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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1160.PDF
518 THE QUEEN'S SQUADRON . . . finished in a snow bank; the aircraft was badly damaged but its pilot escaped with only slight bruises. Practice at this time was very varied. Everything was covered, from night interceptions to army co-operation with the 51st High land Division. The main pre-occupation was with a number of attempts—unsuccessful—to get "Weather Willie"—a Ju 88 which came over on most days to within 60 to 100 miles of the Scottish coast to report on weather conditions. In March the squadron was withdrawn from operations entirely and in the middle of April embarked on the Clyde to go to the Middle East. The ground crews went direct to Kasfareet, Egypt, where they arrived on June 4th. For the aircrews, however, there was a change of plans. They, with their Spitfires, were embarked at Gibraltar in the U.S. carrier Wasp and taken into the western Mediterranean from where they flew off and landed in Malta to re-inforce the heavily engaged fighter units on the island. A curious feature of this split-up of the squadron was that the unit number remained with the ground crews. This was because, at that time, Auxiliary Air Force personnel could not be posted from their unit. Because of casualties and postings, of the original pilots of the squadron there were only two left, the CO. and F/L. W. A. Douglas. The latter retired as a Wing Commander and still keeps in touch with No. 603. The Battle of Malta has been described many times. Fighting each day against very heavy odds, it was for some of the pilots a Battle of Britain all over again. But even under such extreme circumstances there was occasionally a lighter side. One such incident concerned the acquiring of an Italian seaplane to use for air/sea rescue work. A section of No. 603 was scrambled to intercept a Cant 506 —a not very aggressive type—but no chances were taken. Two squirts of cannon fire across the wings were sufficient to make it CANADAIR DELIVERIES A RECORD number of jet aircraft was accepted by the Royal Canadian Air Force from Canadair, Ltd., during March. The total was 146, practically enough (the makers point out) to re-equip all the Canadian squadrons flying with the NATO forces in England and Europe. The break-down is: 64 North American F-86 jet fighters, 73 Lockheed T-33 jet trainers, and nine over hauls. The Sabres, incidentally, required 160 flights by Canadair test pilots. The previous record was established in February, when the company cleared just under 90 aircraft for the R.C.A.F. The abnormal "back-log" in March was due to bad flying-weather during the early months of the winter. Most of the T-33 jet trainers, incidentally, are going to R.C.A.F. stations in the western provinces because of the almost constant good flying weather on the Prairies. Until very recently most of them had been based in Eastern Canada. Stations con cerned in the new deployment are MacDonald, Gimli and Portage la Prairie. "TRAINING" A PILOTLESS DRONE TO meet an urgent requirement for a high-speed, pilotless, target "drone," the development programme of the Ryan Firebee has been accelerated. While the company's technicians are still carrying out production development at the Holloman Air Development Centre near White Sands, New Mexico, a U.S.A.F. detachment of 17 men of the 3225th Drone Squadron of the 3205th Drone Group have already begun operational suitability tests at the same base. The Ryan team is concerned with the development of the Firebee for production; the 3225th Squadron, on the other hand, is carrying out a series of exercises to establish the service operating techniques for the machine. Most of the squadron personnel have undergone an eight-week training course on the structure, assembly, operation and recovery of the Firebee, and they are now laying out a basic operating technique. Whereas the Ryan group mainly employs rocket- assisted ramp launching, the Drone Squadron uses a B-26 for ground-controlled air drops. At first the B-26 carried a Firebee under one wing and a compensating water-ballast tank under the other. It was then decided that time could be saved by carrying two Firebees and making two launches for every B-26 take-off. The airborne routine is as follows: the B-26 takes off and climbs to its launching height on a rectangular course. While carried by the aircraft, the Firebee is connected to it by an "umbilical cord," through which a crew member carries out full control checks during the climb. When these are completed, the link is discon nected and all subsequent control is carried out by the squadron commander from his command post on the ground. As the B-26 comes up to the launching point, it is joined by an F-86 "chase