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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 2013.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 December 10.49 779 SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Naval Aviation News and Announcements Odiham Visited CANADA'S Minister of National De-fence, the Hon. Brooke Claxton, paid a brief visit to R.A.F. Station Odi-ham (W/C. D. C. Stapleton) last Friday afternoon. He was accompanied, in aninspection of the maintenance, adminis- tration and flying of the resident Vam-pire Wing, by other distinguished visitors, including the Rt. Hon. ArthurRenderson, Secretary of State for Air; Air Marshal Sir Basil Embry, A.O.C.-in-C, Fighter Command; A.V-M. S. F. Vincent, A.O.C. 11 Group; A.V-M.Campbell, R.C.A.F. ; Cdre. Bidwell, R.C.N.; and Maj.-Gen. Clark. Early in his tour of the station, Mr.Claxton inspected a line-up of nine trim, recently delivered Vampire 5s—three air-craft of each Odiham squadron. In front of each machine stood its pilot, fitter andrigger, and Mr. Claxton paused to chat with several pilots and ground crews.All the station's servicing personnel have been equipped with new green anti-kerosene suits, of rubberized material, and rubber boots which prevent damageto the aircraft's finish. The resultant uniformity helped to give the stationactivities an air of smartness which could easily have been marred by a pro-fusion of miscellaneous overalls. The party inspected a number ofhangars, workshops and offices before making a concluding visit to air trafficcontrol. From the tower roof they wit- nessed a short but superlative flyingdisplay which was a credit to Fighter Command. For a winter's day the visi-bility was excellent, but an icy wind (re- lieved occasionally by a waft of warmkerosene fumes) inevitably detracted DOMINION VISITOR: As reported on this page, the Canadian Defence Minister, Mr. Brooke Claxton, last week visited the Vampire base at Odi- ham. He is shown meeting P/O. P. C. Skinner of 72 Squad- ron ; seen also are Mr. Arthur Henderson, the Air Minister (centre), and W/C. D. C. Stapleton, the Sta- tion Commander. from the pleasure of the spectacle.Belying the implication of the squadron letters "US" on its fuselage, a singleMeteor 4 began the display with sweep- ing loops above the centre of the air-field. Tight turns were momentarily traced by contrails against the chill sky,and the performance was sustained by high-speed rolling with notably little lossof height. An infrequent Meteor manceuvre was the eight-point roll,which proved to be an accurate—and not unfamiliar—hint as to the identityof the demonstrator, Pit. II Murphy. Odiham pilots have, for the most part,given up their Vampire 3s in favour of the later, clipped-wing Mk. 5s; they arenaturally less familiar with the latter variant, which differs in fore-and-aftcontrol characteristics. However, there has certainly been no drop in the re-nowned Odiham standard of formation aerobatics. The performance given lastFriday by five 54 Squadron pilots was superb and can rarely have beenequalled. Four aircraft (piloted by F/L. " Flight" photograph. Bennett, F/O. Marsik, Pit. 1 Wood andPit. II Skinner) would loop or roll with unfailing and almost uncanny precision,and—as they re-formed "off-stage" be- Iween each item—F/L. Wingate. as"individualist," dashed in to hold the attention of an appreciative audience.Vampires of the other squadrons were air- borne on a routine exercise during theafternoon, but succeeded in showing the flag by means of contrails at 20,000ft. R.A.F. Appointment /"•"ROUP CAPT. J. N. T. STEPHEN-vJ SON has been appointed Comman- dant of the R.A.F. Staff College,Andover, with the acting rank of Air Commodore. Until recently he wasGroup Captain (Operations) at Head- quarters, B.A.F.O., a post he held forthree months from last July after having commanded the R.A.F. Station at Celle.Before going to Germany, A.Cdre. Stephenson was on the directing staff ofthe Staff College for a year, joining it in October, 1947, shortly before it moved TWO-GUN TRAINER: Eight 250-lb rocket projectiles and two -303-in Browning machine guns give a belligerent appearance to this Airspeed Consul, shown at Boscombe Down, where armament tests have recently been conducted with success. Both the Consul and the Oxford can carry this armament, which was installed to meet the training requirements of an overseas air force.
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