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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0146.PDF
Westland Gnome Whirlwinds of 225 Sqn based at RAF Odiham. These aircraft took part in an exercise for the first time last week, when they participated in Exercise "Life-line" (see opposite page) SERVICE AVIATION Air Force, Naval and Army Flying News RAN Equipment AN ORDER FOR two Westland P.531s for the Royal Australian Navy has been approved; and it has been announced from Canberra that three Wessex helicopters, the first of 27, are to be delivered to Australia after coming off the production line at the Westland works in Yeovil in August. The Australian Navy Minister, Senator John Gorton, announced that the first operational Wessex squadron would be formed by mid-1963 and would be operating from the carrier HMS Melbourne by the end of that year. Future RAN helicopter pilots are to be trained in Australia, pilots and observers doing their basic naval training at Flinders Naval Depot, Victoria, and pilots receiving 12 months' training on fixed-wing aircraft (75hr) with the RAAF. At present RAN helicopter pilots are being trained in the United Kingdom. VC's Post FROM LAST MONDAY (January 22) Air Cdre H. I. Edwards, vc, CB, DSO, OBE, DFC, took up a new post at Air Ministry as Director of Establishments. He recently completed the 1961 Imperial Defence College course. Now 47, he became the first Australian air VC of the Second World War in July 1941 when he led his squadron in a daylight attack on Bremen, bombing at roof level in the face of withering AA fire. Only three weeks previously, he had won the DFC for leading a bomber formation in a At the second annual USAF Safety Congress held recently at Sandia Rase, Albuquerque, NM: Sqn Ldr D. Warren, RCAF; Lt Gen (then Maj Gen) W. H. Blanchard, Inspector-General, USAF; and Sqn Ldr J. E. Burton, RAF, British Embassy, Washington, DC. A Department of the Air Force letter sending these photographs to "Flight International" commented that "the broad, sincere smiles of the RAF and RCAF officers created one of the best pictures taken at the conference" 146 FLIGHT International, 25 January 1962 sweep against heavily armed enemy ship, ping off the Dutch coast. He won the DSO for leading a mass daylight attack on the Philips radio factory at Eindhoven in December 1942. Air Cdre Edwards was the last AOC at RAF Habbaniyah, before it was handed over to the Iraqis in 1958. He subsequently became Commandant of the Central Fighter Establishment. New Directors TWO AIR COMMODORES recently appointed to posts in Air Ministry are Air Cdre A. V. R. Johnstone, DFC, now a Director of Personnel; and Air Cdre R. H. C. Burwell, CBE, DFC, now Director of Operations (maritime, navigation and air traffic control). Air Cdre Johnstone, who commanded 602 (City of Glasgow; Sqn during the battle of Britain, was the first AOC Malayan Air Force; he had formerly been Deputy Air Defence Com- mander at Air Headquarters, Malaya. Air Cdre Burwell served on 144 Sqn, Coastal Command, during the war and in 1955 rejoined the command as CO of RAF Alder- grove, later serving on the operations staff at headquarters. Aircrew Recruiting THIS YEAR'S TARGET of 600 pilots, navigators and AEOs could have been exceeded had there been more vacancies, This was the Air Ministry's comment recently on aircrew recruiting, when it was stated that for the first time for more than ten years, the RAF last year had got all the direct entry aircrew recruits it needed. It was added that so far in 1962 enquiries were still coming in at the high rate which started in January 1961 following the introduction of two new types of commis sion. Recruitment of aircrew officers from the university air squadrons was also better than most years. Here again there were more recruits than vacancies. A SQUADRON STANDARD is being presented to 38 Sqn by the Duke of Gloucester when he visits Malta with the Duchess on February 14 on their way to Kenya. The squadron were recently joint winners, with 204 Sqn, of the Dunning Memorial Cup (this page, last week). 38 GROUP OLD COMRADES ASSOCIATION are holding their sixteenth annual general meeting and reunion dinner on Saturday, March 10, at the Victoria Res taurant, Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1, at 6.30 p.m. (informal dress). Tickets (£1) are available from the honorary secretary, Mrs L. C. Rendall, Bailey's Hotel, Gloucester Road, London SW7. DURING FLOOD RELIEF WORK in Kenya from mid-November onwards last year. RN helicopters from HMS aircraft carriers Victorious and Centaur also per formed a variety of tasks operating from a specially constructed jungle heliport chris tened by the pilots HMS Vulture. They operated a doctor service to remote areas cut off by floods and evacuated casualties to safer ground, "despite a reluctance of tribesmen to undertake a much more frightening experience than the threat of drowning."
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