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AIR
WITH
Internatianal
Vo l ume 24
Number l
Managing Editor
CON T ENTS
FRO NT COVER The first production example of the EMBRAER EMB-312 Tucano, now on
the point of entering service in Brazil.
7 EMBRAER' S TRACTABLE TUCANO
John Fricker flies, for AI R INTER ·
NATIONAL, Ihe latest product of Brazil's
dynamic aircraft industry, the T -27 Tucano
high - performance turboprop Irainer.
January1983
15 TIENTSIN TIME CAPSULE A first hand account, by M ajor Lennart Berns
(of the Roval Swedish Air Force), of a visit to
a Chinese air base, w here modernisation, it
would appea r, has been marking time.
William Green
Editor
Gordon Swanbo(ough
Modelling Editor
Fred J Henderson
Contributing Artist
Dennis Punnett
Contributing Photographer
Stephen Pel tz
Editorial Representative. Washington
Norman Polmsr
Managing Director
Donald Syner
Publisher
Keith Attenborough
Financial Director
Claire Sille tte
Advertising Director
Elizabeth Baker
Advertising Manager
RogerJewBrs
Subscription Manager
Sheilagh Campbell
Circulation Manager
22 MOSQUITO - DH ' S BEAUTIFUL
BOMBER Developed in the face of
much official apathy if not outright resistance, the deadly Mosquito was among the
most elegant of World War II's combat
aircraft. The bomber variants are described in
this " Warbird s" feature.
36 A VERY DIFFERENT CORSAIR
Among the more noteworthy of the
aeroplanes competing in the 1982 Reno
National Championship Air Races was a
newlv reslorad and modified Chance Vought
F4U -1 Corsair, here described and illus trated by Frank B Mormillo.
William Streek
Editoria l Offices:
The AIR INTERNATIONAl, PO Box 16,
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subscriptions and general enquiries to
AIR INTERNATIONAL, PO Box 353, Whitestone, NY 11357-0353 fo r onward
transmission to the UK, from where all
correspondence is answered and orders
despatched.
MEMBEROFTHEAUDIT
BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS
The Hawk is unrivalled in its
class. An advanced trainer and
a weapons trainer all in one.
It's a powerful ground attack
fighter too.
Better still, it needs very little
maintenance, so it spends more
time in the air, keeping your
pilots' morale high, and your
costs low.
That's why it's top of its class.
HAlNK
.afl&IWH .AER1OSr'C£
~/'-dhr/"'~~_
• prog"~.
Richmond Road, Ki ngston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 5QS.
IABC I
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direct from the publishers, per year:
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Rates for other countries and for air mail
subscriptions available on request from
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above address.
2 AJRSCE N E The monthlv round -up of news and background to the news presenled
under section headings for Military Affairs, Aircraft and Industry, Civil Affairs and new
Civil and Military Aircraft Contracl S.
31 SIGHT FOR BLIND MEN The first in a series of articles in which M ike Hirst. BTech,
M RAeS, sets out to analyse the r61e of avionics in cOnlemporary aviation .
39 MODEL ENTHUSIAST Modelling comments, the latest kits reviewed and two pages
of colour profiles on the Supermarine Spil f;re VIII -XI.
43 TALK BACK Readers of AIR INTERNATIONAL offer comments of general interest.
44 FIGHTER A TO Z Continuing the AIR INTERNATIONAL encyclopaedia of the world's
fi ghter aircraft, from the 1.A.A. 14 to the IAR.93.
48 IN PRINT New avial ion literature noted.
50 AIRDATA FilE Technical data, photographs and general arrangement drawings for the
Australian Basic Trainer, HA L Ajee t Trainer, PZL-21 Mini Dromader, Slingsbv Firefly
160M and SOKO Super Galeb.
WREND EZVOUS WITH WREN
The AlA INTERNATIONAL is published
monthly bV Fine Scroll Limited, distributed by Ducimus Books Ltd and printed
by Will iam Caple & Company ltd,
Chevron Press, Leicester, England.
Editorial contents © 1983 by Pilot Press
Limited . The views expressed by named
contributors and correspondents are
their own and do not necessarily refl ect
the views of the editors. Neither the
editors nor the publishers accept responsibility for any loss or damage,
however caused, to manuscripts or
illustrations submined to the AIR
INTERNATIONAL
Second Class postage approved at New
York, NY. USA Maili ng Agents: Air-Sea
Freight Inc, 527 Mad ison Avenue, New
York. NY 1 0022.
ISSN 0306-5634
'"Hellol Hello!"
AIRSCENE
M.ILITARY AFFAIRS
ABU DHABI
The Abu Dhabian element of the United Arab
Emirates Air Force has reportedl y placed an
o..der with M:rospatiale for an unspecified
quantity o f AS 332F Supet' Puma helicopters
apparently intended for the dual utility
trans port/anti-shipping role. It may be assumed that these helicopters will be a rmed with
either AS I SIT o r AM 39 Exocetanti-shipping
missiles. Abu Dhabi has now received its full
complement of 14 Pilatus PC-7 Turbo Trainers
and was scheduled to accept delivery of the last
two of four CASA C-212 Aviocars al the time
of closing for press.
ARGENTINA
Deliveries of Dassault-Breguet Super Etendard
shipboard strike fighters to the Comando de
A~iQcjon Naval were resumed in November,
when, on the 18th of that month, the Bahia San
Bias left SI Nazaire for Buenos Aires with five
a ircraft aboard. together with an unspecified
number of AM 39 Exocet missiles. The Super
Etendards, which are destined for the 2°
EscuodTiJla AeT()II(Jvol de Caza y A/aque,
bro ught to 10 deliveries of this strike fighter
against the 14 ordered by Argentina prior to
the Falklands conflict. The final four ai rcraft
were shipped to Argentina early in Dec:ember
aboard the Cabo de Hornos. Fn.JICe has
reportedl y agreed to 50pply Argentina with IS
Aerospaliale AS 332 Su,Ptt Pama bdkopters,
three of which will be dehvered to the Conwndo
An/arc/ico and the remainder to the Comando
de A viocion del Ejercito to make up helicopter
attrition suffered during the Falklands conflict
Eleven ex-F6r{:a Airea Brasileira EMBRAER
EMB-326 Xava..tes have re portedly been sold
to Argentl..a for approximately USS2Om, these
presumably being destined for the Comando de
Aviacion Na~al.
CANADA
Thecurrent McDonnell Douglas CF-1 8 Hornet delivery nte of one aircraft monthl y will
shortJy build up to two per month and this rate is
to be s ustained until September 1988 when
deliveries are scheduled to be completed. Since
delivery of the first two CF-18s to CFB Cold
Lake, Al berta, late October, CAF maintenance personnel have taken over first line
mai ntenance from the contractor, and the first
aircraft are shortl y to be assigned to No 410
Sqn which will develop pilot and maintenance
trai ning programmes before the first operational pilots commence C F-18 transition in
January 1984. No 410 Sqn will have a
secondary operalional role and the fi rst fully
operational CAF squadron will be commissioned in June 1984. C FB Bagotville will be the
second base to receive CF- 18s late in 1984, and
mid- 198S the first C F-18s will a rrive at BadenSOllingen in Federal Germany. By 1986, both
the C F- IOI and CF-I04 will have been
replaced by the CF- 18, and when the latter
supplan ts the CF-S this will be retained in the
inventory for the trai ning role with No 419
Tactical Fighter Training Sqn at Cold Lake.
CHlLE
Three refurbished CanbHn PR Mk 9 reconnaissance aircraft are being supplied to the
Fuerzo Airea de Chile from RAF surplus
Slocks as the first Canberras to be operated by
the FACand the first examples of the PR Mk 9
version to be exported.
CH lNA
The Chinese ddeccor, Wu Jung-chien, who
PAGE 2
landed his J-6 (MiG-19) at an airfield south of
Seoul on 16 October, stated that he flew to the
South Korean base "only to refuel so that I can
defect to Taiwan". When he was refused fuel
by the ROKAF, he req uested that the
Taiwa nese Embassy in Seoul be contacted and
political asylum be requested on his behalf.
Asylum was duly granted and altho ugh his
fighter was retained in South Korea, Wu Jungchien received the going rate fo r a J-6 o f
USS2·7m in gold when he arri ved in Ta ipei about S 150 per pound of ai rcraft gross weight
- and was made a major in the Nationalist
Chinese Air Force on the spot!
DUBA.I
The Oubai Air Wing of the United Arab
Emirates Air Force has placed an order with
Siai Marchetti for six turboprop-powered
SF.260TP basie trainen, plus spares and
suppo rt equipment. Delivery of the SF.260TPs
is expected shortly at a unit price reportedly
between USS450,OOO and USSSOO,OOO. Siai
Marchetti has now received orders fo r some 30
SF.260TPs, Dubai being the third customer
(the o thers being Ghana and Haiti, the laner
having ordered the trainers for civil use).
EGYPT
Despite earlier reports of Egyptian dissatisfaction with the serviceability of its two squadrons of F-4E Phantoms equipping the 222nd
Tactical Fighter Brigade a t Cairo West a nd the
return of the aircraft to the USA during the
course of 1982, the Egyptian Air Force has
now appa rentl y discarded proposals to transfer the Phantoms to Turkey and the aircraft
have been ferried back to Cairo West after
overhaul.
FEDERAL. GE RMANY
The first two Atlantic maritime patrol aircran
to unders.o upgndlng unde r the OM 200m
(£49'26m) KWS programme have now been
restored to Marinejliegtrgesch,,",ader 3 at
Nordhol z by Dornier, and the remaining 12
Atlantics will all have rotated through the
programme by late 1983. The K WS programme involves the installation of longerranging Texas Instrumen ts radar, imprOVed
data I?rooessing, a new Bell & Howell
acoustIcs-data tape recorder,
Loral's
EWIOl7A electro nic support measures equipment and an adjunct to the ex.isting sonar
processing system increasing frequency spectrum, range and directio n-finding aa:uracy.
The Ministry of Defence has now extended the
deadline fOf' the replacemeat of the F-4F
Pha ntoms of the LMftwaffe by a dedicated air
superiority fighter to the mid-'nineties. The F4Fs will now be updated under the SCH:alled
Peace Rhine programme which will include
stretching airframe life from 4,000 to 6,000
hours, installing either the Hughes APG-6S or
Westinghouse Improved APG-66 look-down
radar and fining a quartet of Hughes Advanced Medium-Range AAMs.
FRANCE
The first production Miralile F ICR reconnaissance a ircraft was scheduled to be delivered to the Armie de fAir late last month
(December) and the 33~ Escadre tk Reconnaissance at Strasbourg will commence conversion from the aged Mirage III R during the
course of this yea r, initial deliveries going to
ER 1/ 33 Bel/ort and ER 2/33 Savoie. with the
Mirage III RD-equipped ER 3/33 Mostlle
following in 1984. Each FI C R squadron is to
be equipped with a self-conta ined airtransportable tactical reconnaissa nce ground
station developed by MATRA's Electro-
AIR INTERNATIONAl/JANUARY 1983
I
Optics Systems Division and offeri ng faci lities
for mission preparation and flight director
systems, operational and command communications, and image reception systems and
interpretation equipment. A total o f64 Mirage
FICRs - including the two prototypes, the
first o f which flew on 20 November 1981 - is
to be procured by the Armiede fAir, the basic
components of the FICR recon naissance
system including Omera medium·altitude
vertical and horizon-to-horizon cameras, an
Omera 360 data recorder, a Sagem Uliss 47
inertial guida nce system, Thomson-CSF
Cyrano 4 radar a nd infra-red sensors. The
Mirage FICR may be fiued with the Harold
reconnaissance pod (long-focus highresolution camera with a maximum rangeof 62
mls/ lOO km) and while this has not so far been
ordered for the Armee de fAir versio n, it is to
be filted to the Mirage Fl EQ, a newclectronic
countermeasures/attack derivative ordered by
Iraq.
G REECE
A cle<:isioo cooceming procurement of a new
fi2bter for the Hellenic Air Foroe, o riginally
pfanned for the end of 1982, has now been
officially dela)'ed until the end of March, but
mOSt sources in Athens suggest that it will not
be taken until September and possibly as la te
as December. The HAFissecking 1()().. 130 new
fighters, the contenders being the DassaultBreguet Mirage 2000, the General Dynamics
F-16, the McDonnell Douglas F-18A and the
Panavia Tornado IDS. The Greek Defence
Ministry is currently studying the proposals of
the four competing manufacturers, all of
which include sizeable offset provisions,
including manufacture of a proportion of the
proposed aircraft and fi nal assembly. The
Mi rage 2000 is considered to possess something o f an edge owing to the politically
aligned Socialist administrations of G reece
and France; General Dynamics believes its
chances to be good in that it is possibly the o nl y
competitor that can meet the Greek requirement of deli very of the first 30 aircraft before
the end of 1984, while McDonnell Douglas has
been unofficially informed that the F-18A
most closely meets the HAF's operatio nal
requirements. Insofar as the Tornado is
concerned, the three nations participating in
the programme have o ffered to ma ke Greece a
founh partner, and although not an official
contender, a joint Northro p and General
Electric team has been promoting the F-20
Tigershark. Sources in Athens believe that, for
operational, political or economic reasons, the
Greek government will split its purchase
between two o f the contending aircraft.
iNDIA
With the delivery of the final two o f 40 newproduction J aguars from Wan on during the
fi rst week of November and acceleration of
assembly by HAL of the 4S Jagua rs from C KD
parts, with the first half-dozen now delivered,
the build·up of the Indian Air Force's Jaguar
force is gaining momentum and three squadrons will sho rtly have attained operatIonal
capability with a fourth squadron scheduled to
form during the course of the year.
MALAYSIA
Announcement by year's end was a nticipated
of the selection by the Royal M alaysian Air
Foroe Senior Tender Board or LockJteed
Aircraft Services as prime conLracto r fOf' the
Skyhawk refurbishiDg programme. Lockheed
is understood to have been selected o n both
technical and cost grounds (sec Mili/(Jrl
Affairs/September). The programme, whieh IS
scheduled for completion by mid-198S, will
involve 40 of the 63 mothballed ex-US Navy
A-4L Skyhawks procured by the Malaysian
governmen t, plus six of the 2S A-4Cs which
will be used for spares, as well as a pproximately half of the 120 J6S-W-20 and -420
turboJets. The first refurbished Skyhawks will
be delivered to the RMAF early 1984.
The RMAF took deU"ery in November of the
fi rst batch of six Pilatus PC7 T urbo Tnlners of
the 44 ordered in 198 1 through a USSS I' 7m
contract, the remaining aircraft being scheduled for delivery at a rate of about three
monthly throughout this year.
MOROCCO
Aero Maroc Indust rie,·established at Moham med V airport, Casablanca-Nouasse ur, with
French assistance in October 1981, has
recently filled a Northrop F-SB of the Royal
Moroccan Air Force with a flight refuelling
nose probe in a proto type installalion for
operational trials with the Service's newlyacquired Boeing 707 equipped as a tanke r with
Beech underwing pods. Other work now being
undertaken by Aero Maroc Industrie on
behalf of the Royal Moroccan Air Force
includes a stud y programme for the overhaul
and Updating of the Service's fleet of 2S
Magister trai ners, a nd fo r the design o f a
ventral camera pod for the Mirage FICH .
P AKlSTAN
It is now known tha t the 30 single-scat M irages
currently in process of delh'ery to the Pakistan
Air Force are, in fact, Mirage 50s powered by
the Atar 9K-50 turbojet although referred to as
Mirage SPS. Two van a ntsofthe Mirage 50 are
included in the current deliveries to the PAF,
these bein, designated Mirage SPA2 in
optimised alT-air form with Cyrano IV radar
similar to that ofthe Mirage F IC and Mirage
SPA3 in optimised air-ground form with
Agave radar similar to that of the Super
Etendard. Two similarl y- powered two-scat
trainers are designated Mirage SDPA2.
PERU
The Fuerza Abea Peruana has recently taken
delivery of three MBB DO 105 helicopters to
equip a unit referred to as "Commercial
Squadron 332", the primary task of this unit
being the support of oil exploration in the
Amazon from the Haupstadt Lima Airport,
near Sebagua.
A foll ow-on order for an unspecified quantity of
additional Dassault-Breguet M irages has been
placed by the Fuerza AirM Perullna. The
possibility of a new Mirage purchase was
mentio ned in September by Oen Jose Garcia
Calderon, the Minister o f Av;a tion, who said
that "more of these ai rcraft might be sought".
Gen Hernan Bolurie, the Armed Forces Chief
o f Staff, subsequently commented that a
Mirage rurchase would depend on the provision 0 suitable credit funding and this was
al?parently agreed during the recent visit to
LIma of French Defence Minister Charles
Hernu. It has been uno fficially reponed that
sufficient Mirages ha ve been ordered to equip
two squadrons and that these a rc basically
Mirage SOS (ie, Atar 9K-So.powered), but
comprise two single-seat versions referred to as
the Mirage SP3 (Cyrano IV rada r) and SP4
(Agave rada r), and two two·seat trainer
versions, designated as the Mirage SOP! and
SOP4.
SINGA PORE
The Singapore Air Force accepted deli" ery in
October of the firs t of an unspecified number of
Aerospatiale AS 350 Ecureuil helicopters that
are to be used in the training role.
SOUTH AFRICA
According to Brig Chris Lombard, OC of
Southern Air Command, the five surviving
ShackJeton MR M k 3 maritime patrol aircraft
operated from 0 F Malan AB by No 3S Sqn
are to be finally witbdnwn from service during
t.he course of 1984. The Shackletons, which
will have secn 27 years SAAF service by the
time of their withdrawal, have been resparred
and refurbished in recent years.
objec:tives in the recen tl y-conducted operational evaluation (OP EVA L) which has
aroused considerable controversy. He commented, " There is nothing in the OPEVAL
report that requi res us to change our acquisition Slrategy at this time." The three prescribed thresholds that the F-18 failed to meet
were in fighter escort radius (380 nmf704 km
agai nst the required 400 nm/741 km), minimum approach speed (134 knots/248 kmfh
against the required 132 k.notsf24S kmfh) and
gross weight (36,710 Ib/ 166S21r.:g in the fighter
escort configuration against the required
36,000 Ib/ 16 330 kg).
AIRC RAFT AND INDUSTRY
SWEDEN
In the fi rst of a series o f planned helicopter
purchases for the Swedish armed forces, a
contract has been placed, via Saab-Scania, by
the Defence Material Administration for 10
Hughes 300c light helicopters with a contractual value of some SKr7· Sm (£62S,000).
These are to be operated primarily o n training
duties as Hkp SBs by the Norrbotten arm y
avia tion battalion at Boden in northern
Sweden. Parliament has reserved the sum of
SKrI ,OOOm (£83'3m) for further helicopter
purchases, consisting of 10 for the SA R role
and 20 for the a nti-armour mission, a decisio n
o n the latter being scheduled for later this yea r
to ena ble the Army's dozen Agusta BeIl 204Bs
to be replaced around 1985. A longer time
scale is attached to acquisition of the SAR
helicopters which are intended to replace the
VertoI I07-I1-4s operated by F 17 at RonnebyKallinge by the end of the decade. The Navy's
10 V-107- II-S and Kawasak.i-Vertol 107-11
ASW helicopters are expected to remain in
service until the end of the century.
USA
The US Marine COf'PS is planning proc urement
of three squadroos of advaDCed attack helicopters commencing in Fiscal 1989, the
probable choice being the Hughes A H-64
Apache. The remainder of the USMC attack
helicopter force will comprise Bell A H- I
HueyCobras, and the Service will procure 44
A H- ITs in Fiscal Years 1984 and 1985. The
goal of the USMC is to increase its attack
helicopter inventory from three active and one
reserve squadron to six active and two reserve
squadrons.
According to US Navy Secretary John lehman, the McDonnell Douglas F- 18 Hornet
failed to meet only three o f 20 perfOmtaDCC
FRANCE
Aerospatiale's Helicopter Division has given
more details o f the potential o f the Super Puma
(short-fuselage version) in its AS 332M antlshipping version. Powered by Turbomeca
Makila turboshafts, the AS 332M can carry a
9,920-lb (4 SOO-kg) load and has a range of 538
mls (865 km), the maximum speed being 173
mph (279 kmfh). One version carries a pair of
AM 39 Exocets with a strike range of 3 1 mls
(SO km), and is fined with Orner.! ORB-32
radar; another carries either o ne AM 39 plus
three AS I 5Tf missiles, orsix of the latter, and
has Thomson-CSF Agrion radar. The AS
ISTf, with a strike rangeof9 mls ( IS km), was
recently test-fired successfull y for the first time,
in preparation for deli veries to Saudi Arabia
o n the AS 36SMs ordered by that nation's
Navy.
The first production Dassa ult-Breguet M irage
2000 made its maiden flight o n 20 November at
Bordeawt-MeriJv.lac. The event was on
schedule a nd wIll lead to first deliveries being
made to the Armel! de fAiT later in 1983. The
first production Dassault-Breguet M irage
FI CR, a dedicated reconnaissance version of
the Mirage FI C-200, flew on 10 November (see
separate news item page 2).
IN DlA
The Soviet Union is to acquire eight Chetak
helicopters (licence-built Alouette Ills) from
Hindustan Aeronautics. The deal is the fi rst for
man y years in which aircran have been
acquired from a country not aligned in the
Eastern Bloc. Since June 1965, when the first
HAL-built Alouette III was Hown, more tha n
260 Chetaks have been built fo r the Indian Air
Force, Army and Navy and for government
agencies. Examples have also been supplied to
Based on theftrst photographs avoilable to Western observers, this prollisjonal three-lliew drawing
depicts tM Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfool , one of the new generation of Solliet warplanes now coming into
service. More reminiscent ofthe Northrop YA-9pToto /y~s thon 1M Fairchild A-lOA Thunderbolt II
with which earlier reports hod associated it, the Su-25 is a dedicated dose-support attack aircraft,
recently sun in action agairut Afg han guerillasfrom tM airfield at &ghram.
" 'i
•• "
,
SAUDI ARABIA
At the time of closing for press, Saudi Arabia
was expected to approve a formal letter of offer
of a further military .ules packalile valued at
S3SOm and designated Peace Hawk 9. This
package provides JO Northrop RF-SE Tigereye reconnaissancc ai rcraft for delivery in
1985, and four F-SE Tiger II and one F-SF
attrition replacement aircran .
PAGE 3
Nepal. the Seychelles and Bangladesh, plus
considerable quontities of spares for the Royal
Malaysian Air Force. and the sale of six to
liberia is under negotiation.
INDONESIA
P T Nurtanio has expanded its range of aircraft
manufacture by signing a liccnce agreement
with Bell Helicopter Textron to cover the
production in Indonesia of "at least 100" Bell
Model 41 Zs. The twin-en$!ned, IS-passenger
Bell 412. which was certificated in January
1981. is a derivative of the Bell 212, with fourbladed rotor. Nurtanio will produce Model
412s with the help of components supplied by
Bell. and expects this helicopter to meet
Indonesian requirements. both military and
commercial. for a medium helicopter for offshore and on-shore oil s upport, troop-carrying
and inter-island transport.
INTERNATI ONA L
Right de"elopmcnt of the Airbus AJIO took a
fu rther step forward o n 20 October 1982 with
thc first fligh t of the fourth example - No 2 10
in the common A300/A3 10 numbe ring
sequence. The fift h A3 10joincd the programme
in November and is also to contribute to
certification of the two-pilot cockpit; the first
customer aircraft. for dclivery to Swissoir, was
to fly in January. By 22 October. the first four
aircrafi. had totalled nearly 700 hrs. made upof
333 hrs 20 min in 118 flights by the first A31O;
216 hrs 55 min in 8 1 flights by the second; 145
hrs 10 min in 48 flights by the third and the
single 4 hr 10 min flight by the fourth.
The Airbus A300 reached the lOch annh'ersary
of its first flight on 28 October. by which date
192 aircraft had been delivered and 188 .....ere in
service. Airbus Indus trie is no longer quoting
options in its regular monthly listing of orders
and deliveries. but records a total of246 A300s
and 102 A310s on firm order for 46 customers.
Deliveries so far have included two versions of
the A300B2. two versions of the A300B4 and
the A300c: next to arpea r will be the A300600, fin al assembly 0 which was to begi n at
Toulouse this month (Ja nuary). T he first
A300-600 is No 252 in the combined
A300/A3 10 numbering sequence: scheduled to
fly in July, it is powered by JT9D-7R4H I
engines and will be company-owned. A second
A300·600 will also be used for certification,
seheduled for the end of March 1984. The third
to fly will be the first for delivery. to Saudia. the
launching airline. which has lion order.
Tornado prototype P.07 made its first flight
after being fitted . ·ith carbon fib« romposite
taiierons on 8 November 1982 at Manching.
Four such tailerons have been produced. two
each by British Aerospace at Warton and
MBB in Gennany. One of each. fitted with
instrumentation. are used for flight testing,
while the other two are undergoing static test.
The first starboard taileron made in the UK
has so far been tested at room temperature to
88 per cent of its ultimate design load, and this
programme win continue up to 188 per cent in
the representative environment to clear the
components for the full Tornado IDS flight
envelope. The fourth taileron. a port unit, is
being fa tigue tested at the IA BG tes t establishment in Gennany. and will be subjected to a
fu ll Tornado life cycle.
are reported to be uprated to a thrust of23.400
Ib(10614 kg). compared with 22.300 Ib (10 115
kg) in the 11-62. The ccntral engine now has a
circular intake. compared with the standard
oval intake for the NK-8 engine. and the TA12 APU. usually located above the centre
engine. has been relocated in the fuselage . The
Tu-l64 has a gross weight of 220.460 Ib
(100 000 kg). compared with 211.650 Ib (96 000
kg) for the Tu-I54B. and the mnge is reported
to be 2.485 mls (4000 km).
SWEDEN
British Aerospace Warton Division has signed
a "launching a~ment" with Saab-Scania
Aerospace DiviSIOn covering collaboration in
the design and construction of the carbon fibre
wing for the JAS 39. The agreement provides
for SAc and Saab-Scania engineers to cooperate in the design of the wing. which is of
conventional delta planform . BAe will manufac ture the fi rst prototype wings and test
specimens, and will participate in thc extensive
ground test programme. Saab-Seania will
then gradually take over manufacturing
responsibility, and will be completely responsible for series production. Earlier. SaabSeania had discussed a similar agreement with
Rockwell International, in respect of a more
advanced wing of greater span and with
aeroelastic properties through controlled
twisting under load. This would have represented an application of RockweJrsexperience
gained with the Hi-Mat research vehicles. but
would have increased the cost of the JAS 39
wing by some 50 per cent without sufficient
perfonnance gain to justify this extra cost.
UNITED KI NG DOM
Rolls- Royce has confirmed that it is studying
the de"eloplMnl of a reranned Spey for
commercial applications. under the designation RB I83·03. Of potential interest to
Fokker and Gulfstream Aerospace for new
variants of the F28 and the Gulfstream III
respectively. the RB 183-03 combines the high
pressure system oftheexisting RB I83 Mk 555,
with a new low-pressure system featuring
wide-cho rd fan technology; the fan diameter is
44 in (112 cm) and the bypass rat io is 3: I.
Subject to sui table commitments bei ng made
by FoHer and Gulfstream. the RB I83-03
could be certificated in 1986 and enter service
in 1987. It will provide a cruising fuel
consumption at least 10 per cent better than
the RB I83 Mk 555 and a reduction in noise
levels to the point that will allow aircraft using
it to comply with FAR Part 36 Stage 3
regulations.
Certification of the Shoru 360 by the FAA following British certification in September opened the way for delh'eries to begin on II
November. when Suburban Airlines accepted
its first aircraft. The second production 360
was in the hands of Simmons Airlines before
the end of November. Short Brothers also has
arranged a package deal with a group of US
banks and National Westminster in the UK,
which allows it to arrange financing for any US
regional operator purchasing Shorts 330s or
3605, without fu rthe r recou rse to the banks in
each individual case. T he scheme, which has an
initial ceiling of S80m (£5Om) but can be
extended in future, has been negotiated
primarily between Shorts a nd Ci ticorp International Bank. with the UK Dep.utment of
Trade's Export Credi ts Guarantee Department in part guara nteeing the repayment and
funding of the deal.
SOVI ET UNIO N
The deslgnallon Tu-I64 appea rs to have been
adop ted for a re-engined variant of the Tupolev
Tu- I54. currently undergoing flight testing. At
A new series of flight tests was begun during
one time referred to as the Tu- I54 B- I (see
November by the British Aerospace J aguar
Airscene/January 1982). the Tu-l64 (CCCPACT (Active Control Technology) de85317) is a standard production Tu-154B-2
mons trator. This Jaguar (XX765) is an
modified to have Solovlev D-30KU engines in
extensively modified GR Mk I filted with an
place of the usual KUUletsov N K-8-20 engines.
The two fuselage-side engines are in 1l-62-type all-digital quadruplex fl y-by-wi re control
nacelles. with thrus t reversers. but the D-30s . system and when it first flew in October 1981 it
PAG E 4
AIR INTE RNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
was said to be the first aircraft to be so fitted
with no fo nn of re versio nary control. The
Jaguar ACT can survive all probable failures.
and the c urrent flights follow a punishing series
of tests to simulate lightning strikes. with high
current pulses well in excess of 100 KA .
Extensive testing of new computer software on
a ground rig rreceded the Right testing. which
at the end of 982 was concerned with proving
the total reliability of the latest standard of
flight control systems. with a nd without
external stores on the aircraft. After confinnation of the stall departure and spin
prevention system at high incidence. and
demonstration of carefree manoeuvering.
unsta ble flights were to begin early in 1983.
Right testing is in the hands of Warton's
Senior Experimental Test Pilot. Chris Yeo,
and the major sub-con tractors are Marconi
A vionics fo r the electronic control system and
Dowty Boulton Paul for the electro-hydraul ic
actuators.
USA
Right testing of the first Boeing 757 for British
Airways (G-BIKA DOl'er Cost/e) began al
Renton on 26 October, a few weeks before
certification of the 757 was to be confirmed by
the FAA. as this issue closed for press.
Deliveries to Eastern Airlines began before
yea r-cnd and the first delivery to British
Airways is to be made on 3 February. with the
first commercial operation on the LondonBelfast route set for 9 February. The earlier
arrangement for Air Europe 10 lease two 757s
from British Airways has now been replaced
by an outright purchase deal. with delivery of
one aircraft each in March 1983 and later in the
year: the BA fleet will thus be reduced to 17.
