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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0791.PDF
MAY 22ND, 1947 FLIGHT STUDY IN SUPPORT Instructive Demonstrations at Westdown Ranges and Netheravon IN scale and scope the demonstrations of Offensive andTransport support staged respectively at WestdownRanges and Netheravon on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, paralleled, and in some respects excelled, thosegiven last August; which means that they were out- standingly impressive and instructive. As before, theywere arranged for officers attending the Special Senior Course of the R.A.F. School of Air Support at Old Sarum,where representatives of the three Services, including those of the Dominions, are taught the science of combinedarmy-air operations. For accept- ance on this course officers must - hold the rank of Major-Generalor equivalent. It was satisfactory to note eight good Americannames on the nominal roll. i In a specially prepared en-closure on the undulating and sparsely wooded Westdown••^Ranges near the Wiltshire village V West Lavington, A. V-M. L.p. Brown, C.B., C.B.E., D.F.C., A.F.C., who remains as the Com-mandant of the School, gave us a few of his ideas on the develop-ment of air support technique. •We were trying, he said, to avoid • ideveloping specialized aircraftfor army support, and it was gratifying to find that jet Officers attending the SpecialSenior Course at Old Sarum, in company with guests, intent onwatching the bombs leave Lin- colns of No 1 Group. The Grumman Avenger fires its two1,050 lb experimental rocket pro- jectiles. machines could undertake the same tasks as their pre- decessors. This did not necessarily mean that speciali- zation could be avoided indefinitely. The Air Vice-Marshal spoke strongly concerning tht manner in which the recent incident, when a 4,000 11 > bomb was alleged to have caused minor damage to local houses, had been reported. He emphasized that the range in use was the only one in England suitable for practice with bombs of this calibre, and that its loss to the Service would be serious. Enquiries suggest that the local daniagt- was not, in fact, attributable to an R.A.F. "cookie," but to a detonation for which the Army may have been responsible. Some deadly marksmanship with cannon and machine guns was the first demonstration on Tuesday. The air- craft engaged were three Spitfire XIV (two 20-mm and two 0.5m) and four Meteor III and a Varnpjj^r- Btwrff—mitL f \ibatonruvb ^
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