirling production is disrupted, reducing deliveries for the next three months. 3. 1510hrs: under cover of KG 3’s large raid, ErprGr 210 flies north from Calais, at low level over open seas, to attack Martlesham Heath, a satellite field for No. 17 Squadron. Alerted late by a nearby Chain Home Low radar, that squadron scrambles one section and No. 12 Group sends 12 Spitfires (19 Sqn), but the only unit to make contact are nine Hurricanes (1 Sqn), which lose three to the Bf 109 ‘Jabos’, and fail to score.

B

Boscombe down

EVENTS 1. 1530–1545hrs: following morning Stuka and Zerstörer raids that devastate Hawkinge, Lympne and Manston with little loss, Luftflotte 2 launches a large strike with 88 Do 17Zs (KG 3), escorted by 130 Bf 109s (JG 51, JG 52, JG 54) with 60 more (II. and III./JG 26) sweeping ahead of the large, wide formation. No. 11 Group responds with seven squadrons, three of which (17, 32 and 64 Sqns) are engaged by the Bf 109s and lose two Hurricanes and two Spitfires to two Bf 109s (JG 51) shot down.

Croydon

G

5

H

Kenely

Tangmere

Martlesham Heath

Biggin Hill

3

1

West Malling

I

Rochester

3 F

2

5

Eastchurch

LUFTWAFFE UNITS

11

Luftflotte 3: 1. I. and II./LG 1 (from Orléans-Bricy) 2. JG 2 (from Bernay, Octeville, and Beaumont-le-Roger) 3. II./ZG 2 and II./ZG 76 (from Paris and Amiens) Luftflotte 2: 4. KG 1 5. KG 2 (from Arras and Cambrai) 6. KG 3 (from Antwerp and Brussels) 7. II. and III./JG 26 (fighter sweep accompanying bombers) 8. JG 51 9. JG 52 10. JG 54 11. ErprGr 210 – early raid 12. ErprGr 210 – late raid 13. I./ZG 76 (from St Omer)

Lympne

4

Hawkinge

4 12

Calais-Marck

ALTITUDES

RAF

16A

KEY

Coquelles

6 9

8

RAF AMES Type 1 (long-range) ‘Chain Home’ Early Warning (EW) radar station RAF Sector station

5 German

10

Guines

13

Wissant Audembert St Omer

Airfield

STUNNING DOUBLE-PAGE BATTLESCENES OF KEY MOMENTS THROUGH THE CAMPAIGN 49 48

THE CAMPAIGN

NEW 3D COLOUR DIAGRAMS SHOWING THE TECHNIQUES THAT WERE USED 52

THE CAMPAIGN

53 OPPOSITE LUFTWAFFE MISSION COMPOSITION Initially Luftwaffe doctrine called for each bomber wing (three Kampfgruppen, typically launching 18 bombers each) to be escorted by a Jagdgeschwader. In this case, one of the fighter wing’s Jagdgruppe would range ahead of the combined bomber-fighter formation on a freie Jagd (‘free hunt’ or ‘fighter sweep’), with the wing’s other two Jagdgruppen positioned on the bomber formation’s flanks, providing Jagdschutz (‘fighter protection’ or ‘close escort’). The ‘sweeping’ Jagdgruppe would fly above 20,000ft altitude at the Bf 109E’s normal engagement speed of 300mph and have complete freedom to engage any enemy interceptors that they spotted. The ‘close escort’ Jagdgruppen were ‘tied’ to the bombers, flying slightly above them and on their flanks, but having to ‘keep pace’ with the bombers, which flew at 190mph, and typically were not permitted to engage enemy interceptors unless they, or their charges, were threatened with attack.

Bf 110D with Dackelbauch (‘Dachshund belly’) non-jettisonable external fuel tank. These ungainly 1,050-litre (231 Imp gallon) tanks extended the type’s operating radius beyond 800 miles, but at the expense of leaving the rear gunners behind and making the already poor manoeuvring Zerstörer more of a target than a fighter. (Private Collection)