The No 6 Boeing 751. which earlier completed
an extensive Asian to ur in August (sec
Airscene/November 1982) and appeared at the
Farnborough Air Show. was used from 17
October to 9 November for a 67-Right. 121 -hr
demonstration that included cities in Europe,
Africa, North America and South America.
McDonnell Douglas has decided not to
continue its famou s " DC' series of designations beyond the DC-IO, but to adopt a new
"M D" series of century designations. The firs t
application of the new designation system is
MD-J(K), for the DC- IO derivath'e that has
been variously described over the past two
yearsas the DC- IOSuper 10and the MD-EEE.
Based on the extended spa n wing of the DC-IO
Srs 30, the MD- IOO as now projected has a
fuselage shortened by 5 ft (1.52 m) and the twoleg main undercarriage and lighter structure of
thc DC-IO Srs 10. The standard mixed-class
seating capacity works out at 270. and with a
gross weight of 475,000 Ib (215460 kg), the
MD-IOO has a range o f more than 5,000 naut
mls (9 266 Ion). The choice of power plant lies
between the Rolls-Royce RB.2 11-535H4 and
Pratt & Whitney PW 2031, offering about
41.500 Ib st (18825 kgp) each. McDonnell
Douglas says the MD- IOO will be certificated
for operation by acrewoftwo. will have an alldigital cockpit with CRT displays and will use
advanced composites in many areas of the
struc ture. First deliveries could be made in
1986. and there could be a family of MD-IOOs,
including later stre tch versions, with a total
ma rket potential in excess of 400 aircraft.
The nex t version of the McDonnell Douglas
DC-9 Super 80. wit h gross weight further
increased to 160.000 Ib (72 576 kg) as reported
in Airscelle/September 1982. will bedesignated
as the S uper 83. Carrying an extra 1,100 US gal
(41641) in tanks in the underfloor holds. it will
require uprated JT8D-200 series e ngines rated
at about 22,000 lb st (9980 kgp) each and will
be able to carry its passenger payload over
ranges of up to 2,500 naut mls (4630 km). The
Super 83 should be especially attractive to
certain European IT operators and to some of
the US regionals. If a full go-ahead is
permitted soon. deliveries could begin early in
1985. A further DC-9 derivative now under
stud y is the S uper 90. which is a combination of
Super 80 technology with a fuselage shortened
by about 28 ft (8,53 m), to the size o f the DC-9
Series 40. This would provide accommodation
for 100-120 passengers. with a 1,500-ml (24 14km )range. CFM56-3enginesare being studied
as alternatives to the JT8D-2 17 As.
Gulfstream American has changed its name to
Gui£stream Aerospaee Corporation. and has
announced the sale of design rights in the
si ngle-cngined Commander Model 11 2 and 11 4
to Evans-Auch Aircra ft ltd. subject to final
agreement this month (January). Production
of these (originally Rockwell) hghtplanes was
termi nated at Bethan,Y in 1980arteracquisition
by Gulfs tream Amencan. although spares and
supp'ort programmes have continued to be
avallablc. Evans-Auch Ai rcraft has been
founded at Cody. Wyoming. fo r the purpose of
acquiri ng the Commander 11 2 and 114
programme and reloca ting it in Wyomi ng;
president and founder of the company IS Elbert
Sowerwine 111.
o
The .second General Dynamics f -l 6X l .
powered by a 29,000 Ib st (13154 kgp)
FIOI DFE turbofan. made its Hrst fli ght at Fort
Worth on 29 October. Converted from o ne of
the F-16A development airframes. this is now
a two-seater. whereas the first F-16XL is a
single-seater with the standard 25.000 lb st
(11340 kgp) FI00-PW-I02. Since its first fiight
on 3 July. the latter aircraft had flown 76 times
up to the end of October and had been handled
by seven pilots.
Northrop delivered on 15 October 1982 the
I,OOOth example or the F-SE Tiger II (this total
including F-5F two-seaters). the recipient
bein$ the Mexican Ai r Force. Production is
continuing at the rate of4-5 a month against a
present backlog of about 150 aircraft. Includ109 the T-38, from which the design of the F-5
was derived. and the earlier F-5A and F-5 S
va rian ts. the overall production total now
exceeds 3.500. The name Tigcreye has now
been adopted by No rt hrop for the latest
versio n of the RF-5E with reconnaissance
cameras in the nose.
Sikorsky Aircraft has recentl y confirmed
earlier rumours by announcing that it wil l olTer
a version of the S-76 helicopter with Prall &
Whitney P'f6B engines. This variant of the S76 Mk II will be available in the autumn of
1984. with 1,020 shp PT6B-36 turboshafts and
a Hamilton Standard full-authority dual
channel fuel control system incorporating
digital technology. Gross weighl will go up to
11 ,000 Ib (4490 kg) from the 10.300 Ib (4672
kg) for the present model of the S-76, which
has Allison 250-C30S engines and will remain
available alongside the PT6B version. The
increased gross weight combined with the
engine change gives the new S-76 Mk II a 15 1
per cent increase in useful load that can be
carried at 5.000 ft (I 525 m) at a temperature of
77 deg F, a feature that is likely to be of
particular advan tage to military operators.
Northrop announced on 19 November that its
prototype Tigershark tactical figh ter had
completed 50 fti Rhls, in the course of which it
has reached Mach 1·82 and 50.000 ft ( 15240
m). compared with ultimate limits "in the
Mach 2 class" and above 53.000 ft (16 154 m).
Other demons trations have included a climb to
40,000 ft ( 12192 m) in 2·4 min from brake
release (to be improved to 2· 1 min by
production aircraft. with uprated F404 engines). and a ground refuelling in nine minutes
from engine sto p to enwne start. The 000 has
now designated the Tlgershark as the 1"-20,
rather than F-5Gas previo usly used . AIt.hough
Northrop has slowed down the pace of
T igershark development because of the lack of
o rders, the compan y spent S209·6m on the
programme in the first nine months of 1982.
bringing total expenditure to some S409m
since 1978. General Electric's Aircraft Equipment Division has begun fiight testing (on a
Douglas C-54) the AN /APG-67 multimode
radar developed for the Tigershark.
Beech Aircraft has selected the Northro p
Seehawk forward-looking infra-red ( F LI R)
equipment for installation in the Becchcrart
200T surveillance version o f the Super King
Air. A prototype of the Seehawk has recentl y
completed more than 1.000 hrs of opera tional
testing in a USCG helicopter. and Beech will
now tit the system in its 200T demonstrator.
Hughes Helicopters began fli ght testing, late in
1982, or the Mode1530E helicopter. a mon th or
so after the fi rst production model of the
Hughes 500E. Both these new modcls (sec
Airsce"e/ May 1982) featu re a reprofiled front
fuselage and interior improvements; the 530E
also features the uprated Allison 250-C30
engine for beller hot-and-high performance.
As well as introducing the LA 250 Renegade
(this column last month). Lake Aircraft is
offering two new nrsions or the ButtaDeer light
am phibian for 1983 delivery. Designated LA
4/200EP and LA 4J200EPR. they both retain
the 200 hp Lycoming IO-360-AI B engine. but
the propeller shaft has been lengthened by 5 in
(12,7 cm) to reduce noise in the cabin and
improve efficiency generally; the EPR model
also olTers a reversibte-pitch Hartzell twobladed propeller. More than 1,000 Buccaneers
have been built and production is currently at
the rate of three a month. in addition to one
Renegade a month. Deliveries of the laller,
which has a lengthened fuselage and a number
of other changes, began last month (December) and initial o rders are reported to ha ve
come from France. Canada. the USA. Colombia, Venezuela and Australia.
Duvid Thursto n, designer of the Lake Buccaneer (see previous item) and of several other
light amphibians over the past three or four
decades, has developed a new four-seat allmeta l amphibian as the Thurston TA- 16
Seafire. A protolype constructed by International Aeromarine Corporation should be
undergoing flight testing by the time this issue
appears in print. Configuration resembles that
of the Buccaneer and the Thurston Teal, with a
high wing. T-tail and pylon-mounted engine:
the latter. driving a tractor propeller. is a 250
hp Lycoming 0-54O-A4D5. More advanced
aerodynamics. modern construction techniques and new materials give the Seafire a
better perfonnance than the earlier sporting
amphibians, and it has been sized to suit
operators in remote regions who need good
load-carrying ability. With a maximum useful
load of 1.000 Ib (454 kg), the Seafire can. for
example, carry 500 Ib (227 kg) for 500 mls (805
km), land. olT-load, take on 800 Ib (363 kg) and
fly back to base without refuell ing. The 60 per
cent cruising speed is 145 mph (233 km/h).
C IVIL A FFA IRS
CANADA
Through its subsidiary United Helicopters.
Bristow Helicoptl"l'S has acquired a 49 per cent
stake in Okanagan Helicopters from the
Resource Service Group of Calgary. which
itself purchased 90 per cent of the Okanagan
shares a year ago. The Canadian helicopter
operator. based in Vancouve r. has a fleet of
140 helicopters. the most recent additions
being a pair of Bell 214STs delivered in
October/November. Options are held on six
more Be1l214STs.
H ONG KONG
Catha y Pacific Airwa ys has become the
world's first international seheduled airline to
operate airerart exc1usi n~ly po ~'ered by RollsRoyce RR.2 1! turbofans. The Hong Kon gbased airline. privately owned as ~rt of the
Swire Group. reti red its last Boeing 707 in
October. leaving it flyi ng nine Lockheed
l-IOII-IOO TriStars and seven Boeing 747s,
with an eighth to be deli vered in April and two
more on option. The most recentl y delivered
747-200 B has RB.2 11-524D4 engines, which
ha ve demonstrated better fuel economy even
than forecast. and which give the 747. in
Cathay's 4OO-seat configuration , a beller
payload-range than any other 747 va riant
currentl y available. The 747 freighter recently
acquired by Cathay from British Ai rways has
-524C2 engines while others in the fleet have
e:trlier -524B25.
IS RAEL
The troubled S tate-owned ai rline [ I AI.
grounded by a labour dispute since 13
September, al?peared to have reached the end
of its life with the decision taken by the
shareholders on 24 No\'ember thai the company should be liquidated . The airline. which
has a fleet of 18 aircraft (Boeing 707s, 737s and
747s) plus four Boeing 767s on order, has
suffered some 69 strikes in the past 10 years
and has reported losses for the past four ; Ihe
1981-82 results showed accumulated losses
of £ 126m. assets of £218m and total obligations of nl8m.
S PAIN
A new charter airline fonned by fonner
employccs of TAE. which ceased to operate
late in 1981. has the name Hispania Uneas
Aereas. The company is expected to have an
initial fleet of four Caravelles. at one time
owned by Transeuropa and subsequently
acquired by Iberia and Aviaco.
UNITED KI NGDOM
British Airports A ut hori ty has obtained
government approval to proceed with con·
structio n o f a second passenger terminal at
Gatwick . To be known as No rth Termi nal. it
will be opened in 1988 and will inc rease
Gatwick's an nual passenger capacity from 16
million to 25 million. Work has already begun
ona fourth tenninal at Heathrow. and l ondon
Transport has recently confinned that the
Piccadilly line of the Underground will be
extended to serve this new tenninaL
British Caledonian Helicopter's first two Bell
21 4ST Super T ransports ftltered senice on I
November immediately following British
certification for VMC and IMC operations.
First of their type in Europe, the Bell 2 14STs
were named Loch Broom and Loch Roag and
are now operating under a 12·month contr.!.ct
to support BP offshore rigs and platfonns. A
third 214ST was bei ng delivered to B.Cal in
December and three more are o n option.
In an arrangement remi niscent of the Allegheny Commuter system in the USA, Brilish
Caledonian has launched a Commuter Services
d ivision to promote commuler air services
linked to its own operations at Gatwick. The
firs t company to join R CaI Commu ter Services is Genair, now adopted as the surviving
name from the 24 October me rger between
Eastern Airways, Casair and Genair (this
column last month). T he Genair fleet of Shorts
330s, 3605 and Bandeimntes is being repainted
in B.Cal blue and gold colours (but retaining
the Genair name) and the company will be able
to take advan tage of RCaI ground handlin$.
sales and booking services. The Gatwick hubls
served by Genair flights from Bournemouth.
Exeter. Plymouth. liverpool, Binningham,
leeds Teesside. Humberside, East Midlands
and Norwich.
PAG E 5
FI
The Saab-Fairchild 340 is setting the future standards ... now. Saab-Fairchild 340 - for leadership
in Economy, Technology and Availability.
In
SAAB-FAIRCHILD 340
u.s., Canada and Mexico contact: Fairchild Aircrarl Corporation, Box 32486. San Antonio,1X 78284, USA. Tel: (5 12)824-4262. Telex: 767·3 15.
In other counlries contacl: Saab-Fairchi ld HB. $-58188 LinkOping, Sweden. Tel: +46 13 i80000. Telex: 50153. SFHBHQ 5.,
or: Saab-Fairchi ld S.N.C. , 17 Ave. Matignon, F-75008, Paris, France. Tel: + 3312961632. Telex: 643 137.
Bcaringa name that is remembered among the
pioneers of air transport in the UK, InSlone Air
Lines is now operating two Bristol 170
Freighters on scbeduled all-cargo scrYices
between Lydd Airport in Kent and Rotterdam
five days a week. The original Instone was
founded in 19 19 and was absorbed into
Imperial Airways upon the latter's formation
in 1924. The new Instone has been formed by
Giles and Jeremy Instone, grandsons of the
original founder, and its Bristol I 70s have been
purchased from the Royal New Zealand Air
Force.
Sir Freddie Laker has obtained approval from
the CAA "in principle" to launch a new tour
operating business, less than a year after the
collapse of Laker Airways. Following objections raised by the Saga Holidaysgroup, which
purchased thc Laker Air Holidays company
(ineluding the name) rrom the receiver of
Laker Airways, the new company, which has
the financ ial backing or the Lonrho Group,
has agreed not to use the name "Laker" in its
title. Present plans are for the new company which is now to be known as Sky train
Holidays - to operate tours rrom the UK to
the Mediterranean and the USA, but not to
own its aircraft. In an unrelated and surprising
development following upon the collapse, the
liquidator or Laker Airways has filed a lawsuit
in the USA seeking damages of "several
hundred million dollars" from British Airways, British Caledonian, Pan American,
TWA, Lufthansa, Swissair a nd McDonnell
Douglas. Basis of this action is a cha rge that
these companies conspired together - illegally
under US anti-trust legislation - to lower
fares on the North Atlantic below profitable
levels, with the sole purpose of pUUlOg Laker
Airways out of business.
The main ticket hall and the control tower of
Airport House, which arc part of the original
buildings of Croydon Airport , Britain's first
commercial airport, are 10 be renovated and
preserved. In a scheme with fi nancial support
from Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance,
and the active: participation or Ihe Croydon
Airport Society under its president Sir Peter
Masefield, the buildings will become an
important museum of d vUa"latlon bistory. The
ticket hall will be reconstructed in the original
style, with the counters o f such pioneering
airlines as Imperial Airways, KLM. Air
France, Lufthansa and Sabena.
USA
Fifty-five years and one week on from making
its first scheduled fl ighl (on 28 October 1927)
Pa n American inaugurated what is claimed to
be the longest non-stop scheduled commercial
senice ever. Once a week. starting on 4
November, a Boeing 747SP nies the 7,487 rnls
(12049 km) between Los Angeles and Sydney
in each direction; the flight continues to and
returns from Melbourne. Flying ti me is
scheduled at 14 hrs 30 min; departing Los
Angeles on Thursday evenings, the flight
crosses the lnternational Date Line to arrive in
Sydney on Saturday morning. Northbound
the flight departs Sydney mid-afternoon on
Saturdays to arrive: in Los Angeles well before
midnight, local time, on the same: day.
C IVIL CO NTRACTS ANO SAL ES
Atrospa.iale AS 332 Super Puma: British
Airways Helicopters has taken options on
three Super Pumas, for delivery durlDg 1983 if
a firm order is confirmed. The helicopters
would bridge a gap in the BA H fleet between
Chinooks and Sikorsky S-6Is.
Atrospa' iale/Aeritalia ATR 42: Al igi ul ia,
based ID Trieste, has firmed upanorder for two
ATR 425 in 46-seal Dash 200 configuration,
PAG E 6
ror delivery April 1986 and January 1987.
Boeing 707: American Trans Air purchased
another 707-32OC, its seventh, from American
Airlines. 0 Cairo·based Zakani Aviation
Services acquired a 707 from Air France, for
all-cargo operations.
Boeing 727: New St Louis-based charter airline
Air One bought two 727- 100s from US Air.
with prospect of starting scheduled services
later. 0 Northwest sold three 727- 100s to
Emery Air Freight but bought back from
Pacific Southwest five 127- 100s it had sold
some years ago, and also purchased two 727200s it had been leasing from a lessor. 0
International Lease Finance sold two 7272005, ex-Singapore Ai rlines, to Cayman
Airways, accepting two BAC One· Elevens in
part-payment. 0 US Air ordered five more
727-200s to rep'lace 727- 100s: delivery is in
January 10 Apnl this year.
Boein@737: TheCiviIAviationAdministration
of ChiOa (CAAq has o rdered 10 737-200s,
including two -200C passenger/cargo convertibles. Built by Boeing for another airline
that has deferred delivery, the first CAAC 737s
will be delivered next month (February), They
will be arranged to seat 129 passengers each
and have JTBO- 17A turbofans.
Boeing 747: Sale ofa Boeing 747F freighter to
JAL has been confirmed by Pan American, at a
priceor£4Im. Pan Am will sell one more 747F,
keeping four as the nucleus ofilS C'drgo fleet.
8oein ~
757: Air Europe will now purchase
outright, ror about £2Om each, two 757-200s
that it was to lease from British Airways.
Delivery will be in March and later this year.
Boeing 767: Ansen Airli nes announced it
would defer acceptance of four 767-200s until
J une/July, rrom late 1982 as originally planned. A fifth 767 on order will be delivered latcr.
De Havilland DH C-6 Twin Otter: Capitol Air
Services o f Manhattan, Kansas, took delivery
of a seeond Twin Otter, fo r ,commuter services.
The first was delivered in 1980.
Fokker F27: Manx Airlines, recently formed
joint subsidiary of Air UK and BMA, has
leased three F27s ror its scheduled services
from the Isle of Man. inaugurated in November.O Horizon Air, operating in the Washington and Oregon states, acquired its sixth F27
from Allegheny, to replace a Metro,
McDonnell Doug las DC-9: The TWA lease of
15 Super 80s (this column last month) was
confirmed on 27 October. Powered by JT80217A turbofans, these will be of Super 82
standa rd, at a gross weight of 149,500 lb
(678 12 kg), with a I42-seat mixed-class
configuration. Nine will be delivered in 1983
and six in 1984, for US domestic routes. 0
Alitalia announced on 3 November an option
to purchase 30 Super 80s, fo r delivery between
December 19B3 and December 1986. The
order requires Italian government approval
and US Eximbank fund ing, and is likely to
involve offset manufacturing contracts for the
Italian industry. The aircraft will be Super 81s
with JT8D-2I7A engines and 147,000-lb
(66679-kg) gross weight. 0 Finnair has
become the 21st customer for the Super 80,
with an order for three in the Super 82 version.
Delivery will begin in spring 1983.
Argentine government for 15 AS 332 Super
Puma helicopters of which three are for the
COII/ando Antarctica and 12 for the COII/ando
de A l'iaciOll del £jercito.
Canadair CL-600 Challenger: One CL-600
Challenger was scheduled to be delivered to the
Royal Malaysian Air Force in December
under a previously unannounced contract.
YT-2?
• 1300
De Havilland Canada DHC-50 Buffalo: The
Cameroun Air Force accepted delivery of two
DHC-5D Buffalo in November and December
respectively, bringing to four the numbc:r of
transports of this type in the Service's
inventory.
Boeing Vertol 4 14 Chinook HC Mk I: On I
November an order was placed on behalf of
the RAF fo r three Model 414 Chinook
helicopters to replace those losl aboard the
Atfalllic Conn?yor during the Falklands conflict. The three Chinooks are scheduled to be
delivered between June and November 1984.
- --
Hughes 300C: Ten Hughes 300C light helicopters have been ordered, via Saab-Seania,
ror the Swedish Army in a contract valued at
some SKr7'5m (£625,000).
Hughes A H~A Apache: The US Army has
awarded Hughes Helicopters three contracts
totalling S I05·1m for long lead production and
support of the AH-64A Apache anti-armour
helicopter.
Lockheed C-58 Galaxy: The USAF signed a
S50m contract at the beginning of November
for preliminary production on the C-SB
Galaxy stra tegic transport. The contract
covers long lead items and the refurbishing of
stored tooling in preparation for the 50aircraft programme:.
Lockheed Hercules: A contract has been placed
by the Royal Thai Air Foree for a single C130H-30 Hercules (its third of this IYpe) which
is scheduled for delivery in the second q uarter
of 1983. 0 The US Navy is to receive two EC130Q Hercules for communications with
submarines early 1984.
Northrop F-58: Following the receipt or
Northrop F-5Fs, the Royal Malaysian Air
Force has sold its two two-seal Northrop F5Bs to the Royal Thai Air Force.
Siai Marcheni S F.260T P: The Duba; Air
Wing has placed an o rder for six SF.26OTP
basic trai ners at a unit price of between
USS450,000 and USS500,OOO,
Sikorsk y H H~D Night Hawk: On 12 November, Sikorsky Aircraft was awarded a S36·6m
contract by the USAF fo r full-scale development of the HH-60D Night Hawk combat
rescue helicopter derivative of the UH-60A
Black Hawk. Depending on future production
contracts, the fi rst deliveries of the H H-60D
are expected mid- 1986 with an estimated
requirement of 243 helicopters.
MIUT ARV CO NTRACTS
Sikorsky U H ~ Black Hawk: In a procurement arrangement between the US Army and
USAF, I I UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters are being delivered to the latter Service.
The first Black Hawk was scheduled 10 be
produced last month (December) and the last
IS to becompleted in June, two remaining with
Sikorsky fo r prototype development (as HH6005 - see above) and the remainder going to
USAF units for aircrew training and familiarisation.
Aerospaliale AS 332 Super Puma: The Abu
Dhabi government has placed an order fo r an
unspecified quantity of AS 332F Super Puma
helicopters. 0 An order has been placed by the
Westland Commando Mk 3: Delivery is to
begin shortly to the Qatar Emiri Air Force of
eight of the new multi-purpose Commando
M k 3 helicopters.
AIR INTE RNATIONA L/ JANUA RY 1983
JOHN FRICKER FLIES .. .
NTERING an inverted spin in a re la tively high-performance
turboprop tra ine r at little more than 5,000 ft (I 524 m)
might not be considered a desirable recipe fo r longevity. After
three such demo nstra tio ns, however, with an even more
disorientating lomcel·ak t hrow n in, I needed no fur ther
convincing of t he remarkable agility and docility of
EMB RAER'selegant Tucano.
Some clues as to the ex tent to which we were to explore most
of the more ext reme corners of t he T ucano's fl ight envelope in
a regrettably brief introduction to this new Brazilia n t rainer
should have been apparent from my initial meeting with
EMBRAER test pilot Guilherme Cara, wi th whom I was to fl y
at Kidlington, Beneath his arm was a copy of Neil William s'
classic Aerobalics, the bible fo r all aficionados, including
myself, but t his still fo und me u nprepa red for advanced
competition manoeuvres not no rmally expected fro m a
mi lita ry trainer.
Not that th ere is a ny real reason why these sho uld not be
d one since, like its contem poraries, the T-27, as the Tucano is
designated by t he Brazilian a ir fo rce ( Fiirra Aerea Brasileira ) ,
is d esigned for load fac tors of plus six a nd minus three g in the
clean configuration, Its PT6A -25C t urboprop will contin ue to
deliver its maxim um o utput , th rough two collector fuel tanks,
fo r up to 30 seconds when inverted, 15 seconds in vertical
cl imbs or descents, or seven seconds in zero g condi tions,
which in effect ensures uninterrupted power in virtually any
attit ude.
This is a sim ilar e ngine to tha t fitted to those pio neer
turboprop t ra iners, the Beech T-34Can d Pi latus PC-7, both of
which I had fl own and enjoyed, so that my acq ua in ta nce with
the T-27 was awaited wit h particula r inte rest. Although in a
sim ila r category, however, the Brazilian aircraft d iffers in
man y res pects fro m its first· generatio n predecessors. Unlike
those derivatives of earlier
piston-engined
types,
EMB RAER's EM B-3 12 Tucan o was the first turboprop
trainer to have been d esigned as such fro m scratch and to
in troduce stepped tandem seating for optimum visibility from
the rea r cockpit. A large height differential in sea ting, which
E
facilitates s uc h visibi lity even for weapon-training, has been
achieved witho ut excessive fuselage depth and accompanyin g
perfo rm ance penalties with the help of a bea utiful o ne-piece
frame less canopy. By incor porating the usual fo rward
windscreen sectio n, this offers superb all-round visibility to
bot h occupa nts witho ut even the restriction o f canopy a nd
screen arches. It hinges sideways to starboard supported by a
gas str ut and has m inia ture d etonating cord (MOC) around its
edges for e mergency escape on the ground.
Ano ther differe nce from con temporar y propeller-driven
trainers is the provisio n of ejection sea ts, in the form of twin
Marti n-Baker BR8 LC ligh tweight units, wh ich gua rantee sa fe
escape at operating altitudes down to sea level a t any speed
above 70 knots (J 30 km/h). These might be consid ered
something of a lux ury in t he T-27 performance bracket bu t
were incl uded in the Fiirra Aerea's 1977 requiremen t fo r a new
basic trai ner to replace both its T-23 Uirap urus and Cessna T37Cs.
Altho ugh unlike ly to be used much in earnest, the MartinBaker seats a re a useful safegua rd for low-level training and
light st ri ke roles. T hey have a lready j ustified their insta lla tio n
duri ng the T ucano development programme when the second
prototype YT-2 7 ( 1301) was lost late last A ug ust in the course
of fina l clearance trials, This occur red during d ivi ng tests to
wi thin two kno ts (3,7 km/h) of the desig n limit speed (Vd) of
324 k no ts (600 km/h) when, in accordance with Forra Aerea
requirements, full rud der was applied. In normal circumstances, this mi gh t well be expected to overstress the fi n , (as
well as the pi lot's leg), but, instead , the high-speed yaw caused
the skin beneath the leading-edge of the port tailplane to
collapse. This resulted in a nose-down pitching momen t
eventually record ed a t minus 30 g which, a t 10 tim es the
no rma l negative load limi t, not unna t urally caused wi ng
fa ilure, fo llowed rapidly by complete d isintegration of the
airframe.
Fortuna tely, both Mk 8 sea ts functio ned perfec tl y, using
canopy penetratio n as specified , via headrest probes, a nd the
c rew escaped witho ut serio us injury. The Tucano's b u bble
PAG E 7
When the first prototype YT-27 (1300) emerged for it s first
High t on 16 August 1980, it featured a trapezoida l vertical tail
without sweep and a less tapered lower fuse lage profi le for
increased aft keel surface, presumably to improve its spinhandling prospects. It had a lso lost its cran ked wing leadingedge, but gained slightly in span to maintain a similar wing
area . In the course of some 1,200 hr of fl ight development, a
dorsal fin was added for still more aft side area , together with
ta il pla ne-to-fuselage strakes to achieve unrestricted spi n
clea rance.
From the cockpit
seen
Iral'e a total capacity
to the FA B will begin
future.
canopy has an integral centre windshield which effectively
divides the two cockpit s and provides slipstream protection to
the rear occupant in a n emergency.
Export customers for the Tuca no, now being actively sought
by EMBRA ER, have the option, at least in theory, of
dispensing with the T-27's ejection sea ts, which increase the
basic aircraft price of $832,000 (at the end of 1982) to
$ 1, I 01,760, including Collins avionics. Their installed weight,
including the necessa ry structura l reinfo rcement, contributes
towards the Tucano being a ra ther bigger and heavier
aircraft than its ea rlier competitors, although also offering
somewhat higher perfo rmance.
Apart from elegant aerody nam ics, this perfo rmance
superiority is achieved by making availa ble the full 750 shp of
the PT6A-25C for ta ke-ofTand max continuous power, instead
of Ha t-ra ting it at 550 shpas in the T-34C a nd PC-7. The higher
output, with an installed rating of 783 eshp incl udin g exhaust
thrust, is nevertheless available up to am bient tempera tures of
30·5 deg C, with an sfc of O·595 Ib/eshp/hr, so tha t a t ISA + 15
deg C, the T -27 still has a sligh tly lower power loading at
aeroba tic weights than its competi tors.
In the third prototype, Hown at KidJington after a ppeari ng
at Fa rnborough, the throttle quadran t had an easily
overridden check stop limiting engine output to 580 shp if
req uired, but this is apparently not used in practice, and is to
be removed on production aircraft. The first of these is now at
a n adva nced stage a t the sao Jose dos Campos factory,
fo llowing recent completion of the fo urth fli ght prototype
(Plus two sta tic test airframes) to fi nish the develo pment a nd
certification programme, including a repeat of the Vd test with
a suitably reinforced tailplane skin.
Design evolution
Design fea tures of the original EMB-3 12 conform to FAR
Part 23 Amendment 23-21 and to US Mil Specs, while
consideration has also been given to BCARs Section K. Stress
levels are fo r a n initial design fa ti gue life of6,000 hr, and the T27 has ma noeuvering load factors of up to + 4·4 and - 2·2 g
with a full load of four 250-kg (55 1-lb) underwing stores when
used for weapons training or light ground attack roles.
From the sta rt of its design in Ja nuary 1978, by a team led by
Ing Joseph Kovacs, to the finalisa tion of its type specification
in Februa ry 1979, follow ing awa rd ofa contract for two nigh t
prototypes a nd the two sta tic test airframes on 6 December
1978, the EMB-3 12 has cha nged remarkably little in basic
concept and only a little in design deta il. As originall y
conceived, it had a somewha t slimmer fuselage and stylishlyswept vertical ta il , while its canopy arra ngement included a
conventional fixed forward windscreen. Forwa rd sweep was
also envisaged for the inner wing leading-edges, together with
a small ventral fin beneath the rear fuselage.
