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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0088.PDF
/I FLIGHT International, 9 January 1964 71 SERVICE AVIATION Air Force, Naval and Army Flying News RAF Receives New Lightning FASTER THAN EARLIER LIGHTNINGS, of greater range, armed with new weapons and possessing much improved radar, navi- gation, flight and fire control systems, the first Lightning F.3 fighter for the RAF was handed over to the Air Development Sqn of the Central Fighter Establishment at BAC's Warton aerodrome on January 1. A photograph of the occasion appears on page 42. Superficially identical with F.ls and 2s now in service, except for its enlarged fin and over-wing tanks, the F.3 is virtually a new type under the skin and will almost certainly be the last new combat aircraft to enter RAF service before the TSR.2. It is powered by the most powerful Rolls- Royce Avon version yet developed (un- doubtedly of the 300-series, of well over 16,0001b thrust), and has greater fuel Three types from Manchester. Despite its gay civil guise this aircraft is the precursor of the RAF's forthcoming STOL forward support transport, the Hawker Siddeley (and lately Avro) 748MF. Photographed here on its Ihr 40min first flight from Woodford on December 21, the prototype has been converted from a civil 748 airliner. Substantial numbers of the definitive 748MF are following close behind . . . capacity. Designed to carry two of the Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Red Top collision-course air-to-air weapon, which is in an advanced state of development, the F.3 is now revealed to be compatible, too, with the earlier and operational Firestreak pursuit-course missile. It is likely that the Lightning F.3 will first appear in squadron service armed with Firestreak, until Red Top is available in quantity. An alter- native weapon load is 48 two-inch unguided rockets. It is expected that the Lightning F.3 will ultimately replace all the earlier Lightnings now in service. ... .. . an earlier RAF machine from A. V. Roe's Manchester factories is, of course, the maritime Shackleton. Two Shackleton 2s of 42 Sqn, St Mawgan, are seen en route on the December 20 "goodies run," to drop Christmas fare and mail to Atlantic weather ships. One, at least, seems to have a sagging "dustbin" full of gifts. In the bottom picture is yet an earlier Mancunian, the illustrious Lancaster. PA474, in use till now as a research aircraft at Cranfield (for laminar flow control experiments in the configuration shown) has just been acquired by the Air Ministry for its historical collection. This aircraft is mentioned in a letter on page 65 The First Full Fifty Years AT THE END OF THE MONTH the first RAF squadron to achieve 50 years' unbroken service will celebrate its golden jubilee. No 6 Sqn, formed at Farnborough on January 31,1914, and now based at Akro- tiri, Cyprus, with Canberra B.I6s, has never been disbanded; the five squadrons formed before it all have been, for short periods. The jubilee will be celebrated with an all- ranks ball in the Episkopi Officers' Club on January 29 and a parade, fly-past and anniversary dinner at Akrotiri on January 31 (if conditions on the island then allow anyone to celebrate anything). One of 6 Sqn's early pilots, Captain L. G. Hawker, later shot down by von Richthofen, won the first-ever VC awarded for air fighting, in July 1915. In the following December the squadron took part in the first full-scale daylight bombing raid. In 1917 it was an Army co-operation squadron, with R.E.8s, and in 1919 it was posted to Iraq. The squadron has been based in the Middle East and Mediterranean area ever since—indeed, a cynic might feel that it has escaped temporary disbandment by being far away from the whimsicalities of Kings- way and Whitehall for so long. Two famous fighters served with 6 Sqn after they had been replaced in all other RAF units—the Bristol Fighter, until 1931, and the Hurricane, until 1946. Since then its equipment has been, successively, Tempests, Vampires, Venoms and Can- berras and it has served in Iraq, Jordan and the Canal Zone. IAF Loses Early Mig-21s? Unconfirmed newspaper reports on Jan- uary 2 said that two of the Indian Air Force's first six Mig-21 fighters, supplied by the USSR in advance of Indian licence pro- duction of the type, were lost in a collision while flying in formation on December 21, from IAF Chandigarh, Punjab. The pilots were reported to have baled out safely. NEW YEAR HONOURS HONOURS WERE CONFERRED upon 174 mem- bers of the RAF and associated air forces in the New Year Honours List published on January 1. The recipients, and their honours and awards, were:— ORDER OF THE BATH KCB Air Marshal J. G.Davis, CB,OBE,MA. CB AVM R. N. Bateson, DSO, DFC; AVM S. W. R. Hughes, CBE, AFC, AFRACS;
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