The Destination for Military History

phalanx of raiders and four more squadrons were scrambled. The escorts proved almost impenetrable and the Dorniers successfully attacked Rochester and Eastchurch, raining some 300 bombs upon the Short Brothers aircraft factory at the former. Meanwhile, ErprGr 210’s 16 Bf 110 and eight Bf 109 Jabos skirted the Kent coastline at low level and headed across the Thames Estuary towards Harwich, unseen by the east coast CH radars. The CHL radar at Walton-on-the-Naze detected them 18 miles off the coast – four minutes prior to landfall – and the Jabos swept in and attacked Martlesham Heath unopposed, wrecking two hangars, the station workshops, and No. 25 Squadron’s equipment store. The devastated base was out of action for 48 hours. Nine Hurricanes (1 Sqn) from Northolt intercepted the egressing Bf 110s, but the Bf 109E-4s, having dropped their bombs, engaged and shot down three for no loss. Luftflotte 3’s attacks were concentrated against airfields within No. 10 Group’s AOR. Launching at 1515–1530hrs were 27 Ju 88s (I. and II./LG 1), followed at 1600hrs by 47 Stukas (I./StG 1 and II./StG 2), to attack Andover, Worthy Down, and Warmwell. Heavily escorted by 120 Bf 109s (JGs 2, 27 and 53) and 60 Bf 110s (V.(Z)/LG 1, II./ZG 2, II. and III./ZG 76), the two formations were detected at 1700hrs by the degraded CH EW radars along the south-west coast. Brand scrambled two Hurricane squadrons (87 and 213 Sqns) from Exeter and 14 Spitfires (234 Sqn) from St Eval. The Spitfires engaged the escorting Bf 109s, but – outnumbered 4:1 – they were quickly overwhelmed. Facing spirited Hurricane attacks, the Stukas turned back, bombing Portland at 1730hrs. The faster Ju 88s forced their way through defending Hurricanes (43, 249, and 601 Sqns) and Spitfires (609 Sqn) to split, half bombing Middle Wallop, the others hitting Worthy Down and Odiham. Bombing from level flight at medium altitude, accuracy was generally lacking and losses were heavy,

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Limited to just 4,999 editions

– First orders receive lower edition numbers On the 17th May 1943, a squadron of WWII’s most successful night bombers prepared to embark on Operation Chastise. The courageous crews and iconic Avro Lancaster Bombers of 617 Squadron were led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson as they soared into military history as The Dambusters. Honour these brave men and their mighty planes on the landmark 75th anniversary of the Lancaster’s active service with a limited edition watch. Officially endorsed by the Lest We Forget Association, this handcrafted watch features a durable stainless steel casing with a genuine leather strap. The chronometer styling is inspired by WWII pilots’ watches, as is the accuracy of its precision-quality quartz movement. The reverse of the casing is etched with a detailed depiction of the Lancaster Bomber plane and bouncing bomb. For the perfect finishing touch, the 75th anniversary is adorned with a final tribute on the face. Only 4,999 of these watches are available. To validate the limited edition, each watch is etched with the individual edition number on the reverse. Applications are now open and this offer is likely to attract great interest, and not just from watch collectors, so please apply promptly.

Shown larger than actual size. Case measures 1.9 inches (4.8cm) in diameter (including casing) x 0.47 inch (1.2 cm) in depth. Strap measures 9.64 inches (24.5 cm) in length (including casing).

KEY DETAILS EVENT: The 75th anniversary of the Dambusters Raid, Operation Chastise. LIMITED RELEASE: Only 4,999 watches are available. Each is etched on the reverse with the individual edition number. The earlier your order the lower your watch number will be.

HIGH SPECIFICATION: This collectors’ timepiece features a Lancaster plane design and a genuine leather strap. COULD BE YOURS FOR £129.95 (plus £9.99 S&H)*, payable in five interestfree instalments of £25.99 each. Pay nothing now.

The rear of the casing features tributes to the Lancaster Bomber plane in addition to Operation Chastise. Also depicted is the individual edition number.

FORMAL APPLICATION: DAMBUSTER 75TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE WATCH

DO NOT SEND ANY PAYMENT WITH THIS APPLICATION: if successful, you will be notified in writing within 7 days YES, I wish to apply for ______ (Qty) of the ‘Dambuster’ 75th Anniversary Commemorative Watch for just £129.95, payable in five interest-free instalments of £25.99 (plus £9.99 S&H). The watch is limited to just 4,999 editions, and each is etched with the individual edition number. A customdesigned presentation case and a Certificate of Authenticity are included free of charge. I do not need to send any money now. If my application is successful I will be notified in writing within 7 days. I understand the watch is covered by your 120-day money-back guarantee. I confirm I am 18 years or over.