PAGE 8
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUA RY 1983
Access to the spacious front cockpit of tbe Tucano
demo nstra tor PP-ZO K was simplified from a pre-flight
briefin g by two Martin-Ba ker technicians on the Mk 8 sea t
through a mobile rig at Kidlington. With no rocke t pack a nd a
combined harness fo r seat and integral parachute, plus only a
single act ua tion point from a central handle on the front of the
sea t pan, the Mk 8 req uires only quick-a ttaching garters for its
leg-restraint lines to be donned before settling-in , unlike the
complica ted connections required with many other ejection
seats. It is electrically-adjustable fo r height a nd all you have to
ensure is tha t the top of you r bone-dome remains below the
two seat probes so that these ra ther than your head will shatter
the ca nopy if you have to eject.
With the seats con ferring a thoroughl y opera tional
environment, cock pit layo ut of the T-27 is neat a nd
uncomplicated, offering virtually complete duplica tion for
stude nt and instructor. Engine instruments are to the right of
the central blind-fl ying group, and arc further fl an ked by a n
a nnuncia tor panel with provision for 26 displays and a master
a la rm. Standard avionics install ation is a Collins IF R package
wi th HSI and R MI, and selector boxes in the lower left-ha nd
corner of the panel. Armament switches and selectors a re
a longside in the centre.
Rudder peda ls incorpora ting toe brakes a re adj ustable for
leg length via a knob a t the bottom of the centra l console. On
the ground, the nosewheel is steerable through the rudder
pedals, fr om which it is a utomatically disconnected on
retraction. Undercarriage operation is hydra ulic, the mainwheels foldin g inwa rds a nd the nosewheel rea rwa rds, the
doors for the inner wheel wells closing again automatically on
extension. These have their own warning light in addition to
the standard three undercarriage posi tion lights fl a nking the
stalky (and slightly spongy) selector lever on the lower left
pa nel. T his incorporates a fl ashing red ligh t, Pi per-style, which
operates at low power settings in conjunction with a wa rning
horn until the undercarriage is ex tended, and a simila r audio
signal is apparently relayed to ground co ntrol.
In addition to a rmament release switches, the moulded Page
handgrip on the control column has a four-way thum b-switch
for eleva tor and aileron trim, via tabs on the a ppropriate
surfaces. Rudder trim is from a rocker switch on the
satisfactorily solid power control (throttle) lever, which a lso
incorporates, fighter-style, a n RT tra nsmit button. Miniature
Desynn indica tors display the positions of all three control
tabs, and an override cut-out switch is provided for the
runaway trim case. Trim settings from the front cockpit can
also be overridden from the rear (instructor's) sea t.
Tucano airborne
Since the T ucano's PT6A is mounted so that its thrust line is
offset a few degrees to star board to compensate for full power
torque, no rudder trim is required for ta ke-off, for which
elevator and aileron tabs also normally remain neutral. PT6
starting is as straightforward as ever, with ignition selection
for the gas generator a t 12 per cent Ng, and the power control
lever (peL) eased forwa rds from its fuel shu t-off position to
the idling stop. Unlike other PT6A trainer installations, tha t in
the T ucano dispenses altogether with even limited rpm
sele<:tion, with the propeller constant-speedi ng throughout at
2,200 rpm, resulting in total single-lever power control, as in a
jet.
Such simulat ion , of course, was one of the main objectives
of the EM BRAER designers, and the Tucano leaves you in no
doubt as to the measure of this success. With the canopy
closed , you are seated in a distortion-free bubble, wit h no
visible obstruct ion from the front cockpit , apart from the
forward coamin g and short and narrow cowling through an
a rc of more tha n 180 deg, since you a re seated slight ly forward
of thc wing lead ing-edge. View from the rear seat is slightly
more restricted, particula rly by the wing, bu t is probably at
least as good as a ny other tandem-seat trainer current ly fl ying.
Steering foot-loads a rc moderately heavy when taxying, but
control is precise and the disc brakes very effective. With the
PCL at the idling gate, taxying speeds soon build up on
ta rmac, but lifti ng the throttle briefl y back into the beta range
provides a n insta nt and effective check. If aft movement of the
PC L is continued , of course, the propeller can be put into fu ll
reverse pitch if req uired - an unusual feat ure for a tra iner.
Wit h all trims neutral and eject ion sea t safety pins
withdrawn a nd stowed, rema ining pre·fli ght che<:ks a re
concerned mainly wit h veri fying fuel state - 744lb (337 kg) of
the avai lable 1,220 Ib (553, 7 kg) max internal capacity in our
case - a nd ensuring that all fo ur booster pum ps are on. These
are left on throughout flight. The single-slotted flaps can also
be selected, if req uired, and operate electrically to a take-oIT
selting of23 deg. Maxi mum defl ection is 38 deg.
In our clean and rela tively lightl y-loaded conditio n, take-off
acceleration was decidedly brisk on opening up to max power
of 1,800 ftfl b torq ue. With no propeller speed cont rol, torq ue
becomes the prima ry power reference, and a ut omatic
li mi tation is to be provided in production aircraft to restrict
full -th rottle output to that upper figure , regardless ofDA T.
Although amply-powered, the T·27 showed little tendency
to swing during the brief take-ofT run and left the ground
clea nly after rota ting at about 80 knots ( 148 km/h) a nd a ru n of
a round 900 ft (274 m). With gear a nd flaps up after very li ttle
change of trim, climb angle was almost uncom fortably steepat
the best rate speed of 110 knots (203 km/h), which took the
VS I to nearly 3,000 ft/min (15 ,2 m/scc). Time and airspace
restrictions resulted in us levelling off al 6,000 ft (1828 m)
under the cont rol of Brize Norton radar, bu t in normal
training operations, the Tucano will achieve 20,000 ft (6 096 m)
in nine min utes fro m take-off, and will then still be clim bing a t
more than 1,000 ft j min (5 m/sec). Since most of its operations
are likely to be a t lower levels, however, the T-27 is not
pressurised, but is provided with oxygen and cockpit ai r
cond itioning.
At our modest height, throttling back to around 1,400 ft /tb
on the lorquemeter resulted in the Tucano settli ng down to
indicate a round 190 knots (352 km/h). Cruising fuel flows vary
between about 186-200 lb/hr (84,5-9 1 kg/h), according to
height and power settin g, but a typical training sortie of about
I hr 10 min, comprising a climb to 20,000 ft (6096 m), 20 min
cruise for format ion, instrument or nav exercises, a dive at Vne
to 10,000 ft (3048 m), 15 min of stalling, spinn ing or
acrobatics, and a fu rther descent for four touch-and-go a nd
one full-stop landings requires, accordi ng to EMBRAER , just
under 400 Ib (18 1 kg) of fu el. With two standard 72·6 Imp ga l
(330 I) drop ta nks on the inncr wing pylons, to give a max ferry
capaci ty of 2,337 Ib ( I 060 kg) of fuel and a take-off weight of
7,000 lb (3 175 kg) with a crew of two, PP-Z DK was fl own
across the South Atlantic for the Farnborough display on a
non-stop leg of 1,350 nm (2 501 km) in 7·25 hr a t a block speed
of some 186 knots (344 kmjh).
Having made its first fli gh t on 16 August, only 10 days
before leaving for Europe, the thi rd prototype had not
completed its prod uction test schedule and was not entirely
representative of the definitive aircraft. In pa rticula r, the
PAGE 9
ailerons were said to be rather heavier than on previous T27s, although they appeared reasonably well-ha rmonised with
the rudder a nd elevator on initial acquaintance. Ground
examination of the ailerons had revea led a blunt trailing-edge
profile, capped by a thin metal strip, but this sl ightly curious Tshaped section is apparently nOI to a fina lised standard.
Elevato r stick rorces a re currently rairly light, wi th an aft co
figure quoted at around 5·7 Ib (2,6 kg) per' g , but the rudder
fee ls substant ially more solid, although respon sive at relativel y
small deflection s. Thi s furt her contributes to the "jet" feel of
the T-27, which ca lls for little usc of the rudder and shows
rema rkably low directional trim cha nges. All three trimmers
are sensitive and powerfu l, but a re seldom required.
In conjunct ion with a ll-altit udes power fro m the PT6, this
combination makes Ihe T -27 delightful fo r aeroba tics, which
occupied a large pa rt of our sortie from Kidlington. First,
however, ca me a look al the low-speed hand ling, which
confirmed the fl ight ma nual figu res of 75 knots (139 km/h) in
the clean configuration at max aerobatic weight (6,622 Ib/2 550
kg) and 69 knots (128 km/h) with gea r a nd full flap extended.
Wit h the clea n airframe , deceleration is slow, and there was a
margi n of 5-7 knots (9,2-1 3 km/h) between slight aerodynamic
and a udio sta ll warning a nd Ihe wings-level brea kaway. After
my standard sta ll approach a t approxi mately one knot per
second reduction in airspeed , feeling for continued a ileron
effect iveness in the process, a somewhat more dramatic
confirmat ion then resulted when my rea r seat mentor pulled
Tire T-27 Tucano is clraracterised by a massive single canopy Ol'er the
two cockpits, Iringed to open Sideways os shown abow!. The first preproduction aircraft, shown below, made a demonstration rour through
Europe and the Middle East after appearing at the Farnborouglt air show
in Sep tember.
--
EMBRAER EMB-312 (T-27) Tucanocutaway drawing key
1 Hartzellthrae-bl aded
conStant -speed pt'opallm
2 Spinner
3 Propaller hub pitch-change
mechanism
4 Engine air intaka
5 Nose undercarriaga pivot
liking
6 Nosewheelleg str ut
7 TakYing lamp
8 Torquescissorlinils
9 Nosewhael
10 Rear retract ion struts
11 Nosewheelleg doors
12 Intake IIunking
13 bhaust nozzles
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Oil cooler exhaust duct
Fuel system filters
Underfloor conllol runs
Cockpit air cond itioning plan t
Pon side console panel
Engine throttle lever
Forward (student) pilo!"s
Martin - Baker Mk 8lC ejection
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Starboard side console panel
Circuit breaker panel
Control column
Rear view mirror
Forward instrument panel
Instrument panel shroud
Stand-by compass
_.
EM BRAER EM8-312fT-27 Tucano Specification
Power Plant: One Prall & Whit ncy Canada PT6A-25C fr«turbine e ngine de velo ping 750 shp fo r la kc-off an~ . max
continuo us powe r to 30·5 dcg C at 2.200 rpm . a nd dri Ving a
t hree-bladed co nstant-speed fea thering Hartzell HC-BlTN3C{f101 78-8 R propeller of n5 n (2.36 m) dia meter. Internal
fuel ca pacity. 152·5 Imp gal (694 1) in fo ur i nt egr~ l .wi ng ta nks
lined with a nti-delOnatio n plastic foam. and prOV ISio n fo~ t wo
72·6 Imp gal (3301) capacity fe rry tanks s us pended fro m Inner
wing hard points.
Performance: (At ac ro batic weight) Max contin uo us speed. 253
kt (469 km{h) a t 9.000 ft (2 743 m): econo m ical cruise. 10.000 ft
(3 048 m). 185 kt (345 k.m /h): initial climb. 2.590 fi/ mi n (13. 15
m/scc): service ceiling. 28.500 n (8 686 m): take-off d istance over
50 n ( \ 5.2 m), ISA at sea level. 1,740 fi (533.2 m): landing
distance from 50 n ( 15.2 m). ISA at sea leYel. 1.657 ft (505 m):
max range. internal fuel , 1.024 nm ( I 897 km): e ndurance. 5·53
h"
Weights: Empty equipped. 3.487 1b ( I 582 kg): max internal fuel.
1.220Ib(553.7 kg); max zero-fuel weight, 4.5 191b (2 050 kg): max
aerolxa tic tnke-off a nd landing. 5,622 Ib (2 550 kg): max external
stores. 2.204 1b ( I 000 kg): max ramp weight . 7.044lb (3 195 kg):
max permissible take-off .....eight. 7.000 Ib (3 175 kg).
Dimensions: Span. 36·55 ft (11 . 14 m): length. 32·35 n (9,86 m):
height. 11 · 15 rt (3.4 m): wing area. 208·82 sq ft (19.4 m2).
,
47 S8AT7 >< 37-mmrockel
launcher
48 S8AT7 ><70 -mmrocket
launcher
49 Starboard w ing pylons
50 Starboard tanding lamp
51 Pylon fixing access panels
52 Aileron hinge control
53 Ventral pitot tube
54 Starboard navigelion lig hts
55 Glass- fibre w ing tip felfing
56 Starboard aileron
57 Fixed tab
58 Aileron tab
59 Flap guide ra il
60 Sterboard single slotted flap
(down position)
61 Flap sCrew jack
62 Ejection seat headrest
63 InS!luctor's windsh ield
64 Air systam 10uYres
65 Cockpit coaming construction
66 Rear rudder pedals
67 Wing centre section carry through
68 Wing attachment luselage
double frame
69 Rear cont rol column
70 Fuselage/ wing ettachment
longeron
71 Cockpit section Irame and
stringer construction
78 One- piece ' "meless cockpit
cano py
79 Ejection seat ca nopy piercing
horn
80 Cockpit ail conditioning
system 10UYles
81 Can opy emergency release
handle
82 Oxygen bottle
83 Cockpit sloping real bulkhead
84 Radio and electronics
equipment bay
85 Cockpit air vent
86 Oxygen bottles
'"
Fuselage skin panelling
88 Upper VHF aerial
41 Reflex gunsight
42 Cockpit canopy Iraming
43 Starboard main undere&rriage
pivot lixing
44 Starboard wing integral fuel
tank bays (totalluel capa city
183USgal/ 694 1)
45 Fuel filler cap
46 5 -in (127 -mm) HVAR ground
attack rockets
PAG E 10 AIR INTERNATIONA L/JAN UARY 1983
72
73
74
75
76
77
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
14 Pralt & Whitney (Canada)
PT6A-25C turboshaft engine
15 Engine mounting ring
16 Intakelilterscreen
17 low-voltage lormation
l!.Qhting strips
18 0.1 cooler air scoop
19 Nosewheel dOOfl (closed after
ektension 01 nosewheel)
20 Oil cooler
21 Engine bay main longeron
22 Accessory equipment
compartment
23 Engine bearer S!lUIS
24 Cockpit Iront bulkhead
25 Forward rudder pedals
26 Footboards
PILOT PRESS
COPYR IGHT
DRAWING
100
124
125
126
127
128
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
Whip aerial
Rear 'uselage decking
Fin root fillet
Starboard ta ilplane
Starboard eleYa tor
Fin leading edge
Fin spar attachment
Tailfin construction
VOR aelial
lOw-yoltage fOlmation
lighting strips
Rudder hOln balance
Static dischargers
Rudder tab
Rudder construction
Sternpost
Elevator hinge control
Pan eleyatO( tab
Teil navigation light
Pan aileron construction
Aileron horn balance
Tailplane rib construction
Rear fuselage skin doubler
Rear thrOllle leyer
Canopy extel nal handle
Rear instrument panel
Starboard side console panel
Safety harness
Rear (instructor) pilot's
Martin- Baker Mk 8lC ejection
M"
PAGE 11
111 Sloping fin attachment frame
112 Tailplanestrake
113 Rearfuselagelrameand
stringer construction
114 Tailconllolcables
115 Oxygen bottle charg ing valve
and pressure gauge
116 Hydraulic accumulator
117 Baggage/ radio equipmen t
bay door
118 8aggage compartment
119 Ground powel socket
120 Hyd raul ic leservoir
121 Hydraulic equipment bay
122 LowerVHFaerial
123 8081dingstep
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
Wing walkway
Pon mainwheel bay
Rear spat
Flapsclew jack
Pon single slotted ttailing
edge flap
Flap rib construction
Aileron tab
Aileron control cables
Fixed tab
Aileron rib construction
Wing stringers
Glass-libre w ing tip fa iring
Port navigation lights
Leading edQl nose ribs
Main spar
Ou ter integral fuel tank bay
Pylon mounting struCture
Port wing stores pylons
Port landing lamp
Mainwheelleg door
Port mainwheel
Torque scissor links
Main underca rriage leg strut
Fuelfillercap
Main undercarriage reg pivot
fixing
Retraction side Slrut
Hydraulic retraction jack
Inboard integral fuel tank bay
Auxiliary I,ont spar
AN / M - 8 machinegunpod
Pod attachment spigot
Ammunition tank (350
rounds)
12.7 -mm (I>5-in) machine
gun
Ammunition feed ch ute
Cartridge case ejection chute
7,62-mm machine gun pod
(500 rounds)
250lb HE bomb
20lbprecticebomb
the nose up almost vertically with power and flap. As the nose
rell through a t about 40 knots (74 km/h) lAS, he conti nued to
hold the stick ha rd back on its stops, maintaining a wings-level
attitude by coarse use of ailerons and rudder as the aircraft
mushed down, shuddering and buffeting in protest, but
remaining under rull and effecti ve control.
My spin explora tion to left and right, which shOWed
absolutely classic handling, rrom an entry speed of about 80
knots (148 km/h), with the loss or about 700 ft (213 m) per
turn, then led to the demonstrations of inveried spins
previously mentio ned, all entered rrom between 5,000-6,000 ft
(1524-1828 m). Inverted stalling speed or the T-27 is around
90 kno ts ( \66,7 km/h), a nd the resultant spin after rudder
application is tight, rast a nd appears less oscillatory than when
erect, although characteristics may be varied in either case
largely as required by the use or in-spin or out-spin aileron.
Since so few advanced combat aircraft are now cleared for any
type of spin manoeuvre, which ca n nevertheless often be
PAGE 12
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
enco untered inadvertentl y, especiall y at high alti tudes,
recognition and recovery procedures relating to inverted spins
are becoming an increasingly im portant requirement from
military trainers. In tha t respect, the T-27 must be rega rded as
outstanding, from its virt ually complete absence of spin
limitations and text-book handling.
In aerobatics it is equa lly exciting. Looping manoeuVres
may be started way below its normal cruise at speeds down to
about 135 knots (250 km/h), with no trace of buffet, a nd even
the optimum 170 knots (3 15 km/h) requires less than cruising
power, as do rolls at around 180 knots (33 3 km/h). Controls
a re smooth and precise for all manoeuvres, with a wide margin
from Vile of291 knots (539 km/h), but my own tentative effo rts
were totally eclipsed by the Farn borough-type display
requested of G uilherme from the ground on our return to
Kidlington. The to-minute sequence which followed effectively rounded out those few com ers of the fli ght envelope
which we had left unex plored, with all the arti stry of a
Farnborough display but with none of its restrictions on a 300
ft (9 1,4 m) minimum height.
My hoped-for explora tion of the T-27 in the circuit did not,
therefore, ma terialise, although I observed with interest the
short-la nding which concluded the display. First stage of flap
may be lowered at speeds up to 180 knots (333 km/h) lAS, with
( Abo ~'e
a sligh t nose-up trim cha nge, full flap and la nding-gear
extension limits being 150 knots (278 km/h). About 1,000 ftfJ b
to rque is then needed to maintain a circuit speed in the landing
configuration of about 120 knots (222 krri/h), reducing to 100
knots (185 km/h) downwind, 90 knots (166,7 km/h) on fi nals
and 80 knots (148 km/h) over the hedge. Elevator response for
the landing fla re is good ; the undercarriage oleos are welldamped without bein g ha rd; and the normal landing run
without beta or reverse pitch is less than 1,000 ft (305 m).
According to the cockpit accelerometer, we had not
exceeded + 4·5 or - 1'5 g during our somewhat energetic
sortie, to which the toppled gyros, ma tched only by my
eyeballs, bore additional tes'timony. It had felt much, much
more, but such is the appeal of the Tuca no that I would relish
the opportunity of a return engagement. This will probably
have to wa it unti l CSE take delivery of the three Tuca nos on
which they have an option for trainin g military students
should sufficient be forthcoming. In the meantime, I envy the
class of 1983 a t the F6r~a Aerea Brasileira Air Academy,
Pirassun unga , in Sao Pa ulo, due to receive the fi rst of 11 8 T27s on order (plus options for a further 50) ea rly in this New
Year. Deli veries a re due to fo llow at the rate offive per month,
increasing to ei ght per month by 1984 to fulfil domestic and
interna tional orders.
While a t Kidlington, the T-27 demonstrator was evaluated
by a number of RAF pilots, although Britain has no firm
requirement at this stage fo r a new basic militar y trainer. PPZD K then went on for a seven-day tour of the Middle East,
wi th particular emphasis on Egypt a nd Sa udi Arabia.
EM BRAE R has already reported considera ble interest from
potential export customers, a nd is cla iming continuing
negotia tions for up to 400 possible foreign orders from
Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. This is a
far bigger response than originally en visaged, and even if only
half these discussions result in firm contracts, EM BRAE R will ,
have to expand its pla nned prod uction rate by 50 per cent or
more. If its initial prom ise is fulfi lled, the Tuca no has all the
makings of becoming a classic trainer of the turbine age. 0
le/l) The tK'0 YT-27 prototypes in/ormation. Both aircraft are shown here in the original configuration, be/ore Ihe dorsa/ jin was added. The
production configuration 0/ the T-27 Tucano is depicted In the line drawing belo w.
- -- - - - - -- - - - - - - ,
Tientsin Time
Capsule
•••
-_ _
- --_.---------_
..
...
-
-- -
•••
---
a visit to a Chinese air base
Two-and-a-half years ago, in surveying Chinese air power, AIR lNTERNATIONAL referred to the Air Force of the
People's liberation Army as an obsolescing goliathj the 30 months that have since elapsed have seen this numerically
massive air arm sink still further into obsolescence. Deterioration of the Chinese economy has stalled the anticipated
infusion of western technology and progress in development of modern combat aircraft of indigenous design has been
barely perceptible - the long-awaited F-8 Finback variable-geometry fighter has yet to attain some measure of
service status if western intelligence assessments have any validity.
Major Lennart Berns of the Royal Swedish Air Force, a former member of the Neutral Nations Supervisory
Commission, has recently had the opportunity to visit a Chinese fighter division and here recounts his impressions of
this visit for AIR INT ERNATIONAL
~ A SERVICE PI LOT
from the era of the Viggen, the Eagle and
1. the Tornado. a visit to a Chinese milita ry air base might
n
PAGE 14
AIR INTERNATI ONA L/ J A NU A RY 1983
...
well instill a feeling of involvement in a time warp; of
transportation back from the ea rly 'eighties to the early
'sixties. Here he will fi nd encapsulated a military avia tion
scenario unseen in the West for perhaps a score of years, its
principal tiramaris personae being jet fi gh ters of 'fifti es
technology - their like long withdrawn from major western
air fo rces a nd the survivors of their genus now museum
exhibits or ga te guardians.
These fighters, anachronisms by any standard beyond the
bounda ries of China, will be fou nd in the company of braced
and bestrutted utility transport biplanes of even more
venerable deriva tion, and their venue will also proO'er
centrifugal-flow gas turbines dating back in ori gin to World
Wa r II and weapons sights but one step removed from those
with which that conflict was fou ght. He will encounter on
workshop wall s instructional diagrams depicting a level of
systems sophistication scarcely more advanced than that
commonplace during the jet combat aircraft era 's fi rst decade.
He will assuredl y fin d such a visit to be a fasc inating- albeit at
times a n unnerving - experience!
When, on 16 October, a Chinese pilot, Wu Jung-chien,
defected to SOUlh Korea. it was almost inevitable that the
aircraft he flew to an airfield south of Seoul be a Type 6
Figh ter· , the Chinese-built MiG- 19 of ea rl y 'fifti es Soviet
origin, which, today, is a rguably symbolic of China's ma nifest
inability to maintain over the past two decades any sort of
pa rity in weaponry development with that ta king place beyond
Chinese borders. Despite China's official committal since the
death of Chairma n Mao to long-term milita ry re-eq uipment
and modernisation, the Air Force of the People's Libera tion
Army, or Chung-kuo Slten Min Taie-Fang - Tsun Pu-rai, is
unq uestionably weaker, in all senses other than the numerical,
tha n when the commitment was made, the bulk of the air
defence lha t it provides remaining reliant on the Type 6
Fighter, an ageing relic of pre-ideological-difference Soviet
tutelage.
Without a major infusion of western technology involving
licence-manufacture of weaponry, such as was envisaged some
yea rs ago, the continued stagnation of the Chinese air aI m is
inevitable. In view of China's chronic economic problems
which are dictating cha nges in objectives with military
·In Pinyin. the I\'esternlsed /orm of spelling now adopted, Ihe Chinese
equ/l'alent 0/ " Type 6 Fighter ' is Sinshi-liyu ( Type 6) Jianjiji
( Fighter). This is usually abbreviated as 1-6. although on earlier
westernised/orm, F-6, also remains in use and both abbreviations are to
be/ound in Chinese publications.
PAGE 15
( Aool't'le/l ) Thl' JJ-5 ( FT-5 ) IM'o-seallrainerderh'otil'eo/lheJ-5, alias MiG-1 7, is powered by Ihe Shenyang-manu/aclllred TJ-5D ( Klimo ~ VK-I ). a
Rolls-Royu Nt'ne derimlil'e cenlri/ugol-jlow engine dOling back conceptullfl}, 10 WWII. The similarly-powered single-seal J-5, seen below undergoing •
maintenance at dispersal, remains an important item in the inl'entory o/the Air Force o/Ihe People 's Liberation Army despite hal'ingjirst entered serriei'
with the So~iet Air Force /hirt)' years ago! ( Ph% s courtes)' Giol'onni de Briganti.}
PAGE 16 AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
PAG E 17
modernisat ion apparently downgraded, this vital infusion
now appears unlikely in the foreseeable future. Even
programmes already embarked upon, such as ma nufacture of
the Rolls-Royce RB.I68-25 R Spey at Xian, have now been
discontinued, and economic force majeure is dictating grea ter
relia nce on indigenous ra ther than licensed weaponsmanufacturing programmes, with a rather lower key western
technology input than was a t one time a nticipated.
It would seem inevitable, therefore, tha t, conceptual age
notwithstanding, the Type 6 Fighter, alias J-6, will remain the
backbone of the Chinese fighter force throughout much of the
remai nder of this decade. With this thought in mind, it was
with particular interest that I was to examine in Silu Chinesemanufactured examples of this elderly representa ti ve of the
late Art yom Mikoyan's aerona utica l a rtistry when the
opportunit y arose recently.
Few concessions to the 'eighties
As an officer of the Swedish contingent of the Neutral Nations
Supervisory Commission based in the Korean border village
of Panmunjom, I was enabled , thanks to the special status of
the Commission, to visit with comparative ease and via North
Korea the People's Republic of China. The act ual travelling
time fro m Panmunjom to the North Korean capital of
Pyongyang by car and thence by air to the Chinese capital,
Beijing (Peking), occupied only some six hours. Use of this
route - which fewer than a score of people a re empowered to
utilise, all others travelling the much longer routes via eit her
was possible owing to the
Hongkong or Tokyo Comm ission's stat us, the convenience of the journey coupled
with the warm hospitality of the Chinese making visits to
China popular among the Swedes in Panmunjom.
It had occurred to me tha t I might combi ne the pleasurable
with the instructive if, during a visit to China, I could get
myself on the other side of the gates of a Chinese military air
base. My expecta tions of putting this idea into practice were,
admittedly, not very high , although I was awa re that some
western air fo rce personnel had been admitted to Chinese
mil itary airfie lds. The Swedish Embassy supported my
proposal, however, and this was dul y processed by the Chinese
Foreign Office a nd Ministry of Defencc. I had still no idea as to
Chinese reactions to the proposal when I left for China and
was pleasurably surprised, therefore, to receive, upon my
arrival in the People's Republic, an invitation to visi t an air
base at Yangtsuon, close to Tientsin and some 80 miles (130
km) south-east of Beijing.
Occupied by the 38th Air Defence Division, the principal
task of which is to contribute to the air cover of the capital, the
Yangtsuon base, to which I was accompanied by Mr Chen
Xingneng from the Air StafT in Beijing, could onl y be viewed
by occidental eyes as austere! Built in the mid-'sixties a nd
initially employed as a fighte r conversion school - the chiefs
MiG -19S (J -6) cutawey drewing key
1 Pitottube (hinged)
2 8 ifurcated intake
3 Combat camera (offset to
starboard )
4 Nose intake ring
5 Access panel
6 Nosewheel rellaction cylinder
7 Nudelmann -Rikhter NR -30
revolve, - Jype cannon
(starboard lower fuselage) of
30 -mm calibfe
8 Nosewheel doors
9 TaK'(i ng lighl
10 Nosewheellog assembly
11 Axle lork
12 Forward-retracting nosewheel
(500"180 mmtyre)
13 Shock absorber
14 Ranging &erial
15 Oxygen bonlel
16 Inlake trunking (port)
17 RSIU -4 (CT- l ) VHF receiver
18 RSIU-4(CT- l) VHF
Iransmitter
19 Acc umulator
20 RV- 2 (WG -3) radio altimeter
transmitter/ receiver
21 Windscreen
22 AS P- 5N automatic gyroscopic
gunlight (coupledwilh SRD
raOQafinder )
23 Instrument panel l hroud
24 Starboard console
25 Con trol column
26 Rudder pedal assembly
27 Intake duct sectio n
28 NR -30cannon muzzle
29 Landing light
30 NR - 30cannon barrel fairing
31 Ejector sea tpan
32 canopy external release/ lock
33 Ejection seat
34 Headrul
35 Single-piece jettilOnable
canopy
36 ARK - 5radiocompass
antanlUle (in canopy)
37 Cabin pressurisalion
compressed air system
38 RSIU -4 ( CT - 1) VHF anlenna
39 Four -spar w ingSlructure
(main and three auxmary)
40 Mainspar (inboard section)
41 Slarboatd mid-span full-chord
boundary layer fence
42 Wingsk inning
43 Starboard navig ation lighl
44 Starboard aileron
4 5 Fueldumpvents
46 Sl arboard auxiliary fuel tank of
167 Imp gal (7601) capacity
41 Slarboard hydraulically powered Fowler -Jype flap
48 Flap hinge fairing
49 Ramairintakes
50 Dorsal spine housing conllol
rod tunnel
51 Fuel filler cap
52 Main (N os 1 and 2) fuel tanks
01 323 Imp gal (1 470 1) and
72·6 Imp gal ( 330 I) ca pacity
53 Intakecut -outframes
54 Hydraulics accumulator
55 Port Tumansky RD -9 8 - 81 1
(Wopen 6A) lurbojet
56 Slot intakes
57 Air condi tioning system
58 Slab-Jype tai lplane conllol rod
linkage
59 Fuselage break point
60 A ir inlake
61 Hydraulics
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
Oil tanks
Rudder control linkage
Fuselage aft frames
Filler cap lor aft tanks (Nos3
and 4 ) of 39·6 Imp gal (180 1)
and 38·4 Imp gal ( I 751)
capacity
Air intake
Tailplane control hyd raulic
aClua tor
Tailfinfrontspar
Starboard hydraulicallyactualed one· piece tailplane
Anti -lluner weight
Tailfin struCture
ARK - 5 radi o compass
mounting
Tail wern ing
rader amplifier
Rudderbalance
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
•
of stafT of the Albanian and Vietnamese air forces had. I wa s
informed , undergone instruction here - the ba se had become
an operational station in 1967. Offerin g a single. 7,550-ft
(2 300-m ) cast-west runway. Yan gtsuon possesses ample
taxiways. hardstandings and dispersa l areas. and a quite
adva nced refuellin g system - even by western standards with the fuel bein g piped dircctly to apron positions. The
a ppearance of austerity results from the singular dearth of
covered area.
