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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1563.PDF
RESTAURANT • FLIGHT. 26 October 1961 SERVICE AVIATION Air Force, Naval and Army Flying News AOC and AOA TWO Air Officer appointments have beenannounced: AVM P. H. Dunn, CB, CBE, DFC, is to be AOC No 1 Group,Bomber Command, from December ]; and AVM H. H. Chapman, CB, CBE, is to beAOA, Maintenance Command, from December 5. AVM Dunn has been DeputyAir Secretary at Air Ministry since May 1959; from 1953 to 1958 he was an ADC tothe Queen. AVM Chapman has been Director-General of Technical Servicessince October 1958. Stretching the Regulations A WHIRLWIND from the 22 Sqndetachment at RAF Chivenor flewlhr 25min in darkness en route from Plymouth to Birmingham on October 21 toconvey a woman suffering from a heart ailment to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital forspecial treatment. Pilot of the helicopter, which left Plymouth at 1740hr and reachedElmdon (Birmingham Airport) at 2010hr, was Fit Sgt R. L. Turner; his navigator wasFit Lt J. Mitchell. A spokesman at the rescue co-ordination centre at Plymouthwas quoted as saying: "Flight conditions were very bad. Service helicopters do notusually fly at night, but as this was a matter of life and death regulations were stretched."There were three passengers aboard the Whirlwind, the sick woman being accom-panied by a doctor and nurse. Argosies at Benson IN preparation for the formation thereearly next year of the first Whitworth Gloster Argosy squadron, No 114, bigchanges are taking place at RAF Benson. A new control tower has been completed,and a new hardstanding, with parking space for 21 Argosies (the station is even-tually to contain three squadrons). One reason why Benson was chosen as anArgosy base, say Air Ministry, is that the airfield had already been scheduled for theinstallation of automatic landing systems. A new electronics centre is due to be com-pleted next February, and the station will have an Argosy simulator. Formation of 114 in its new role will bepreceded by the formation at Benson of an operational conversion squadron. Pre-viously based at RAF Colerne, Wilts, No 114 were then equipped with Hastings.Their aircraft have been divided between the two other squadrons there, Nos 24(Commonwealth) and 36. RAF Monoplanes' Quarter-century A QUARTER-CENTURY of mono-planes in RAF service is beingachieved next month, for it was in Novem- ber 1936 that Royal Air Force's first all-metal low-wing cantilever monoplane— 667 The Duchess of Glou- cester with the AOC- in-C, Transport Com- mand, Air Marshal Sir Denis Barnett, during her recent visit to RAF Lyneham. Re- hind the Duchess is the station CO, Gp Capt I. D. Lawson the Fairey Hendon—entered service with38 Sqn at Mildenhall. This marked the real changeover from biplanes to monoplanes,although a few types of monoplane had been in service in earlier days—the Bristol Gen Laurence Kuter, NORAD C-in-C, with Air Marshals Sir Kenneth Cross (centre) and Sir Wallace Kyle during Exercise Skyshield II (this page, last week) in which RAF aircraft flew Monoplane in the First World War, a dozen D.H. 53 Humming Birds in 1924 for experimental work, some Puss Moths in the 1930s for communications duties. In March 1936 the Avro Anson enteredservice, but the Hendons marked the general introduction of heavy monoplanes into theRAF. Although the Spitfire and Hurri- cane prototypes had already flown, currentfighters and bombers—such as the Gauntlet, Fury, Demon; Hinds, Gordons, Heyfords—were biplanes. IN BRIEF RAF Wattisham won this year's FighterCommand photographic competition for the second year in succession. RAF Stradishallwere second and RAF Chivenor third. Sir Bertram Hyde Jones, KBE, who at therequest of the then Air Minister, the first Viscount Rothermere, undertook with the lateSir Arthur C. Roberts the financial and other arrangements for the merger of the RNAS andRFC into the RAF, died at his home near Cape Town recently at the age of 82. This year's 79 (FR) Sqn reunion will be heldat the Talbot Hotel, Siow-on-the-Wold, Glos. There is to be a dinner at 8 p.m. on Saturday,November 18, and luncheon the following day at 2 p.m. Further details from Fit Lt M. A. P.Pugh, Officers' Mess. RAF Little Rissington, Cheltenham, Glos. 92 Sqn are holding a reunion dinner at theCumberland Hotel, Marble Arch, London Wl, on Saturday, November 18. Past and presentmembers who can attend will be most welcome. Names and addresses should be sent to theAdjutant, No 92(F) Squadron, RAF Lecon- field. Beverley. E Yorks. The Minister of Defence, Mr HaroldWatkinson, told a questioner at the Conserva- tive Party Conference that trials and develop-ment of Blue Steel were going very well; the weapon was expected to come into servicesoon. Referring also to Skybolt progress, he said "we hope by these means that we shallkeep up the valid and important British con- tribution to the strategic deterrent over thenext eight to ten years." Pakistan Air Force visitors: at right below, the C-in-C, Air Marshal Asghar Khan, handing to the CAS of the RAAF, Air Marshal V. E. Hancock, in Canberra, a plaque of the official crest of the Pakistan Air Force. At left, Air Marshal Sir William MacDonald, AOC-in-C, Near East Air Force, greeting Gp Capt E. G. Hall, Assistant Commandant of the Pakistan Air Force Staff College, when members of the college paid a five-day visit to the RAF in Cyprus
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