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Aviation History
1965
1965 - 1239.PDF
fl/GHT International, 29 April 1965 683 A Victor B.I a of 57 Sqn, on detachment to RAF Tengah, flies a low-level mission over Malayan countryside near Malacca and is photographed by Michael Barnes from a Hunter T.7. Aboard the Victor was a staff writer whose report, with more of Barnes' "Flight" pictures, will appear in an early issue More US Weapons IT is REPORTED THAT the new maritime HS.801 Comets will be equipped with Jezebel high-power sonar equipment and will be able to carry the US underwater nuclear depth charge Lulu. US homing torpedos, probably the Mk 23, are to be bought for use with the Australian Ikara shipborne torpedo-launching rocket. ADA at Work RN SCIENTISTS concerned with development of HMS Eagle's action data automation system (ADA) who were embarked for the first six months of the ship's commission after modernization, recently returned to the United Kingdom, leaving the system substantially desnagged arid operational in a form capable of further development and sophistication. ADA was used during the recently concluded two weeks' Exercise Fotex, off north-west Malaya, in which four carriers, Eagle, Victorious, Bulwark and HMAS Melbourne, were engaged. Twenty-three escorts, including the GW destroyers London and Kent, also took part. The exercise had Eagle's Vixen 2s of 899, the first operational squadron, defending the force against joint RAF/RAAF attacks, and her Buccaneers and Scimitars striking land targets against RAF, RAAF and carrier-borne defences. The exercise con- The first firing photograph released of the Canadair CL-89IXCI short-range recoverable reconnais- sance drone, which the Montreal company is developing for the Canadian and British Governments under a jointly financed programme. Launched by a cruciform-tailed booster rocket and sustained by a turbojet engine, the CL-89 is being flight tested at the US Army's Yuma, Ariz, proving grounds. It performs day and night reconnaissance and is recovered by parachute, landing on air bags to cushion impact eluded with an assault landing from the Commando carrier Bulwark against aerial opposition on the island of Kuala Lankawi, north of Penang. It was supported by aircraft from Eagle and other carriers. While Eagle was in Singapore dock- yard recently her serviceable aircraft were ashore, where her ambidextrous Vixen 2s, which fire either Firestreak or Red- top, formed part of Singapore Island's air defences and where her strike aircraft based at Tengah were at equal readiness with the RAF strike echelons. Her anti- submarine Wessex HAS.Is, with quick con- version kits suiting them to the troop lift role, went to RNAS Sembawang, where they were quickly available for use in support of ground forces. But while these of Eagle's air elements merely supplemented equivalent RAF forces, her early warning flight, four Gannet AEW.3s of 849 Sqn, flew nightly from Seletar in a role which the RAF cannot match. They patrolled in support of the Naval coastal protection screen thrown around the Malayan peninsula and Singa- pore, on watch not only against seaborne incursions but also against low air incursions such as Indonesia has previously made when dropping irregular and dissident parachutists in Johore. Scouts and Sioux in Malaysia FOLLOWING THE VIRTUAL SOLUTION of the troubles with the Nimbus engine which have dogged the Army's Westland Scout helicopters, difficulties are still being en- countered with these aircraft in Malaysia. As the expected improvement in engine serviceability and the arrival of spare Nimbus engines have permitted more hours to be logged, other shortcomings have become apparent. The wooden tail rotor blades have been softening in the humidity, and sand and dust have caused problems with the main rotor hub and control link- ages. The tail rotor transmission has been another source of failures, and work- manship in the airframes has been
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