Yangtsuon has no hardened shelters and there is but olle
hangar, plus workshops. The sole hangar serves for all
maintena nce purposes: airframes. engines, instrumentation,
elcclrics, avionics, pneu ma tics, hydraulics, sufety equipment
and urma ment! Insofar as the aircfOtft a re concerned, they
rema in in the ope n under all weather conditions. ensh rouded
al most completely by thick . wa terproof canvas covers! My
hosts did not apparently co nsider this unusual ; they expect
thei r aircraft to function competentl y despite the sort of
treatment tha t we, in the West, would on ly mete out to an
elderly Vol kswagen, a nd it would seem tha t fu nction they do!
Nevert heless, I could not but help reneet on the possible
Chinese a pproach to the operution of the sophi sticated fighters
of the 'eighties which would scarcely take kindly to the " rough
living" accorded China 's 'fifties vintage warpla nes!
PI LOT PRESS
COPYR IG HT
DRAWING
Aherburner
Aherburn&t" cooling air intaku
Tail bumper
Slab tailpl8lle I pigot
Slab tailplane actuatorlairing
Tailplane (fixed) fillet
PR · 19 braking chuta packing
panel
Ventral strake
Ah(N04)luel tankof38·4
Imp gal (I 75 1) ca pacity
Filler neck
A ir brake hydraulic actuating
<om
108 Port w ing rOOI cannon bay
109 Cannon cooling louvres
110 Port 30-mm Nudelmann Rikhter NR-30 revolver- type
cannon
111 Compressed air bonle
',:, ;;I';;:::~"I::m", /
~
112 RV- 2 ( WG -3 ) rad io altimeler
dipole
113 Perforated venlral air bfake
114 Weapons Pvlon ( port and
starboard inboard wing )
1150RO -57Keight -rocket
launcher
116 Frangible nose cap
117 Pon auxiliary fuel tank of 167
Imp gal (760 I) capacity
118 Mainwheellog fai ring
11 9 Levered suspension
mainwheel gear assembly
98
99
100
101
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
PAGE 18 AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
Rear navigalion light
Rudder hinges
Tailfi nrear spar
Rudder tab
Pen -nib exhaust fairing
Anti -flu!terweight
One -piece tail plane structure
Exhaust nozzle (three position) hydraulic cont rol
102
103
104
105
106
107
Port lIap structure
Aileron con tr ol linkage
M ainspar (inboard section)
Port mainwheel relraction
cylinder
Pon mainwheet w ell
Ammunition track
Ammuni tion feed
Undercarriage door (inboard
section)
Angled rib
Mainspar/ fuselage
attachment
12 1
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
Port mainwheel (660 " 200
mmlyre)
Mainwheeldoor
Auxiliary tank bracing str utS
Mainwheellog pivot
Port m id -span lull -chord
boundary layer fence
Auxiliary tank pylon
Fuel dump ven ts
Port aileron
Inspection / access panel
A ileron control rod linkage
Rad io altimeter dipole
Wing ou tboard structure
Pon navigation lighl
The 38th Di vision is primarily equipped wit h Type 6a nd 6C,
or J-6 and J-6C. day fighters. the latter embodying some minor
improvements over the form er, including a relocated braking
chule in a bu llet fairin g at the base of the rudder.
Fundamen tally, th is warplane remai ns unchanged from the
licence-built MiG-1 9S that entered Chinese service 20 yea rs
ago, but my hosts, whi le wistfully admitting that the Type 6 is
out-dated, expressed - perhaps with tongue in cheek - the
belief that conceptual age is. in part al least, compensated for
by the enthusiasm of its pilots!
The aircraft strength of the division is about 120 fi ghters.
a nd I was told that the official 'lircraft ami/ability rate of85 per
cent is " ha ndsomely exceeded", but ga thered that ami/abiliry
does not co nnote wit h ser",·ceability in Chinese parlance: it
signifies a n aircraft tha t ca n be ready for operational use
wi thin a max. imum of 24 hours. It was unclear as to wha t
pro portion of the Division's total in ven tory this req uirement
a pplies - it may be assumed tha t, at a nyone time, some 20 per
cent of the ai rcra ft arc undergoing major maintenance or
overha ul - and I was unable to ascertain what might be
interpreted in the West as a n average serviceability ra te.
The Di vision comprises three regiments, one of which is
deployed to a b'lse north of Beijing a nd its aircra fl being flown
to Yangtsuon periodically for overhaul and, occasionall y, for
pa rt icipa tion in exercises. Each of the constituent regiments is
sub-divided into four bri gades approx imating to RAF
squadrons, one brigade bei ng responsible for all maintenance
and servici ng a nd the others forming the nying element, these
latter each having a statutory slrength of 15 aircraft. The flying
brigades are, themselves. divided into four sections of either
three or fo ur aircraft, three of these sections fulfilling the
primary roles of interception a nd ai r defence, a nd having a
secondary attack task. The fourth section combines the lastmen tioned mission wi th that of tactical reconnaissance for
which the J Z-6 is employed, this being similar to the J-6C but
having ca meras in place of the fuselage-mounted cannon. Only
the pilots and ground stafT a re permanently assigned to the
brigades and sectio ns, all 'aircra ft on the strengt h of the
Di vision being pooled and assigned to sub-units as required .
In addition to the J-6 fi ghters a nd a co uple of sturdy Y-5
(An-2) utili ty transport biplanes, in evidence a t Yangtsuon
were, incidentally, a number of J-5 (MiG-1 7) fighters of even
more venerable vintage and several elaborately painted JJ- 5
(FT-5) tandem two-seat adva nced trainer derivatives thereof.
With extensive red striping covering much of their na tural
meta l fi nish, these two-seaters apparently belong to the Chinese
air ann 's fo rmation acrobatic demonstra tion team , which,
incorporated in the Division, consists of 15 aircraft. The
sizeable pavilion with characteristic pagoda-like eaves
occupyi ng a prominent position on the airfield is a ppa rentl y
intended as a "gra ndstand" from which dignitaries can view
aeroba tic displays presented by lhis team , doubling up as a
centre for monitoring exercises.
Past t he first flush of youth
I was struck by the fa ct that the pilots at Ya ngtsuon were, on
a n average, ra ther older than those that one would encounter
on a western fi ghter station. This average is of the order of 30
years, most Chinese fi ghter pilots being transferred to ground
dut ies on reachin g the age of 40 years, but particularly talented
pilots remaining physica lly fit ca n, in certain circumstances,
contin ue fl ying past this age. Indeed, several of the Division's
pilots had flow n during the Korea n War! There would seem to
be no spe<:ific grades of competence, and pilots wear no special
insignia to signify ra nk, nor do their tunics display "wings" .
There lire no ra nks in the People's Libera tion Army official/y,
these having been abolished at the begi nning of the so-called
Cultural Revolution in 1964, although J was told that they a re
likely to be offidally revived and their restoration is expected
to coincide with the introduction of new and more modern
PAGE 19
cloud base and two kilometres (1·25 miles) visibility. Take-oIT
a nd landing from na rrow, emergency strips is seldom, if ever,
practi sed . The turna ro un d time between missio ns for
refu elling, replen ishing the oxygen suppl y, re-a rming, etc, is of
the order of 3Om in utes, but this can be reduced to 20 minutes if
demanded by opera tional exigencies, and even then compared
very un favourab ly wit h the turnaround time possi ble wit h
such current generation fi ghters as the Viggen (ie, 10 min).
Regrettably, very bad wea ther prohibited a demo nstration
fli ght of the J-6 fi gh ter during my visit to Yangtsuon, but I was
given am ple opport unity to examine the aircraft on the ground
and to discuss its merits a nd demeri ts with both pilo ts a nd
ground personnel. This Chinese version of the MiG- 19S fi rst
bega n to enter service with the Air Force of the People's
Libera tion Army mid- 1962, by which time the original had
been phased out of production in the Soviet Union a halfdecade since. Thus, by current combat aircraft standard s, the
J-6 is a veritable antique and, conceptua lly at least, older than
the vast majority of Chinese pilo ts now fl ying it. Nevertheless,
I understand tha t it is still being ma nu factured by the Chinese
aircraft ind ustry which has evolved severa l varian ts·.
I found the cockpit of the J-6 to be narrow for a pilot of
average sta ture. It is, in fact, rather confining in all directions
and I ascertained th at, without a helmet and with the sea t in the
" down" position, there was only the widt h of two finge rs
between the top of my head a nd the roof - and I am only 5 ft
9 in ( 176 cm) tal11 Forward visibility from the cockpit was
restricted by the robust framing, whi le the view aft was nearly
eq uivalent to tha t of the Hunter. The cockpit ca n perhaps best
be described as austere, but its layout is conventional eno ugh.
There is the sta ndard g-suit connectio n and a semi-au to ma tic
ejection seat with face-blind operation. Instrumentation
includes the usual Soviet-style combined artificial ho rizon and
turn-and-bank indicator, and a rather odd airspeed indica to r
wi th two needles providing indicated and t.rue airspeeds
simultaneously.
The pedals arc fitted with straps so tha t one's feet do no t slip
under negative g, and the hand-opera ted pneuma tic brakes
reminded me of those of the Vampire that I used to fl y in the
uni form s; those worn a t the present time wou ld sca rcely win a
prix d'i!legallce.
There is no such thing as fly illg pay and the ra tes of pay
enjoyed by the pilots a rc certainly not high by compa ri son with
those of o ther groups in Chinese society. but they do not have
to worry about messing bills as food and accommodation are
free. The annual flying time per pilot is, so I was told, 120
ho urs, which is a bit less than that in most western ai r forces.
and it is unsupported by any simu la to r time. However, the
Di visio n has about 200 pilo ts a nd o nly some 120 aircraft, as
previously related , and I was also told that the a nnual flyi ng
hours per aircraft is 70-80! Elementa ry mathematics would
indicate tha t few of the pilots arc getti ng their 120 flying ho urs
ann ually; that the a ircraft fly many mo re hours than stated, or
that there is an immense reserve of aircraft substa ntially larger
tha n that of the official strength of the Division!
Under normal peacetime circumsta nces, the pilots fl y on
three consecutive days, spend ing the fo llowing three days in
briefings, evaluation of the previous days' fl ying and poli tica l
training. Political instructio n is, of course, a major item in the
li ves of Ch inese pilo ts, and political officers are in evidence at
all levels, but physical trai ning and spo rt s have important
places in their timetable. The flying iti nera ry is divided
between navigational exercises at low a nd high altit udes,
tactical exercises in collaboration with the ground forces,
ground attack practice with both guns and rockets, groundco nt rolled intercept training a nd dog.jightillg practice. Despite
the fact that practice in close-in hi gh-g manoeuvering combat
has been passe in most other Communist co untries fo r many
years, considerable emphasis is still placed o n dog-fighting
expertise in the Chinese air a rm !
I was told that the operating minima are 200 met res (660 ft)
• The J...(j and J...(jC day figh ters are essentially similar to the origifUJl
/If iG- 19Sfrom which fhey Jeril·e. The J...(jA and J...(jB ( alias Jianjiji-6 Jia
and Vi) were /imifed all-weal her models superseded some fime ago by fhe
so-called J...(j (New]. or Jianjiji...(j Xin, with an indigenous AI radar. The
JZ-6 (Jianjiji Zhenchaji...(j) is a fighter-reconnais sance mOllef and the
JJ...(j (Jianjljl Jiaolia nji-O,l is a tandem two-seal fighter-frainer mriant.
(Abo~'e)
Protectedfrolllfhe rain by umbrellas, personnel check fhecockpit ofa J...(jCfighter during the author 's I'isit to the Yangtsuonair base. Note the
largefinson the drop tank and the auxiliary power unit. ( Below ) A J...(jC at Yangtsuonparked infront ofajel exhaUSf deflector.
I
Z/"
PAGE 20
AlA INTERNATIONAl/ JANUAAY1983
J
early 'sixties. These brakes, activated by a lever on the cont rol
column in combination wi th peda l movement for diITerentia l
opera tio n, a re fined to the castoring nosewheel as well as the
main wheels, but I was told that disc brakes have replaced this
dated system o n the J-6C, resulting in improved ground
handling and deceleration. Incidentally, the only naviga tio na l
aid, besides the clock and the compass, is the radio compass
(ADF), a VHF transceiver being provided fo r communication s.
The J-6 has duplicated hydraulic systems and if one fai ls the
pilot ma nually selects the o ther for ai leron control, while if the
tail system fai ls a n elect ric motor can be activated to operate
the one-piece tai lplane, the movement of which decreases with
increasin g airspeed as a result of variable stick gearing to
aITord some measure of " feel". The armament of the J-6 is in
keeping with its age. A gyro sight is provided with a radar
range back -up and the built-in a rmament consists of a trio of
30-mm Chinese-manufactured copies of the late 'forties
Nudelmann-Ri khler NR- 30, two o r these belt-fed weapons
being mounted in the wing roots and o ne under the starboard
side of the nose. They can be selected individua lly or in pairs,
and I was informed that these elderly guns have a low muzzle
velocity but pack quite a punch. For the intercept mission, the
cannon are complemented by either a pair o r a quartet of
Chinese copies of the early Sidewinder AAM on the underwing
pylo ns. These pylons can also carry 167 Imp gal (760 I) drop
tanks outboard, pods containing 55-mm rockets or iron
bombs.
Obviously popular with its pilots - who, admittedl y, have
little to make a compa rison with - a nd co nsidered very
reliable, the J-6 is powered by a pair ofWopen WP-6turbojets
which diITer liulc from the Tumansky RD-9B-81I s on which
they are based. They each oITer a maximum dry thrust of 4,732
lb st (2 146 kgp) with a military rating or5,843 1b st (2 650 kgp)
and rehea t boosts this to 7,165 1b st (3250 kgp), but it would
seem that at its clean loaded weight, the J-6 will take-oIT quite
happily at maximum dry thrust which may be employed
without any time limitatio n. There is a 30 min limitation on
military power which is gained by closing the tailpipe nozzle,
th is nozzle being opened full y for rehcat. Push buttons close to
the throttle kno bs are selected for either military power or reheat.
Pilo ts told me that the J-6 is a n easy aircraft to fl y, with good
stall behaviour a nd very modest stick forces. The maximum
permitted load factor is 8 g positi ve - which is more than
permitted for Swedish warplanes - and the climb rate,
turning capability and roll rate arc lauded. The J-6, I was
informed, provides a stable weapons pla tform, and its largearea Fowler-type fl aps apparently endow it with good lowspeed performance, the normal minimum fli ght speed being
about 145 mph (235 km/h). With the use of drag chute a nd
braking, the J-6 may be landed within less tha n 900 m (2950 ft)
even in high ambient temperatures. The flaps have, incidenta lly, a combat manoeuvre setting for use up to 500 mph
(805 km/h) lAS.
My a biding impression is tha t the J-6 is a fundame nta lly
simple a nd innately robust aeroplane; a great warplane of the
early 'sixties. It is this technology of the early 'sixties that is
thoroughly understood by the Air Force of the People's
Liberation Army, and dramatic must be the changes in
operational, maintenance and overhaul a ttitudes and techniques before the Service can hope to operate eITectively
sophisticated modern combat aircraft, such as the Tornado
a nd Viggen, at least, if the Ya ngtsuo n a ir base provides any
sort of guideline.
It is perhaps their a pproach to the ma intenance and
overhaul of their aircraft that provide the most fascinating
insight into the Chinese mentality . A very considerable level of
self-sufficiency is apparently encouraged and a diversity of
small parts and components for the J-6 are act ua ll y
The author in the cockpit of an F...(jC. In the foregro und is Mr Chen
Xingnengfrom fhe Air S taffin Beijing and behind ( on fhe right) is one of
the 381h Air Defence DMsionpilots.
manufactured in the workshops adjacent to the maintenance
and overhaul hanga r, but perhaps even more curious to
western eyes is the use of the surplus capacity of these
workshops to manufacture items for local industry! These
items are sold and decisions as to the use to which the proceeds
are to be put is that of the majority of the base personnel1
The standard of workmanship in the J-6 seems high, but
many parts are virtually handmade a nd Chinese tolerance
sta nda rds do not bear too close a scrutiny in consequence if
western sta ndards a re sought. There must be spa res
intercha ngeability problem s although the existence of such
was denied. Overha uls of the aircraft of various levels appea r
to be conducted a t 100-, 200-, 400-, 600- a nd 800-hour
intervals, and I was told that the WP-6 engines are normally
changed during the 4OO-hour overha ul , but other operators of
the J-6 (eg, the Pakistan Air Force) have alleged that very short
component lives are the principal limitations of this fighter ,
with the WP-6 having a TBO of a mere 100 hours and a
replacement cycle of only 200 hours! The 6OO-hour overhaul, I
was informed, occupies nine days and demands between 4,000
and 5,000 working manhours.
It is strange to see in various sections of the same hangar
overhaul work proceeding in parallel on the radio, the oxygen
system, the instrumentation, the gyro sight, the engine, the
airframe, the hydraulics ... everything! Theequipment here, as
in the workshops, is rela tively primitive but thoro ughly
functional, and the technical personnel were obviously both
knowledgea ble and competen t, and very keen on flying safety.
My visit to the 38th Air Defence Division a t Yangtsuon air
base was concl uded with a meal during which it was possible to
discuss with my hosts in an informal atmosphere ma ny matters
of commo n interest. I fo und them quite well informed on
military aviation development beyond Chinese boundaries,
a nd they plied me with questio ns as to my opinions of the
newer-generation jet trainers, such as the Hawk and Alpha Jet,
from which I gathered that decisions concerning major
revisio n of their basic training syllabus are close .
My hosts were obviously conversan t with Swedish flying
material and the Viggen system in particular, a nd the
pertinence of their questions indicated that their interest was
very real - perhaps o ne reason for the warmth of my
reception . They constantly stressed the importance that they
attached to self-rel iance and its pre-eminence in the
development of the Air Force of the People's Liberation
Army, perhaps with uppermost in mind their traumatic
experiences after ideological differences severed Soviet aid.
When I fina lly bid them farewell , I had reached the conclusion
that if time had, in the technological sense, stood and was
co ntinuing to stand still at this air base near Tientsin, my hosts
were at least thoroughly aware of the fact. 0
PAGE 21
OlIO
,
ulilul
NE OF the undisputed "greats" among the aircraft of
World War II , the Mosquito was conceived by the de
Havilland Aircrart company along lines that were in direct
cont rad iction to the then-prevailing official views o n bomber
development. The Air Ministry had become committed, in the
years immedia tely prior 10 World War II , to the evolution ora
series o f bombers each of which was heavier and more
powerfully armed than the type it was intended to succeed.
Whether the requirement was for a light day bomber. a
medium bomber for day or night use o r a heavy night bomber,
the demand of each progressive official Specification was
always for a greater bomb load , greater range, more defensive
armament and - usually as a resull of this progression larger crews. Higher gross weights inevitably resulted, which
could only mean more man-hours per aircraft required for
production and ever-escalating demands o n raw-material
resources - especially light alloys, which by the late ' thirties
had become the basic material for aircraft construction.
Although the de Havilland company was not, in the mid' thirties, o ne of the major producers of combat aircraft for the
RAF, its designers - C C Walker and R E Bishop, with
Captain (later Sir) Geoffrey de Havilland himself also closely
involved - were naturally aware of the steps being taken to reequip and expand the RAF. The company's specia lity had
been the production of light aircraft and civil transports using
advanced wooden constructiona l techniques, and the importance of aerodynamic cleanliness for high speed performance
had been well-learned th ro ugh the participation o f DH
aeroplanes in a number of important races and sporting
events. Co nsequently, when a draft of Specification P.13/36
was received at Hatfield on 24 August 1936 (this being the
document that would lead eventually to production of the
Manchester, Lancaster and Halifax for the RAF), the de
Havilland designers took a somewhat jaundiced view of its
O
basic premises, that could only result in the development of a
heavily-armed all-metal bomber.
This disenchantment did not prevent the team at Hatfield
from undertaking some project design studies for aircra ft that
would comply with P.13/ 36, based upon twin-engined
adaptations of the D.H. 9 1 Albatross or armed versions of the
D.H.95 Flamingo, the latter being the company's first major
excursion into metal construct io n. By the middle of 1938, one
of the most favoured solutions studied at Hatfield was a
derivative of the AJbatross with two Merlin engines and, of
course, all-wood construction. The merits of the latter fea ture
were pressed upon the Air Ministry with vigour, the company
foreca sting that there would be a surplus of wood-working
capacity if war came and "domestic demands tapered off,
whereas the metal-working industries were a lready becoming
overtaxed by the demands of re-armament. Wooden
construction would, moreover, al low a prototype to be built
much more rapidly and would reduce the time needed to
develop subsequent versions.
De Havilla nd was no t alone in pressing the case for using
non-strategic materials. The same case had been made by John
Lloyd of Armstrong Whitworth as early as February 1938,
and before the end of that year the Air Ministry had issued at
least one Specification, 8.18/38, for a medium bomber that
would make the least possible use of light a lloys in its
construction, resultin g in production of the steel-and-wood
A W Albemarle. The de Havilland proposals went far beyond
substitutin g wood for metal however, by suggesting a small
(two crew) high perfonnance bomber in which all defensive
annament was sacrificed to achieve speeds and operating
altit udes that would put the ai rcraft out of reach of enemy
fighters a nd ground defences. The more the idea was stud ied at
Hatfield, the more enthusiastic the designers became; their
proposed aircraft could be built in fewer man-hours and at
lower cost than the current generation of medium bombers.
using non-strategic material s and readi ly a vailable production
sou rces. Moreover, with a crew of two, it made fewer demands
upon RAF manpower and tra ining requirements, and because
of its high speed could deli ver a greater tonnage of bombs per
month than larger, slower aircraft.
These arguments seemed impeccable, but the concept of an
unarmed bomber was radical to Air Ministry planners deeply
committed to the new famil y of heavy and hea vily-armed
bombers under development by mid-1939, a nd the de
Havilland proposal might have made little progress if it had
nOI found a champion in Sir Wilfrid Freeman , rhe then Air
Member for Development a l the Air Mini stry. From
September to Ihe end of 1939, he consistently supported the
idea of a n unarmed two-seater in the face of severa l attempts to
impose upon de Havilland a requi rement to add a gun turret or
remotely-ai med gu ns for rea r defence and a third crewman.
In this period , the use of Rolls- Royce GrilTon, Napier
Dagger and Napier E 112 engines was studied , in place of
Merlins, but the twin-Merlin formula wa s consistently
favoured by de Havilland and in th is guise the D.H.98 - as the
bomber project had become known at Hatfield - was
estimated (in a letter from GeolTrey de Havilland to Sir Wilfrid
Freeman , dated 20 September 1939) to have a max speed of
405 mph (652 km/h) and a cruising speed of 320 mph (5 15
km/h)at 20,000 ft (6100 m); it would beable to carry a I,OOO-ib
(454-kg) bomb load a distance of 1,500 mls (24 14 km), the
gross weight bei ng 15,075 Ib (6844 kg). If a twin-gun dorsal
turret, a ventra l gun and a third crewman were added , the
weight went up to 18,000 Ib (8 172 kg), the max speed wen t
down to 355 mph (571 km/h) at 19,000 ft (579 1 m) a nd the
cruise to 279 mph (449 km/h) a t 15,000 ft (4575 m).
As a bomber, de Havilla nd 's team was co nvinced. the
D.H.98 did not need defensive armament; but ojJensilre guns
could be carried in place of bombs to make the ai rcraft a
potent long-range and escort fighter, a nd its speed and range
made it potentia lly of great importance as a photographic
reconnaissance aircraft. 8y November 1939, therefore,
bomber, fighter and PR variants of the basic project were in
hand and from this point on space provision was retained in
the design for the installation of four 20-mm ca nnon under the
cockpit floor. By the end of the year, despite some revision
downwards by the Air Ministry of de Havilland's performance
estimates, officia l interest had grown to the point of deciding to
order a si ngle prototype of the D.H .98. The role was not
clearly defi ned, but the Specifica tion written to cover the
contract, 8.1 /40, was nominally fo r a bo mber; the reco nnai ssance potential was also recognised but lillie offi cial
interest was evinced in the fi ghter.
Eventually, fi ghter versio ns of the D.H .98, for which the
name Mosquito was to be proposed by de Ha villand and
accepted by the Air Ministry in due course, would become as
important ,md numero us as the bom be r version s, but they are
o utside the scope of this presc nt account. However, the
complex story of prototype develo pment relates to both fi ghter
and bomber versions, and is included here al so for the sake of
completeness.
Prototype development
By the ti me contracts had been drawn up to cover the D.H .98
pro totype, it had been decided to order an initia l batch of 50
a ircraft , not just one - all to be built in accordance with
Specification B.I /4O as bomber-reconnaissance aircraft - and
this contract was received al Ha tfield on I March 1940.
Co nstruction, as planned all along, was to be of wood
throughout, using a one-piece wing containin g the 10 fue l
tanks and a fuselage built in two halves, split longitudinally, to
( A bove) T/U> origillal Mosquilo prolOt)"pe, W4050. af ter il had beell
jitled l(lfe ill 1942 with Merlill 77 two-speed, two-stage engines, lI'ilh
which iI ad riel'ed a speed of 43 7 mph ( 703 k lll}h) .
( Bdo w) Thejirsl o/Ihe MosquilO bombers, pholographedal Haifield in N OI'ember 1940 when;1 bore manu/aclurer 's serial £0234. Orthochromalicjilm
makes Ihe Ql"eralJ y elJowjinish apfH!ar dark. ( A bol'e right ) The protolype in Ihe samejinish, bill wilh Ihe serial W4050 alld Ihe tail l/umber "'5'"/or 'he
(lisplay a/new warplanes put on /or Sir WillSIOIl C/lllrchill al Ha ifield early ill 1941 .
•
WARBIRDS __________I
PAGE 22
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
PAGE 23
( Abol'e (md left) The elegant lines of the Mosquito displayed by B Mk
IV Series 2s - respectil'ely " £-&sy " and "J-Johnny " of No /05
Squadron. the fi rst RAF Bomber Command squadron to take the
unarmed bomber into combat, in / 942.
racilitate installation o r equipment and the systems " plumbing" berore the halves were joined. The ski ns, basically. were o r
birch plywood; both the wing and ruselage had inner and o uter
skins. separated in the case or the wing by span wise stringers
and in the case or the ruselage by a balsa wood filling. Casein
glue was first used ror assembly, later replaced by the m uch
more satisractory ronnaldehyde cement. With 1,280 bhp
Merlin RM 35 M engines and ducted radiators, the D.H.98, it
was now estima ted, wo uld have a nonnal gross weight ror PR
duty o r 17, 150 Ib (7786 kg) and an overload weight as a
bomber or 18,845 Ib (8557 kg); the max level speed was
expected to be 397 mph (639 km/h) at 23,700 n (7224 m) and
the range with rull tanks wo uld be 1,480 mls (2 38 1 km) a t 343
mph (552 km/h) at 25,000 n (7 620 m).
Constructio n or the prototype D.H.98 went ahead in a
hangar erected a lo ngside Sal isbury Ha ll, a co untry ho use five
miles rrom Hatfield that had become the dispersal home orthe
de Havilland design team, and this activity occupied most o r
1940, while jigging and material purchase ror the production
a ircraft that were to rollow was put in ha nd al Hatfield . During
the sprin g and summer mo nths or 1940, rollowing the
appointment or Lord Beaverbrook as the first Minister or
Aircraft Production, emphasis was placed on the production
or five types or aircraQ. that could most rapidly and userully
rein rorce the RAF, and ro r a time the ruture or the Mosquito
again seemed to be in doubt. The programme remained intact,
however, when de Havilland's genera l ma nager assured the
Ministry or Aircraft Production that the 50 examples o n order
could be delivered by the end or 1941. This promise was made
some rour months berore pro totype first · flight and was
credible only because or the simplicity o r the Mosquito's
wooden constructio n.
During July 1940, conslruction or a D.H.98 fight er
prototype was o rdered (and confirmed contractuall y in
November) and o ne airrrame was allocated ror this task, with
the remainder or the batch still to be bomber-reco nnaissance
aircraft. In January 1941 , however, the contract was changed
to cover a third prototype, in reconnaissance configuration,
with the balance or the batch to comprise 19 PR and 28
fighters, but no bombers! From this time o n, the contract ual
situatio n became more and mo re complicated, with new
contracts plus amendments to existing ones; eventuall y, the
initial 50-aircraft batch was made up or the th ree prototypes
(one ror each major ro le), 10 bombers, 28 fi ghters and nine
PRs. They were the first o r an eventual to ta l o r 6,411
Mosquitoes built in Britain (contin uing until 1950). to which
were added 1, 134 built in Ca nada and 212 in Australia.
The first D.H.98 prototype, painted yellow overall and
bearing the company experi mental num ber E02 34, was moved
by road rrom Salisbury Hall to Ha tfield ea rly in November
1940 and there. on 25 November. the maiden fli gh t was made
by Geoffrey de Havilland (eldest son o r the company's
rounder), with John Walker a lo ngside in the right-ha nd scat.
Less lhan a year had elapsed rrom the start o r design work, and
ini tia l fli ght test results quickly gave cause ror optimism. There
were some inevitable snags; engine cooling proved a problem
and there was some buffe ting or " tail dither", overcome in due
course by lengthening the engine nacelles to project a rt or the
win g trailing edges. The prototype had reached the A&AEE
on 19 February 194 1; there. its handling both on the ground
and in the air were viewed with ravour, but it was the sheer
speed or the new a ircraft tha t captured the imagination and
finally brought security to the rutu re productio n programme.
