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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1803.PDF
926 FLIGHT A Venom N.F.3 returns from a night sortie. NIGHT'S BLACK AGENTS "While night's black agents totheir prey do rouse."—MACBETH The Work of the Venom N.FJs of 23 and 141 Squadrons at Coltishall "y"""VNLY birds and fools fly," goes the saying, "and birdsI 1 don't fly at night." Epigrammatic, but inaccurate, since ^—" many birds of prey are specially equipped to kill in thedark, which they do with uncanny efficiency and in any kind of weather. Rising as the sun goes down they may be heard abouttheir predatory business at any hour of the night; and at this time of the year, when darkness falls early and the night is long,their activity is at its highest. But with the dawn they are grounded and helpless, and then nofurther analogy may be drawn between them and their man-made counterparts, the all-weather fighters, which are as competent indaylight as they are in darkness. Such aircraft as the de Havilland Venom N.F.3, which now equip all-weather squadrons of theRoyal Air Force, make sense of the oft-heard phrase "24-hour preparedness"; and, backed by a ground radar system which isprobably the most effective in the world, they carry full respon- sibility for seeking, intercepting and destroying an enemy in thethickest weather and on the blackest of nights. The Venom N.F.3 was issued to the R.A.F. in the summer, andwas first exercised in "Beware" (reported in Flight for September 30th and October 7th). It superseded the Venom 2, being a con-siderably more effective development of that formidable fighter, particularly as to its advanced type of interception radar. Per-formance is secret, but it may be said that in one respect at least— the ability to climb very quickly to a great height—it probablyoutstrips any all-weather fighter in service. And its agility and speed at altitude are factors to be reckoned with, as many a"hostile" Canberra crew has discovered. The first R.A.F. squadron to re-equip with Venom 3s wasNo. 141 (W/C. P. L. Chilton, D.S.O., D.F.C.), which shares with another illustrious night-fighter squadron, No. 23 (W/C. -A. N.Davies, D.S.O., D.F.C.) the East Coast station at Coltishall, Nor- folk, now commanded by G/C. J. C. Sisson, C.B.E., D.F.C.A fortnight ago Flight was privileged to visit the station to see both squadrons at work. Our host was the wing commanderflying, W/C. M. H. Constable Maxwell, D.S.O., D.F.C., under whom the two squadrons operate in close and keenly competitivepartnership. The senior technical and administrative officers of the station are respectively W/C. G. V. Meredith, M.B.E., andW/C. R. G. Prior, D.F.C. Before describing, within the bounds of very rigid security,the activities of the two squadrons, it is appropriate to consider Fuelled, armed and ready—an aircraft of 141 Squadron. night and all-weather flying in its broader aspects, as an art,a science, and a challenge. Night flying, which includes by implication all-weather flying,has always been one of those jobs that most fighter pilots prefer to leave to the other man. The reasons are not hard to seek.Pilots of a day fighter squadron feel that they are experiencing flying at its best: they like the comradeship of hunting as a team,the fun of formation flying and aerobatics, the excitement of low flying (in approved areas), and ground attack. The thought ofoperating in darkness as a regular job, of exchanging art for elec- tronics, does not appeal very much; and pilots, who are no lessdiurnal by habit than other human beings, have an instinctive respect for "unnatural night." Not for them, the day fighter pilotssay, a flying job which, because they have not experienced it, they imagine as dull and shackled to science—in short, to use thejargon of the day, deadbeat. It is no national secret that the country's night fighter force,having during the war reached the highest summit of efficiency, subsequently declined. It is only in the last few years that it hasbeen built up to the potent state in which we see it today, and it is still expanding, as anyone who has seen the Javelin productionlines might deduce. The demand for crews is insatiable, and pilots are drawn not only from the flying training schools (Provostand Vampire T.ll) via the operational conversion units (Meteor N.F.14), but, after a spell at an O.C.U., from the day fightersquadrons as well. One can thus imagine the feelings of many day pUots when they learn that they are to be posted to a nightfighter squadron after a tour back at Training Command. One fate, they affect, surpassed only by the other! But those who have tasted life with an all-weather squadrondiscover that it offers a satisfaction found perhaps in no other form of flying. Night operations comprise only a half of a round-the-clock programme that combines the fun and the art of day flying with the science and the challenge of night and all-weatherwork. One gets, as it were, the bun and the halfpenny as well— all the pleasures of day flying, plus a lot more. Science is enlistedto secure complete independence of weather and to seek out the quarry, but always there is a mind-over-matter exhilaration in—for example—the sudden sighting and killing of an enemy high up in the abyss of the night, only a few minutes after scramblingfrom the crew-room for a take-off in foul weather and a climb through perhaps 30,000ft of cloud. The magic of moonlight on the cloud-tops, especially whenseen from extreme height, is a source of unfailing delight, and on clear nights the view is astonishing. It is quite easy to see thelights of London from 40,000ft over the Zuyder Zee, and to pick out the myriad tiny lights of shipping in the English Channel.And, on bad nights, landing after a ground-controlled approach— a long, low, bumpy penetration through cloud with nothing to seeexcept the rain-streaks on the windscreen until the lights of the runway threshold suddenly appear—gives a feeling of satisfactionto even the most veteran pilots. Before we turn from a general commentary on night flying toa detailed account of aircraft and crews at work, one particular point is worth recording. It is that, as a general rule, the bestnight fighter pilots are those with day fighter experience. To have mastered gunnery and instrument flying is an invaluable back-ground to night fighting, in which the perfection of interception and combat techniques is one of the prime preoccupations. As oneexperienced pilot put it: "Anyone can fly gently around at night doing nice precision turns, but to be an effective night fighter he'sgot to be confident enough of his instrument flying to be able to throw the aeroplane around."
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