To apply now, complete and return this coupon. For priority, call now, on

0333 003 0019

Lines open Mon-Fri 9.00am - 8.00pm and Sat 9.00am - 5.30pm. Endorsed by the Lest We Forget Association (charity number 1162122)

Send this coupon to: FREEPOST BGE

Apply online at

Order reference:

www.bradford.co.uk

P347005 Title

Mr

Mrs

Ms

Miss

Apply by telephone on

0333 003 0019

Other ____________

Name Address

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Please note, we may contact you via email with information about your order

Signature

© The Bradford Exchange. * S&H - Service & Handling. Offer applies to UK only. Our guarantee is in addition to the rights provided to you by consumer protection regulations. This watch has been endorsed by the Lest We Forget Association (charity number 1162122). Applicants must be aged 18 years of age or over. UK mainland addresses only. *Offer applies UK only and is subject to availability. A credit check may be carried out by a licensed Credit Reference Agency. Full Terms and Conditions are available on request. Please note, we may contact you via email and mobile with information about your reservation and other relevant offers. From time to time, the Bradford Exchange Telephone/Mobile Third Party Companies 526-FAN24.01 may allow carefully screened third party companies to contact you. Please tick the boxes if you do not wish to receive such communications by: Email

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Superb archive images from 100 years of RAF history

December 2017

FREE with

Calendar 2018

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F

or our exclusive 2018 calendar, Aeroplane is proud to salute the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force. What is one of the world’s oldest independent air arms was established on 1 April 1918, and the original weekly The Aeroplane was there to record many of its most significant developments — the exploits of the new air force during the closing months of World War One, the vital inter-war expansion period, its heroism in so many theatres of the Second World War, and the entry into the jet age, to name but a few. Aeroplane’s renowned photo archive, especially our collection of glass plate negatives, forms one of the most important resources of historical RAFrelated imagery. In this year’s calendar, material from the Aeroplane files Ben Dunnell, editor

is combined with some of the Key Publishing photo collection, as shot in more recent years for the company’s magazine stable, to present what we hope is a very special tribute to the RAF’s centenary. Of course, the anniversary will be a major theme for Aeroplane throughout 2018 — but especially in our April edition, on sale from 8 March. This will be our biggest ever issue, at a mammoth 148 pages, featuring more outstanding archive imagery and fascinating insights into RAF history. To ensure your copy, why not subscribe? Visit www.aeroplanemonthly.com for the latest offers, or see pages 24-25.

Calendar 2018

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RICHARD PAVER

FRONT COVER: A special ‘then and now’ formation of RAF fighters mounted to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 2015: Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Hurricane IIc LF363 leads No 29 (Reserve) Squadron Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 ZK349, painted up as the Hurricane of No 249 Squadron in which Flt Lt James Nicolson conducted the action on 16 August 1940 that resulted in his being awarded the Victoria Cross.

AEROPLANE

THIS IMAGE: A beautiful formation of Hawker Fury IIs from No 25 Squadron, up from their base at Hawkinge, Kent.

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9

16

23

30

6

8

15

22

29

5

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JANUARY 2018

Tuesday 2

Monday 1 New Year’s Day

7

31

24

17

10

Wednesday 3

8

1

25

18

11 February issue on sale

Thursday 4

10

3

27

20

13

Saturday 6

11

4

28

21

14

Sunday 7

One of the most famous images of the early Royal Air Force: the Royal Aircraft Factory SE5as of No 1 Squadron at Clairmarais near Saint-Omer, France, on 3 July 1918. AEROPLANE

9

2

26

19

12

Friday 5

J A N UA RY

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6

13

20

27

6

5

12

19

26

5

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FEBRUARY 2018

Tuesday 30

Monday 29

7

28

21

14

7

Wednesday 31

8

1

22

15

8

9

2

23

16

9

Friday 2

10

3

24

17

10

Saturday 3

11

4

25

18

11

Sunday 4

Biplanes hold sway at Mildenhall, Suffolk, on 6 July 1935 for King George V’s Jubilee Review. In the foreground are Fury Is of No 25 Squadron; behind are Bulldogs, Harts and Heyfords. AEROPLANE

March issue on sale

Thursday 1

FEBRUARY

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6

13

20

27

3

5

12

19

26

2

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MARCH 2018

Tuesday 27

Monday 26

4

28

21

14

7

Wednesday 28

5

29

22

15

8 April issue on sale

Thursday 1

6

30

23

16

9

Good Friday

Friday 2

MARCH

8

1

25

18

11

(clocks go forward by one hour)

British Summer Time starts

Sunday 4

No 1 Squadron again, but this time flying Hurricane IIcs — led by Z3778 — from Tangmere, West Sussex, in 1942. AEROPLANE

7

31

24

17

10

Saturday 3

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3

2

17

24

1

16

23

30

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APRIL 2018

10

9

Easter Monday

Tuesday 27

Monday 26

2

25

18

11

4

Wednesday 28

3

26

19

12

5

May issue on sale

Thursday 29

5

28

21

14

7

Saturday 31

6

29

22

15

8

Sunday 1

A late-August 1942 demonstration for The Aeroplane’s photographer of bomb loading with Lancaster I R5689 from Waddington, Lincolnshire-based No 50 Squadron. AEROPLANE

