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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1503.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 November 1953 657 SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm News A.V-M. R. L. R. Atcherley THE Air Ministry announces the appointment of A.V-M. R. L. R. Atcherley, C.B., C.B.E., A.F.C., as Head of the Air Force Staff, British Joint Ser vices Mission in Washington. He will take up his appointment in the New Year. A.V-M. Atcherley has been A.O.C., No. 12 Group, Fighter Command, since May 1951, and was C-in-C, Royal Pakistan Air Force from February 1949, until that date. Educated at Oundle and the R.A.F. College, Cranwell, he was commissioned in 1924. In 1929 he was a member of the Schneider Trophy team and also won the King's Cup Air Race. At the beginning of the war he com manded No. 219 (Night Fighter) Squad ron, and then became garrison commander of the fighter force based in Narvik, Norway, during the German invasion. In 1943 he became A.O.C. No. 211 Group, Desert Air Force. He formed the Central Fighter Establishment at West Raynham, Norfolk, in 1944, and commanded it until September 1945, when he became Com mandant of the R.A.F. College, Cranwell. A.O.C. No. 21 Group D URING this month, A.V-M. E. N. Nicholetts, C.B., A.F.C., will take command of No. 21 Group, Flying Train ing Command. He will relinquish the position as S.A.S.O., Coastal Command, which he has held since May 1951. A.V-M. Nicholetts was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth and the Royal Air Force Col lege, Cranwell, and was commissioned in the R.A.F. in 1922. In February 1933, as a Flight Lieutenant, he and the late S/L. O. R. Gayford flew in the specially built Fairey long-range monoplane, from Cran well to Walvis Bay, South West Africa (5,341 miles) in 57 hr 25 min, establishing a new world long-distance record. At the outbreak of war, he was in die Directorate of Organization at Air Ministry and then took command of No. 228 Squadron, with which he went to the Middle East in 1940. He then served with R.A.F. H.Q. Pales tine and Transjordan, and as station commander of R.A.F. Haifa, before going to the Far East in 1942, where he was captured by the Japanese. On returning to England he became S.A.S.O. No. 25 Group, and afterwards CO. of No. 7 S.F.I".S. He commanded the Central Photographic Establishment before becoming Director of Organization at Air Ministry in 1948. A.P.R.A. Dinner "PRESIDING at the seventh annual -*- dinner of the Air Public Relations Association on Friday last, Lord Wil- loughby de Broke announced the intro duction of a memorial trophy in honour of the late C. P. Robertson, who for many years was head of the Information Division of the Air Ministry. The trophy, which will take the form of an R.A.F. eagle, will be given annually to the person considered to have made the best con tribution in presenting the work of the R.A.F. to the public. The toast of the Air Ministry and the Royal Air Force was proposed by Dr. B. N. Wallis, Chief of Aeronautical Research and Development, Vickers- Armstrongs, Ltd., who took as his main theme the impact of the mechanical age on the human element. He quoted first from Kipling's "McAndrew's Hymn" (McAndrew was a trifle worried about the effect on men when steamships got up to 30 knots) and then from Flight's account of the record runs on the Swift in Libya, where Mike Lithgow at nearly 750 m.p.h. was in trouble with his cooling suit and oxygen mask. Referring to pilotless air craft, Dr. Wallis said they were back to where the Wright brothers were in 1903 "with a bit of supersonics thrown in. . . . I have been trying to develop a method of using pilotless aircraft, not unnaturally encountering very great difficulty in bringing them safely to earth again." Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, ¥.<£., who replied for the Air Ministry, paid tribute to Dr. Wallis and, referring to the re- equipment of the R.A.F., went on to say that "the coping was now being laid on the wall which had been building during the past few years." He took great care to emphasize the fact that supersonic air craft, guided missiles, and all that went with them, were going to make even more demands on the public purse, but push button warfare, he said, was not just round the corner. A.V-M. G. R. Beamish, replying for the R.A.F., spoke of serving in the per sonnel department of the Air Ministry, where he was in an excellent position to judge the outcome of work done by air correspondents and the Information Divi sion. He praised the integrity of war correspondents. G/O. C. M. McAlery W E regret to have to record the death of Group Officer C. M. McAlery, who for many years has been a contribu tor on Service matters to our contem porary, The Aeroplane. "Mrs. Mac," as she was known to her friends, served in the W.R.A.F. during the 1914-18 war and was unfortunate enough to lose her husband in a Service air accident at Hinaidi shortly after the armistice. From 1919 to 1939 she was a member of the staff of The Aeroplane, but on the outbreak of war went back into the Service and rose to the rank of Group Officer in the W.A.A.F., serving as a staff officer in Coastal and Main tenance Commands and as Senior Com mandant of the W.A.A.F. Depot. For the past few years she has lived in semi-retirement in Sussex. She was 58. No. 4 Squadron Standard YXfHEN No. 4 Squadron receives its *» Standard on November 20th the presentation will be performed by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Slessor, who commanded the unit from 1925 to 1928. The present CO. is S/L. P. W. Gilpin, D.F.C The squadron is equipped with Vam pires and is based at Jever, near Wilhelms- haven, Germany. R.A.F. Appointments A MONG recent R.A.F. appointments are the following: G/C L. T. Keens, O.B.E., to H.Q. Allied Air Forces Central Europe for staff duties; G/C. J. D. Melvin, to H.Q. M.E.A.F. administrative staff; G/C H. E. C. Boxer, O.B.E , to department of Chief of the Air Staff: G/C. D. D. Christie, O.B.E., A.F.C, to H.Q. 2nd T.A.F. ad ministrative staff; G/C. R. H. E. Emson, C.B.E., A.F.C., to department of Chief of the Air Staff; G/C H. B. Collins, to H.Q. No. 206 Group, ON THE NOSE: Cape Gris Nez lies, breaker-fringed, ahead of the Gloster (Arm strong Whitworth) Meteor N.F.Hs of No. 85 Squadron, commanded by S/L. D. Haw kins, D.F.C. The aircraft are carrying their ventral and under-wing tanks.
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