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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0548.PDF
548 SERVICE AVIATION Air Force, Naval and Army Flying News FLIGHT, 15 April Honorary Royal ADC TT was recently announced that Air•*• Cmdt A. Stephens, Director of the WRAF, had been made an HonoraryAide-de-Camp to the Queen. She suc- ceeds her predecessor as Director, AirCmdt Dame Henrietta Barnett, in the appointment. FOFT-designate AMONG new Naval appointments isthat of Rear Admiral F. H. E. Hop- kins as Flag Officer Flying Training, fromSeptember this year, in succession to Rear Admiral D. R. F. Cambell. At presentCaptain of the Britannia Royal Naval Col- lege at Dartmouth, Rear Admiral Hopkinsqualified as an observer in 1934 and in the war was awarded the DSC and DSO, train-ing as a pilot. Before going to Dartmouth he commanded HMS Ark Royal. Pakistan to Upavon FORMERLY Assistant Chief of Staff*~ (Maintenance) with the Pakistan Air Force, Air Cdre J. K. Rotherham hasbecome Senior Technical Staff Officer at Transport Command headquarters. Beforegoing to Pakistan he was on air engineering duties at Air Ministry, and he served asSenior Technical Staff Officer at Task Force HQ during the Suez operation. Hewas made an OBE in 1946. AAFCE-CRE Changes > HPWO air commodore postings were •*- recently announced which involve changes between Allied Air Forces Central Europe headquarters and the Central Reconnaissance Establishment at Bramp- ton, Hunts. Air Cdre E. G. Jones is to be Assistant Chief of Staff (Intelligence) at AAFCE headquarters from June 15; and he has been succeeded as Commandant of the CRE by Air Cdre L. Fox, formerly Assistant Chief of Staff (Operations and Training) at AAFCE. Air Cdre Jones, who won the DFC and DSO within six months in 1941 while commanding No 80 Sqn in Greece, was CO at Wyton before going to the CRE in January last year. He is a CB and CBE. His successor at CRE, Air Cdre Fox, was %J^K9k a pre-war test pilot at the Marine AircraftExperimental Establishment and during the war #on the DFC while serving withNo 209 Sqn and the DSO for his leader- ship of No 203 Sqn. Wessex TrialsS OME favourable comments on theWestland Wessex were made by Lt Cdr Rex Turpin, who commands 700H Flight,when the first two production aircraft were formally handed over to the Royal Navyat Yeovil on April 1 (Ftight, same date). Describing the machine as "a real break-through for the Navy so far as helicopter flying is concerned," he referred to elec-tronic equipment which enables the Wessex to be flown blind and on night operations.Westland Aircraft, describing it as "the first helicopter to join the Navy capable ofboth finding and destroying enemy sub- marines," have stated that the Wessex iseventually to be fitted with equipment giv- ing it a "hands-off" hovering capability.Powered by a single Napier Gazelle gas tur- bine engine which has a one-hour rating of1,450 s.h.p., it is the largest helicopter yet ordered by the Royal Navy. Service trialsby 700H Flight are being done from RNAS Culdrose. (Picture, page 520.) MHU Members WantedP ROGRESS reports from the three Mari-time Headquarters Units set up last year indicate that recruitment of RAuxAF per-sonnel is coming along steadily but slowly. No 1 MCU at Northwood, with a comple-ment of nearly 500 has had 120 applica- tions; No 2 at Edinburgh, with a comple-ment of nearly 300, has a strength of 70 (taken over from the former FCU) and hashad "30 plus" applications; while No 3 (Plymouth) has so far had 120 applicationsfor a complement of nearly 250. The FCUs, attached to Coastal Com-mand and its two Gronp headquarters, have as their task the manning of operationsrooms and communications equipment during exercises and in time of war. Theirimmediate aim is preparing for the big NATO exercise taking place from Sep-tember 17 to October 1. Both men and women, aged 17j to 45, may join and there are several types of trade: signals officers(who must be fully trained), telegraph lststeleprinter operators, wireless operators' operations clerks, photographers, clerks'cooks and stewards. Training takes place one evening a week and one weekend amonth, with a 15-day annual continuous period; and appropriate pay and allow-ances, plus a bounty, are payable. Musical AdieuN O bandmaster could have had a moreillustrious farewell: a crowded Royal Festival Hall; the Halle Orchestra under his baton for the "Spitfire" Prelude andFugue by Sir William Walton; a gracious verbal tribute from Sir John Barbirolliand the latter's insistence on The Royal Air Force March Past as a valedictoryitem. So Wg Cdr A. E. ("George") Sims ended his 39 years' RAF service, since1949 as Director of Music, at the fifth RAF Anniversary Concert on Wednesdaylast week. Manchester-born, it was fitting that his farewell should have been withManchester's great orchestra; and the play- ing of the RAF Central Band, which joinedthe Halle at the end of the evening in the Overture ''1812" by Tchaikovsky, borewitness to the efficiency and cheerfulness with which George Sims has dispensedhis task and now deservedly earns retire- ment. IN BRIEF Princess Alexandra was due to visit RAFWattisham, base of Nos 41, 56 and 111 Sqns, last Tuesday. RAF Binbrook was transferred fromBomber Command to Fighter Command on April 1. HMS Albion, sister ship of Bulwark, isexpected to be similarly converted to the Com- mando carrier role when she returns to the UKafter her present commission. We regret to record that Air Marshal SirJames Kilpatrick, Dean of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine since 1957and previously Director-General of RAF Medi- cal Services, died suddenly on April 4 at theage of 58. HMS Hermes "came through admirably,"in the words of her captain (Capt David Tibbits), when she encountered severe gales onreturning from her Mediterranean shake-down cruise. At one stage, Capt Tibbits said, heavyseas were washing over the end of the flight deck and the carrier rolled up to 11 degrees. The Headquarters Bomber Command Asso-ciation of Officers is holding its fifteenth annual reunion at Bomber Command headquarters,RAF High Wycombe, Bucks, on Saturday, May 21. Members who have not yet receiveddetails may obtain them by applying to the honorary secretary at Bomber Command HQ. The RN Seaplane Bases, Port Said andAlexandria, Old Comrades' Association (em- bodying former members of No 269 Sqn) isholding its 38th all ranks' reunion at the Chicken Inn Restaurant, Wilton Road, Vic-toria, London SW1, on Saturday, May 7, at 6 p.m. Hon secretary is W. C. Shilling, "Sel-grove," Kewferry Drive, Northwood, Middx Air Marshal Sir Hector McGregor, AOC-in-C Fighter Command, meets French Air Force fighter pilots of No 12 Wing after they had flown in their Super-Mysteres to Wattisham on the occasion of President de Gaulle's State visit. To the left of Sir Hector is Cmdt Bresset, commander of the Wing; and on the Com- mandant's left is Gp Capt B. P. T. Horsley, who commands RAF Wattisham
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