There was a n early set-back , however, when. on 24 February
1941 at the end or the 57th fl ight bu t after only 8t hrs' fl ying at
W4072 shown here was the 23rd aircraft in the initial batch of50 Mosquitoes. including the various prototypes. and was completed as a B M k / V Series J,
with the original short nacelles. ( Right ) A bomb trolley carries 500-lb ( 227-kg) bombs past No 105 Squadron's '" H-Harry".
PAGE 24
AIR INTERNATI ONAL/ JANUA RY 1983
Two views ofa Mosquito B Mk IV ( Special) . DZ594. Oil air testfram the A&A EE Boscombe Dall'1I in August 1943. With blilged bomb-bay to aI/oil' tire
cllfriage of a 4,()()()-lb ( J 8/6-kg ) bomb. this I'(JriwlIl'ntl'rl'ci Sl'n'ice with N o 692 Sqlladroll ill February 1944.
the A&AEE, the rusela ge railed structurally during taxying
when the castering tail wheel jammed. Wit h temporary repairs,
the prototype returned to Hatfield . where a new ruselage was
fined. As W4050 and with its yellow upper surraces resprayed
in the approved green and ea rth camo ufla ge pallern , the
prototype ret urned to Boscombe Down on 3 May 194 1. At a
weight or 16,767 1b (7 612 kg), the A&AEE measured the speed
or the Mosq uito as being 388 mph (624 km /h) a t 22,000 ft
(6707 m); the rate or cl imb was 2,880 ft/min (14,6 m/sec) a t
11 ,400 ft (3 475 m) in MS gear a nd 2.240 ft/min ( II ,4 m/sec) a t
18. 100 rt (55 17 01) in FS gear. Still higher speeds were to be
achieved berore the end or 1942 by thi s same prototype a rter it
had been fitted with two-stage two-speed Merlin 6 1s a nd then
Merlin 77s. a nd an extended span wi ng; in this configura tio n,
W4050 even tuall y clocked 437 mph (703 km/h) in level fli ght
and reached an a ltitude or37,800 rt (II 52 1 m).
•
Bomber production
During September 1941 , the eigh th Mosquito was completed
in bomber configuration to serve as a specific prototype ror
that ro le, having been laid down as one or the ea rly production
PR Mk Is, a nd this aircraft was delivered 10 the A&AEE at
Boscombe Down o n 27 September. It was ro llowed to
Boscombe on 18 October by the fi rst or the production batch
or nine B Mk IV Series Is (also known as PR U/ Bomber
Conversio n Type, beca use they had been contracted in the PR
ro le a nd were completed as bombers as a result or a con tract
amendment in J uly 1941 ). The Series I designation indicated
tha I these a ircrart had the early short nacelles; all la ter aircraft
had the lengthened nacelles adopted to overcome the "tail
dither" and the rema inder or the B Mk IV bombers were Series
2s with this modification a nd provision ror two 50- Im p gal
(227-1) flu sh-finin g wi ng drop tanks. These original Mosq uito
bomber variants were powered by Merlin 2 1 or Merlin 23
engi nes and in service co uld ca rry a bomb load or 2,OOO-lb
(908-kg) internally - eit her two I ,ooo-ib (454-k g) or ro ur 500Ib (227-kg) bombs. Berore the end or 1941. the bomber
pro totype was used to develop a wing pylon installation
designed, in the fi rst instance, to ca rry a 500-lb (227-kg) bomb
under each wing, a nd such a version was proposed ro r
production as the B Mk V; it was not built, altho ugh the
mod ified prototype was sometimes rererred to by this
designatio n.
Production or the Mosquit o B Mk IV Srs 2 totalled 300,
with deli veries beginn ing in April 1942. although nine of these
were com pleted ror other roles and 27 o thers were later
converted for PR dut y. No 105 Squadron had been selected as
the first to operate the Mosquito bomber, but the need to meel
the demands or fi ghter and photograph ic reconnaissance units
as well mea nt that del iveries were initially a t o nly a slow rate;
between 15 November 1941 and the middle or May 1942, only
the nine B Mk IV Series Is were available, and these were used
ror crew training and ramiliarisat io n. The first Series 2 was
delivered 10 the squadron a t Ho rsham St Faith , No rrolk (now
the civil a irport ror Norwich) in mid-May but rour o rt he Series
I s were used for the first bombing sorties, fl own as individual
missio ns at intervals d urin g 31 May against Cologne,
im mediately roll owing Bo mber Comm and's first 1,000bomber raid o n that city. In itial opera tions were not notable
ror their success - part ly because the earl y production aircrart
were still suffering some teething problems but la rgely beca use
the best operatio nal tact ics had yet to be lea rned.
Hi gh-level, low-level and shallow-diving attacks were a ll
tried by No 105 Squadron in thecoursc ori ts fi rst rew missions,
o ne o r which, on 19 September 1942 , was a high-level dayli ght
.raid on Berlin, the first o r the War. or six Mosquitoes
despatched, only two reached the Berl in a rea and one or these
d ive rted to the secondary target, Hamburg, because Berlin was
o bscured by cloud . Although the Mosquito was the rastest
comba t a ircraft then operationa l, its ma rgin orspeed over tha t
o r the Focke-Wulr Fw 190 was no t grea t eno ugh a lways to
avoid interception, part icula rl y duri ng high level operations,
and several or No 105's aircrart were lost to the Germa n
figh ters. By the end or November 1942, No 105 Squadron had
lost 24 aircraft in maki ng 282 sorties - a loss ra te higher than
that being suffered by Bo mber Command on its night
offen sive. A n extra 10 mph ( 16 km/h) was added to the
Mosquito's speed when ejector ex haust stubs were adopted in
place or the original flame-damping shrouds, but a proposed
installation or rearward-fi ring '·sca re·· guns in the nacelles,
engineered by Rose Brothers, proceeded no rurt her than
ground testing.
A second Mosq uito bomber squadron, No 139, became
o pera tio nal in November and ror several mo nths these two
units in No 2 Group specialised in making pin-point attacks,
usua lly at low level a nd al dawn or dusk, on specia lly-selected
targets. Thi s phase or operatio ns came to an end when No 2
Group became pa rt or2nd TA F on I June 1943, a nd Ihe two
Mosquito sq uadrons were tra nsrerred to No 8 Group, which
had become Bomber Comma nd 's Pathfinder Force (PFF); by
Iral'e tire standllfd bomb-bay .
PAGE 25
.1
De Havilland Moaquit o B M k XVI c uta w ay d raw i ng key
Three-bladed de Havilland
33 EleV810r trim hand wheel
TVpe 5000 hvdlomatic
34 Pon radialor lam ai, intake
propeller
35 Oil and coolanl radiators
2 Spinner
3 Starboard engine cowling
36 Enginethronle leve.s
37 Venlral entry hatch
panels, Merlin 73 engine
4 Exhaust stubs
38 Control column hendwheel
39 Folding chart table
5 Starboard oil radiator
6 Coolanl,adialo,
53 Centre section fuellanks
(two) , capacity 68 Imp gal
(30911 8ach; 46 Imp gal
(2091 por1 and 47·5 Imp gal
(2161) starboard with 4,000-
70 Plvwood leading edge
skinning
71 Wing top skin panelling.
double plywood sandWich
construcuon
Ib (1814-kg) bomb load
54 Wing upper surface
attachment joint
55 Centre tueflank fillet cap
7 Radial oreirintake
56 ARI · 5083re<:eiv8.
8 Carbuleno. air intake
57 IFF transmitter/ receiver
and guard
58 Signal pisiol aperture
9 fuselage nose skinning
10 Windscreen de-icing
lIuid nozzle
11 InSllument panel
12 Parachute siowage
13 JunClion boll
14 Fire axe
59 Cockpit all glazing
60 Rear pressUfe bulkhead
84
85
86
87
Starboard navigation light
Wing tip fairi ng
Formation light
Resin light
Starboard aile ron
Aileron hinge control
Mass balance welghls
Aileron tab
Underside view showing
bulged (increased volume )
bomb-baydoon
Venllal entry ha tch wi th drift
sight aperture
Trailing aerial failing
Starboard outer plain flap
segment
Flap hvdraulic jack
Nacelle ta il fairing
Flap in board segment
Oilliller cap
88 Dinghy access panel
89 Two-man dinghy stowage
comperrtment
9() Wing Ilxlng bearer
Rear fuselage equipment
heater air ducting
92 Long range 011 tank. capacity
10 Imp gal (45.51)
93 Hydraulic reservOir
9. TR1143 Iransmiller/ receiver
95 Mk XIV bombsight computer
96 8altllies
97 Hydraulic and pneumatic
systems servicing panel
98 Pneumatic system air bottle
99 De-Icing lIuid reservoir
100 Picketing equipment
slowage
101 Camera motor
102 TR 1143 aerial
103 Fuselage stringers. between
inner and OUler skin
"
150 Undercarrrage leg rear Strut
151
152
153
15'
155
156
157
158
159
mounting
Flap hydraulic Jack
Nacelle tailiairing
Port plain flap segments
All -wooden flap construction
Port outer fuel lanks
Fuel filler cap
Retracta ble landing lamp
Alillon lab control linkage
Rear spa,
I
10'
canvas
105
".
106
107
108
109
110
172 Port auxiliary fuel tank.
capacity 50 Imp gal (2 271)
173 Fuel filler cap
17' Main undercarriage rear strul
175 Mudguard
176 Mainwheel doon
177 Port mainwheel
178 Mainwheelleg strut
179 Pneumatic brake disc
180 Rubber compression block
shock absorber
181 Spring loaded dOOf guides
182 Main undercarriage pivot
fixing
183 Engi ne oil tank. capacity 16
Imp gal (731)
18' Cabin heater
185 Fireproof bulkhead
186 Two stage supercharger
187 Inillcooler
188 Heywood compressor
189 Rolts- Royce Merlin 72
liqu id -cooled 12-cylinder
Vee engine
190 Exha ust ports
191 Allernat or
192 Engine bearers
193 Carburell or ai r inta ke duct
19. In take guard
195 Inlercooler radiator exhaust
196 In tercooler rad iator
197 Enginemounting block
160 Aileron hinge control
161 Ailllon tab
111 Ferrite aerial rod
PI LOT PRESS
CO PY RI G HT
DR AW ING
15 SYKO appalatus stowage
16 Nose compartmen t side
windows
17 Portable oxygen bolll"
18 Mk XIV bombsight
19 Nose glazing
20 Forward navigation/
identification light
21 Temperatule pro~be:,..,....". .,..._",;\
22 Windscreen de· icing lI uid
nozzle
23 OpticallY flat bomb aiming
Window
24 Bomb sight mou nting
25 Bomb selector switches
26 Camera remote contlol box
27 Bomb eimers kneeling
cushion
28 Signal pistol carttidge racks
29 Rudder pedals
30 Compau
31 Contlollinkag"
32 Oxygen liystem economiser
units
PA GE 26
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
Wi ndscreen panels
Traili ng aerial winch
Cock pit loof escape hatch
Seat back almour plate
Navigator/ bombard ier'sseat
Rearward vision blister lal ring
Pllofsseat
Intelcomsocket
Portable li re extinguisher
Cabin pressurization and
heating air ducts
50 Non-relurn air valve
51 Engine controlluns
52 Wing root rib
A IR INTE RN ATI ONAL/ JANUA RY1983
Fuel filler cap
Nacelle fairing
Starboa rd main unde.cefliage
boV
.,
65 Hydraulic retractio n jack
66 Outboard fuel tanks. capaCity
34 Imp gal (1551) inl'llrand 24
Imp gal (1091) outer
67 Wing stringers
68 Starboard auxiliary fuel tank.
capacity 50 Imp gal (2271)
69 Fuelliller cap
112 Tailiin construction
113 Starboard tailplane
Elevator horn balance
115 Pitot tube
116 Rudder horn balance
117 Fabric covered rudder
construction
118 Ruddertab
119 Tab operating rod
120 Elevator tabs
121 Tailcone
122 Tail navigation lighls
123 Fabric-covered elevator
construction
124 Tallplane construction
125 Fellile aellalrod
126 Elevator operating lin kage
127 Tallwheel housing
128 Tallplane spa.allachment
Joml
129 TailwheeilegSlrut
130 Retracting lailwheel
131 levered suspension tailwheel
forks
132 Fuselage skin labric covering
133 Identification code lights.
while. ambel and gleen
134 Beam approach aerial
135 Camera mounting
136 F.25camera
137 Tai lplane control cables
138 Rear fuselage entry hatch
139 Crew equipment stowage bag
140 Bulged bomb· bay lail failing
141 Bomb door hydraulic jacks
142 Beam app roach receiver
143 Oxygen bollies
144 Flap shlOud ribs
, 45 Inboard fuel tank bay ventral
access panel
146 Bomb calliers
147 500-l b (227 -kg) short finned
HE bombs (four)
148 Port engine nacelle top
lailing
149 Main unde.Cllliage hydraulic
letraction jack
"'
162 Aluminium ailllon
construclion
163 Resin lamp
164 Port formation lamp
165 Datachable wing ti p lal ring
166 Port navigation light
167 Leading edge nose ribs
168 Front spar. box beam
conlilluction
169 Wing lower surface lingle
skin/ winger panel
170 Wing rib construction
171 Plywood leading edge
skinning. fabric coveled
198 Coolant header tank
199 Spin ne r armoured back pla te
200 Propeller hub pitch change
mec hanism
201 Spinner
202 Intercooler radiator intake
203 Port thlee-bladed de
Havilland hvdromatic
propeller
204 4.000-lb (1814 -kg) HC
bomb
De Havilland O.H.98 Mosq uito 8 M k XV I Specification
PO¥l"cr Plant: Two Rolls-Royce Merlin 72/13 Jiquid-cooJed 12cylinder Vtt cngines wilh two-speed. two-stage superchargers
each rated at 1.290 hp for take-off. 1.680 hp 318,500 n (2 590 m)
in "~1"" gear and 1.460 hp at 21.000 n (6400 m) in "S" gear:
altcrnativcly. Me rlin 76/77 wit h ra tings of 1.250 hp. 1,7 10 hp and
1.475 hp respc.!('tively. De Havilland th ree-bladed eo nstantspeed . fully-fca th ering propellers. F uel capacity, 536 Imp gal
(2 4 371) in 10 prolccted tanks in wings and centre section.
between spars; provisio n fo r o ne 50 Im p gal (227 1) o r 100 Imp gal
(454 1)drop tank u nde r eac h wi n g.
Perform ance ( M erli n 76/77 e ngi nes): Max speeds a t 19. 100 lb
(8671 kg) mean weigh t. 400 mp h (644 km / h ) at 15.000 ft (4572
01) and 415 mph (668 k m/ h) a t 28.000 ft (8534 m ); most
economical cruising speed . 250 mph (402 km / h ); m ax weak
mixt u re cru isi n ~ speed. 358 m ph (576 km/ h ); t ime to 15.000 ft
(4572 m). 7·5 m m ; serviccccili ng. 36.000 ft ( 10973 m ); ra nge wit h
max bo m b load. 1.370 mls (2 204 km ); ra nge wi th 2.000-lb (908kg) bomb load. 1.795 mls (2 888 km ).
Weights: T are. 14.600 lb (6628 kg); em p ty (no fuel. o il . bom bs or
ammunitio n). 15.500 Ib{7037 kg): m ax, 23.000 Ib (10 442 kg).
Dimensions: Span. 54 ft 2 in ( 16.5 1 m): length. 44 ft 6 in ( 13.56 m ):
height. (max. tail down). 15 n 3 in (4 .65 m): u ndercarriage track.
16 ft 4 in (4.98 m): wingarea. 454 sq ft (42. 18 m l); di hed ra l, I deg
24 min constant.
Arma ment: No guns. Provision fo r o ne 4.000-lb (l816-kg) or
four SOO-Ib (227-kg) bombs in fuse lage bomb-bay a nd o ne S()O.lb
(227-kg) bomb under each wing.
PA GE 27
the end of May. No 105 Squadron had launched 524 sorties
a nd lost 35 aircraft , while No 139 had launched 202 so rties and
lost 13. As part o f PFF. these two squadrons took on new roles
from the beginni ng of J une. joining No 109 Squadron which
had meanwhile been equipped with B Mk IVs in J ul y/August
1942 to develop the use of Oboe as a bombing aid.
Development and production of the Mosquito had not. of
cou rse. stood still in this period . The cumulative delivery total
(for all mark s) reached 250 in September 1942 and 346 by the
end of October. with output from the parent factory at
Hatfield supplemented by production a t Lea vesden (of fighters
on ly) in a new shadow unit known as the Second Aircraft
Group. suppl ied by a d iffe rent set of sub-contractors. At this
Dc Havilland D.H.98 MOS4Juito B Mk IV S rs 2
SpecificatIOn
PO~"Cl Plant: Two Rolls-Royce Merlin 21 liquid-cooled 12cylinder Vee engines each rated at 1.280 hp for take-orr and with
a max output of 1,480 hp at 12,250 ft (3734 m). drivi ng de
Havilland th ree-bladed constant·speed fully.feathering propellers of 12-ft (3,66-m) diameter. Fuel capaci ty. 536 Imp gal
(24371) in 10 protected tanks in wings and centre section.
between spars: provision for one 50 Imp gal (227 1) drop tank
under each wing.
Performance: Typical high speeds at 17.000-lb (7 7IS-kg) mean
weight. 322 mph (51 S km/h) al 10.000 ft (3050 m) and 34 1 mph
(549 km/h) at 20.000 ft (6 100 m); recommended cruising speed.
305-320 mph (491-515 km /h) at25.000-30.000 ft (7 620-9150 m);
operational ceiling. 27,000 ft (S 230 m) loaded. 30.000 ft (9 150 m)
unladen : range. 1,110 mls ( 1786 km) at high speed cruise at
25,000 ft (7 620 m).
Weights: Typical loaded weigh t. 21.7941b (9S94 kg); weight fully
loaded. 22.380 Ib ( 10160 kg); max landing weight. 20.500 Ib
(9307 kg),
'
Dimensions: Span. 54 ft 2 in ( 16.51 m): length (tail down). 40 ft I I
in ( 12.47 m): length (tail up). 41 ft 2 in ( 12.55 m); height. (max. tail
down), 15 ft 3 in (4.65 m); undercarriage track, 16 ft 4 in (4,98 m);
wing area, 454 sq ft (42. 18 m l); dihedral. I deg 24 min consta nt.
Armament: No guns. Internal bomb-bay to carry one J,OOO-ib
(454-kg) and two 500-lb (227-kg) or four 5OO-1b (227-kg) or fOUT
250-Jb (114-k g) bombs or (ai rcraft with Mod 473 installed) one
4.000-lb(1816-kg)bomb.
time, a total or 2.384 Mosquitoes was already on order fro m
Hatfield and Leavcsdcn, with plans under way ror another
1.500 to be built in Canada and ro r Standard Motors to
provide a third sou rce ofcomplete ai rcrart in the UK again st
an ini tial contract for 500. Later still, Percival Ai rcraft wou ld
build more bombers and assembly lines wou ld be established
by Ai rspecd al Portsmouth and at de Ha vi lland 's Chester
fac tory.
New variants
Development , so far as the bomber was concerned, related
principa ll y to the bomb load a nd the power plant. As already
notcd , the first of the 10 bombers in thc initial production
batch served as a prototype and int roduced fittings for wi ng
bombs in lieu or the 50 Im p gal (227 I) flu sh-fin ing tank s
ca rried as a sta ndard fi tlin g by the B Mk IV Series 2, This work
led to the introduction of the univers.'ll wing, able to carry 100
Imp gal (454 1) tanks or two 500-lb (227·kg) bombs, but the
hi gher weights associated with this bomb load called for
addit ional power if the speed adva ntage of the Mosquito was
nOI to be sacrificed. The installation of two-stage Merlins
offered bOlh an increase in power a nd, equally importa nt , a n
increase in effective operating altitude, helping to pu t the
Mosquito beyond the reach of the increasingly effective
Ge rman ant i-airc raft defences. The origina l Mosquito
prototype first flew with Merlin 6 1s on 20 June 1942, as the
initial step in introd ucing two-stage Meriins, which requ ired
a n addit io nal air intake, localcdj ust beneat h the spinner; a nd a
rew days later a Mk IV flew wit h 10 deg of dihedral o n the
tai lpla ne. thought to be necessary for the higher weights now
being used but in the event found to have no adva ntage over
the flat tai lplane, the area o f which was increased after the first
few aircraft had been bui lt ,
A new bomber prototype (with no specific mark number)
flew on 8 Augusl 1942 a nd was the first 10 be fitted with a
pressurised cabin , bringing 40,000 ft (12 192 m) altit udes
wi th in reach of the Mosquito, and in October, Merlin 77s
replaced the Merlin 6 1s in the first proto type, which by the end
B
Mk IV Srs 1
(below)
( Above) M osquitO B Mk XVI " K.King ·· o/No 571 Squadron, oneo/the units attached to NoB ( PFF) Group 's Light Night Striking Force and engaged
in intensil'e operations against Berlin in 1945. ( BeloK' right ) Anotlter w'ell' o/a B Mk XV I, showing tlte bulged bomb-bay.
of the yea r had recorded a top speed of 437 mpb (703 km /h).
bel ieved to be the highest achieved by the Mosquito and
probably the fastest a propeller·driven a ircraft designed for
operational use had Hown up to the end of 1942. These va rious
developments were brought together in two stages, so fa r as
production bombers were concerned, the first of these being
the B Mk LX, first Hown on 24 March 1943. The Mosquito IX
(also prod uced in a PR version), featured the new universal
wi ng a nd Merlin 72/73 engines. with maximum rali ngs of
1,680 hp at 8,500 ft (2590 m) in "M" gea r a nd 1.460 hp at
21,000 rt (6400 m) in "S" gear; later, the Merlin 76/77 becam e
available, with ratings of 1,7 10 hp at 11 ,000 ft (3353 m) and
1,475 hp a t 23 ,000 ft (70 10 m). These engines incorporated
drives fo r cabin blowers, but the pressurised cabin was not
fully developed in time fo r the B Mk IX; its introd uctio n was
therefore signified by the change of designation to B Mk XVI ,
as descri bed later in this account , and prod uction of the B Mk
IX to talled only 54 a ircraft.
Mosquito Pathfinders
BMklVSrs2
~~~~==~
(left)
~~q'l.i'~~~ '~~~==~
t
BMklX
(above)
,
B
Mk25
(left)
B Mk XVI
(three -view)
PAG E 28
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
Ca rrying six 500·l b (227- kg) bombs and 536 Im p gal (2 4331) of
fue l in the perma nent tanks, the Mosquilo B Mk IX weighed
23,000 Ib ( 10442 kg), and weighlS up 10 25,000 Ib ( 11 350 kg)
were later reached when additiona l equipment was carried.
Delivery of the B Mk IX began during April 1943, initia lly to
No 109 Squadron and then to Nos 139 and 105. Thc a ircraft
for No 109 Squadron , like its ea rlier B Mk IVs, were fi tted wit h
Oboe. the radar a id which allowed an ai rcraft to fo llow signals
transmitted by two ground stations to reach its bombin g point
without reference to the ground and with considerable
accuracy. Sta rting on the night of 20/2 1 December 1942, the
PF F Mosquitoes o f No 8 G roup played an ever·more
important ro le in target·marking fo r the ma in bomber force.
No 109 being joined by No 105 with Oboe-equipped B Mk IXs
after the latter squadron was transferred fro m No 2 to No 8
Group in mid-1943. Flying singly, by night and a t alti tudes up
to 30,000 ft (9144 m), these PFF Mosquitoes proved almost
immune to interception; in more tha n 750 night sorties by the
end of 1943, o nl y three ai rcraft had been lost by the two
squad rons (a ra te of 0·4 per cent) and the Oboe units went on
to become ever more proficient and well-equipped fo r their
specialised task un til the end of the war, introducing the
Mosquito B Mk XV I in place of the B Mk IX in due course,
After its tran sfer to No 8 Group, the third Mosq uito
bomber unit, No 139 Squad ron, also took o n a new role, using
B Mk JVs and, fro m 3 October 1943 onwards, B Mk IX s to
make nuisance raids o r "spoofs" , the purpose of which was to
divert attention from the Main Force targets, confuse enemy
defences a nd disrupt production through the so unding of air
ra id alerts, all ror a relatively smal l expenditure o f aircra ft and
man power. Bombs were carried , but inflicti ng bomb damage
WaS no longer the primary objecti ve. With the B Mk IXs, No
139 Squad ron also introduced G- H, a radar aid simi lar in
efTC(:t to Oboe, but relying upon position plotti ng in the
aircraft, whereas in the Oboe system the aircrafi's posi tion was
plotted in the ground station. Of greater significa nce, however,
was the in troduction of H2S, the a ircraft·mounted radar
bomb sigh t tha t was wholly-independent of ground stations
and therefore did not have a limited opera tional radius, as did
bot h the Oboe a nd G- H. Mosquito B Mk IVs carrying ·H2S
became operatio nal with No 139 Squadron in Jan uary 1944
and the device was firs t used for target marking o n I February.
over Berlin. As part of the "spoof' activity, No 139 added to
its tasks that of dropping Windoll' a head of the Main Force,
often then being fo llowed to the target by PFF Mosq ui toes
with their specialised radar aids.
With the re-equipmen t of the three pioneer Mosqui to
bomber squadrons with B Mk IXs and later marks, it became
possible to issue B Mk IVs to two new units, No 627 (in
November 1943) and No 692 (in January 1944), Operating in
No 8 Group in conj unction with No 139 Squad ron, No 692
became the nucleus o f the Light Nigh t Stri king Force that was
to prove o ne o f Bo mber Command's most potent wea po ns
during 1944/45 , especially when the B Mk XV I and Canadia nbuilt bomber Mosquito versio ns became available, as noted
later. No 627 Squadron opera ted alongside No 692 ror a few
mont hs, b ut in April 1944 it was tra nsferred fro m No 8 Group
to No 5 G roup as a ma rker sq uadron, taking on tC(:hniques
developed by No 617 Squad ron (the " Dam busters") with its
Lancasters to mark targets by diving on to them from low
level. Opera ting the Mk IV, IX, XV I, XX a nd 25 (mostl y in
com bi na tio n ra ther than progression), this un it fl ew specialised low-level missions until the end of the war and it was while
serving with this squadron th at Wg Cd r Guy G ibson, VC,
DSO, DFC,lost his lifeon the night of 19 September 1944. No
617 Squadron itself, which G ibson had com manded for the
memo rable attack on the German dams in 1943, la ler also used
Mosquitoes for target-ma rking, using the diving technique for
PAGE 29
( A bore lell) A lrial installation of H2S rudor on a M osquito B Mk XVI, as used hy sOllie of tht' MosquilOt's jlown by N o 8 ( PFF) Grollp!or grt!uler
occuroc}' illlUrgel mark ing. ( A OOl'" righ, ) A M osquito B Mk 15, lust oflhe UK-bl/ifl bomber ,'er$iOI1$. ( Below left ) The Mosquito IV DKl 90IG on lest
a/ the A&AEE in May 1941 carr}'l'/lg mock-ups al ,he Highball weapon , /0 lise which No 618 Squadron was/ormell but did nOl go imO ON ion .
markin g evolved by Gp Capt Leonard Cheshire, but for the
most pa rt this un it used FB Mk VI fighter-bombers,
supplementing a few B Mk IVs. O ne other unit that operated
the B Mk IV was No 192 Squad ron, within No 100 (Bomber
Su pport) Group. using aircraft specially equipped to detect
enemy radio and radar transmissions a s part of the RA F's
counter-mea sures elTort .
Highballs a nd cookies
Two importa nt developments in the offensive load-carrying
capability of the Mosquito had mea nwh ile taken place during
1943. one o f which was to prove abortive operationally while
the o ther added greatly to the aircraft 's elTectiveness in its
attacks a gainst Germany. The first of these developments
concerned Highball, a 6OO-lb (272-kg) mine that was designed
in parallel with Upkeep (the dam-busting weapon used by No
617 Squadron's Lancasters against the Ruhr dams) for antishipping use. Interest in Highball centred upon its use in a one01T attack on the Tirpil:. and , early in 1943. the Mosquito was
selected as the carrier and 15 May set as the target date for the
operation (o ne day before 0 6 17's epic operation actually
took place). With bomb-doors removed , the Mosquito could
carry two flighball stores in ta ndem. with the associa ted gear
to spin them backwa rds at 700 rpm, to achieve the bouncing or
skippin g effect across the surface of the water that wou ld allow
them to jum p over protective nets a nd booms a nd impact
against the side of the ship.
After a tria l installation in o ne Mk IV. 27 o thers were
modified for the Highball role and No 61 8 Squadron was
fo rmed to train for the ope ration. but the weapon was no t
perfected until late in 1943. after the Tirpilz mission had been
abando ned. In July 1944, No 618 Squad ron was detailed to
train for anti-shippi ng operations in the Pacific. using
Highball, and 29 Mosquito IVs (including most of those
previo usly converted) were modified to have Merlin 25
en gines. extra armo ur plate, new windscreens and arrester
hoo ks fo r ca rrier- bo rne o perations. 0 618 Squadro n took 25
PAGE 30
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
of these a ircraft to Australia aboard the escort carriers HM S
Fell cer and Striker at the cnd of 1944, with 125 Highballs. but
the decision was eventually made n OI (0 la unch the sq uadro n
into operation, pa rtly through lack of suitable target s a nd
partly for fear tha i the weapon would be 100 easily copied a nd
employed by the enemy.
By April 1943. de Havilland had reached the conclusion that
the Mosquito was capable of carryi ng one 4.000-lb ( I 8 16-kg)
bomb with relatively little modification, and a B Mk I V was
co nverted within two months, fl ying early in July. The
modification included slight bulging ofthe lower fu selage. with
modified bomb doors. a small fairing behind the bomb-bay
and a suitable single-point suspension wi th in the bomb-bay.
As an alternative to the single large bomb. the modified
aircraft could carry four 500-lb (227-kg) bombs - as well as
the two under the wings iflong-ra nge tank s were not carried but the provision fo r carrying two I,OOO-ib (454-kg) bombs
was abandoned. The gross weight of the modified Mk IV rose
to 22.500 Ib (102 15 kg) and fore-and-aft stability problems
were encountered. being on ly pa rtially cured by using larger '
elevato r horn balances. Nevertheless, pla ns went ahead to
produce a batch of conversion kits a nd to int roduce the
modifica tions o n the productio n line, a nd the modified
aircraft. known as B Mk IV (Special), was clea red for
operat ion in January 1944. First to drop the 4,OOO-lb "cookie"
from a Mosquito was No 692 Sq uadron. which used three of
the modified Mk JVs for the fi rst time agai nst Dusseldorf on
the night of 23/24 February.
