FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1031.PDF
584 FLIGHT international, 9 April 1964 Slow forward landings are made at a high angle of attack, touching ao/tn on the well-sprung tailwheel before the mainwheels contact Flaring-nostrilled and bulbous-eyed, the Wessex shows its underside. The cargo hook is suspended beneath the fuselage on four wires TACTICAL TROOP LIFTERS... March. Pilots arrive from RAF Tern Hill, having received helicopter instruction on Sycamores and Whirlwinds, and then receive another 25hr training on the squadron, in converting to the Wessex and obtaining their instrument rating and categorization. When in Britain the squadron will provide training facilities for units of the Strategic Reserve although, as already mentioned, it can never be sure that it will be operating in Britain for more than another week or so. For deployment purposes its Wessexes can be rapidly fitted with 220gaI tanks in the main compartment—the necessary plumbing is built in—and this extends endurance by another 2-2£hr. A useful extension of ferry range can be obtained by shuttingdown one Gnome and cruising on theother; and for long- range deployment by air a Wessex can just be coaxed into a Beverley, though not without a fairly extensive strip involving removal of the gearbox. Nothing is more convenient, of course, than moving them by aircraft carrier, with the aircraft embarking and disembarking by air, for the Wessex HC.2 shares many common features with the Wessex marks operated by the RN and it will be compatible with assault operations from carriers if necessary. The formation of No-18 Sqn is the latest significant development in the long build-up of Transport Command. In US commercial aviation terms, one could consider the squadron the Command's third-level airline. The Britannia and soon the Belfast and VC10 squadrons are its trunk, inter-theatre operators; the Argosy, Beverley and Hastings units its local service, intra-theatre airlines. Together, they can be combined to feed men and munitions into an area of conflict. But to move them around those areas to the real seats of trouble, to make their presence felt where it is most advantageous to do so, it is still the helicopter that is needed. It seems a fair assumption that other Wessex squadrons, destined for quick deployment, will be formed within the next few months, for a glance at the world map is enough to show that the Army could make full use of a third-level airline in half-a-dozen different areas at the present time. ROBERT R. RODWELL Tailpiece—the CO sets course for Odiharp (left) and is photographed through the deep windscreen of a following machine. Tailpieces (below) —the neat Dutch polders have nothing on this
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
