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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0769.PDF
1 June 1961 SERVICE AVIATION 779 **'* Air Force, Naval and Army Flying News Changes Tj-HS week has seen announced changesin the RAAF higher command takeeffect, with Air Marshal Sir Frederick Schersjer vacating the Chief of Air Staffp 0St lo become Chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff. From last Monday, he was succeeded as CAS by Air Marshal(promoted from AVM) V. E. Hancock, whose former position as AOC OperationalCommand has now been filled by AVM (formerly Air Cdre) F. Headlam. Royal Flush VI THERE was a very close finish to thisyear's Allied Air Forces CentralEurope reconnaissance competition, 2nd ATAF beating 4th ATAF (as briefly re-ported in Flight last week) by 9,970 to 9.807 points. This was 2nd ATAF's fourthvictory. Last year, the contest was won by4th ATAF. In the long-range day missions, Canberrasof No 17 Sqn beat RB-66s of the USAF by 2.254 points against 1,942; but in the long-range night missions, for the first time in the six years the contest has been held,there was a tie: both No 31 Sqn (Canber- ras) and the 10th Tactical ReconnaissanceWing Team from Alconbury (RB-66s) scored 1,101 points. The third RAF team,flying Hunter FR.lOs, was beaten in the short-range section by the French Air Forceteam which scored 2,354 points as against 2,226. The French also won the medium-range missions. Targets in Italy and Germany and as far afield as Denmark,southern France and Scotland were photo- graphed, some of them 450 miles away from the Belgian Air Force base at Beauve-chain where the competition was held. Flight-planning had to be done in 40minand only one run was allowed over the target. Whitsun Displays LIKE the start of flat racing and thebeginning of grouse-shooting, Whit Monday has come to mean the start of theUnited Kingdom air display season. Traditionally now the Royal Air ForcesAssociation, which organizes big events on this day at North Weald and Hucknall,and the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Families Association, with its annualshow at Yeadon, set the ball rolling for the season which ends with the Battle ofBritain "at homes" in September. This year, as far as weather was concerned, thesouth was luckier than the north: clear skies and sunshine predominated, while over thenorthern area there was a layer of stratus all through the day at about 3,500ft, withonly brief clearances and intermittent sunshine. This meant that No 92 Sqnwere somewhat restricted, at any rate at Hucknall and Yeadon, on their first publicappearances in the UK. Nevertheless these royal blue Hunters showed the same adapt-ability to conditions as their predecessors Treble-One Sqn, and the nine-man teamput on a "flat pattern" show at Hucknall and Yeadon, so that their performance wasat all times visible to the 30/40,000 specta- tors. The aircraft even performed theirfinal bomb-burst horizontally, from a low-level run-in. It seems as though the 92 Sqn team has Red Indian in Australia: one of the Bell Iroquois Hu-IB helicopters with which No 9 (Search and Rescue) Sqn, RAAF, is being equipped Wg Cdr H. A. Eng- land, RAF task force commander of the 2nd ATAF team at the Royal Flush VI recon- naissance competition see above), receiving the Gruenther Trophy from Prince Albert of Liege at Beouvecho/n Diamond in a summer sky: 92 Sqn at North Weald (see "Whitsun Displays," this page) earned itself the nickname "The BlueDiamonds," coined by a German news- paper as "The Black Arrows" was coined bya French newspaper for Treble-One. "Blue Diamonds" was used by the squa-dron's commentator, Fit Lt Vickery, and in the absence of any better ideas may wellbecome permanent. "The Falcons" has been considered as a title but does notappear to have met with general favour. At the Whit Monday displays the squa-dron was led by its CO, Sqn Ldr Brian Mercer, and gave an impeccable perfor-mance of nine-, seven- and five-aircraft manoeuvres. The Hunters' colouring—blue with whitewingtips—is attractive, their use of smoke (from the very beginning of the display)impressive. On Whit Monday they had a busy day, flying from their base at Middle-ton St George near Darlington to Wat- tisham, thence to North Weald for the firstof the day's shows. From there they went to Waddington to refuel, before perform-ing at Hucknall and Yeadon. Like 92 Sqn, several of the day's "acts"appeared at all three displays, notably the international aerobatic champion FrancisLiardon in his yellow Bucker Jungmeister. His performance was a masterly exhibitionof daring and skill, aided by the infallible inverted-flying qualities of his aircraft.Flick rolls, bunts, semi-inverted circuits, slow and nine-point rolls followed withalmost automatic ease, each manoeuvre being completed with precision. This wasan admirable and attractive show in every way. At Hucknall, there was some equallysplendid display flying from Baron de Serigny of the Paris Flying Group atPanshanger in his Tiger Moth with its orange wings and black fuselage: this wascrazy flying at its best, a real Whit Monday entertainment. Both Hucknall and North Weald werefortunate in having visits from the Hurri- cane and Spitfire flown respectively byBill Bedford and David Morgan. Though these aircraft look slower year by year,their agility and beauty of line is impressive and so long as the Battle of Britain isremembered they will be viewed with affection. North Weald was lucky inhaving the CFS Jet Provost team, which has been re-formed this year under theleadership of Fit Lt R. Brambley in the same four-man configuration as in 1960 andclearly is upholding the same high stan- dards. A pleasing feature at Hucknall was
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