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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0255.PDF
25 February 1955 255 High over East Anglia a sextet of Hawker Hunter F.2 intercepters (Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojets) of Wattisham-based No. 257 Squadron are seen (from a Meteor N.F.I4 night fighter of No. 152 Squadron) between two layers of cloud. SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm News Bomber Contests "THE annual visual and blind bombingx contests for Canberras and Lincolns of Bomber Command and 2nd T.A.F. willtake place on the nights of March 28th to April 7th inclusive. Bombing will becarried out at heights ranging from 14,000ft to over 30,000ft. Five trophies willbe awarded. The Laurence Minottrophy will be award- ed to the Lincolnsquadron achieving the most accurateblind bombing and the Sir Geoffrey Sal-rnond trophy to the individual Lincolncrew with best blind- bombing score. TheArmament Officers' trophy will go to theCanberra squadron gaining the best scorein both visual and blind bombing, and The Sovereign's Stan- dard recently pre- sented to No. 45 Squadron in Singa- pore. It is held by F/O. J. H. S. Greenwood, who acted as Bearer during the presenta- tion ceremony. The badge depicts a flying camel, a reminder that No. 45 was once equip- ped with Sopwith Cam- els, which it received in July 1917. the Lord Camrose trophy to the best Can-berra visual-bombing squadron. The fifth award, known as the Gee H. trophy,will go to the individual Canberra crew achieving the best blind-bombing figures.Canberra squadrons will each enter six crews and Lincoln squadrons four crews.During each round, one crew from each squadron will bomb three targets in thecourse of a cross-country flight. Details of targets, routes and timing will be given tothe squadrons four days before the start of the competition. R.A.F. Signals Flight '"THE Hastings aircraft /it's—used by the•*- R.A.F. Inspector of Radio Services for periodical inspection, advisory and liaisonvisits to the R.A.F. and Commonwealth Air Forces signals units throughout theworld—left Benson, Oxon, on February 12th on a 27,500-mile flight to New Zea-land and back. This is the longest flight ever undertaken by Iris or any of its pre-decessors, and for the first time includes a visit to New Zealand, at the invitation ofthe Royal New Zealand Air Force. Fourteen countries will be visited, theHastings flying via Malta, Cyprus, Aden, Ceylon, Malaya, Hong Kong, Singapore,Indonesia and Australia and visiting Hab- baniya on the return journey. Commanding the expedition is G/C. C.C. Morton, C.B.E., Inspector of Radio Services, and with him are W/C. A. R.Glading, S/L. J. S. Knox, D.F.C.. A.F.C., and F/L. W. H. E. Austin, all of whom aremembers of the Inspectorate. The Hast- ings crew of seven is commanded by F/L.H. H. Roffey, captain of aircraft. R.A.F. Appointments AS from February 15th, G/C. D. G.Lewis, D.F.C., took over command of Southern Sector, Fighter Command, and G/C. L. P. Moore, C.B.E., becameA.O.C. No. 43 (Maintenance) Group; both have the acting rank of air commodore. G/C. Lewis served most of the warperiod in the Middle East and won his D.F.C. while commanding No. 84 Squad-ron. G/C. Moore, who until lately was Com-mand Signals Officer, F.E.A.F., joined the R.A.F. as a boy entrant in 1922 and in 1925was awarded a cadetship at Cranwell. The R.C.A.F. in 1954 THE steadily expanding R.C.A.F. is-•- shown by a recent official summary to have had a busy and successful 1954. Itsmanpower strength rose to 48,000, several new types of aircraft went into service andparts were played in many of the major exercises that took place on both sides ofthe Atlantic. During the year, Continent-based Sabresof the 1st Air Division acted as attackers in Exercise "Dividend," and the NorthLuffenham Squadrons helped the de- fenders, while units in Canada wereinvolved in the joint U.S.-Canadian air- defence exercise "Check Point." MaritimeAir Command joined NATO's CANLANT area exercise "New Broom II" and trans-port, reconnaissance and evacuation units of Tactical Air Command provided theaerial component for an Army-R.C.A.F. mobile striking force exercise in the SeptIsles and Churchill areas. No. 426 (Thunderbird) Squadron'sNorth Stars wound up their trans-Pacific airlift after 600 round trips during whichthey carried 13,000 passengers and over seven million pounds of freight withoutlosing a single life or cargo. C-119Fs of Nos. 435 and 436 Squadrons also delivered700,000 lb of supplies to Arctic weather- stations and aircraft from No. 405 MRSquadron flew ice patrols for Arctic re- supply ships. Finally, the search andrescue organization, including helicopters and para-rescue teams, combined in alarge exercise with its U.S.A.F. counter- part. On the equipment side, progress in 1954was encouraging. The CF-100 Mk 4 began to reach the squadrons, and large
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