Abou t 20 Mk IVs a nd fewer Mk JXs were co nverted to carry
the big bomb, pla ns for the entire force to be modified being
abandoned because of the stability pro blem . This was
overcome. however. in the B Mk XV I. the first of which came
olTthe line in October. After the first 12, all B Mk XVls were
built with the bulged bomb-bay. the other important feature of
this mark being its pressure cabin, giving an operationa l ceili ng
of at least 35.000 ft ( I0668 m); the cabin differential was only 2
Ib/sq in (0, 14 kg/cmZ ) , giving a reduction of about 10.000 ft
(3050 m) in equivalent altitude, so ox ygen masks were still
necessary and crews had to train in decompression chambers
to ensure tha t no ne was und uly prone to "bends".
The first of the definitive B Mk XV ls with bulged bomb-bays
was fl own initially o n the first day of 1944 by Geoffrey de
Havi ll and. a nd went to the A&AEE a month la ter. The
maxim um weight was now given as 25,9 171b (11766 kg) when
carryin g the 4.000-lb ( I 816-kg) bomb and two 100 Imp gal
(4551) drop ta nks but it was usua lly ope rated at a slightly
lower wei ght fo r safety, achieving an operationa l radius of 550
mls (885 km): max speed was 408 mph (656 km /h) in " S" gea r
at 28,500 ft (8687 m) loaded a nd 419 mph (674 km/h) after the
bomb had been dropped, these bei ng about 80 mph ( 129 km /h)
above the equivalent speeds at sea level.
No 139 took the Mosquito B Mk XVI into operation o n the
ni ght of 10fl i February 1944 a nd first dropped "cookies"
from this mark of Mosquito a t the beginning of March. o n
continued on page 46
equipment began to appear on '
mo re
E
than 70 years ago when, around 1910. radios were felt to
be potentially useful for spotter aircraft . Radio techno logy
LECTRON IC
was still in its infancy, its techniques as unorthodox and
unpredictable as many of the a ircraft of that era , a nd although
radios proved useful then , nothing really significant happened
for another 20 yea rs o r so.
In the ea rly 19305, a irlines began to publish timetables, and
were star ting to demo nstra te tha t thei r operatio ns were not
limited to clear wea ther only. To meet these objecti ves, the firs t
" black boxes" were installed, acting as sensors at those times
and in those situations when the human crew was being asked
to exceed natural capabilities. It is the radio-based sensors,
and their relatives, which have evolved fr om those early
initiatives, that form the basis for the firs t articles in this series.
The unseen common denominator in all radio communication and radio navaid applications is electro-magnetic
radiation. In a way, this radiation is not unseen, inasmuch as
the radiation collected by o ur visual sensors is also electromagnetic, albeit of ex tremely short wavelength . Colour, as
perceived by the eye, is an indica tio n of wavelength, and
brightness is a perception of wave amplitude. If radiation of
slightly longer wavelength than ligh t is directed towards us, we
sense it as heat; this is infra-red radiation . The interpretation
of this invisible portio n of the electro-magnetic spectrum is a
rela tively new science, compared to that concerned with radiobased systems, and it is a subject to which we will return later in
this a rticle.
In the accompa nying electro-magnetic spectrum diagram,
radio sets, radio navigation-aids (navaids) a nd rada rs are seen
to spread across a la rge number of the possible wavelengths.
Note that a ltho ugh wavelength has been mentio ned so fa r, we
co uld as easil y refer to frequency. As all electro-magnetic
radiation travels a t the speed of light (approx 300,000,000
m/sec o r 186,000 miles/sec), the prod uct of freq uency
(ex pressed in cycles/sec o r Hertz) and wavelength (in metres),
fo r a ny electro-magnetic rad iation, should equal this value.
Hence, at a frequency of 100 MH z (100 million cycles/sec)
radiation has a wavelength of three metres; at 300 MHz the
wavelength is o ne metre, a nd so on. Wavelength characterises
how radia tion propagates in the a tmosphere, a nd therefore
how dilTerent parts of the spectrum can be used for special
tasks.
The earliest radio experimenters used what is called highfreq uency (H F) wavelengths. Using the electronic capability
avai lable at the turn of the century it was fai rly easy to build
powerful amplification ci rcuits which would resonate al these
freque ncies.
H F rad io freq uencies radia te over the horizon, this lo ngrange capa bility being provided by bands of charged particles,
at 100-400 km (62-250 ml) altitude. They are produced by
cosmic radiatio n a nd the density of charged pa rticles produced
is rela ted to the degree of solar activity. A significa nt
co nseq uence is tha t solar acti vit y may seriously disrupt H F
radio communica tio ns, but even so, this type of radio is still
used fo r lo ng- range communication with aircra ft today.
When radio sets were first carried routinely o n aircraft. in
the early 1930s, com munication was at H F wavelengt hs.
Initially, sets were used to pass messages in morse only, a nd
called wireless telegraphy (wIt) radios. Within a decade, radio
telephone (r/t) sets, which carry speech information, were
already supersedi ng the ea rlier radios, and VHF/ U H F
applicatio ns, the most common radios today, were beginning
to appear. These operate a t even higher freq uencies than H F
radios.
Radios used simple antennae, but it was apprecia ted also in
the 1930s tha t the orientatio n of a wire-loop antenna in an
electro-magnetic fi eld radiated from a ground station could
provide an indication of direction to the station. This was the
opera ting principle of the first radio direction-finding systems.
T hey were relatively sho rt-range devices, but their performance was sufficient to warran t la rge numbers of ground
statio ns being introd uced. These a re still used today. the no ndirectio nal beacon (N OB) remaining, even now, the most
com mon of a ll radio navaids, altho ugh most aircraft
nowadays have suppressed a ntennae instead of protruding
loo ps.
An NO B emits a continuous radio signal on which is carried
a tone which can be detected by any user. Abou t every 30
seconds it will emit a morse-coded three-letter identificat io n.
For reasons which can seem rather illogical now the receiver
was called an automatic direction finder (A OF). It was
PAGE 31
10KHz
OMEGA
10km
LORAN _C
100 KHz
DECCA
am
NOB
1 MHz
'COm
HFRAOIO
10MHz
RADIO RANGE
>Om
MARKER BEACON
100 M Hz
VoR
V HF RA DIO
ILS (10,.11$,,,)
ILS (glidu/olH)
UHF RAOIO
NAVSTAR
'm
oME
SOR
1 GHz
LONG -RANGE RADAR
10em
MlS
10GHz
half-century of development, the last radio- ra nge has been
withdrawn fro m service (the final unit in the UK was opera ted
as such at Ou nsfold until 1963). Radio-ranges produced two
wide radio beams, one carrying a morse " A" (dot-dash) and
the other a morse "N" (dash--dot). There was no cockpit
instrument in this case. The pilot tuned in his receiver and Hew
left or right, depending whether he heard " A" or "N" in his
ea rphones, in order to stay within the beam. In the na rrow
band where the beams overlapped he heard a continuous tone,
and it was this which defined the centreline of the world 's first
airways.
In America, hundred s of radio-ranges were set up, acting
li ke electronic signposts across the US continent, and NOBs
were installed on ai rfields. The practice was copied later in
Europe. Using these aids, airliners could Hy day and night , in
almost any weather, keeping to regula r timetables.
Mysteries of modulation
Mention has been made already of "mod ulations'" a nd this is
a term which may often hold terror for the non-engineer. An
easy way to appreciate the two types of modulation commonly
used is available fro m everyday knowledge of light waves. We
know that freque ncy cha nges are detected by us as colour
variations; this is wha t the radio-man calls frequency
modulation (FM). Likewise, we know that amplitude changes
are detected by the eye as brightness va riations; and this is the
technique used in amplitude modulation (A M). Radio
engineers tend to use very regular freque ncy and amplitude
variations, therefo re producing "colour" a nd " brightness"
variations in rad io signals, as perceived by a receiver, and in
looking at how various navigation a nd comm unica tion
systems work it will be useful to return occasionally to this
a nalogy.
RADIO ALTIMETER
SHORT. RAN GE RADAR
>om
DOPPLER RAOAR
' O·6~
1 · 10··mm
LASER (CO , )
1'06).1 LASE R (VAG)
V ISI BLE LIGHT
"1 0 ' mm
X- RAV S
1·10·' mm
FREQUENCY
WAVELENGTH
Almost the II"holl' of the eleclromagnetic speclmm is used b)' ~'arious
rangillgfrom lI"al'elellglhsof aboUi 30 kmfor Omega to
aboul 0111' ten-Ihousandth ofa millimelre for some lasers.
a~ionic syslems,
illogical, in a way, beca use the NOB signal indicates direction
to the station - ie, straight ahead, left or right - but there is
no precise heading da ta relative to compass orientation. AOF
sets were used, however, to drive a needle around wi thin a
compass rose which was aligned by a magnetic-compass
system, and this truly was "automatic" in its day, and gave an
indication of direction of Hight. The instrument was called a
radio-magnetic indicator (RM I), and is still used widely today.
N OB's sta blemate in the 1930s was a longer wavelength
system, called a radio-ra nge. Whereas NOB has survived a
PAGE 32
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1 983
( Abol'e) DUrillg trials 011 Salisbury Plaill on 27 Sep tember 1910. Robert
Loraine sem a morse wireless message "'Enemy in sight " while flyillg a
Bristol Boxkite. It was receil'ed o~'er a quarter of a mile away. The only
earlier recorded airborne wireless transmission look place one month
before, in COllado. ( Below) A loop aerial on a Bristol Blenheim V. When
alignl'll relali re 10 Ihe electric field sel up by a radio transmission. such
an aerial is I'er)' sensitil'e 10 challges in the direction offlight, alld can
provide an illdication 10 guide a pilot towards a radio beacon. 11 was
widely used in World War 1/ and is still used today. although the loop is
11014' embedded in a dielec tric block which attaches to the aircraft skin to
AM~U'UDf
.. OOU ... TIQN
i!PWlillNl
( A bol'e) Amplitude modulatioll consists of ~'arying the strellgth of an
eleclrical sigllal. It is alllllogous to l'arying the brighmess of a lamp .
Frequenc)' modulatioll cOIIsislS of I"Oryillg Ihe freque ncy of an eleclrical
signal and is analogous 10 I'arying Ihe colour ofa lamp. ( Beloil') This is a
VO R ground station al Biggill Hill, in Kent . The grid abore the buildings
is called a counterpoise and il prol'ides a perfect reflecling surface for thl'
trallsmiller aerials mOllllted abo~'e. The tall antenna in the centre is a
DMEaerial.
The navigation sensors descri bed so far were in use before
World War II , but in the mid-1 940s, the advent of solid-s ta te
(tra nsistorised) electronics heralded the introductio n of
ci rc uits able to operate a t much higher freque ncies.
Communication or navigation opera tion at frequenci es up to
several gigahertz (note: 1,000 megahertz = I gigahertz) were
therefore possible. Compared 10 valve-based systems, solidstate electronic units were much less susceptible to damage,
they brought reliability benefit s, and they tended to occupy
less volume and to use less power.
This technology made very-high freque ncy (VH F) radio
communica tions (in the 11 8-136 M Hz frequency band)
standard practice for airliners and general-aviation aircraft,
and ultra-high freque ncy (U HF) radio communications
(distributed between 250-400 MHz) standard practice in
military Hying. These frequencies are too high to be reHected
by the ionospheric layers, so both radio types operate within
line-of-sight only: out to 200 naut miles (370 km) for high
altitude aircraft. To supplement them, H F radio (operati ng in
the same frequency ba nd as that used by the pioneers) are still
used by lon g-range aircraft when over dese rts a nd oceans.
All commercial radios use amplitude modulation (A M) to
carry speech data . In the HF case this is modified by delet ing
half of the transmitted ca rrier, and the technique is called
single-sideband (SS B) modulation. It has the adva ntage of
being able to convey infonnation over grea ter range for a given
radio transmitter power. An HF radio message ca n be made
on anyone of280,OOO cha nnels between 2-20 MH z using a 20Ib (9-kg) radio set which radiates lOOW of power. Typical
VHF radio sets provide up to 720 channels between 11 8-136
M Hz, are only half the weight of an HF set, and prod uce 820W of rad ia ted power. Worldwide VHF radio transceiver
production for aeronautical use pea ked at about 20,000 sets
a nnually in the la te 1970s.
As VHF/ UHF radio communication techniq ues were being
established, so too were new navaids using radiation in the
same wavebands. Three systems in particular a rc still used
widely.
VOR , an abbreviation for VHF omni-directional range, has
replaced the radio-range as the signpost used on all the world's
airways. It ope rates on a frequency between 112-1 18 MHz.
Any VOR tra nsmission carries morse identification letters.
like an NO B, but at a standard frequency (30 Hz) both an
amplitude modulation (variation in brightness) and frequency
modulation (va riation in colour) is also introduced. This is
inaudible to the operator. but by com parin g which "colour"
in the regula r cycle coincides with the time of maximum
"bri ghtness", bea ring from the beacon can be determined . (In
an engineer's terms, one compares the phase shift between the
reference and bearing modu lations.) VOR in stalla tions are
always set up with the reference modulation aligned to local
magnetic north, a nd bearings - called radial s, as they radiate
fro m the beacon posit ion - ca n be measured to within ± I deg
accuracy. Because of the availabilit y of actual beari ng data,
VO R is a much more useful aid than an NOB, and it is usa ble
a t li ne-of-sight ranges.
large syslems installed on a "',I/-e"';PI"d
landillg aircrafl , alld is 01/ the runway centreline. 11
1K'0
lobes which o ~'erlap 011 Ihe e:aended centreline and prol'ide horitomal
guidance dllring an approach. ( Below) The second pari of an ILS
installation is moullled abeam Ihe rUllway lOuchdol4'lI poim. II emits ' .....0
~·erlically-stacked beams which m-erlap at a pre-set glidepath allgle and
provide I'ertical guidance relalil'e to that glideslope.
-,
-,
-,
,
k\,
\
PAG E 33
This guidance. from the two horizontal beams, is called ILS
loca liscr opera tion . Similar guidance fro m two vert icall ydisplac:.:ed beams is ca lled I LS glideslope operation. In this case
the beam s use UHF radio freq uencies a nd the overlap
coi ncides with a fixcd glideslope, usually set.1( 2} deg to 3 deg
fr om thc horizonwl. On one cockpit instrument. both
hori zo ntal deviation and vertical deviation indications can be
prese nted by two crossed needles. La ter in this series, a closer
look wi ll be taken at how this, and other navaid data , arc
prese nted in mo re modern cockpits.
The inrersection of twO synchronised I\'aves viewedfrom abol'e prot/uces
a pattem ofhyperlxJlae. as sholl'n 0/1 the left. On Ihe right. the effect of
using twO slm'es with one master illustrates how a grid pailI'm can m'
created. A suitable rat/io receil'er can decode emiltell signals and
delermine its position in Ihe area of cOl'erage.
Distance measuring equi pment (OME) is often co-located
with VOR ground stations, and its sole purpose is the
provision of range data. OME-equipped aircraft have both
transmitter a nd receiver units. The transmitter emits very
short pulses (each of 5 microsecond duration) about 20 times
every second . As each pulse is received by the ground sta tion it
transmits a response, on a sli ghtly different frequency. This is
received at the aircra ft after only a few microseconds a nd the
lime delay is directly proportional to the distance between the
beacon and the aircraft.
OM E sets cost £15,000 or so in the early 1960s, a nd were
standard items on airliners only. The development in the last
decade or so of integra ted circuits has had a dramatic eITect,
however, bringing costs down to below £2,000. Many general
avia tion pilots a re now familiar with OME. bu t a repercussion
of this progress has been that DME ground stations can be
interroga ted by more aircraft than they can respond to, and in
busy terminal areas the noticeable effect to pilots has been a
decrease in the maximum effecti ve range of OM E statio ns.
The final important short-range VHF/UHF rad io navaid is
instrumem la nd ing system (I LS). It uses the techn ique
mentioned in the description of the old radio-range: two
beams are overlapped slightly to defi ne a line along which
guidance can be provided. Each ILS installation, at the end of
an "instrument-eq uipped" runway, emits four bea ms, two
arranged horizo ntally and two vertica lly. Each hori zomal
beam is at the same VHF frequency, between 108-1 12 MH z,
but one has a 90 Hz modulation superimposed, and the other a
modulation at 150 Hz. An ILS receiver automatically
compares the proportion of 90 Hz and 150 Hz modulations,
and computes the differing depth of modulation (DOM).
When OOM is zero, the aircraft is on the runway ce nt reline.
Long-range syste ms
VHF/ UHF radio navaids arc not suitable for long-ra nge
operations. which usc HF radio em issio ns. Some widely-used
hyperbolic area-navigation systems are avai lable in this part of
the radio spc<:trum. Amongst them are the Decca Naviga tor
and Lora n (long-range navigation) systems. each developed
approximately thirty years ago. A related, but much more
recent. innova tion has been the Omega very-low freque ncy
(V LF) navigation system .
Decca was devised main ly for shipping use and is effective
over an area abou t 400 naut mls (740 km) across. Loran is a
simi la r system, designed to be effective across 1,500 naut mls
(2780 km) or so. Each Decca or Loran installation ha s fou r
transmitting-radio sites. One is designated as the master
station , a nd the other three are called slaves. These are coded.
in Decca , as red, green and purple slaves. The master and each
slave emit synchron ised pu lses, which can be visualised as
radiating outwa rds like ripples fro m two pebbles dropped in
water. The ripples will touch. at just one point initially, then as
they co ntinue to expa nd they overlap at two points. If both
pebbles were dropped simultaneously, the first ripple from
each wo uld meet at the half-way poi nt between where each one
entered the wa ter. The poin ts of overlap thereafter, plolted as
seen fro m above, would appear on the water's surface like a
straigh t line, perpendicular to the line joining the two
splashdown poi nts. If the line developed by subsequent ripples
from one pebble in tersecting the first ripple from the other was
ploned a patlern of curved lines wou ld be produced. These are
hyperbolae. They are the reason for calling Decca a nd Loran
hyperbolic system s, beca use in a directly a nalogous way the
master and slaves of either system emit pulses which radia te
a nd intersect to produce similar patterns. To use a particular
Loran or Decca chai n (t his term refers to a set offour stations)
the operator ha s merely to select the appropriate chain
freq uency, and an on-board computer can interpret the
received signals to provide an accu rate indicat ion of position,
anywhere in the area of coverage.
Omega is an extension of the above pri nciple. but
sufficient ly different to make it a new method of naviga tion .
Eight Omega stmionsore in use worldwille. Trinidad only lemporarily while the last permallellf stalioll in AllSlrolia is commissioned. The wble shows ho w
pulses are inlerleavedfrom each station . al djfferelllfrequendel', during a ICII -second illlen ·aI.
_
NORWAY
LIBER IA
HAWAII
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LA REUNION
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JAPAN
PAGE 34
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
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Infra-red heat-seeking missiles - such as these MOIra Magics on a
Jaguar - detect "hOI-SPOlS " such as aircraft exhausts alld will home
onto the rut/imion. Receil'ers are 11011' so sensitil'e Ihat el'en when
launchedfrom lillead of the target they will deteci su/fidem radiation to
home 01110 lhe exhaust.
Omega uses very-low freq uency (VLF) radiation, typically
10- 14 KHz (30-20 km wavelength) a nd as this radiat ion will
travel virtually arou nd the world before it decays. only eigh t
tra nsmitting sta tion s are used worldwide. Omega synchronises
aU of its stations and has only th ree of the eight transmitting
simultaneously. There are three operat ing frequencies and at
a ny time only one station is operat ing on each freq uency. Over
a ten-second period each station transmits on each of the three
frequ encies, a nd an ingenious receiver-processor in terprets the
signa ls to determine position.
Omega has the drawback that ambiguous position-fixes can
be obtained. simi la rities occurring at intervals of 70 naut mls
(130 km) or so. This is overcome by telling the Omega receiver
where it is as its journey begins. The inrormation is correlated
wit h received position-fix data and an up-to-date reference is
ma intained in each ten-second period of transmitter opera·
tions. Compa red to any Olher long-range navaid Omega is
cheap, and it is accurate to within ± 5 naut mls (9 km)
world wide (in most a reas fa r better, wit hin ± I naut ml/l,S
km). it needs no opera tor skill . is easy to install and very
reliable. After ba rely haIfa decade of availabi lity, Omega has
establ ished itself as a universa l aeronautical navaid.
So much for the major radio sensors. All those descri bed so
far are used by ai rlines, and by military aircraft of various
types too. Military operations can also use a rad io navaid
called Tactical Air Navigation (Taca n), which is a UHF
ve rsion of VO R/ DM E. To round off this survey of radio
electro-magnetic sensors, there are several devices which use
other than radio wavelengths and which are increasingly
becoming important to military operations.
All of them operate in and a round the optica l region of the
spectrum. In fra-red hea t was mentioned earlier, a nd the use of
hot-spot detection and tracking devices in heat-seeking
missi les is fa miliar air-to-air missile technology. As more
sensitive detection techniques have evolved, the opportunity
has arisen to detect not only hot-spots, but to scan optics and
to develop an image based on natural infra-red radiation
intensities. This is "thermal-imagi ng", and many of the
applica tions al ready operat ional are called forward-looking
infra-red (FLI R) sensors. They ca n provide a clear view at
night, and to some extent can be used for night-time low-level
fiying, even in conditions of modera te haze.
Low-light television (LLTV) cameras are not unlike
ord inary television cameras, but they are adapted to nighttime use, using photo-detectors which are ex.tremely sensitive
so that a n almost daylight-quality view of the scene a head can
be produced even under star-lit cond itions. This can be
complementary to F LiR as a low-level night-time flying aid in
military aircraft.
Finall y, whenever light waves are considered as a potential
sensor nowadays, one tends to find an a pplication for lasers.
T he laser (an abbreviat ion of "ligh t amplificat ion by
stimulated emission of radiation" ) has fo und several military
applications as an external sensor for militar y aircra rt. It has
helped to solve one of the weapon-delivery system designer's
biggest problems. Traditional visua l aiming techniques
provide accurate posi tion information only during steady
manoeuvres, and under these conditions accurate range a nd
height data is virtually unobtainable, so bomb scatter tends to
be appreciable. If a laser is installed , merely pointing it
provides an accurate indication of target-position duri ng any
manoeuvres, and ifpulses a re timed out to the ta rget a nd back ,
dista nce ca n be measured to with in a metre or less.
Furthermore, knowing the laser depression angle, actual
height above the target can also be derived. This new
capab ility has opened a new era in weapon-del ivery
techn iq ues, gua ranteeing high·accuracy delivery of simple
ord nance, and permitting precision delivery of laser-guided
weapo ns. The details of how various laser-based weapon
systems are opera ted will be investigated in more deta il ,
showing their interdependence with other aircraft sensors
when military operations a re considered in more detail, later
in this series.
Meanwhile, this article has covered the majority of the
electro-magnetic sensors which aid ai r transport and milita ry
operations throughout the world. An omission ha s been the
in ternally-mounted laser-ring gyro which threatens to displace
the humble gyroscope, and it wi ll also be considered in a later
article. The most significant of all elect ro-magnetic ex.ternal
sensors is radar. and it is that topic which will follow next in
this series. 0
The two blisters under Ihe nose of this Boeing B-51G Stratofortress
enclose a Westinghouse A VQ-22 low-light television ( LLTV) camera in
the nearest port, and a Hughes AAQ-6 forward-looking infra-red
( FUR ) sensor in thefurllter protrusion. When not in use the equipment
is protecled by shullers. ( Below) Royal A ir Force Harriers ( illustrated)
alld Jaguars hare laser ranger and marked target seeker ( LRMTS)
sensors in the nose. During close air-support operations. a control/er on
the grount/ aims a laser at the largel he wants to be destroyed. The
gimbal/ed optics in the LRMTS loek-on to the marked target and laser
pulses are emifled and times to provide ranging data.
PAG E 35
technical engi neers who served as aerodynamicists and consultants on the conversion. they came up with a design that,
according to computer projections. should
ullimately be good for a top speed of at least
480 mph (172 km /h). With the help of a large
group of co-workers and volunteers. Hinton
and Maloney spent the next 4~ months in a
furious whirl of 12/18-hour days working to
modify the Corsair to their specifications.
The first job called for the fuselage to be
completely gUllcd, inspected and rebuilt to "as
new" condi tion. In the process of stripping off
the layers of pai nt that the Corsair had
acquired during years of service with the US
Navy and Marine Corps, the work crew
discovered seven small Japanese flags. representing '"kills" scored in the South Pacific
during World War II. on the bottom layer of
paint. Although efforts are now under way to
trace the precise history of this Corsair, the
only thing that is known for sure at present is
that the aircraft did take part in combat during
the war.
In order to accommodate the massive R4360 engine and still keep the centre of gravity
within acceptable limits. it was necessary to
remove the oil tank from the front of the
fuselage and manufacture a new tank to fi t in
behind the cockpit. A new engine mount was
fashioned to securc the cngine to thc fuselage
and. when finally in place, the fuselage actually
turned out to be about one inch (2,5 cm)
shorter than that ofa sta ndard F4U-I, despite
the fact that the R-4360 engine is almost twice
as big as the engine in the original Corsair.
Other modifications to the Corsair included
cutting43 in (I,09m) from the tipofeach wing:
improving thc profile of the oil cooler ducts:
adding water tanks and spray bars to keep the
radiators cooler during high speed, low-Ievcl
fligh t: incorporating wing fillets to improve the
airnow at the wing-fuselage juncture: metalskinning the previously fabric-covered portions of the F4U-1 wings and moulding a new
low-profile cockpi t canopy.
In all, parts from at least seven different
aircraft were used in the project. As stated
earlier, the fuselage and tail came from a
Vough t F4U-1 Corsair: however, each wing
came from a different model Corsair (one wing
had cannon ports and the other had machine
gun pons). The engine was taken from a
Douglas C-124 Glohemaster, the engi ne
cowling was adapted from a Douglas B-26
Invader, the propeller spinner was taken from
a P·5 1K Mustangand the propeller came from
an A-I Skyraider.
The major part of the work was completed
by 28 August and the first flight, with Jim
Maloney at the controls, took place late that
afternoon. During the next week, Hinton and
Maloney alternated nights in the aircraft.
making systems checks and working out minor
"bugs". Although there were still many deta ils
requiring attention on the Corsair. both pilots
were impressed with the smooth operation of
the engine and the aircraft's acceleration.
After a week of test flights, the aircraft, now
registered as a Vought-Goodyear F2G, went
into the paint shop. Five days later, it cmcrged
in the silver, blue and red colours of Budweiser
Light Beer, lhe Corsair's sponsor for lhe 1982
Reno Air Races. There was time for only one
additional day of test flying before the Corsair
had to be ferried from Chino, California, to
Reno, Nevada, for the technical inspections
required before the air races. The inspections
took place on 13 September and the races
lasted fro m 17·1 9 September. During the time
between inspection and the races, every
opportunity was taken to work out minor but
nagging problems with aileron response, the
water injection system and engine cooling.
However, poor weather limited the amount o f
nyi ng t.hat could be completed and the
Budweiser Light Corsair had to qualify and
race with some problems still uncorrected. In
spite of those problems, Hinton and Maloney
did manage to qualify for the main event, the
Gold Race on the 17th, and the modified
Corsa ir finished in fourth place with Hinton at
the controls.
While it didn't win at Reno, the Budweiser
Light F2G Corsair was the hit of the event and,
after the "bugs" are worked out of the aircraft,
Hinton and Malo ney are positive that it will be
a definite contender for the championship in
futu re air races and should eventually be able
to take the time·to·climb record as well. In a ny
event, the restoration a nd modification of this
very dilTerent Corsair represents an impressive
effort by a determined group of individuals
working on a limited budget. Between races
and record attempts, the Budweiser Light F2G
Corsai r will be displayed in The Air Museum's
'" Planes of Fame" collection at the Chino
FRANK B MORMILLO
Airport. 0
The F2G Corsair is shown here being M'orked on in Ihe "Planes of Fame" maintenance hangar al Chino. When nOI being used for racing or record
attempts, Ihe Corsair is displayed allhe '"Planes of Fame" museum. bUI remains tl!ejoint property of Hinton and Maloney. The massil'e 28·cylinder
R-4360engine is c/ear/y shown in Ihis \'iew.
~~~
,.
PAGE 38
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
Eighty-two: a
melancholy saga
in the first issue of each
I12 months
New Year to look back over the preceding
and assess them from the modelling
T IS OUR PRACTICE
viewpoint. Perusal of this col umn in the
January issues of the past two or three years is
scarcely to be recommended as salutary at a
time when o ne is perhaps contending with the
less desi rable after effects of the festive season.
Indeed, it is an exercise conducive to acute
melancholia in any self-respecting modeller,
but the depressing saga ofa model kit industry
reeling from and in part succumbing to world
recession and the economic pressures in which
it is resulting has undeniably continued apace.
The depressingly reduced num ber of kit
releases during the course of this year past we had none to record in October - that have
formed the net output of what is now lillie
more than a skeletal manufacturing industry
sca rcely augurs recovery in this year of
nineteen hundred and eighty-three!
We can perhaps be thankful that the names
Heller and Airjix have survived the companies
that originally established them as important
vertebrae of the modelling backbone, but the
conglomerates that have acquired these illus·
trious epithets have made no pretence of
releasing kits on a regular monthly basis over
the past 12 months and have manifested no
intention ofso doing in the foreseeabl e future.
The largest num ber of kits from anyone source
during the course of t.he year bore the
"Matchbox" appellation, and perhaps the
only light in the otherwise unleavened gloom is
the intention of the new owners - at the time
of closing for press, at least - to continue
production of plastic kits at the Rochford
fac tory, near Southend, despite the demise of
the die-casting side of the o rganisation.
During the year, we received for review just
29 newly-released injection-mo ulded kits,
some of which were near-duplicatesand others
re-issues of earlier kits in revised form, while
three were produced by small companies on a
limited production basis. At least the international element was still in evidence in the
near score-and-a-half kits that reached our
work bench as they represented seven dilTerent
countries: the UK, the USA, France, Italy,
Czechoslovakia, Japan and the Germa n
Democratic Republic. Apart from the UK and
the USA, only one manufacturer represented
each country.
