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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0688.PDF
Transport of aircraft is one aspect of the work of Maintenance Command. Here, a Vampire is seen dismantled and mounted on a "long low-loader." Storage is another important job. A Hastings aircraft is being partially cocooned for long-term storage at one of the Command's depots. The Queen's Air Forces maintained for reasons of strategic security, and from these several holdings distribution to home and overseas Commands is made, and commitments to Allied and Commonwealth air forces are met. The work of the remaining Group, No. 43, is divided into two parts. Firstly, it arranges for the repair on site and the salvage and transportation of damaged aircraft to the contractors, and secondly it plans and carries out the programmes of work at the repair depots (mainly for productive purposes, bur also as a means of training personnel and developing repair techniques in the Service). Maintenance Command pilots attached to 41 and 43 Groups flight-test aircraft on issue or after repair, and collect and deliver them from manufacturers to home units. The Command employs a large number of civilian staff, amount ing to some 60 per cent of the total strength. By employing civi lians, Service manpower is saved and greater continuity is obtained in routine work, with consequent increase in efficiency. Overall numbers in the Command have stabilized following the immediate post-war decrease in activity. As previously mentioned, responsibility for salvage and repair of damaged aircraft is one of the Command's duties, actual repair work being carried out either by 43 Group itself, or by the appro priate manufacturing firm. After deciding whether a damaged aircraft is to be repaired on site, repaired by the makers, broken up for spares or scrapped, 43 Group make the appropriate arrange ments for its transport or repair. Wherever extensive storage of a wide variety of components has to be performed, the use of mechanical handling and other modern aids can be very important, and Maintenance Command is no exception. Improved electric fork-lift trucks with increased manoeuvrability, improved types of storage pallets, and improved types of racking are all under development for 40 Group, as is the "mezzanine floor" concept for combined bulk and batch storage. In 41 Group, new aircraft handlers are undergoing trials and the outside development of new trucks, cranes and other labour- saving equipment is followed with interest by all branches of the Command. A streamlining of the radio equipment repair system has recently been introduced, and involves the direct exchange of "new sets for old" from special Maintenance Command vehicles which visit the operational stations in turn. By cutting down the transportation time, and transportation damage, this system has resulted in a markedly improved serviceability in the operational Commands. A similar scheme, with transport by air, is used to serve units in 2nd T.A.F. Some idea of the scale of the Command's work may be obtained from recent totals referring to one month's activity : over 40,000 tons of material were handled, while in 41 Group some 500 air craft movements took place. A glance at the detailed statistics of work done by Maintenance Command verifies further the suit ability of their motto. Their job is "service"—routine back ground service, without the glamour of the operational Commands, but with the responsibility of providing the material lifeblood for the whole of the R.A.F. R.A.F. REGIMENT IN February last year the R.A.F. Regiment celebrated its tenth anniversary. Over these years, and continuing today, the record is one of firm achievement in which officers and men have performed an effective job in many parts of the world. The object is that the Royal Air Force should be able to fight on and from the ground, as well as in the air. At the beginning of the last war, the defence of air bases was regarded as an Army responsibility. The rapid invasion of the Low Countries, and reverses in Greece and Crete, however, emphasized drastically that the R.A.F. would have to be capable of protecting its own airfields and installations. It was therefore decided in 1941 that an "airfield defence corps" should be built up, and the following year saw the formation of this new arm of the R.A.F., known as the Royal Air Force Regiment. Since then, its squadrons have seen service in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy, France, Germany and South-East Asia, while at home the Regiment's light anti-aircraft squadrons took some share in the defeat of the flying bomb. Today, the broad function of the Regiment, under its Com mandant-General, A.V-M. Sir Francis J. W. Mellersh, K.B.E., A.F.C., M.A., is threefold. Firstly, it provides fight anti-aircraft defences at the major R.A.F. stations overseas, except those which lie inside Army anti-aircraft defended areas. Secondly, it provides full-time ground fighting units to augment station per sonnel in the defence of more vulnerable stations, and thirdly it provides a field from which staff and instructors can be selected to aid and advise the R.A.F. in ground-defence The Regiment's ar moured-car squadrons are to be replaced by field squadrons equipped with Land Rovers. Here both types of vehicles are seen operating together.
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