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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0686.PDF
680 FLIGHT, 29 May 1953 Operation Sandbag: During the recent foods Transport Com mand brought 2f million sand bags from overseas to aid repair work. Valettas are shown await ing a consignment at Kloten Airport, Zurich. The Queen's Air Forces its excellence as a flying ground ... is situated in a lonely spot several miles from a railway station, and is therefore not liable to the inconvenience and danger of attracting large crowds of spectators." Upavon's present occupants, though still some distance from civilization, control flights to practically every part of the world. Transport Command's operations are so diverse and far-ranging that a visit to the operations room at Upavon (where details of current flights cover hundreds of square feet of blackboard) is one of the best means of appreciating their scale and scope. Immediately obvious is the fact that at least one, and normally several, aircraft of the Command must be airborne at all hours of the day or night. The diversity of the tasks undertaken is most impressive, as shown by the following extracts from a recent daily summary of operations :— Type of Flight V.I.P. Transport Training Ferry Scheduled Passenger and freight* Aircraft Route Viking London-Hullavington Devon Northolt-Dusseldorf Dakota Exeter-Fornebu Dakota Odiham-Villacoublay 3 Valettas Hurn-Gutersloh Anson Dijon-Lyneham 2 Tempests Benson-Sylt Shackleton Lyneham-Gibraltar 2 Meteors Benson-Istres Hornet Istres-Luqa Hastings Keflavik-St. Eval Hastings Mauripur-Negombo Hastings Clark Field-Changi 4 Hastings ShaUufa-Lyneham * These aircraft were part of a large force of Hastings returning—with payloads—from a support exercise in the Middle East. In this case, the important passengers concerned were one member of the Royal Family, a field marshal and two generals. The Valettas were taking members of a R.Aux.A.F. fighter control unit to Germany for their annual camp. The ferrying missions shown, while typical of the routine tasks performed by the Overseas Ferry Unit, are not fully representative; a few days previously members of the O.F.U. had completed delivery of a large batch of Sabres from Montreal. Delivery of between 300 and 400 of these Canadair-built fighters is currently the unit's major responsibility, and it is not widely appreciated that Trans port Command pilots have been the first to handle large numbers of Sabres—the fastest aircraft in R.A.F. service. Thirty pilots recently accomplished a remarkable "double-shuttle," ferrying 60 Sabres from Canada to Britain in 11 days with the assistance flights to freedom: Repatriated soldiers (right) from Korea complete their journey from Tokyo to Lyneham by Hastings Ambulance. Pictured below is the conclusion of a recent flight from Moscow to Abingdon via Berlin; marshaller's bats seem to welccme Hastings WJ 338 on return from the Soviet capital with liberated civilians from North Korea. of a Hastings (in which they flew west after completing each leg of the flight in order to pick up a second aircraft). Members of the Command are extremely conscious of the importance of high aircraft utilization, although it is obviously impossible to achieve results comparable with those of com mercial airlines. Many of the flights are non-scheduled, and planning of regular services is constantly disrupted at short notice. The fact that many of the crews are under training, and lack the necessary qualification for passenger flights, is another adverse factor. Nevertheless, Transport Command has rendered excellent service throughout the post-war years. In 1952 alone its aircraft flew nearly 4* million statute miles, carrying some 27,000 passengers, 2,430 tons of freight and 500 tons of mail. The Command's excellent safety record testifies to the efficiency of its crews and the high standards to which they operate. There has been no loss of life among passengers over the past four years. Together with the American Military Air Transport Service, Transport Command has pioneered the adoption of rearward- facing seats in passenger-carrying aircraft. The standard medium- and long-range aircraft employed by the Command—respec tively, the Valetta and Hastings—are now well established in service. Pilots and crews find their performance excellent, but the lack of end-loading arrangements restricts their usefulness in the tactical role. The new Blackburn Beverley, for which orders have been placed, should go a long way towards making up this deficiency. In addition, the Beverley should provide a very welcome increase in capacity available on Transport Command's normal supply routes. The Beverley order, coupled with the announcement that Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., have been "authorized to start work" on the Vickers 1000 four-jet military transport, indicates that the Command's fleet will undergo a complete transformation within the next few years. Whatever the future brings, it is certain that Transport Command will continue to meet its increasingly important responsibilities with efficiency and enthusiasm.
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