FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0189.PDF
FLIGHT, 14 February 1958 199 * The sixteen Pakistan Air Force Sabres rehearsing their diamond formation aerobatics. By HUMPHREY WYNN whose remarks throughout were in English.As this is believed to be the first time sixteen aircraft have ever been publicly looped in forma-tion, February 2, 1958, will count as a memor- able day in the annals of the P.A.F. Certainlythe efficiency of this demonstration—and of the mock attacks made later in the programme—gave tangible proof of the high standards and discipline of its training. PAKISTAN DISPLAY KING, PRESIDENT AND PfOPLE WATCH AIR FORCE DEMONSTRATIONS A FTER being reviewed by King Mohammad Zahir, Shah ofA\^ Afghanistan, accompanied by the President of Pakistan, •*- •*- Maj-Gen. Iskander Mirza, the Pakistan Air Force put onits first all-turbojet flying display at Mauripur P.A.F. station on February 2 before an audience of 20,000 people, includingguests from the Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi Air Forces. The display began just after 9 o'clock in the morning with thearrival of the King and President in the P.A.F. Viscount which had flown them from Karachi Airport so that they could avoidthe inevitable congestion of Mauripur Road. This early start, with flying due to begin at 9.25, was decided upon for tworeasons: at that time of day, when the air is relatively cool, formation flying is less affected by bumpiness; and there are thenfewer birds on the wing, and consequently less risk of hitting them, for they rise higher as the day gets hotter. After being welcomed by the C-in-C. of the Pakistan Air Force,A.V-M. Asghar Khan, the King and President inspected a guard of honour and reviewed a long line of P.A.F. Sabres wearingcheckerboard squadron markings. This long line of Sabres, stretching almost uncountably to ahorizon which was already shimmering with haze (subsequently 36 of them taxied out, leaving about the same number behind)formed a most impressive sight with the different colours of their squadron markings; but as soon as the royal review wasover, engines were started for the high business of the day. Already, soon after 9.20, four Sabres had taken off—flown byF/L.s A. K. Ayaz and S. A. Changezi and F/O.s M. A. Iqbal and A. K. Yousuf—to produce a double sonic boom each; and at9.40 they appeared at about 20,000ft overhead, separating in a bomb-burst of bangs which would have warmed the cockles ofeven the most inhibited M.o.S. man. (At Karachi, of course, there is no cloud problem; so supersonic flying can be done at a safealtitude and still be visible to spectators on the ground.) Shortly after the sonic booms, the sixteen Sabres which wereto do formation aerobatics took off in groups of four, followed by a single Sabre, which was to perform solo. The P.A.F. forma-tion aerobatic team, brilliantly led by W/C. M. Z. Masud, is known as "The Falcons"—and thereby, so to speak, hangs a tale.For the falcon is not only represented on the badge of the P.A.F., but is that member of the hawk family which inhabits the northernmountains of Pakistan, flying higher than any other of its kind. While the Falcons were positioning for their loop, two Sabres—trailing a banner each with the Pakistan insignia and a greeting —made a low pass across the airfield in front of the Royal andPresidential enclosure; then, at approximately 9.55, the sixteen Sabres went proudly up into their loop, keeping immaculatestation and forming a precise diamond pattern against the sky like that made by the nine Hunters of the R.A-F.'s "Treble-One"Squadron—to whom reference was made by the commentator, This was also emphasized in unusual fashionin the next item, when seven Sabres out of the 16 (still led by W/C. Masud) did formationaerobatics. They started with a low pass across the airfield, a climb and a wing-over; next theydid a loop during which they changed stations, then formed a letter "F" and subsequently adiamond. In their penultimate manoeuvre, a roll to the left, one of the outside menbroke away. Presuming he temporarily got the sun in his eyes, this was perfectly correct procedure;he quickly rejoined and the final roll was a disciplined sevenfold manoeuvre. The only criticism which might be made of the seven-Sabreaerobatic team was that some of its manoeuvres ranged too far and—against a brilliant blue sky, with no cloud background tohelp—were sometimes almost out of sight of the spectators. There is less chance of this happening with a single aircraft, of course,and S/L. Khan's demonstration of a Sabre's rollability was ener- getic and thoroughly visible despite the lack of natural background. He began with a very fast low run preceding five quick upwardrolls, which were succeeded by four downward ones. Then he executed a four-point roll and followed it with an eight-pointer,reminiscent of Geoff Worrell's famous evolution at Farnborough (though the Sabre is not perhaps quite so mathematically precisea vehicle for this manoeuvre as the Javelin in the hands of the Gloster virtuoso). S/L. Khan rounded off his demonstration with an inverted runfollowed by nine rolls for good measure; then four of the Falcons re-appeared to do more formation aerobatics—the last on theprogramme. They executed a loop, during which they formed line astern, then another when they changed to a box. Finallythey did a roll, moving from echelon right to left, and a wing- over to the right, finally going to line astern for landing. After them, a dozen Sabres made a stream landing, and mean-while an Auster had towed off an Olympia glider, with red fuselage and cream upper wing surface, flown by F/L. S. U. Khan. When the sailplane was eventually released, at about 2,500ft,the pilot gave an engaging five-minute display of aerobatics. He started with one turn of a spin, then did five quick loops in suc-cession with hardly any loss of height. He followed these with two stall turns and two steep turns, and finally made a low runpast the royal enclosure before pulling up to make a landing circuit. This demonstration was particularly interesting because glidingis one of the means the P.A.F. uses to attract young lads into its ranks. The Pakistan equivalent of our A.T.C. is the Shahir AirTraining Corps, and one of its main activities is to provide gliding facilities for air-minded boys at various P.A.F. stations. It alsoruns technical groups and such sports activities as boxing. As they had begun it, so the Sabres rounded off the Karachidisplay—this time with an armament demonstration. Three separate targets had been set up on the airfield, and they werein turn subjected to gun, rocket and napalm attacks. Four Sabres (led by S/L. H. K. Inam) carried out the air-to-ground firing;six (led by S/L. G. Haider) made rocket attacks; and the napalm tanks were dropped by two Sabres led by S/L. M. Z. Butt. All these attacks appeared to be remarkably accurate, the targetsubjected to rocket fire disappearing in sensational fashion under a huge cloud of dust, which unfortunately drifted across the
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
