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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0342.PDF
The first Blackburn Beverley C.I (four Bristol Centaurus) for Transport Command leaving Brough on March 12th, on its delivery flight. The pilot was S/L. A. St. J. Price. As recorded elsewhere in this issue, the Duke of Edinburgh is to inspect Beverley production on April 6th. SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm News Senior AppointmentsT HE following appointments of RoyalAir Force senior officers have recently been announced: — A.V-M. H. A. Constantine is to succeedAir Marshal Sir Walter Dawson as Deputy Chief of Staff (Plans and Operations) atSHAPE. The appointment will take effect in May, when A. V-M. Constantine willreceive the acting rank of air marshal. An announcement about Air Marshal Daw-son's new appointment will be made later. Since August 1954 A. V-M. Constantine,who is 47, has been Commander of No. 25 Group, Flying Training Command. Fora time after the war he was Chief Intelli- gence Officer at the Headquarters ofB.A.F.O. in Germany. He was Director of Intelligence at the Air Ministry from 1951to 1952, and then became Air Officer in Charge of Administration at Fighter Com-mand. When promoted to air vice-marshal at 36 he was one of the youngest men toreach such high rank. A. Cdre G. A. Walker is to be Air OfficerCommanding, No. 1 Group, Bomber Com- mand, with the acting rank of air vice-marshal, in May 1956. Since February 1954, as Commandant of the R.A.F. FlyingCollege, Manby, he has led his staff and students on numerous long-range exer-cises. In July 1954 he led two Hastings over the North Geographic Pole on surveynights from Bodo, Norway. At the out- break of the war he was on armamentduties at the Air Ministry and joined No. 16 O.T.U. as a staff pilot in June 1940.Taking command of No. 50 (Bomber) Squadron in October 1940, he led manyraids over Europe, and in 1941 was awarded the D.S.O. and the D.F.C. From1941 to 1945 he commanded bomber stations at Norm Luffenham, Rutland, andSyerston, Notts, and the bomber base at Pocklington, Yorks. At Syerston he losthis right arm in an explosion when attempting to rescue the crew of a crashedaircraft. In February 1945 he was appointed S.A.S.O., No. 4 Group, and subsequentlywas in the Directorate of Training Opera- tions and S.A.S.O. of the Rhodesian AirTraining Wing. In 1952 he commanded R.A.F. Coningsby, Lines, and took theImperial Defence College 1953 course. Director of the W.R.A.F.T HE Air Ministry announces that theSecretary of State for Air has approved the appointment of Group Officer Mary-Elizabeth Barnett, C.B.E., as Director of the Women's Royal Air Force, with theacting rank of Air Commandant, in suc- cession to Air Commandant Dame NancyMarion Salmon, D.B.E., A.D.C., who will be retiring from the Force. The appoint-ment will take effect later this year. G/O. Barnett has been Officer Com-manding R.A.F. Hawkinge, Kent, where the Women's Royal Air Force OfficerCadet Training Unit is based, since November 1st, 1952. She joined No. 45(County of Oxford) A.T.S. Company in 1938 and was jointly responsible for thecompany's formation. Transferring to the Women's Auxiliary Air Force on itsformation in June, 1939, she served as Officer in Charge of W.A.A.F. at UpperHeyford, Oxon, and Feltwell, Norfolk. In January 1941 she was posted to Air Minis-try Unit, London. As a wing officer she G/O. M. E. Barnett, C.B.E., newly appointed director of the Women's Royal Air Force. went in 1945 to H.Q. Mediterranean andMiddle East Commands, where in her capacity as W.A.A.F. Staff Officer shetravelled extensively in North Africa, Italy, Malta, Greece and Austria, visitingW.A.A.F. units. On her return to the United Kingdom in October 1947 she wasappointed W.A.A.F. Staff Officer at H.Q., Flying Training Command, before beingpromoted group officer and becoming Inspector of the W.A.A.F. in October1948. From February 1949 until June 1950 she was Deputy Director, Women'sRoyal Air Force, dealing with the selection, promotion, career and personal problemsof W.R.A.F. Officers. Then for two and a half years she was W.R.A.F. Staff Officerat H.Q. Home Command. She was appointed O.B.E. in the New YearHonours of 1950 and C.B.E. in the New Year Honours of 1956. Hull U.A.S. DinesP ROMINENT on the top table at theHull University Air Squadron's annual dinner—held at die New York Hotel, Hull,on March 6th—was the Read Trophy, the winning of which was the squadron's out-standing achievement of the year. (First, second and fourth places were gained inthe flying competition with the universities of Leeds, Nottingham, and Durham.) At the dinner the new commandingofficer, S/L. P. Dawes, who has just returned from an exchange posting withdie U.S. Navy, was host to the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Alderman W. Fox, J.P.; to dieVice-Chancellor of Hull University, Dr. J. H. Nicholson; and to Mr. E. Turner,chairman and managing director of Black- burn and General Aircraft, who maintaindie squadron's five Chipmunks and one Harvard at Brough. The Mayor recalled :the founding of the university in 1927 and,: as the first citizen of Hull, stressed the 1importance of the close links that existed between "town and gown." Mr. Turner,.for Blackburns, illustrated with a story the mutual feeling between his company •and the university—but pointed out that no university could fully serve the nationalinterest without a chair of engineering. The trophy for the best cadet of theyear went to P/O. (acting) T. Hannath.
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