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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1504.PDF
n FLIGHT. MAY 26, 1938. and Vildebeest torpedo machines, with their ample wing area, were rather happier. To make the "Heinz" formation all the more unique, pilots were drawn from the R.A.F., Army, Navy and Marines. Six aircraft manufacturers (Avro, Hawker, Fairey, Blackburn, Vickers and Phillips and Powis) were represented, and the engines were Bristol, Pegasus II and III, Rolls-Royce, Kestrel II MS and V, Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC and Tiger VI, and De Havilland Gipsy Major. The Training Squadron is divided into two, the divi- sions being the Coastal Defence Development Flight and A camera installation in an old Hawkerfuselage is used for instruction at the School of Photography, Farnborough. the Torpedo Training Unit. The work of the former is chiefly of a hush-hush nature. i- The Torpedo Training Unit is commanded by Sqn. Ldr. J. G. Elton, A.F.C., and is * equipped with Fairey Swordfish torpedo- :- spotter-reconnaisance two-three-seater bi- planes with Pegasus HIM engine. It trains not only all F.A.A. torpedo pilots, but those destined for shore-based squadrons, in their highly specialised work. The Swordfish, together with the Tiger-engined Blackburn Shark, forms the torpedo-dropping equip- ment of the Fleet Air Arm and is provided with flotation gear and deck-arrester equip- . ment. Three courses a year are held, each last- ing three months, and instruction must be given not only in the actual aiming and release of the "tin fish," but in the tech- nique of approaching the target as governed by weather conditions. Pupils must be taught to realise when they are open to the fire of the high-angle armament on the target and at what range multiple pom-poms and large-calibre machine- guns become effective. A really startling number of tor- pedoes is dropped daily. It is absorbing work and . . . but come in the rear cockpit of a Swordfish on a practice flight. The preliminaries to an over-water flight are somewhat more extensive than usual. Apart from the completion of the usual "blood chits," the donning of a Sidcot, helmet, -~ goggles, parachute harness and gloves, one has to wriggle • into a waistcoat-like life-jacket popularly known by the name of a film star. This has a topping-up tube and infla- tion is effected from the lungs. Thus equipped, „ we scale the side of the Swordfish and drop into ,<, the rear cockpit, which is big enough for a navi- gator and air-gunner to discharge their obliga- tions unhampered. The take-off, complete with massive "fish," is something to marvel at; there is no suggestion of staggering into the air as with some of the ' early types. We are six, the leading ones in each flight of three bearing instructors who will note the shortcomings of their charges. Their machines do not carry a torpedo. Some miles out to sea is the cruiser Dunedin. Her job in life is to steam back and forth offer- ing herself as a target. She also helps pick up the dummy torpedoes, which are, incidentally, set to run beneath her. • Even so, their wake is ample to permit accuracy to be assessed. As the present batch of pupils are new to the work and have not yet practised the advanced forms of attack we are out for aiming practice, i.e., a straightforward dive, level off, aim and release The obliging Dunedin sighted, we whistle down one by one towards the inhospitable white- flecked water. As we level off, the waves stream past in alarming proximity. Precise judgment of height over the water requires a good deal of experi- .Above; Duringcertain periods ground person-nel are expected to work in theirgas masks to a c c ustomthem to the "feel." (Left) "George," other-wise an automatic pilot with demonstrationmodel control surfaces, being groomed for Felix-stowe's Empire Air Day show.
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