The largest number of kits received from any
one source was from "Matchbox", despite the
traumatic events of the year that brought that
terminal disease of liquidation to its parent,
Lesney Products. The eight kits from this
source rendered Esci, with seven kits, a close
runner-up as the year's most prolific manufacturer of aircraft model kits, although a mere
seven or eight kits might hardly be considered
to equate with prolificity on the basis of what
we had come to expect before the ind ustry
supporti ng o ur pastime entered the doldrums.
Of course, for most kit manufacturers, aircraft
subjects represent only a fraction of their
overall production programme. Monogram,
for example, released only two aircraft kits,
but this company's output of non-aircraft
related subjects was very substantial. Aircraft
kits issued under the Airfix tradename, too,
were restricted to j ust four, but many others
bearing that label and far outside the scope o f
this column reached the market.
Disappointing though the year's new kits
have been quantitatively, they have not been so
qualitatively, the standard of those kits that
hal'e reached us maintaining a consistently
high level, and the injection-moulded offerings
have been supported by vacuum-formed kits,
which, in many cases, have attained exceptionally high standards of quality while displaying
the fla ir for the unusual that we have come to
expect from their manufacturers. Over the past
12 months, we have reviewed 21 vac-forms in
lhe column, Ca nada having been the most
consistent source for such with 10 new kits
reaching us from that country and from three
different sources. Others came from the UK,
the USA and Federal Germany, those from the
UK being the products of two companies,
Controlil and Formaplane, and the laller line
was discontinued during the course of the year
with the closure of the well-known BMW
Models' shop in Wimbledon.
One range that never ceases to amaze us is
the '"Microscale" series of aircraft decals of
which we have reviewed more than three score
sets over the year. How does this company
keep it up? It certainly makes no concessions
on the score of quality in maintaining a
prodigious output roreach sheet is invariably a
first rate production. Understandably, the
"Microscale" decals are heavily biased towards American subjects, although there wasa
noteworthy tendency towards increased diver·
si ty as the year progressed.
This month's colour subject
What modeller other than those confining
themselves to, say, airliners or modern jet
combat aircraft, has not, at one time or
another, assembled a kit o f a Spitfire. This
superlative little fighter has always been and
continues to be a popular subject among
modellers, yet, surprisingly, it is loday a
subject that is not all that easily found in
acceptable form on stockists' shelves. The
majority of the Spitfire kits offered over the
years have represented the earlier Merlin·
engi ned variants, the Mks I. 11 and V, but the
later Merlin 61-series fighters, such as the Mks
VIII and IX, have figured in the cata logues
from time to time and in more than one scale,
and this monlh we have selected these as our
colour subject.
Many years ago, Airfix produced a kit of the
Spitfire Mk IX in 1/72nd scale, which, if
somewhat crude by standards latcr obtained,
ENTHUSIAST
was acceptably accurate and mighl possibly
still be obtainable. Monogram's 1/48th scale
Mk IX is still included in that company's
catalogue, but itleavesa lot to be desired and is
now rather archaic by any standard, the
undercarriage, in particular, calling for attention. This same kit, in rather inferior mouldings, has appeared at times under the Marusan
label, incidentally. In this larger scale, the best
kit of which we know is Otaki's Mk VIII which
may also be completed as a Mk IX . Regrettably, however, this kit is now likely to
prove difficult to locate in the UK as it was
never very widely distributed even when first
issued a few years back. But examples (lre slill
around .
A shapely Czech
In the early 'sixties, the Czechoslovak aircraft
industry produced what was to prove one of
the most successful jet trainers of its generalion, the L 29 Delfin, and, in due course, the
Kovozavody Prostejov produced, as its first
offering, a 1/ 72nd scale kit. A decade or so
later, the Czechoslovak aircrafl industry came
up with ilS intended successor, the L 39
Albatros. which was to be adopted by many of
the countries that had utilised its predecessor
and has been built in I'er), large numbers in
consequence. Indeed, production reached four
figures some time ago and is continuing today.
KP has now, as its latesl offering, produced a
1/72nd scale kit of the L 39, and it is intriguing
to compare this with the L 29 kit o f so many
years ago and note the technical advances
achieved by KP in the intervening years.
The L -:39 kit consists of 37 component parts
moulded in light grey plastic apart from three
tra nsparencies, and a two-piece stand is
provided . Theq ualityofthemouldings, as well
as that of the plastic, is very good and the
components display fine ly formed surface
detailing of which the raised panel lines are a
feature. We were surprised to discover that the
underca rriage doors are engraved on the
undersurfaces of the wings and fuselage, no
cut-outs being provided for the wells. However, the cover doors close flush with the
surfaces after the gear is extended, covering the
wheel wells themselves. Nevertheless, there are
small doors attached to the mainwheel legs
which do IWI dose with the gear down and, in
consequence, a small area under each pa nel
adjacent to the oleo strut should be cut away.
The actual mainwheel legs are well moulded,
each in one piece, including the knee joint, but
with separate wheels, whereas the nosewheel is
moulded integrally with its stru\.
The cockpit interior fea tures a one-piece,
two-level floor, with side consoles and rear
bulkhead attached, and has separate ejection
sea ts, instrument panels and control columns.
The effect is adequate when viewed through
the long, clear canopy which has well-defined
framing. The air intake cowlings on each side
of the fuselage are in two parts and the tailpipe
is also an individual part, but the vertical fin
and rudder are moulded inlegrally with the
left-hand fuselage half. The lo .....er wing panel is
in one piece, tip to tip. and the wingtip ta nks
are moulded integrally, clear lenses being
provided for the landing lights at the forward
extremi ties of these tanks. External stores are
PAGE 39
( Bel ow) Sp itfire IXE , used as per sonal ai r c r aft
by Eze r W eizm an w hen CO of No 101 Sqn , Isr aeli
Defence ForCe/Air Fo r ce. ( l ower l eft) Crest of
th e Heyl Ha'A vir.
(B el ow) The Spitfire VIII fl own by It L P Molland ,
CO of 308th Squadron . 31 st FG , serving with th e
US Fi ftee nth A ir Force in Ital y. 1944. ( lower l eft )
Per sonal embl em of It M o lland .
(Below) Spitfire IX in the m arking s of No 133
Eagle Squadron . one of the three allAmerican squadro ns flying with the RAF i n
1942.
(Above) An ex· RAF Spitfire IX ope ra ted by the
Royal Egyptian Air Force during the Palestine
War in 1948.
(Above) A Spitfire IXE acquired from Czecho':-"". . . . .
slovaki a for use by the Israeli Defence Force!
A ir Force (Heyl Ha ' Avir) in the early ' fifties.
JOHN
PAGE 40
WE'~A~L...t::=S..~
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ J ANUAR Y 1983
(Above) A two -seat
conversion of the Spitfire IX made in the
Soviet Union by the No
1 Aircraft Depot, leningrad . i n 1945. (left)
Pink - finished .
pres surised Spitfire PR Mk
X as operated by No 541
Squadron. RAF Benson.
1945.
(Above) Spitfire VIII " Grey Nurse " of No 457
(Australian) Sqn. No 1 Fighter Wing . li vi ngstone, 1943.
(left) Spitfire IXC o f
No 73
Squ adron
ope rating fr o m Hal
Far. M alta, in 1945.
Thi s unit carried its
d istincti ve squadro n
m arkin gs on its ai r c r aft f o r m ost o f the
w ar.
(Below) A Spitfire IXE as fl ow n by It- Gen Bo b
Ro g ers, No 40 Sqn , SAAF, in Italy. 1944. Nam e
" Eve lyn" r ef ers
t o w ife of l arry
Barn ett ,
w ho
helped r est o r e
th is Spitfire in
th e 'si xti es .
(Above) Spitfire HF Mk VII of No 131 Sqn
in high -altitude day finish , 85 introduced
in June 1943 but not w idel y used .
(Left) Spitfire PR Mk XI
of No 541 Squadron at
RAF Benson , June 1944.
in standard PR blue
finish.
(Above) Spitfire PR MkXI in natural metal
finish , operated by 7th Photo Group of the
USAAF, Mount Farm . Oxon. 1943-44.
(Above) Spitfire PR Mk XI in standard
RAF colours. operated by 7th Photo
Group, USAAF. in the UK, 1943-44.
PAG E 41
Our sample was not accompanied by the
instructions that will normally be supplied, but
we know from previous experience that these
instructions will be comprehensive. giving the
exact location of each part. The Waldron
Model concern's products are handled in the
UK by Croydon Impex (10 Stoneyfield Rd .
Old Coulsdon, Surrey CR3 2HJ). which
supplied our sample and should be contacted
concerning delivery and price. We are adviscd.
incidentally, that Croydon Impex is the UK
distributor of the Australian Roodecals which
have been reviewed in this column o n occasions and may be recommended to any
modeller interested in Australian and New
Zealand aircraft.
confined to two drop tanks mounted on two of
the four underwing pylons. We found it
necessary to add some weight inside the nose in
order to balance the tail.
The multi-lingual instruction sheet, which
includes English, is comprehensive, and provides marking diagrams and colour scheme
information for the fou r dilTerent aircraft
fea tured by the accompanying decal sheet. One
machine. from the fi rst production scries, has
Czechoslovak Air Fo rce markings on a white
and light grey scheme. trimmed with red: a
second is camouflaged with pale blue undersurfaces and is from the "Higher Military
Avia tion School of the Slovak National
Uprising", and a third example has a Cuchoslovllk civil registration and represents the
aircraft exhibited at the 1977 Paris Salon.
Fi nally, there is an L 39 of the Soviet Air Force
in an overall light grey finish with red trim.
This is a neat, well-produced kit of a subject
unlikely to feature in the catalogues of any of
the remaining western ma nufacturers.
Nipponese canard
Alone time. a canard was defined as an
extravaga nt or absurd story circulated as a
hoax. Today, in aeronautical parlance. il is
taken 10 mean II ltJil-first aircraft - alleast, an
aircraft with auxiliary horizontal surfaces al
the fro nt (ie, fo replanes) - but why such a
configuration should be labelled a canard
(duck) and the surfaces themselves as canards
completely escapes us. Never, in the aftennath
of our wildest assaults on the office elderberry
wine bar, have we seen a duck fly ing backwards! Of course, the so--called canard '<Onfiguratio n dates back to the earliest days of
flying. bUI it is only recently that it has begun to
catch on in a big way. Israel Aircraft Industries
having been in the vanguard of the new wave
wi th its Kfi r-C2, and the next generation of
multi-role fighters, such as Ihe JAS 39, the Lavi
and the ACA, evidently considering canards to
be de rigueur!
From time to time, during the annals o f
military aircraft, designers, presumably bored
with the conventional, have exercised whimsicality and placed the horizontal tail surfaces up
fronl - examples that traditionalists have
ascribed more to caprice than to the normal
process of aeronautical research. Arguably,
the designers o f these cana rd-configured
aircraft were less bigoted in their approach to
the radical than their less adventuro us fe llows.
That is as may be. but in the late 'thirties a nd
early 'forties, there was certainly a revival of
interest in the potential of the canard arrangement for figh ters.
The firs t of these to fly was Sergio Stefanutti's
SA l Ambrosini S.S.4, which, evolved fro m
experience gained with the 16 hp S.S.2 and 38
hp S.S.3 configurational test-beds. flew on 7
March 1939. Regrettably, this intriguing
fighter prototype prom ptly crashed and its
fu rther development was abandoned. Four
years later, in July 1943, the first of three
Curtiss XP-55 Ascender canard-configured
figh ter prototypes entered flight test in the
USA, but their inherently bad stalling characteristics and questio nable stability led to
discontinuation of development. Two years
later still, Japan got into the canard act with
the flight testing of the very much more
po .....erful J7WI Shinden (Magnificent lightning) fighter, and, somewhat surprisingly. in
view of the fact that only one prototype of this
radical warplane was ever flown. the Shinden
PAGE 42
has been selected by Hasegawa as the subject
ofa 1/48th scale kit.
Representing the exotic and the esoteric in
unique combination by injection-moulded kit
sta ndards, Hasegawa's olTering, distributed in
the UK by Hales Limited at £2'99, is certainly
fascinating. If you have a penchant for the 01Tbeat then this is the kit for you! Attaining a
very high standard of q uality, the Shinden kit
possesses 55 component parts moulded in dark
green plastic, plus three transparencies, and
these olTer very fi ne surface deta iling, mainly
raised panel lines and engraved control surface
outlines, and precise fit. The elTective cockpit
interior takes encapsulated form , no seated
pilot figure being provided and none being
called for as such would partly obscure the
interior detail. The six-bladed propeller is
moulded in one piece with separa te spinner
and backplate, and there is some nice detail
moulding in the air intake gills o n each side of
the fuselage and also around the cowling.
The long, stalky undercarriage units are
neatly formed, but, inevitably, unless the
manufacturer of the ki t departs dramatically
from scale, somewhat vulnerable to damage if
handled in the least boisterously. All doors and
housings reveal internal engraved detail. The
bottom panel of the low wing is in one piece.
th us fixing the dihedral angle. Markings. such
as they were, are provided by the accompanying decal sheet and the modeller scarcely has
much choice in respect of colour finish, but
what a fascinating model this kit produces.
The clear assembly diagrams and general
arrangement drawings are supplemented by
two large-scale full--colour side elevations.
Embellishing cockpits
From time to time. we have reviewed examples
of the wares of Waldron Model Products (1358
Stephen Way, San Jose, CA 95129) which
specialises in cockpit interiors - mostly
instruments engraved on aluminium sheet.
These components upgrade the models to
which they are applied to quite an extent and
we are delighted to hear that this company is
expanding its range. A preliminary sample has
reached us for the F-14A Tomcat pilot's
cockpit in 1/48th scale, and the number of
instruments represented is quite remarkable,
their incorporation calling for additional eITort
on the part ofthemodeller. but this being more
than justified by the final result.
AI R INTERNATI ONAL/J A NUA RY 1983
Decal review
Microscale: (Krasellndustries Inc, Santa Ana,
CA 92705) Fast and fu rious come the
Microscale decals and this month there is a
veritable mass o f them to record for the 1/48th
scale modeller. primarily for the predictable
series of F·14s and A-7s for which this
company would seem to have a marked
predilection, but with a reasonable leavening
of other types to sweeten the pot. Sheet No 48118 is shared between an F- 14A of VF-41,
which now rejoices in the appellation of the
"Sukhoi Killers", and an A-7E of VA-86, the
latter d isplaying on its fin a large, coiled snake
with the legend "Don't Tread on Me". Sheet
48-119 olTers three more A-7Es, respectively
from VA- 15, VA-37 and VA-83, the first of the
trio being the most striking with a black lion as
a fin embellishment. The F-14A re-appears
once more on Sheet 48-122. the units represented being VF-I02 and VF-II I. both being
in low-visibility grey and the latter sporting a
shark's mouth and a sunray pattern on t.he fin.
but, in a darker shade of grey. these decorations tend to lack impact.
Yet two more F-14s. from VF-IOI on loan
to VF-33 and from VF-II , are subject matter
for Sheet 48-123, these being much more
colourful than those represented by the
preceding sheet, particularly the VF-33 loan
aircraft with blaek fin s with yellow lightning
flashes and stars superimposed. Sheet 48-124
provides a final appearance of the F-14 - in
this batch, at least - with aircraft belonging to
VF-31 and VF-143, the fonner in overall light
gull grey with large red areas bedecking its fins
and the latter having a stylised winged puma in
grey o n each side.
Departing at last from the Corsair-Tomcat
duo. we come to Sheet 48-125 which is devoted
to three aircraft of the Israeli Heyl Ha 'AI'ir, the
F-15, the F-4E and the A-4M. Although
camouflaged, ei ther in ai r superiority or
tactical style, these aircraft display plenty of
colour. the Phantom in particular with its
elaborate shark's mouth. National markings
are included on the sheet. Sheet 48- 126 caters
for F-I6s in service with four NATO air forces
(ie, Belgium. Denmark, the Netherlands and
Norway) and included are national insignia.
codes. badges. instrument panels and many
small markings. Two sheets follow under the
generic heading " International Mirages" and
comprise, on Sheet 48-127, Colombian, Egyptian and Pakistani aircraft. the variety of
national markings making this an attractive
set. Sheet 48- 128 covers a Mirage IIIC of EC
3/ 10 Vexin of the Aflneede I'Air, a Mirage 111 0
of No 75 Sqn, RAAF, and a Mirage III EA of
the Fuer:a Airea Argentina. 0
f J UENDERSQN
!~~~~i~~ACK---;::::===============::::::'
PF.TI:"R Green's leiter (A IR INTERNATIONAL/
October 1982) referring [0 the first flight date
of the Gloster F. 5/34 prototype. serial number
K5604. demonstrates the way in which many
reputable sources of information have been led
astray. I think thaI the initial mistake may well
have come from the first appearance of the
aircraft in Jane's - this was in the volume for
1937. issued in December.
Not having access to 1937 copies of Thl!
Al!ropltllleand Fligh/. I cannot comment on the
air-to·air photographs published in June of
that year. However. if The Aeroplane photographs were those which appeared in )one's six
months later. then another little mystery needs
clearing up. I have copies of these photographs
- and they carry The Aeroplane negative
number 10, 121 with suffixes "N··. "0". "P··.
etc: but I also have a photogrdph of the Latvian
Gladiator (serial No 114), and this carries The
Aeroplane negative number 10.12 1 wi th the
suffix ··F" - which strongly suggests that all
were taken on the same occasion.
Yet. from the sources I have available. the
Latvian Gladiators were apparently erected,
tested and shipped out between August and
November, 1937. I would hazard a guess thai
these photographs were taken in May 1937.
and that the published references to both the
F.S/ 34 and Latvian Gladiator are wrong.
Whilst employed with Bristol Aircraft. I had
among my colleagues at Filton Ronnie Ellison
and Jock Campbell and made some notes o f
their experiences with various aeroplanes of
pre-war days. Both remembered the Bristol
prototype submitted to F.5/34. the Type 146.
and described it as a forlorn hope for scveral
reasons: fi rstly. the intended sleeve-valve
Perseus had not been ready in time: secondly.
the Gloster machine had already been flying
"for more than a yea r": and thirdly. the
Vickers PV (the Venom) not only had a sleeve·
valve engine but had flown before the Gloster
aircraft.
The Bristol 146 was first 110wn - by C F
Uwins - on II February 1938. So. ifmy friends'
collective memories were righ t. the Gloster
F.5/34 was flying very early in 1937. Of course.
the connecting link bet .....een all three aeroplanes was Roy Fedden. who was at the
forefront of the eITort to break the RollsRoyce monopoly and get an air-cooled radial
engine into the new monoplane figh ter scene.
Kurt Tank was eventually to achieve this for
him!
All else I can olTer Mr Green on the Gloster
F.5/ 34 K5604 is the foll owing:
I. Taken on charge by Ai r Ministry (not
RAF) after completion of manufaclUrer's
trials on 18 May 1937. (This was probably why
the photographs were taken.)
2. Appeared in the New Types Park at the
Hendon Air Pageant on 26 June 1937. (The
photograph in AIR INTERNATIONAL/August
1980. page 104. was taken on that occasion the "set-piece" can be seen in the background .)
3. Positioned to the SBACShow and shown
as a static exhibit on 28 June 1937. and gave a
l1yingdisplay the following day.
4. On charge to Boscombe Down until
struck oITin February 1940. when it became a
non-l1ying instructional machine with the
( Aool'e) One of the series ofpholOgraphs 0/ the G/oster F.5/34 in ''The Aeroplalle" series nl/mbered
/0.121 anfl ( bl'Ioll') olle 0/ a series of "rOlmd-the -c1ock ,. groll/u/I'iell"s of the same aircraft taken by
the Air M illiSfryr."orogmpher ill accOr(lallCf! lI"itll the standard reql/iremem: almost certai"ly take"
immediate y be/ore or tJI the timp offirst flight, these official prints are dated May 1937.
maintenance serial 2232M.
5. In Gloster Accomplishmelll. a book let
issued by GAC in November. 1947, the F. 5/34
is listed as appearing in 1936.
It looks. on balance, as though everyone but
Mr Green and the manufaclUrers got the year
wrong.
There is much more that could be written
about Ihis Gloster design, in particular its link
with what was going on at Filton at the time.
One hardly has to do more than compare
photographs of the two machines to see that
the F.5/ 34 has a Blenheim I "power plant "
bolted on the front - the first production
Blenheim was in the shops at Filton in the
second half of 1936 being filted. among o ther
things, with NACA cowlings and cooling gills.
wi th exhausts feeding into a nose collector ring
and exiting through twin countersunk exhaust
pipes. One wonders why the Bristol 146 wasn't
so equipped.
Then there was the Fedden-i nspired scheme
to re-engine the Gloster F. 5/34 with a Taurus,
making up for the increased weight forward by
fitting a 40/50 Imp gllllon (182/227 1) tank aft
of the cockpit.
Oddly enough. although thought of as a
much bigger engine. the Taurus was barely a
litre bigger in swept volume than the Mercuryl
Perseus - but it was more than I I percent less
in diameter. The combi nation could have
emerged as quite a polent fighter. providing
the rear row of Taurus cylinders could be
persuaded to hold together!
One last point - it's rather odd to see that
all three F. 5/34 prototypes (no - I haven't
forgotten the fourth. Martin- Baker, aeroplane, which is a saga in itself) had three-blade
controllable-pitch propellers - which wasn't
possible with the engines fitted to the prototype Hurricane and Spitfire.
I look_ forward to my co py of A IR
INTERNATIONAL every month - it remains
second to none. Keep it up.
) D OughlOn
BriSlOI, A 1'011
AuSlralia's Hawkers
YOUR notes o n the Hawker P. 108 1 ("Fighter A
to Z··. AIR INTERNATIONAL/August 1982) give
rather a distorted view on Australian participation in the project.
On 14 October 1949 Sir Keith Park , the
South Pacific representa tive of the Hawker
Siddeley Group. met wi th Prime Minister
Chifely to discuss the Group'solTer to build jet
fighters in Australia. A change of government
took place in December 1949 and on 4January
1950 Sir Frank Spriggs (Managing Director of
the Group) publicly renewed the olTer. Cabi net
approved the manufacture of the figh ter (with
conditions) seven days later and on 8 February
1950 a total of 72 were ordered as the
Commonwealth CA-24 with initial deliveries
commencing in July 1951.
By 10 August, the Group was able to
announce negotiations for the manufacture of
the P.l081 were completed, and Australian
technicians were in England . Australian
interest ended when it was realised that the
P. 108 1 was an experimental design and not the
promoted production machine.
One can only speculate on the Hawker
Siddeley Group's motives in the episode. Did
they think they could sell the dated P. I081
design or was it a ploy to lock the Australians
into the coming Hunter?
Trevor W Boughton
M osmans &y, Australia
PAG E 43
1r1(;1IlrItII " lrII
~ p~'i:m:a,~iI~Y i~n~h:aV~in:g~t:h':~~'b~la~d~
f ·.·.#~~~~~~~--~d~i~=e.n:'n~g~fr:o:m~t:he~p:,o:t:ot~y~
metal propellers in place of the two-bladed wooden unit.
Although the speed capability of the I. A.R. 15 was adjudged
excellent, it was considered inferior to the P. II b on the sco re of
manoeuvrability, and no furthe r examples were o rdered. Max
s~, 233 mph (375 km/h) at 13, 125 fi (4000 m), 230 mph (370
km/h) at 16,405 fi (5000 m). Climb to 16,405 fi (5000 m), 8·0
min . Range, 373 mls (600 km). Empty weigh t, 2,6781b ( 1215
kg). Loaded weight, 3.6371b (1650 kg). Span, 36 fi I in ( 11 ,00
m). Length , 25 fi 5f in (7,76 m). Height, 8 ft 10. in (2,70 m).
Winga Tea, 204·51 sq ft ( 19,00 ml).
~
I
•
•
I. A. R. 16
Thc I.A.R.l4 (obm',. and be/ow) en/ered Romanian ser~ice in small
nllmbers in 19J4, bU/ 11'(1$ destined to be re/egated to Ihe fig/lief training
,611'.
--
/~I
I. A. R.80
I. A. R. 14
ROMANIA
Altho ugh the Aero"Qlllica Mililara had selected the PZ L P. ll
for the re-equipment of its fighl er clement, a small series of
L A. R. 14s was to be ordered in 1934 fo r evaluation pu rposes.
Fl own in 1933, the I.A .R. 14 was essentially similar to the
LA.R. 13 but reverted to the Lo rraine 12Eb engine, which,
while inferio r to the HS 12Mc for fighter installation , had the
advantage o f being licence-built by I. A.R. Apart from the
engine change, the fu selage of the I.A.R. 14 was redesigned, the
turnover pylo n was incorporated in a fairing aft of the cockpit,
sho rter-span, broad-chord a ilerons were introduced, the
vertical tail was redesigned a nd the span of the horizontal
surfaces was increased, their inverted-vee type bracing struts
giving place to parallel struts. Armament rema ined the
standard pai r of 7,7-mm Vickers guns. The small series of
I.A .R.14s deli vered to the Aerollaurica Mi/irara in 1934, were,
after service evaluation, utilised in the fighter training role.
Max speed, 183 mph (294 km/h) at sea level, 163 mph (263
km/h) at 16,405 fi (5000 m). Time to 16,405 ft (5 000 m), 10·45
min . Endurance, 2· 16 hrs. Empty weight , 2,767 Ib (1 255 kg).
Loaded weight, 3,4 17 1b ( I 550 kg). Spa n, 38 ft 4j in (II ,70 m).
Length , 25 ft 5f in (7,76 m). Hei ght, 8 n 6 in (2,60 m). Wing
area, 213· 13 sq n ( 19,SO m 2 ).
I.A.R. IS
ROMAN IA
Possessing little more than a configurational similarity to
preceding single-seat fighters of Ca rafoli design, the I.A.R. 15,
which flew for the first time la te in 1933, was powered by a 600
hp Gnome-Rhone 9 Krse nine-cylinder radia l and ca rried an
armament of two 7,7-mm Vickers machine guns. The structure
followed that of the I.A.R . 14 in having a welded steel-tube
fuselage covered by duralumin sheet forward and fab ric aft,
and a three-piece wing with two duralumin spars, pine and
plywood ribs and dura lumin sheet skinning for the centre
section with fabric covering for the outer panels. A series of
five I.A.R. 15s was o rdered for the Aeronaulica Militara, these
PAGE 44
AlA INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
ROMAN IA
Alt hough evolved in pa rallel with the 1.A. R. 15, the 1.A.R .16,
which flew for the first time in 1934, was the fi rst ofCarafoli's
fi ghters to fea ture a n all-metal structure, this having plywood.
fabric and duralumin skinning. Powered by a 560 hp Bristo l
Mercury IVS.2 nine-cylinder radial enclosed by a Townend
ring and carrying an a rmament of two 7,7-mm Vickers guns,
the I.A. R. 16 established a national altitude record of 3S, 156 ft
( 11 63 1 m) in 1935. The LA.R. 16 was not developed further
than a single prototype, bringing to an end Romanian fighter
design for more than a dozen years. Max speed, 212 mph (342
km/h a t 16,405 fi (5000 m). Time to 16,405 fi (5000 m). 6·5
min . Em pt y weight, 2,698 1b ( 1224 kg). Loaded weight , 3,637
Ib (1650 kg). Span , 38 ft 4j in (1 1,70 m). Length, 24 ft 2* in
(7,37 m). Height, 9 ft 2* in (2,80 m). Wing area , 2 18·5 sq ft
(20.30 m' ).
ROMAN IA
In October 1937, the I.A.R. design team led by Prof Io n Grosu
initia ted work on a potential successor fo r the licence-built
P.24E fi ghter. The prototype of the new fi ghter, the I.A.R .80,
uti lised, wherever possible, proven components of the P.24E,
including the entire semi -mo nocoque rear fuse lage. Of allmetal st ressed-sk in construction, the I.A. R.80 was powered by
The first Romanian fighler 10 be built in substantial numbers, Ihe
I.A .R .80 (abol'e and below) ulilised some elements of Ihe PZL P.24E
lhal had been licence-built by I.A .R. Three l'Oriants differing in
armoment were built.
o
The I.A .R. 16 ( abol'e 011(1 below) broughl illdigenous Romanilm fighler
tlesign 10 all endfor more Iholl a dozen years. The firsl Romonial/fighler
with 01/ oil-metal structure. it failed /0 progress filrlher Iltan prolotype
slUge.
an I.A.R. K 14-111 C36 14-cylinder radial based o n the
Gnome-Rhone 14K Mist ra l-Major ra ted at 900 hp for ta keoff. Production was initiated fo r the FARR ( Fone/or Aeriene
Rega/ ale Romania), the first series I.A .R.SO being completed
in the spring of 1940. This differed from the proto type
primarily in having a 1,025 hp l.A.R . K 14- IOOOA engine, an
enlarged wing, lengthened fu selage, an enclosed cockpit and
the tail plane bracing struts deleted . Armament initially
comprised four 7,92-mm FN-Browni ng guns, but after the
completion of 50 aircraft, two additional 7,92-mm weapons
were added (LA.R.SOA), a furth er 90 aircraft bei ng built
before two of the 7,9-m01 guns gave place to guns of 13,2-mm
calibre O.A.R .SOB). Productio n of the I.A.R .SO totalled 121
a ircraft before it was supplanted by its derivative, the
I.A.R.8 1. Max s~d, 319 mph (5 14 km/h) a t 13,025 Ft (3970
m), 342 mph (550 km/h) at 22,965 Ft (7000 m). Timeto 14,765
ft (4 500 m), 5·67 min. Range, 584 mls (940 km) at 205 mph
(330 km/h). Empty weight, 3,9241b (I 780 kg). Loaded weight,
5,622 1b (2550 kg). Span, 34 fi 5t in ( 10,50 m). Length, 29 fi 21
in (S,90 m). Height, I I ft 91 in (3,60 m). Wing area, 171·9 sq n
(15,97 m').
I. A. R.B I
( Abol'eolldbelow) Consilleredinferior to the PZL P.l Ibon the score of
mallMlll'rabilitJ', the I.A.R.15 - the prOtotype of which is iIIwtraled
abol'e - was restricted to a series offiW! aircraft .
cannon wi th MG lSI cannon of similar calibre, deliveries
termina ting in January 1943. Performance data fo r the
I.A.R.8 1 (in clean condition) was essentially similar to that for
the l.A .R.80, and apart from the aforementioned increase in
wing span, dimensions were simil ar.