FLIGHT COMMANDING OFFICERS S/L. J. A. McKelvie, A.F.C. S/L. H. R. Murray-Philipson S/L. Lord G. N. Douglas- Hamilton ... S/L. E. H. Stevens S/L. G. L. Denholm, D.F.C. S/L. F. M. Smith S/L. M. J. Louden S/L. Forshaw S/L. Lord D. Douglas-Hamil ton... ... S/L. P. Illingworth S/L. Marshall W/C. H. A. Chater 1925 1931 1-4-34 23-8-39 29-9-40 1-4-41 7-7-41 19-10-41 19-12-41 10-4-42 8-42 28-1-43 W/C. J. R. H. Lewis, D.F.C. W/C. J. D. T. Revell W/C. C. N. Foxley-Norris... S/L. Patterson, D.F.C. S/L. T. C. Rigler, D.F.C., D.F.M S/L. H. R. P. Pertwee, D.F.C. S/L. G. K. Gilroy*, D.S.O.. D.F.C S/L. J. W. E. Holmes, D.F.C., A.F.C S/L. P. J. Anson, D.F.C. ... S/L. R. Lloyd Davies, D.F.C. S/L. R. A. Schofield 11-43 15-6-44 23-9-44 10-1-45 26-1-45 1-4-45 11-6-46 23-9-49 1-12-50 22-3-53 25-8-53 •War-time group captain. prompdy alight on the water a mile off shore, some of the occu pants scrambling out on the wing waving white shirts. A launch towed it in. Investigation revealed nine people on board—five, the original Italian owners and four, the crew of an R.A.F. Beaufort which had been shot down and were being transported to prison camp. Apparently there had been a small batde in the Cant during which the R.A.F. took over from the Regia Aeronautica. When the Spits attacked, however, they dumped the Italian pilot back in his seat and made him bring the Cant down on to the water. A happy ending to the story is that the Beaufort crew were all awarded the D.F.C. No. 603 fought on into July and August, the fighting reaching peaks of intensity when ship convoys attempted to reach the island. Gradually reinforcements came in and the Luftwaffe had to admit another major defeat. The few remaining pilots of No. 603 were posted to No. 299 Squadron on its formation at Takali on August 3rd. (To be concluded) plane" which observes and reports the drone's manoeuvres. If the drone for some reason gets badly out of control, the chase plane's duty is to shoot it down. It is unlikely to have to do so, however, because an automatic device within the Firebee ensures that, should ground control be lost, a recovery parachute will open and lower the drone to earth. The ground controller directs a planned series of manoeuvres and finally, when the Firebee runs out of fuel, he controls its recovery by parachute. Because of its high speed and altitude it is not possible to keep the Firebee in sight from die ground position and its progress is therefore plotted on a board. As soon as these preliminary tests are completed, in the not-too-distant future, the 3225th Drone Squadron is likely to become the first operational Firebee target squadron in service. It will be followed by other squadrons whose operations will be planned on the basis of the techniques worked out by the 3225th squadron. THE BRAZELIAN METEORS TT was in late 1952 that the Brazilian Government ordered 70 -*• Meteors for the Brazilian Air Force. Negotiations were opened after a member of the Brazilian Air Minister's staff had seen the Meteor demonstrated at that year's S.B.A.C. Display. When the contract was signed the Meteors became the first aircraft bought by Brazil from outside the Americas for over 20 years. The aircraft were shipped in crates. There were seven crates for two aircraft: one for each centre section; one for each front fuselage; two each holding a rear fuselage and tailplane; and one for two pairs of main planes. A team of Gloster technicians and two Rolls-Royce represen tatives went to Brazil to supervise assembly and carry out flight tests. Crates were taken to a Brazilian factory hangar at Galeao airport, and when sufficient had collected, after some initial delays, an assembly line was set up producing ten aircraft per month. The first Meteor flight was the subject of a great deal of publi city, and the Brazilian Air Minister himself flew as passenger in the aircraft (a Meteor 7) with W/C. McDowall, of Glosters. As soon as airfield extensions at Santa Cruz were sufficiently advanced, a training flight was set up there and, on July 26th last year, eight Meteors were demonstrated for the first time by newly trained Brazilian pilots. In the course of a spectacular beat-up of the Copacabana Beach, one aircraft suffered skin wrinkling after a high-g pull-out. On September 7th, Brazilian Independence Day, 20 Meteors were ready and 16 of them were flown over the military parade held for the occasion. Finally, on October 23rd, President Vargas officially handed over 24 aircraft to two squadrons of the Brazilian Air Force. During the ceremony he himself was taken up in a Meteor 7, his flight receiving widespread publicity. More than half the aircraft originally ordered have now been assembled and delivered and extensively demonstrated.
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