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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1397.PDF
FLIGHT, 20 July 1950 in OFFENSIVE AIR : In the words of the manufacturer, graphically illustrated by this new air-to-air view, the Blackburn Y.A.5has "a long, capacious bomb trunk, capable of holding a large mixed load of attack weapons." Also shown is the retractable radome, here seen extended. The cranked wings of the Y.A.5 are of 44ft 2in span, slightly more than the fuselage length of 42ft 5in. C.F.S. Together Again THE Chief of Air Staff, Sir JohnSlessor, took the chair at the Cen- tral Flying School reunion, held in Lon-j don on Friday last. Sir John went to S C.F.S.—to gain his wings as a second""- lieutenant—35 years ago, and com- manded it in 1918. Of all reunions, that of C.F.S. invari-giably excels in its wealth of anecdote. |On this occasion, for instance, twoofficers who were at the school in the early 'twenties were to be heard " re-membering" how they went out each morning on Mono Avro 504s to race withthe Fishguard express over an 80 m.p.h. stretch of line. According to the direc-tion of the wind the daily race was either lost or won. Then ;there was the account of theinstructor with a sergeant in the rear seat. The weather was thick, and fuellow. The sergeant baled out. The in- structor flew on, landed in a fog-bound.field, walked to the nearest garage for petrol, took off again, and was back atC.F.S. in time to receive a telephone message from his passenger—to the effectthat he had been hanging from a tree bv his parachute cords for over an hour.'A.V-M. R. L. R. ("Batchy") Atcher- ley was not present, but someone washeard recalling the occasion on which he equipped himself with sandwiches, fruitand coffee and "flew the Atlantic"— •in a Link trainer. G/C. Stephenson, the present com-mandant, welcomed the assembly, mak- rng particular mention of Lt. Col. Mac-Xean, who, in 1916, was the fourth com- jinandant of the school. Type flying, he-pointed out, was now entirely done on Meteors and the flying hours for the year" amounted to 28,000. Sir John Slessor gave a considered^•-opinion that the quality of the flying "Seen at the R.A.F. Display was due en-tirely to the basic training given by C.F.S. He also referred to ex-C.F.S.members of high rank who still flew their Royal Air Force and Naval Aviation News and Announcements own aircraft. This was an obvious com-pliment to Sir James Robb, who was a pupil in 1916, chief flying instructor in1927, and commandant in 1934, and who still flies his own Meteor. African Inspection THE Air Member for Personnel, AirChief Marshal Sir Leslie N. Holling- • hurst, left England last Monday for atour of R.A.F. establishments in the Middle East, Kenya and Rhodesia. Heis expected to return to this country on August 6th. Travelling with him, as assistant airquartermasters, are two London cadets : P. Gray, of the R.A.F. section of thf>Combined Cadet Force at Duhvich Col- lege, and C. Wilson-Apperson of No. 267Squadron, A.T.C.. London's Auxiliary Radar Unit FOLLOWING discussions with theRadar Association, the Air Ministry announces formation of No. 3700(County of London) Radar Reporting Unit, which will be concerned with therole of manning, operating and servicing of the "Chain Home" stations whichgive early warning of raiders approach- ing the British coast. The Unit's H.Q.and social centre are at 77, Hallam Street, London, W.i. The Commanding Officer of No. 3700R.R.U. is G/C. E. Fennessy. O.B.E., a prominent member of the Radar Asso-ciation and a director of the Decca Navi- gator Company. He has been associatedwith radar development for the last 12 years, and was awarded the O.B.E. in1943 for his work on systems of naviga- tion and blind-bombing.. Desert Rescue Exercise WITH the intention of testing land/sea/air rescue forces and of provid- ing an opportunity for R.A.F.-Armyco-operation, No. 205 Group, Middle East Air Force, recently organized a large-scalerescue exercise in the Eastern Desert, some miles inland from Gulf of Suez.Aircraft from Kabrit co-operated with a mixed ground rescue party—formed fromthe R.E., R.A.F. and R.A.F. Regiment —in the search for a coloured bag drop-ped in the desert to simulate wreckage. The ground party's vehicles, movingover difficult terrain, became separated on one occasion, and one of the lorriesbroke down, but the " crash " was sucess- fully located. Some of the rescuers thentook the part of casualties and were taken aboard a high-speed rescue launch fromR.A.F. Fanara, on the shores of the Great Bitter Lake. Mosquitoes from Fayid pro-vided top cover for the final phase. U.A.S. Round-up IN order to assist the three pre-waruniversity air squadrons to main- tain contact with former members, andto bring their registers up to date, for- mer members of these squadrons whoare still serving in the R.A.F. are asked to write to the commandingofficers, giving, in addition to their names, ranks and decorations, their per-manent and Service addresses, the dates between which they were at the univer-sity, the name of their college, and the dates of their squadron membership. Similar information regarding formeimembers who are not now serving in the R.A.I-, is also requested. The addressesto which letters should be sent are: Cambridge University Air Squadron, 2.Chaucer Road. Cambridge; Orfjrd Uni- versitv Air Squadron. Manor Road, Ox-
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