FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0083.PDF
JANUARY 13TH, 1949 FLIGHT Army Graves Service, and A/C. E. Ash-man, the driver. Of the 41,8^ British, Dominion andAllied aircrew missing during the war, just over 21,000 have now been accountedfor. Of those still untraced, between 12,000 and 17,000 were probably lost inthe sea, leaving between 4,000 and 9,000 still to be traced. "Illustrious" Memorial Fund NEARLY £4,000 was contributed to amemorial fund opened to assist the next-of-kin of the victims of the boataccident in Portland Harbour on October 17th, when a midshipman and 28 ratingswere drowned. The fund, which closed on December31st, is known as the " H.M.S. //2MS-trious Memorial Fund, 1948." Eskimo Trainers at Survival School '"PHE Royal Canadian Air Force isJ- setting up a survival training school, to train its aircrews in methods of bushand Arctic survival, because of the rigorous climate and hazardous terrainencountered in normal flights over uninhabited areas. It has been shownthat lack of knowledge of self preserva- tion after forced landings in isolateddistricts has resulted in undue hardship and even death. Instruction will be given in geo-graphy, first aid, use of emergency equip- ment and clothing, shelter and rescuetechnique. The school's staff will con- « sist of experienced R.C.A.F. personnel,and a number of Eskimo and Indian in- structors. Since the average Eskimospeaks little or no English, a course in basic Eskimo will be part of thesyllabus. R.A.F.'s 1948 Flying Statistics TOURING 1948 the R.A.F. logged-*--' approximately 900,000 flying hours, made up as follows: Flying TrainingCommand (including Rhodesian Air Training Group), 263,000 hr; otherHome Commands (including B.A.F.O. Germany), 416,000 hj; Overseas Com-mands, 94,800 hr; Reserve Command, 122,200 hr. British mileage on the Berlin Air Lifthad reached 13 million by the end of the year, and the tonnage carried 175,000. R.A.F. in Scotland—1948 '"THOUGH now operating on a peace-•*- time basis with only a fraction of the stations, aircraft and personnel of afew years ago, the R.A.F. in Scotland has had a busy and eventful year in1948. Scotland's East Coast airfields staged one of the two big air-naval exer-cises of the year, and Stornoway saw the start and finish of the first double cross-ing of the Atlantic by jet aircraft— Vampires of Fighter Command. Through-out the summer R.A.F. Mosquitoes and Spitfires (on detachment from Benson)operated from Leuchars on an aerial photographic survey of Scotland, notonly for revision of Ordnance Survey maps but also to produce new large scaleseries for planning purposes. Lancasters of No. 120 Squadron during the summerphotographed more than 1,400 miles of the coastline of the Orkneys, Hebrides,Islay and Jura groups to "pinpoint" the location of seaweed beds for theScottish Seaweed Research Association. Coastal Command Ansons, operating from Kinloss, co-operated with fisherycruisers of the Scottish Home Depart- ment in "Operation Fish Patrol"—spotting '' poaching '' trawlers off the Scottish coast and photographing themfrom low level. For the second succes- sive year, the King's Flight operated ahelicopter mail service between Aberdeen and Balmoral while the Royal Familywere in residence there in August. Scot- land's Air/Sea Rescue organization,which operates from No. 18 Group H.Q., at Pitreavie Castle, Dunfermline, laid ona total of 24 searches—ten for aircraft missing over land, six for aircraft missingover the sea, six for vessels overdue or lost, one for a climber missing in theBen Nevis range and one for a German prisoner who attempted to escape to seain a dinghy near Berwick. Perhaps the most spectacular rescue was in July,when a Lancaster had to "ditch" near the Shetlands, and the crew of eight,after drifting ten hours in their rubber dinghy, were picked up by a flying boat.It was a R.A.F. Lincoln, working under Pitreavie'.s orders, which recentlysearched for and found seven survivors of the foundered S.S. Rojo in the NorthSea. Mountain Rescue units from Kinloss and West Freugh were out on five occa-sions to aircraft crashes in the Scottish hills. Scottish Reserve Forces of the R.A.F.continue to build up. New Fighter Con- trol Units have opened up at Edinburghand Glasgow, and others will start recruiting soon at Dundee, Aberdeenand Inverness. A second R.A.F.V.R. Centre opened at Bishopbriggs (Glas-gow) during the year and a Flying School at Grangemoutn. The A.T.C. with3.200 cadets in 78 Scottish squad- rons, is also steadily growing. Anew squaHron in Edinburgh has enrolled PEACETIME P.R.: (Above) The interior of one of the R.A.F. photographic Ansons recently engaged in mapping 50 sq. miles of Central and West London. In the camera repair section at upper right adjustments are being made to an F.S2 20" lens. The need for speedy printing, developing and drying of film Is met by the multi-printer (right). B 31 <vV\\
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
