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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1097.PDF
628 FLIGHT International, 16 April 1964 SERVICE AVIATION Air Force, Naval and Army Flying News More Trouble Along the Route AFTER LIBYA AND ADEN—THE MALDIVES. The latest RAF Transport Command staging post to be threatened by political uncertainties is the important airfield of Gan, in the remote Maldives group in the Indian Ocean, which appeared to be a very low risk project when it was built a few years ago. Last week Maldivian islanders put out of action the airstrip through which the British representative at Male (the capital) is supplied, and anti-British feeling is reported to be rising in the islands. This is linked with demands for independence (the Mal- dives are an internally self-governing protectorate). The Maldivian Prime Min- ister, Mr Ibrahim Nassir (an inauspicious name for the British, if ever there was one) has rejected suggestions that he should visit London for talks. The Maldivian Government is incensed because of British refusal to return Mr Abdullah Afif Didi, leader of a revolt against the Maldivian Government on Addu Atoll, the immediate group in which Gan lies, in 1959, who was taken to the Seychelles with British assistance, in accordance with British policy of retaining friendly associations with the local islands and not only with the Government in distant Male. Already a victim of the current ill-feeling is an agreement made some months ago for the setting-up of a BBC relay station in the islands. In this context, the future of Gan seems far from secure—one item around which Maldivian discontent may well crystallize is the fact that the rent paid by Britain for this base is the ludicrously low figure of £2,000 a year. With virtually no other source of revenue but fish, the Maldivians might well feel that such a vital link should bring them more. While helicopters have taken most of the kudos for air operations in Borneo, RAF Twin Pioneers with their STOL capabilities have also been performing extremely valuable work, often operating from strips little larger than the helicopters' grounds Here a 209 Sqn Twin Pioneer, detached from RAF Seletar, takes off from a smo// strip in Sarawak with plenty of space to spare. In addition to troop and equipment transport and supply dropping, the Twin Pioneers are used as voice aircraft, loud- hailing messages to the civil population IAF Expansion THE INDIAN AIR FORCE transport fleet was substantially increased by the purchase of some Russian AN-12 heavy transports under deferred payment terms, states the latest report of the Indian Defence Ministry. Surveying progress made since the 1962 armed Chinese incursion, the report men- tions the order placed for 12 DHC Caribous; the RCAF's gift of eight C-47s and the 24 Packet aircraft supplied by the USA, together with a further two Caribous. The number of Hawker Siddeley 748s being built at Kanpur, it states, is 29. To meet immediate airlift requirements, the USAF will continue during part of 1964 to make available the services of one squadron of C-130s. Inaugurating on April 5 a new £1.5m air force ammunition factory, established at Jagdalpur, Madhya Pradesh, under a licence agreement with the British Royal Ordnance Factories, Mr K. Raghuramaiah, the Minister of State for Defence Production, said that the programme to build Russian Mig-21 fighters in India was being speeded up. These will join Hindustan Aircraft- built Gnats and the HF-24 in the IAF's defence formations. In addition to develop- ing a supersonic version of the HF-24, for which an engine is still sought, Hindustan Aviation has embarked upon the design of a jet trainer. The company has also been awarded a contract to produce its Krishak light aircraft for the AOP role. A number of Sud Alouette III heli- copters purchased in France will soon supplement the IAF's Russian Mi-4 heli- copters in service, and plans for Alouette production in India are progressing. IAF expansion has called for an expan- sion of the training arm and recently more Harvard trainers have been obtained from Canada while efforts are in hand to obtain yet more. A specialist facet of training, reflecting the Indian armed services pre- occupation with the threatened Himalayan border, resulted in the recent opening of a snow survival training school for IAF personnel. RAF Officer Commanding Kenya Air Force THE NEW COMMANDER RAT EAST AFRICA, Gp Capt Ian Stockwell, arrived in Nairobi last week to take over from Air Cdre J. C. MacDonald on April 18. He will double as the first Commander of the Kenya Air Force, which exists in embryo at present in the shape of the first intake of Kenyan cadet pilots being trained by RAF instruc- tors on Chipmunks at Eastleigh. It seems likely that the first KAF equipment will be a small number of DHC Beavers, followed later by the same company's Caribou STOL transport. This is said to be the recommendation of a British Government mission which recently studied Kenya's defence needs after British troops withdraw from the country later this year. It is understood that the initial equipping of the KAF will be financed by a British loan. Australian Army Wants StarLifter THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY is pressing the RAAF to purchase six Lockheed C-141 StarLifter strategic jet transports. The C-141, which made its first flight only on December 17 last, is already flying in impressive numbers and production will soon reach the planned seven a month. Bigger and better air transport backing is needed by the Australian Army for its mobile brigades. Main RAAF transport strength at present is its 12 C-130 Hercules, with 18 DHC Caribou transports in process of delivery. HMAS Sydney, a carrier converted into a troop carrier, can not go on for ever and the Army sees the 316,6001b four-jet C-141, with its 70,0001b plus (or 200-troop) payload capability, as the best non-stop link between metropolitan Aus- tralia and its main strategic commitments in South-East Asia. Two Appointments AMONG RECENT RAF APPOINTMENTS is that Of Air Cdre R. E. Craven, Director of Per- sonal Services (A) at the Air Ministry, who will become AOA Transport Command on May 4, with the acting rank of air vice- marshal. The predominant theme in Air Cdre Craven's RAF career, which began in 1937 after cadet service in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, has been Coastal Command. Latterly he held a key Transport Command job, that of station commander at RAF Lyneham, the Com- mand's main UK terminal, from 1959-61. Air Cdre E. J. Morris, until recently Director of Operations (Air Defence and Overseas) at the Air Ministry, is to become Chief of Staff, Middle East Command on June 7. He, too, joined the RAF in 1937 and flew Hurricanes from Biggin Hill during the Battle of Britain. During a post-war career predominantly in Fighter Command he served an exchange posting with the USAF in 1954. THE CAPTAIN OF THE QUEEN'S FLIGHT at RAF Benson, Air Cdre Dennis Mitchell, is retiring from the royal service and will relinquish his appointment later this year. FOUR RAF REUNIONS: 223 Sqn, all ranks, at the RAF Reserves Club, 14 South Street, London Wl, May 2, 6.30 p.m., tickets 7s 6d from Mr L. W. M. Richards, 8 Cedar Lawn Ave, Barnet, Herts, tel Barnet 9964; and the Association of Bomber Command Officers at HQ Bomber Command, RAF High Wycombe, Bucks, on June 6. Details from Gp Capt R. G. Dutton at that address. RN Seaplane Bases, Port Said and Alex- andria, 269 Sqn Old Comrades' Association, will hold its 42nd annual dinner at the Chicken Inn, Wilton Road, London SW1, on April 25. Details from Sqn Ldr T. A. Dicks, "Dakota," Hunts' Hill Lane, Nap- hill, High Wycombe, Bucks. The CFS Association's 52nd annual dinner will be held in the Officers' Mess at RAF Little Rissington on July 10 and details will be circulated to all members in due course.
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