4

27

20

13

6

Friday 30

APRIL

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8

7

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MAY 2018

5

29

28

4

22

21

Spring Bank Holiday

15

14

Bank Holiday

Tuesday 1

Monday 1

6

30

23

16

9

Wednesday 2

7

31

24

17

10 June issue on sale

Thursday 3

8

1

25

18

11

9

2

26

19

12

Saturday 5

10

3

27

20

13

Sunday 6

No 243 Squadron operated these Spitfire Vbs, EN821 being in the lead, during the summer of 1942. It was stationed at the time at Ouston, Northumberland. AEROPLANE

Friday 4

M AY

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5

12

19

26

3

4

11

18

25

2

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JUNE 2018

Tuesday 29

Monday 28

4

27

20

13

6

Wednesday 30

5

28

21

14

7

July issue on sale

Thursday 31

7

30

23

16

9

Saturday 2

8

1

24

17

10

Sunday 3

Wellington III X3763 serving with No 425 ‘Alouette’ Squadron, a Royal Canadian Air Force unit assigned to Bomber Command and based at Dishforth, North Yorkshire. AEROPLANE

6

29

22

15

8

Friday 1

JUNE

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3

10

17

24

31

2

9

16

23

30

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JULY 2018

Tuesday 26

Monday 25

1

25

18

11

4

Wednesday 27

2

26

19

12

5

August issue on sale

Thursday 28

3

27

20

13

6

Friday 29

J U LY

5

29

22

15

8

Sunday 1

Marham, Norfolk-based No 105 Squadron Mosquito FBIVs DZ353 and DZ367 in late 1942. Both ended up being lost in action. AEROPLANE

4

28

21

14

7

Saturday 30

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21

28

20

27

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AUGUST 2018

4

14

13

3

7

6

Summer Bank Holiday

Tuesday 31

Monday 30

5

29

22

15

8

Wednesday 1

6

30

23

16

9 September issue on sale

Thursday 2

8

1

25

18

11

Saturday 4

9

2

26

19

12

Sunday 5

The Meteor was, of course, the RAF’s first jet fighter. The NF14 was the final night fighter mark, these examples being from No 85 Squadron at West Malling, Kent. AEROPLANE

7

31

24

17

10

Friday 3

AU G U S T

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4

11

18

25

2

3

10

17

24

1

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SEPTEMBER 2018

Tuesday 28

Monday 27

3

26

19

12

5

Wednesday 29

4

27

20

13

6

October issue on sale

Thursday 30

5

28

21

14

7

Friday 31

7

30

23

16

9

Sunday 2

Hunter F6s of No 65 Squadron at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, cavorting for the camera in April 1959. AEROPLANE

6

29

22

15

8

Saturday 1

SEPTEMBER

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9

16

23

30

6

8

15

22

29

5

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OCTOBER 2018

Tuesday 2

Monday 1

7

31 Halloween

24

17

10

Wednesday 3

8

1

25

18

11 November issue on sale

Thursday 4

9

2

26

19

12

10

3

27

20

13

Saturday 6

11

4

28

21

14

(clocks go back by one hour)

British Summer Time ends

Sunday 7

Victor K2 XL512 from No 55 Squadron at Marham replenishing Lightning F6 XR728 of the Lightning Training Flight at Binbrook, Lincolnshire. KEY/DUNCAN CUBITT

Friday 5

O C TO B E R

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5

20

27

4

19

26

3

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NOVEMBER 2018

13

12

Guy Fawkes Day

Tuesday 30

Monday 29

5

28

21

14

7

Wednesday 31

6

29

22

15

8

7

30

23

16

9

Friday 2

8

1

24

17

10

Saturday 3

9

2

25

18

11Remembrance Sunday

Sunday 4

The Jet Provost was an RAF training stalwart from the mid-to-late 1950s until 1993. This is T5A XW330 overflying the hallowed grounds of the RAF College at Cranwell, Lincolnshire. KEY/DUNCAN CUBITT

December issue on sale

Thursday 1

NOVEMBER

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18

25

1

10

17

24

31

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DECEMBER 2018

4

3

Christmas Day

Tuesday 27

Monday 26

2

26

19

12

5

Boxing Day

Wednesday 28

3

27

20

13

6

Thursday 29

4

28

21

14

5

29

22

15

8

Saturday 1

6

30

23

16

9

Sunday 2

Four of the last Buccaneers in service during early 1994 on a sortie out of RAF Lossiemouth, Moray, where they were retired by No 208 Squadron at the end of March. KEY/DUNCAN CUBITT

January 2019 issue on sale

7

Friday 30

DECEMBER

P UB

LI S HIN

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