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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0187.PDF
PLIGHT, 11 February 1955 187 SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm News Two Exchange Postings AN officer of the Royal Australian Air• Force, A. Cdre. J. D. McLachlan, C.B.E., D.F.C., has been appointed Direc-tor of Flying Training at the Air Ministry. This is an exchange posting, and A. Cdre.A. G. Adnams, R.A.F., is on his way to Australia to become Commandant of theSchool of Land/Air Warfare and Com- manding Officer of the R.A.A.F. station atWilliamtown. A. Cdre. McLachlan commanded the A. Cdre. J. D. Mc- Lachlan, C.B.E., D.F.C., R.A.A.F. first Australian squadron—No. 3—to gooverseas in the last war and was also the first R.A.A.F. fighter pilot to be awardedthe D.F.C. He took last year's course at the Imperial Defence College. A. Cdre. Adnams was, until recently, amember of the Defence Research Policy Committee and served also on the JointPlanning Staff. R.C.A.F. Neptune Courses p to re-equip its maritime -*—' squadrons with Neptunes early thisyear, the Royal Canadian Air Force has made arrangements for aircrews andgroundcrews to attend courses at the Lockheed factory at Burbank, California. "Ark Royal" to Commission first British aircraft carrier to haveall the post-war developments in flight- deck equipment and technique, H.M.S.Ark Royal is to be commissioned on Feb- ruary 21st under command of Capt. D. R.F. Cambell, D.S.C., R.N., who, with Mr. L. Boddington of the R.A.E. at Farn- H.M.S. "Ark Royal," which is to be commissioned for the first time on February 22nd. The new carrier is seen here on the measured mile off the Isle of Arran during speed trials. borough, conceived the ideaof an angled deck. In maritime circles itis considered that the new carrier will be the most for-midable unit of the Royal Navy. In addition to theangled deck she will have steam catapults, a new type ofarrester gear with only six wires, an extra lift on the portdeck-edge, mirror deck-land- ing aid, improved hangarventilation and an aircrew refreshment centre. Crashbarriers will only be used in the event of an aircraft losingits hook. The deck innova- tions should enable the mostmodern types of aircraft to be operated both safely andquickly. It is expected that a maximum differential of 110knots between the airspeed over the flight deck and the landing andtake-off speed of the aircraft can be accepted. Of 808ft 3in in length (720ft betweenperpendiculars), Ark Royal has an extreme breadth on the waterline of 112ft 9ins.She displaces 36,800 tons. Her peacetime complement will be 110 officers and 1,522ratings, and when frontline aircraft are embarked there will be an addition of ap-proximately 100 officers and between 450 and 500 ratings. Armament consists ofsixteen 4-5 guns and 45 smaller weapons. In spite of the fact that her sister ship, H.M.S.Eagle, was completed first, it is H.M.S. Ark Royal that will give her name to theclass. Much attention has been devoted tophotographic needs. Photography is play- ing an increasingly important part in navalwarfare, both operationally and for training purposes. It is used for the recording of alldeck landings, of radar traces and instru- ments, and in association with, or even asan integral part of, modern weapons. Ark Royal's photographic section is therefore capable of dealing with a wide variety ofdemands. A universal processing machine, occupying only 12 x 2ift of deck space, candevelop and dry all widths of film in use in the Service from 16 mm to 9iin wide.The processing can be carried out at a speed as fast as 1,200ft /hr. Vibration-free en-largers will operate with the ship travelling at full speed and in any kind of sea. Duncan Trophy AWARDED annually to the day-fightersquadron of 2nd T.A.F. achieving the best results in air-to-air gunnery, theDuncan Trophy has been awarded for 1954 to No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron,based at Wunstorf, Germany. The unit is commanded by S/L. W. J. T. Hender-son. No. 118 Squadron was second and No. 11 Squadron third. All three squad-rons are equipped with D.H. Venoms. London U.A.S. Dinner THE annual dinner of the University ofLondon Air Squadron on Friday last was brightened considerably by the pres-ence, for the first time, of the squadron's lady members. After a reception atthe squadron's South Kensington head- quarters, the dinner itself was held inImperial College, where the Commanding Officer, W/C. I. J. Spencer, D.F.C., pro-posed the health of the guests. Among the guests present were theUnder-Secretary of State for Air, the Vice- chancellor and the Principal of LondonUniversity, the Director of the W.R.A.F., and heads of the women's colleges of theUniversity. Also mentioned by W/C. Spencer were his three predecessors—G/C. A. V. Rogers; W/C. A. W. Heward; and A.V-M. F. H. M. Maynard, who The Meteor 8s of No. 77 Squadron—which recently returned to Australia from Korea after ten years abroad—lined-up at Laverton during a tour of Australian capital cities.
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