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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0956.PDF
428 FLIGHT, 9 April 1954 SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm News Two Flag Promotions 'T'HE Admiralty has announced the -•- promotion of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles E. Lambe, K.C.B., C.V.O., to the rank of Admiral and of Rear-Admiral Caspar John, C.B. to Vice-Admiral. Both these officers have wide air experi ence. Ten years ago Sir Charles was in command of H.M.S. Illustrious, then serving in the Eastern Fleet, and his appointments since then include: Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Air) at the Admiralty; Flag Officer Flying Training; Flag Officer Commanding the 3rd Aircraft Carrier Squadron, Home Fleet, in H M.S. Vengeance and Flag Officer (Air) Home. As long ago as 1929 he qualified for his pilot's civil "A" licence and for a long period flew his own aircraft. Vice-Admiral John is a son of the famous artist, Augustus John, and by many he will be remembered as a pilot in pre-war air races. Between the two wars he served in a number of carriers and in 1941 became the Director-General and later Chief Naval Representative for Naval Aircraft Development and Pro duction at the Ministry of Aircraft Production. In 1943 he became Head of the British Naval Air Service Representa tion at Washington. Later in the war he had command of the carriers Pretoria Castle and Ocean. After the war ended he continued his association with Naval aviation and in 1948 he- was appointed to command R.N. Air Station Lossie mouth, Scotland, before serving in the Admiralty as Deputy Chief of Naval Air Equipment and later as Director of Air Organization and Training. R.A.A.F. Avon-Sabres IN anticipation of delivery of Avon-Sabres to R.A.A.F. fighter units, a num ber of technicians have gone to the Com monwealth Aircraft Corporation factory at Fishermens Bend, near Melbourne, for a course in the handling and maintenance of the new aircraft. The Rolls-Royce-engined Sabre is being produced in Australia only, by the Com monwealth Aircraft Corporation. The prototype first flew last summer. Reserve Flights L AST week, at a conference held at the Air Ministry, Mr. George Ward, Under-Secretary of State for Air, ampli fied the statement he made earlier in the House of Commons concerning the reserve flight scheme. The background of the scheme is the need for very speedy mobilization of the R.A.F. on the outbreak of war. Air defences must be in full operation and fully manned immediately; and these defences, as Mr. Ward pointed out, consist not only of Fighter Command with its radar system of early warning and fighter control, but of Bomber Command also, which must be ready to strike at once. LITTLE GREY HOME IN THE WEST: Orbiting its base—Royal Naval Air Station Eglinton, Londonderry, Northern Ireland—is a production Fairey Gannet A.S.1 (Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba turboprop). Gannets are now leaving Fairey's production line at a heartening rate, and the first squadron is forming at Royal Naval Air Station Ford If this urgency is to be achieved, it is obvious that the reservists bringing the R.A.F. up to war strength must be able to carry out their work without further training and without loss of time by being called to personnel transit centres and redirected from there. Under the new arrangement reservists will be allotted in peacetime to specific R.A.F. stations at home and these, in general, will be their wartime stations. It is hoped, too, that the scheme will help to keep up the interest of the reservists in their work and to encourage them to take part in die social and sport ing activities of the station to which they are posted. It is realized that these aims will be more easily achieved at stations lying close to the more densely populated areas and that a weak spot in the scheme is the finding of the personnel to man a reserve flight at an isolated station. Reserve flights will consist of officers and airmen and members of the W.R.A.F. from all classes of the Reserve, whether they are liable to do peacetime training or not. Only those with a peacetime liability will be called up for training, but volunteers from groups having no peace time liability would be particularly wel come. A special appeal is made to these people, such as Class G men and former members of the W.R.A.F., to train volun tarily with reserve flights. They would be asked to transfer from their present reserve class to the R.A.F.V.R. All mem bers of the reserve flights will be paid at the new R.A.F. rates for the training they do and will receive bounties and travelling allowances. The scheme is being introduced in two phases. The first started last week-end and covered the Control and Reporting Units of the Fighter Command Radar Organization and some other signal units of No. 90 Group. The second phase is due to stan on July 1st and will cover the remainder of Fighter Command and be extended to Bomber Command and some Coastal Command stations. The first instructions which reservists will receive will include mobilization instructions, a railway warrant, a draft value 10s and particulars of the flight to which the reservist has been posted. These are for use only on mobilization. Shortly afterwards the reservist will receive a letter from the commanding officer of his flight, who will deal with all problems arising. In the coming year it is expected that these instructions will be sent to some 25,000 reservists—16,000 of whom will be called up. Of this 16,000 approximately 13,000 will be National Service Reserve. The scheme does not extend to air crew; a special arrangement for these is to be announced later. The remainder of the reserve, that is to say those not organized into reserve flights, will continue to be administered by Home Command. Kemsley Trust Trophy HP HE first winners of the Kemsley Trust •*• Flying Trophy are No. 1831 Squad ron, R.N.V.R. (Lt-Cdr. W. A. Storey, R.N.V.R.), based at Stretton, (near War rington, Lancashire. The Trophy was presented last December by Viscount Kemsley and the trustee of the Kemsley Flying Trust, and is awarded to the R.N.V.R. air squadron winning an annual competition based on operational flying training. Lord Kemsley will hand the trophy to Vice-Admiral A. K. Scott-Moncrieff, Admiral Commanding Reserves, at a cere mony held on board H.M.S. President, at the Victoria Embankment, London, at 5.30 p.m. on April 8th. Vice-Admiral Scott-Moncrieff will then present the trophy to Cdr. R. I. Gilchrist, M.B.E., R.N.V.R., who commands the Northern Air Division, of which No. 1831 forms part, and who led the winning squadron team.
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