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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1242.PDF
FLIGHT JULY 7TH, 1949 Apparently the result of low-level strafing by a Hornet, this f-80's dismembered appearance is actually due to a simple servicing operation. Loosening of three bolts permits removal of the rear fuselage, and gives access to the 4,000 Ib-thrust Allison J-23 turbojet. "Foil" Completed lights of Holland were seen for the second time that night—eventually brought us back to base at 0310 hr and, in the growing light, a first good view of the other Hemswell Lin-cokis as they made their circuits. D-Dog seemed less anxious to be back than was her crew, for on the approach the portinner kept motoring regardless, and the Captain had to work quite hard to get the wheels into contact with the runway. And so (via a brief but thorough interrogation, with appro-priate cynicisms from both sides of the table) to the ultimate materialization of real instead of visionary bacon-and-eggS; R. E. C. BACKGROUND TO THE SCRAMBLES as we awkwardly extricated ourselves from " officialtransport" at the main gate of Horsham St. Faith, near Norwich, the hoarse, unmistakable roar of a scrambling Meteorfilled the station and the sky around it. Formalities fulfilled, we" climbed the "tower" a few minutes later and saw withsatisfaction that, following this operational overture, all the viligance and vitality that make up the atmosphere of a fighterbase were in evidence and were likely to persist. At their own distant dispersal point a group of F-80B Shoot-ing Stars of the U.S. Air Force gleamed in scarlet and burnished silver; below the control tower, spaced in pairs round thebeginning of the runway, were six Meteors, ready to start up and begin to roll within seconds. For Foil purposes, Horsham'soperational strength then consisted of two \veU-kno\vn Meteor squadrons and ten F-8os of the 22nd (U.S.) Fighter Squadron,which flew in from Fueatenfeldbruck on June 20th. Adding, however, to the picture, if not to the power, were Spitfires ofNo. 504 (County of Nottingham) Auxiliary Squadron, adhering unbelligerently to their summer training programme; andtarget-towing Beaufighters and a Martinet. Barely had the scene been observed when action began. AVery signal cracked and two F-8oBs whistled obediently down the perimeter track. Painted boldly on their noses were thenames Torchy (this illustrated • with a suitable "flame") and Baldy. As they swung smoothly on to the runwav, a Hornetsuddenly materialized from seven o'clock, put in (presumably) a burst of camera-fire, and flew over the jet fighters low enough,but too fast, to read the labels. Stung, the F-Sos fumed away in pursuit of the fast-vanishing intruder. Both Meteors and F-8os, we learned, have no difficulty inshooting down the "rats," as the Hornets were impolitely termed, provided they are accurately directed. With theirG-suits, and the power-boosted ailerons fitted to theif aircraft, the U.S. pilots claim, in fact, that they can out-turn theHornet. A second " full-bore " beat-up by a Hornet, this time of a pair of "standby" Meteors, convinced us, however, thatthis fastest of twin piston-engined fighters is no mean opponent in the ground-attack role—given a reasonable share of the sur-prise element. Its high-altitude capabilities, too, should not be lightly dismissed. There was encouragement in the spectacle of the R.A.F.and U.S.A.F. jet fighters taking off and landing alternately and operating under a single control system. Anglo-Americanco-operation seemed at its most natural; differences in equip- ment, tactics and phraseology were not outstanding enough todemand the presence of a U.S.A.F. representative in the control tower. Here, where an intelligence officer and operationsofficer kept in continuous contact with the zone control-centre, were received the orders to scramble, and the direction andaltitude at which the fighters would find their quarries. By means of telephone lines from the tower to each '' squadronops." the requisite number of aircraft were kept in necessary stages of preparedness, and information on the position wasrelayed back to the control centre, where all phases of the battle were being plotted. Four theoretical stages of readiness were in use. " Avail-ability " meant that aircraft could fly within half-an-hour, those at '' readiness '' were given six minutes in which to be-come airborne, and the rimes allowed for " dispersal standby " and "runway standby" were four minutes and two minutesrespectively. In practice, however, the Meteors, fringing the runways, and the F-8os at dispersal, were all getting away injust under two minutes from the scramble signal; the two latter stages named were one in effect. Exercise Foil was the first post-war occasion on which R.A.F.and U.S.A.F. fighters have flown together under simulated battle conditions. At the re-birthplace of this happy and old-established alliance, many interesting questions arose. Opera- tionally, there were few snags, as the American system offighter control follows closely on our own. Their pilots spoke well of the swiftly given, accurate directions by which theywere vectored to as many as three separate targets before fuel ran short. Pilots' Preferences Several of the resident pilots had exchanged their Meteorsfor their guests' F-8os since the arrival of the American squadron, and mutual experience had been afforded. It seemedthe healthiest of signs that each pilot we questioned admitted the merits of the other's aircraft, but preferred his own. TheMeteor's higher all-round performance, derived from the great thrust of its Derwents, was the main talking-point for R.A.F.pilots, while their U.S. contemporaries quoted the F-80's better range on internal tanks only, its cleaner cockpit and power-assisted hydraulically operated ailerons. "Crash-hats," ejector seats and G-suits they regarded as prerequisites, and their com-bined airspeed and Mach indicator as a useful "extra." Seeking some indication of the scale of a day's activity, wefound that in the previous 24 hours there had been over 30 scrambles, with Meteors making nearly two-thirds of them.Interceptions resulted from almost every scramble, mainly of Wellingtons and B-29S, although there was frustration betweenthe lines of a report, from two Meteor pilots, which told of accidental vectoring to a civilian DC-6. As always in mockair-warfare, almost every enemy sighted was put down by the interceptor as a kill. Notable exceptions to this rule were theP.R.U. Spitfires, which, flying fast at 40,000ft, had wrung ad- missions of failure from both F-80 and Meteor pilots. Of greatest
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