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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0604.PDF
1094 FLIGHT international, 22 April 1979 Nato Air forces Tactical Meeting 1978 AIRCREWS from six allied nations will compete in June in Allied Air Forces Central Europe's Tactical Air Meeting 197a. They will be based at RAF Wildenrath for the event, which will be conducted on ranges in Ger many, the Netherlands and Belgium. The meeting will be divided in a tactics phase on June 5-8 and a re connaissance/tactical weapons com petition June 9-14. Aircrews and aircraft from Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States will participate. Every nation FINNISH Air Force officials have not yet selected a replacement for the small number of surviving MiG-21Fs. Recent reports in the technical press have suggested that 30 MiG-21bis Fishbed Ls have been ordered and that British manufacturers hope to receive orders for MiG-21 avionics. The air force continues to apply the designation "MiG-X" to the plan ned Fishbed replacement (see Flight for June 11, 1977, page 1692) but no other details are known at present. Finland was an early MiG-21 customer Helicopter crash FIVE British Army headquarters in Northern Ireland and civil ATC staff at Aldergrove Airport are being asked some searching questions about the loss of an Army Air Corps Westland Scout and its two crew on April 10. The second Army helicopter crash in Northern Ireland within recent weeks, this accident may compel the Ministry of Defence to be more forthcoming about military aircraft losses in future (see Flight for March 18, page 756). The Scout took off from Aider- grove Airport soon after 11 a.m. on April 16 to fly to the Army camp at Ballykimler, County Down, a trip which should have taken about half an hour. There were westerly winds and snow squalls over Ulster on that day. The helicopter was under civil ATC from Aldergrove's CAA-manned tower and is thought to have crashed with in a few minutes of take-off and while still inside the airport coiitrol: zone. The wreckage was found next day in 35ft of water in Lough Neagh, only 150 yards from the shore and about four miles from ; the take-off point. The bodies 6f the two occupants were recovered from the lake. Though it did not receive the nor mal radio call to indicate that the aircraft was leaving the control zone, Aldergrove tower did not apparently raise any alarm. It was not until abqut 1.30 p.m., about 90min after the Scout's ETA at Ballykimier, that except Canada will provide recon naissance units. The tactical weapons and recon naissance competitions have been combined for the first time this year, replacing the AAFCE tactical weapons meeting and the Royal Flush recon naissance competition. Again for the first time, the reconnaissance compe tition will be contested by the Second and Fourth Allied Tactical Air Forces. RAF Air Vice-marshal K. Kingshott, chairman of the meeting and AAFCE deputy chief of staff operations and intelligence, will officially openTAM 78 and could upgrade to the MiG-23, be coming the first non-Warsaw Pact customer for the standard intercepter version. Floggers supplied to Egypt, Libya and Syria have all carried a more austere avionics fit than the normal MiG-23s. The 20 or so elderly MiG-21Fs still in service must be nearing the end of their airframe life. An order for British avionics seems unlikely unless the Soviet Union could be persuaded to supply replacement MiG-21s minus the normal avionics fit. there was any anxiety. This resulted in an initial search on the northern flanks of the Mourne mountains, only a few miles off the course to the Scout's destination but 30 miles from where it had crashed. Inexplicably, the Army waited a further six hours before announcing that the aircraft was missing between Aldergrove and Ballykimler and that a major search was under way. A statement to this effect and appealing for the public's aid in the search was not telephoned to the BBC newsroom in Belfast by the Army's Ulster press desk until 7.42 p.m. This was some seven hours after a Lough Neagh eel fisherman had recovered a door from the Scout, probably within minutes of the crash. It was only when he heaid on an evening news bulletin that an aircraft was missing that he realised the significance of his find and con tacted the authorities. It was about at RAF Wildenrath on Friday June 2. The competition is designed to test the ability of reconnaissance teams to operate intensively with limited resources (aircraft, support, equip ment and manpower), and to assess the interoperability and training stan dards of Central Region forces. It is also expected to encourage the ex change of information and experience, improve air tactics and procedures, and promote mutual understanding between participating air forces. Awards will be presented by AAFCE commander Gen William J. Evans, End of the line for J3 turbojet ISHIKAWAJIMA-HARIMA is due to end production of the J3-IHI turbojet by March next year. First run in the summer of 1956, the J3 was Japan's pioneering effort in turbojet design and led to production orders for 31 J3-3s to equip the Fuji T-1B trainer, and 191 J3-7Cs as booster engines for the Kawasaki P-2J. Present contracts with the Japanese Defence Agency call for 19 more of the latter version to be produced before the line is closed. As well as producing its own designs, the company also licence- builds GE and Adour engines. 11 p.m. before the door was positively identified. The Mourne search was suspended at 11.30 p.m. and the main effort transferred to Lough Neagh, where the wreckage was found next day. The CAA declines to comment on the apparent failure of the Alder grove controllers to question the loss of contact with the helicopter before a "leaving the zone" message had been received, saying that the acci dent is now under investigation and comment would be improper. Likewise, the Army will not say why more than seven hours elapsed between the crash and its appeal for public help in finding the aircraft. It is being suggested that more prompt action might have led to the two occu pants—the Army pilot and a seven teen-year-old cadet—being rescued after they had survived the actual impact with the water. . . . F-111 inspection follows UK loss USAF F-111 and FB-llls are being inspected following the loss of an F-111F and its crew last month at BAF Lakenheath. The aircraft crashed on the approach six miles north-west of Brandon, near Thetford in Norfolk. The escape capsule parachute did not deploy. An investigation team led by Col John Manning, deputy commander for operations at Third Air Force Headquarters, RAF Mildenhall, has established the exact nature of the fault, but has still to determine whether the aircraft was in the cor rect attitude for ejection. Althqugh all F-llls and FB-llls, are npw being inspected, they are still available for operational mis sions. Individual aircraft will not be used for training flights until the escape system has been cleared. No decision yet on Finnish MiG replacement raises safety issues . . .
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