I.A. R.93
ROMAN IA
The I.A.R .93 single-seat close ai r support fighter has been
developed under a joint programme with the Yugoslav SOKO
organisation by which it is known as the Orao . T he CN IAR is
responsible for the Ro ma nian part of the programme, and the
two 4,000 Ib st ( 1814 kgp) Roll s- Royce Viper Mk 632-41
turbojets are licence-manufactured in Bucharest. There are
two final assembly lines for the I. A.R.93 a lias Orao, one at
Mostar in Yugoslavia a nd the o ther at Craiova in Ro mania,
and deliveries of production aircraft to bot h national air forces
were initia ted in 1980. Design leadership in this aircraft, which
is produced in both si ngle-seat and tandem two-seat versions,
is held by SOKO under which details will be included.
ROMANIA
Expansion of the operational versatility of the basic LA .R.80
design to embrace the fight er-bomber and dive bombing
missions resulted, in 1941, in appeara nce ofa modified version
of the fighter, the l.A. R.S I which was subsequently built on a
parallel assembly line with the I.A. R.80 a nd eventuall y
replaced the earlier model in 1942. Powered by a similar
I.A.R . K 14- IOOOA engine to that of the I.A.R.SO, the LA.R .8 1
embodied some struct ural strengthening, feat ured a 7·S7-in
(20-cm) increase in wi ng span a nd had centreline a nd
underwing racks for a 55 1-lb (250-kg) a nd two 11O-lb (50-kg)
bombs. The l.A.R.S l (50 built) a nd 81A (29 built) differed
only in wing armament, Ih is being similar to that of the
I.A.R.80A a nd 80 B respectively. The I.A. R.S I A was dispersed
on the lin<' with the LA . R.8 1B (50 built) lo ng-range fighter
with wet points in the wings for two drop tanks and a n
a rmament of two 20-mm MG FF ca nnon and fo ur 7,92-mm
machine guns. The fina l production model, the I.A .R.S IC (3S
built), differed from the SI B primarily in replacing the MG FF
PAGE 45
MOSQUITO
Jrompage30
Monchengladbach. The two Oboe squadrons. Nos 105 a nd
109, received the Mosquito XV I in March 1944 and in due
course Ihis mark. which was the most important of the
wartime Mosquito bombers, equipped another four squadrons in the Light Nigh t Striking Force, comprising the
previously mentioned No 692 and Nos 128, 571 and 60S. The
L SF squadrons also were the principal users of the
Canadian -built Mosquito XX a nd 25 bomber versions
described below, a nd another three units. Nos 142. 162 and
163. were principally equipped wit h the Mk 25 . Oflhesc units.
No 162 was in course of converting 10 ope rations wi th H2Sequipped aircraft when t he war in Europe ended .
Although the importance of the Mosqu ito in the pathfi nding a nd o ther special roles ca nnot be igno red. it was the
squadrons of the Li ght Nigh t Striking Force th at achieved the
most o bvio us results wit h the bomber versions. Througho ut
1944 and the months of 1945 until the end of the war, the eight
Mosquito squadrons ranged freel y over Germany, freque ntl y
led to their targets by the Oboe-equipped PF F units and then
bom bi ng wi th a precision that could ofte n not be ach ieved by
Main Force ··heavies". Berlin became the major target and
during Ma rch 1945 was visited o n 27 successive nights; on the
night of 2 1/22 March, all eight sq uadrons attacked in two
waves, with just over I 00 in the first and 35 in the second. 20
aircraft actually participati ng in both waves. Between January
and May 1945, the LNSF Mosquitoes dropped 1.459
"cookies" on Berlin alone, a nd 1,500 on other targets. The
squadrons of No 8 Group (incl uding the three PFF units), flew
a tota l of 26,255 sorties for the loss of 108 aircraft (plus 88
written off as a result of battle damage); overall Bomber
Command statistics at the end of the war showed a total of
39.795 Mosquito sorties fo r the loss Qf 254, a loss rate of 0·63
per cent - the best. by a very substant ial margin . of any type
operated by the Command . A total of 26.867 tons of bombs
was dropped. The concept of the high speed unarmed bomber
was clearly justified.
By the time the wOl r ended. production was switching from
the B Mk XV I to the B Mk 35, a version first flown on 12
March 1945. and differin g in havi ng 1.690 hp Merlin 113/ 114
engines. Production o f the B Mk XV I tota lled 400, of which
195 were built by Perciva l Aircraft and the remainder by de
Havilla nd a t Hatfield. The B Mk 35 production total was 276.
of which about 60 had been delivered by VE day but none had
entered operations.
possible need to transfer it s main activities to Canada in view
of the thrcat of in vasion in the UK. but whereas Australian
production (exclusively of fightcr·bomber, PR a nd training
versions) was to meet local operational needs, the Ca nadian
programme was undertaken primarily to allow Canada's
industrial re~ources to make a contribution to Britain's need
for war supplies. In co nsultation with de Havilland's
Canadian company at Downsview. out side Toro nto, the
Canadian and Brit ish government s agreed in June 1941 to a
proposa l that Mosquitoes should be built at Downsview.
where the c<lpacity was estimated to be 40 aircraft a month,
a nd the Ministry of Ai rcraft Production pl aced a contract for
International
400_
Canadian production was concerned princi pally wit h the
bomber variants. a nd made use of Packard-built versio ns of
the Merlin engine. The fir st 25 ai rcraft were based o n the
proposed British B Mk V, ie, the B M k IV Srs 2 wit h the bnsic
wing , and were designated B Mk VII ; usi ng mostly British
supplied components. the first of these new a t Downsview on
24 September 1942 and all were retained in North America,
including six transferred to USAAF as F-8 pho tographicrecon naissance aircraft . The B Mk VI I, which was powered by
1,460 hp Packa rd Merlin 31 engines, was followed by the B Mk
XX , this being one of the principal Canadian production
versions wit h North American equipment thro ugho ut and
Packard Merlin 31s or 33s, respet:tively with 12lb/sq in a nd 14
Ib/sq in (5,4 and 6,4 kg/cml) boost ra tings. Some 60 MOSQui to
B Mk XXs were off the line by the end of 1943 and the total of
245 was reached before mid· 1944. The B Mk 25 followed.
differing o nly in having Merlin 225 engines with 181b/sq in (8.2
kg/cm! ) boost, and the first of 400 built was accepted at
Downsview on 7 Jul y 1944.
Delivery of the Ca nadian·built Mosquitoes to Britain began
in August 1943 and the first B Mk XXsentered service with No
139 Squadron in November 1943. nying thei r first operation '
o n 2 December. In all, 135 of this ma rk reached Britain , to be
fo llowed in 1944/45 by 343 B Mk 25s. As already noted. they
served with v:lrious squadrons in No 8 G roup's LNSF. and the B
M k 25 exclusively eq uipped Nos 142, 162 and 163 Squadrons.
Pl ans to prod uce a version with Packard-built two·stage
Canadi an Mosq ui toes
Plans for the productio n of Mosq uitoes in Canada were first
considered in 1940, at a time when de Havilland even foresaw a
( &10"'"' ) Post· .....ar, some late,production Mosquito bombers .....ere modified to serl'e '.....ith Ih~ RA F in other roles - l or exumple this TT M k 35 lurgel·lug.
AJew others "'En v :por/t'(1 into pril'ute o .....nership. Silch us (abol'e r;ghl ) litis ~xumplf!jfo ... n in Spain as Ee· WKH b)' Capl Rudy Bo)', ...·ho lUlU found~d
the Spuntax t"ompany.
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PAGE 46
AIR tNTERNATIONAl/ JANUA RY 1983
THE RISE AND fAll Of
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AEROSPACE-WHERE ITS BEEN
ITS GOING.
JANE'S AVIATION REVIEW
Edited by Michael J. H. Taylor
Aerospace is moving faster than ever,
and this is the theme for this year's
Jane's Aviation Review. a lively and
informative insight into developments
and trends in military and civil aviation.
Military developments dominate once
more and are covered by articles on
killer satellites and the Bright Star Us.
Egyptian joint exercise. Aircraft are also
working harder than ever in the service
of mankind, as John W. R. Taylor reveals
in Wings For the Third World.
Aerospace continues to force the pace
of technological innovation, while good
old Ideas like the biplane and airship are
making a comeback. The untimely ends
of Laker Airways and the replica Gee-
I
JANE S
----
Bee Racer are discussed. and there is a
record of this year" s events and the
anniversaries of the air.
£7. 95 160 pages 175 black·and·white
illustrations
ALSO AVAILABLE
( Above) Thejirsl Canadian M osquito, KOlOO, which made its maidenflighl on 24 September /942. II wasrepresenlalil'e o/the B Mk XX production
\'ersion, an example of which is shown ( below right) a/lerarril'al in the UK.
Merlins similar to the Merlin 76, as the Mosquito B Mk 23, did
not proceed; an alternative proposal was to install (wo·stage
Packard-built Merlin 695 and the 4.000·lb ( I 816-kg) bombbay in aircraft a lready delivered to Brita in a nd in January 1945
onc such conversion, made by Marshalls of Cambridge, was
flight-tested. This plan was dropped because it seemed unlikely
that large numbers of conversions could be made quickly
enough to see operational service before the war ended, but
five B Mk 255 were given the enlarged bomb-bay for
operations with No 627 Squadron.
T he bomber post-war
As already briefly recorded, the final production version of the
Mosquito in the bomber role was the B Mk 35, used post-war
by two squadrons in Bomber Command and three in
Germany. The Bomber Command units were Nos 109 and
139, the two pathfinder units; these Hew the Mosquitoes from
Hemswell, Lines, until replaced by Canberras in July 1952 and
June 1953, respectively. In Germany, No 6 13 Squad ron was
renumbered No 69 in August 1945 and Hew B Mk 35sat Wahn
until disbanded in November 1947; No 14, also a t Wahn,
remained on the type until 1950, as did No 98 at Celie.
Starting in 1952, 105 surplus B Mk 35 bombers were
converted to IT Mk 35 configuration as target tugs, and a few
of these later btx:ame Met Mk 35s for weather reconnaissance.
Ten other bombers were modified as PR Mk 35s to operate on
photo-recce missions by night, some of these serving wit h No
58 Squadron. Thus, the Mosquito maintained its reputation
for versati lity right to the end . Conceived as a high-speed
unarmed bomber, it performed outstandingly in that role, but
also spanned an enormous variety of other marks destined to
serve in a lmost every offensive role in which the RAF itself
engaged during World War 11. As the Sea Mosq uito, it carried
torpedoes and Hew from carrier decks, extending still further
the range of missions performed in what was, without
question, Britain 's most versatile warplane of the 'forties.
Many of the fighter and fighter-bomber variants also served
with forei gn air forces after being retired from the RAF - but
that is another story, to be told in the next issue of AIR
I NTERNATIONAL. 0
The M osquito B M k 25 was the major Canadian production \'ersian , differing/rom the Mk XX in having up-boosted M erlins. Many came to the UK 10
equip squadrons 0/ the Light Night Striking Force.
JANE'S MILITARY REVIEW
Edited by Ian V. Hogg
£7.95 160 pages 175 black·and·white
illustrations
JANE'S NAVAL REVIEW
Edited by Captain John E. Moore RN
£7.95 160 pages 175 black·and·white
illustratIons
JAN E'S
In your bookshops OON or. in case of
difficulty, write to the Sale. Department,
Jene'. Publishing Company,
238 City Road, London ECtV 2PU.
PAGE 47
II P8111_________1
"The Sporty Game: The High Risk
ComfU! lilil'f' Businl'ssof Making and Selling
Commercial Airliners"
by John Newhouse
Alfred A Knopf, New York , $U·9j
142 pp. 6 in by 9 in
TIllS IS an excellent survey of the aircraft
industry's experiences with the commercial
ai rliner during the past 20 yea rs; it focuses
upon the wide-body generatio n of aeroplanes.
However, it is only superficia lly an "aeroplane" book; the heart ofits matter is business,
finance and politics. It treats with Boeing's
troubled rise to its current supremacy. the
mutually destructive competition between
Douglas and Lockheed, the ineptitude of
McDonnell-Do ugla s, the unexpected but
spectacular success of Airbus Indusl rie, and
the imminent appea rance orlhe Japa nese.
Written with sobriety but nevertheless
highly readable, this book's enduring value is
the information the aut hor obtained during
extensive interviews with the industry, finan cial and political leaders in the USA, Engla nd
and Europe by way o f determining why and
how cen ain things happened the way they did,
It is a pity that the air transport business
cannot have a historical analysis of this quality
every five years or so. To anyone even slightly
interested in the subject, this book cannot be
recommended too highly. - RKS.
"Chosen Illstrument: Thr: Triumph and
Tragedyo/ PanAm anti iu Founder, Juan
Trippe "
b)' Matylin Belltieranti Selig Aluchul
Simon &: Schwter, New York ,5 / 9·95
655 pp, 6 in by 9 in, iIIus/rated
nus VOLUMIi hus been awaited for a long time:
a solid, analytical biography o f Juan Trippe
(1899-1981) and a history of his ai rline, The
two were synon ymous. The authors are wife
and husba nd. she a forme r financial editor for
the New Yo rk T imes, he a former economic
anal ys t for the US Civil Aero nautics Board.
They bring unusual expertise to the subject;
and the result is an extraordinarily good book,
The title sets the theme. Although " the
chosen instrument" is an expression of British
origin, devised to serve the creation of Imperial
Airways (1924), Trippe co-opted it to create a
popular image o f PanAm as the " instrument"
of US overseas airline aviation. In truth.
PanAm was a self-choscn instrument. The US
Government was stuck with it, often to the
Government's convenience but frequently to
its embarrassment, for almost a quartercentury. Trippe was obsessed by making the
"self-chosen instrument" official ; but his
obtuse efforts to establish PanAm as the
United States' sole overseas airline only served
to alienate the Government goose which laid
all the golden eggs which the American airlines
were permitted to hatch. After 1950, the re were
no more golden eggs for PanAm .
The text focuses upon personalities, politics,
management and finance. A strange man,
Trippe was a well-tailored Ivy League variant
of Howard Hughes; but instead of being a
public recluse he hid within himself. There is
nothing likeable abou t his person. Like man y
an empire builder, he was a poor manager. In
1939, at what appea red to be the ai rline's
PAGE 48
pinnacle of success, PanAm ac tually stood at
the edge of financial disaster. Only the
o utbreak of war in Europe saved its new
transatlantic operations from in fl icting a
probably fatal financial haemorrhage upon the
company.
Trippe's wartime ac tivities come close to
demonstrating Samuel j ohnson's aphorism
( 1775) that patriotism is the last refuge o f a
scoundrel. But for Trippe, this was a first and
last refuge; practically an operating base.
When he reti red in 1967, he left the company
teetering on anothe r brink of disaster and by
1975 PanAm was actually prepari ng for
bankruptcy. PanAm's financial health remains
a subject of grim speculation as this no te is
penned .
Even 600 pages of tightly-written text must
sweep past many aspects of a subject as big and
complex as PanAm and its foun der and some
readers will be disappointed that the authors
did not fi nd space to parade their own special
hobby horses. There will be o ther histories of
PanAm, but all will have to stand on the
fo undatio n created by this book . Anyone
remotely interested in air Iransportation in
general or Pa nAm in pa rticular will requi re
this volume in their library. The text is
accompanied by ' I6 pages with 30 photos and
four maps, - RKS.
" The Aerojilms Book 0/ Britain/rom the Air"
by Bernard Stonehouse
Weidenfeld &: Nicolsoll, London, l/4·95
160 pp, 10 ill by IJ~ in, illustrated
THEREarejust three photographsof aero planes
and one of a n air5hip in this volume, so to
mention it in these pages may seem perverse.
Without aero planes, ho we ver, the 152 colour
AIR INTERNATIONAL/ JANUARY 1983
photographs of Britai n could not have been
taken. Drawn from the archives of Aerofilms,
they a re presented in lhe form ofa "ramble by
air" from one end of Britain to the other and
back again - splendid, interesting photo·
graphs with informative captions, lackingonly
a note of the date o n which each photograph
was take n to add specific in terest for the
reader.
" utters/rom Amelia; An Imimme Portrait 0/
Amelia Earhart "
by Jean L Backus
Beacoll Press, Bostol/ . 5 /4 ·95
250 pp. 6 in by 9 ill, iIIuStratel1
nils IS a once-over-lightly biography of this
'famous woman of the 1930s; it is structured
around a rather interesting collectio n of letters
fro m Ea.rha.rt to her mother. Theauthorknows
precious little about aviation and, clea rl y, did
not try vcry hard to inform herself: but given
the focus of these pages this is merely
a nnoying, and not seriously so. The book does
not a ttempt to traffic upon Earhart's scnsationaliscd d isappearance of 1937 and aficionados of the s ubject will find these pages more
tha n sa tisfactory. The text is served by 26
pho tos. - RKS,
~'"",.~.
~~
-
_. -
( Left and /wlow ) These hot air balloon.f are no/
among the most difficult aircraft shapes to
identify, but preci.Je de/ails can Iw found in the
Air-Britain " UK and Ireland Civjl Regis/ers ",
G·PERR is rt'gistered as a Cameron 60 Boltle
H AFB while G- HO US is a Colt JIA Air Chair
HAFB .
.....
To check the \'Dlue of /he two Airline Fiet'fs publication.f noted on this page. we picked these Ihree
iIIuslrations off the ellitorial Ilesk . Qui/e rea.ronably, the Air-Britain publicatioll lists nOIlt' 0/ them,
since none is in airline ser ~ice . The J P publicatioll spreads ils net wider, to inc/Ilde go~ernmellf-owl/ed
airliners. and lists ( abo.'e) the Boeing 720.()2JB A6- flflR a/the UAE Royal Flighl and (below) lilt'
707-3 P IC A7·AAA of the Ruler of Qatar. It misidelllijies, however, the BA C Ol/e-Elew!fI HZ-G Pl
.-_..:.
(""
;;;;l Iom le}t) as a Boeing 727 - unless the marking has been reallocaled.
chosen illustrations. some in colour, including
air force insignia and markings.
" Fligh llnternational Directory 0/ European
Aviation 1982"
Editedby Ma/colm Gin.fberg
IPC Transport Press Ltd, Sutton. Surrey,
£1O.()()
Registers, fleet lisls , , ,
IiAl.f-A-OOZEN volumes that have reached us
for review in the past few weeks go to show just
how well·served is the aviation enthusiast of
the 'eigh ties. New editions o f some established
"classics", and an important new title, as listed
below, reach new standa rds of completeness
and accuracy in their particular fields and
reflect the dedication of the individuals and
groups responsible for their preparation.
Especially noteworth y is the ne w ( 16th)
edi tion of " jP Airline Reets International" .
Emanating from Switzerland, but published in
English, this volume now covers 2,61 5 airline.
air taxi and aerial work operators in 178
countries and lists, by regist ration, 24, 165
".
Annua ls and Directories
WE NOTE the publication of new edit ions of
several established reference works and one
title that is new, this being the "Aight
Directory of European Aviation", This is a
useful partner for the well· known " Directory
of British Aviation", providing a wealth of
informa tion about avia tion companies (manufacturing a nd operating) throughout Europe,
plus a very selective (ie, not very extensive)
"Who's Who in European Aviation".
The " lnteravia ABC" covers the same field
more full y as just o ne section of its world-wide
content, but is, of course, more expensive than
the " Aight" ver5ion, and less hand y to use.
GAMTA, thc General Aviation Manufacturers' and Traders' Association, has produced a new (third) edition ofa directory with
much useful information in its particular field,
and the second edition o f the British Airport
Equipment Ca talogue is handsome and well
produced, incorporating a special 50-page
section ofairpon planning data for the British
Aerospace BAe 146. The two last-mentioned
are distribu ted free o f charge to interested
parties: application should be made to the
addresses noted below,
aircraft in service with those companies. The
one-line entries provide details of c/n, previous
identity, yea r o f manufaclUre, power plan t,
max certificated weight, configuration and
other notes. There are many useful appendices,
including tabulated aircraft data a nd 125
colour photographs showing airline liveries.
The " Air Britain" competitor, " Airline
ReelS '82",covers some 1, IOO opera to rs in 163
counlries, but has the advamage of being
cheaper a nd much more portable for use
during airpo rt visits. The other "Air Britain"
pUblication, devoted to U K a nd Ireland
registers up to ea rl y 1982. follows its familiar
format but is 10 per cent longer. Also in the
same pattern as before are both Lars Olausson's
fourth edition o f a "Lockheed Hercules
Production List" and the eighth edi tion of
" Wrecks and Relics", a rat her misleadinglytitled guide to all preserved aircraft in the U K
and Eire.
The new title in this batch is " Militair 1982",
which does for air forces roughl y the same as
the " jP Airline Aeets" does for airlines.
Intended to be published annually, this volume
sets out to provide a directory of thc World's
air forces, wilh summaries of organisation,
and historics, maps showing location of bases
and o ther releva nt information for each. Other
books are on the market covering the sa me
field, in some cases in more detail and with
more information: what makes this vol ume
unique is that the author has set out also to list
the equipment of each arm by type and serial
number. It is a mind-boggling task, and
inevitabl y there arc gaps and inaccuracies,
some of which will no doubt be put right in
future editions as users discover them a nd
inform the au thor. There are many well-
"J P Airline- Ffeeu International 1982"
by FE Bucher . U Klee and olhers
Edition.f JP, PO Box 293, C H-8058 Zurich
Airport, Switzerland, S FrJ 9·95
U K distributor:
A viatioll Hobby Shop. 4 Horton Parade,
Horton RII, West Drayton, Middlesex,
UB 7 8EA, £I 1·]5 (inc postagt')
440 pp, II ill by 8 in , ilfuSlrated
" Airline Fleels 82"
by Chris Chatfield and Da~id Wilkin.son
Air Britaill Sales, Stone Cottage, Gt Samp/ortl,
Saffron Walden. wex C BIO 2 RS, [5-(JOPOSI
free
320 pp. spiral bound, 7t in by4t in
" UK and IrelandCMI Regi.tlers l 982 "
by Malcolm P Fillmore
A ir Brilain Sales ( addreu a.s abol·e) . [j ,()()
post f ree
2 14 pp, 9* in by 61 in, ilfu.strated
" Lockheed Hercules Production ListI9j4·
1983"
byLArsOlaUS5on
AI'aiiable/rom Iheauthor, Box 142, S ·53012,
Sdlemh, Sweden (giro al c 541636-7) , l 1-80
inc/usil'eo/postage, Also in the UK/rom
Mill/alld Counties Publications
72 pp , in by 5t in
8*
" Wrecks and Relics"
by Ken Ellis
M erseyside A~iation Socie/y Ltd, 5 Bamtillie
Road, Lil'r:rpool U 8 I EN, U95 ( plus 55p
postage/packing)
192 pp, in by6 in. illustrated
8*
" Mi/itair 1982 "
by John Andrade
A I'iation Preu Ltd, 25 Templt' S heen Rood.
London S IY/4 7PY, [9·95 ( plw £1 ,55 pastage/
packing in UK, £2,55 ol'ersea.s)
368 pp, 8t in by 5i in , illu.strated
604 pp, 8i in by 5t in
'Interavia ABC 1982"
S A , Genel'a, Switzerland
1,450 pp. lit in by8 ill
IlItera~ia
"General A ~iatjon in Britaill "
GAMTA Ltd,
26 High Street. Brill, Aylesbury, Bucks
108 pp, 81 in by 5i in
" British Airport Equipment Ca ta/ogue "
Combined Sen'ice Publication.f Ltd,
PO Box 4, Farnborough, HanuGU/4 lLR
J60pp, lI i in by8t in
Best of the rest
SHORTAGE of space precludes publication of
more complete re views of the followin g
recentl y-published titles.
"A World to Conquer"
by Ernest A M cKay
A rco Publishing Inc, New York, USA, S12·95
200 pp. 9 in by6i in, iIIwtrated
THEstory of the first round-the-world flight , by
Douglas D-WC biplanes.
" M oving Tent "
by Richard Prusmore
ThomQ.f Harmsworlh Publishing , Lomlon , [ 7,95
248 pp,8~ in by5i in, illustrated
STOItY of the au tho r's five-year imprisonment
aftcr bailing-out ofa Blenheim over Germany
in 1940: sequel to " Blenheim Boy".
"A viation Entllusiasu' Guide 10 London &: the
South East "
by Pe /er G Cook.Jley
Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge, [8·95
184 pp, 9i in by6 in , iIIwtrated
UNIfORM with this publisher's "Action Stations" series, traces man y little known aviation
artifacts and allusions in England's bottom
right-hand corner.
PAGE 49
AUSTRALIA
..;,,,,,,,"1
'~";.~' I
;Il
AUSTRALlAN BAS IC TRAINER
fU LL SCALI! DEVELOPMENT of the Aus tralian
Basic Trainer (which has sometimes been
referred to as the A. IO) was launched o n 16
June las t, whe n the Aust ralian Department for
Defence Support placed a SAus36m (£20'8m)
conl ract (at January 1981 prices) with the
Australian Aircraft Consortium Pty Ltd
(AAC) for design, develo pment, cons truction
and Hi~t testing o f two pro totypes, toge the r
with ai rfra me and component specimcns for
static and fati gue tes ting and damage tolerance
testing. Details o f the ABT were first included
in Air Data File in our August 198 1 issue and a n
updated specificatio n is given below. The
programme now under way provides for
pro tot ype first Hight in February 1985,
completio n o f RAAF Type Acceptance by
Apnl 1987 and - subject to confinnation of
production plans in due course - fi rs t Hight of
a production aircraft and e ntry into service
with the RAA F in 1988.
The A BT is intended as a replacement for
the Cf4 Airtrainers that ha ve been in service
since 1976, and the RAAF requiremen t is for
69 aircraft. Including production of spares and
support equipment, the total acquisition cost is
estimated to be SAusl55m (£89·7m) at August
198 1 prices. The AAC believes tha t there is a
potential international ma rket for abo ut 200 of
the trainers. Following the contract awa rd, the
AAC a nno unced the appointment of Alan J
Smith as general manager and Robert C
Den ~ate as chief designe r. Mr Smith was
preVlously project designer, guided weapons,
at the Government Aircraft factories and Mr
Dengale was p'reviously chief designer o f
Hawker de HaVilland. The Australian Aircraft
Consortium, which was set up to handle ABT
design and production, is jointly owned by
GAF. Hawker de Havilland and Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, a nd will
place s ub-contracts with these companies for
the design and manufactu ring activities.
The ABT has been desiened to meet RAAF
requirements expressed In the staff target
AFST 5044 issued in 1979, and confo nns to
Specification AC 180. The principal demands
of this requi remcnt were set o ut in detail in the
previously cited AirDoto File reference. The
aircraft has been designed fo r ab initio pilot
training, aerobatics, cross-country navigation
eAercises and introductory weapons training; it
is intended tha t the perfo nnance will be
adeq ua te for the first 100 ho urs of pilot
trai ning, fo r studen ts with no prior flying
experience, whereas the Cf4 is s uitable fo r
only abou t 60 hrs.
Aircraft structure will be primarily o f allmetal stressed skin type, with selective use of
advanced composi te ma terials to be introduced on production aircraft. The RAAF
requi res a minimum service life o f 8,000 Hying
hours spread over 20 yea rs. Other characteristics include the choice of a turbop rop engine,
an electrically operated tricycle undercarriage
designed for grass or semi-prepared surfaces,
and side-by-side seating with sufficient space in
the rear of the cockpit for two extra seats or
additional equipment. Low maintenance costs
and minimum ma intenance infrastructure are
among the design objectives. with a ta rget of 2
MMH (at uni t level) per flight hour.
Because of the density o f Hyi ng acti vities
aro und the major Aust ralian training bases.
the ABT is designed to have a high rate of
climb and the ability to sustain a 2·Sg turn at
missions is 4,410 Ib (2000 kg) in acco rdance
with the specification, but weights o f up to
5,730 Ib (2600 kg) are to be available for
ahe rnative roles. At the lower weight, the
ai rcraft will have limit load factors o f + 7·0g
a nd - 3·0g.
The basic training pro fil e for the ABT is a
9O-minute sortie for ,eneral handling, lowflyi ng and circuits; tYPically, on such a sortie,
the ABT would reach 10,000 ft (3 050 m) 15
minutes afte r starting to taxi, spend 25 min on
spins, aerobatics and stalls, then desce nd for 35
min of cruising and circuits a t low level. Two
such sorties will be possible without intennediate refuelling; total endurance is 3 hrs
plus a 50-min reserve at best e ndura nce speed
at 10,OOOft (3 050m). Alternative profiles a re a
low-level na vigatio n exercise, with a duration
o f 110 min fl ying at 200 ft (6 1 m) at 180 kt (333
kmfh), and a 120-min medIUm level navigation
sorlie at the same speed at 15,000 ft (4 572 m).
Operating altitudes a nd conditions for
which the ABT has been designed include the
following:
Inverted (- I g)
20 sec minimum,
30 sec desirable
10 sec minimum
Vertical flight , nose up
20 sec minimum
Vertical flight , nose down
Roll, ± 30 deg
60 sec minimum
Pitch, + 20 des. no roll
5 min
90 sec
Pitch, - 30 des. no roll
90 sec:
Pitch, + 20 deg wi th 30 deg roll
Pitch, - 30 deg wi th 30 deg roll
4 min
Knife edge (wings vertical)
10 sec minimum
Zero-g conditions
5 sec
Spin
30 sec minimum
After studying a number of alternatives, the
AAC has chosen the well-prove n Pratt &
Whitney PT6A to po....-er the ABT. A turboprop
was preferred to a piston engine because of
increasi ng diffic ul ties over the supply of Avgas,
for the sake o f relia bility and mamtai nability,
to obtain the benefit o f reduced vi bration levels
and because vi rtually all Australian pilots will
in future be transitioning to turbine-powered
ai rcraft a fter completing thei r fl ight training.
As equipped for the RAAF. the productionmodel ABT will have an environmental
control system that will be able to produce
comfortable cockpit conditions within five
minutes of start-up, following a pre-flight soak
of up to four hours wi th the canopy open in a
temperature of 45 deg C. A low pressure
diluter/demand type oxygen system will be
provided, for use up to 25,000 ft (7 620 m) with
3 hrs capacity. The aircraft will be all-electric,
Som~ minor
with no hydraulic system, and avionics will
include single VHF and UH F communications
systems! TACAN, AOF. transponder. Q ro
magneuc compass a nd a three,posilio n
intercommunications system.
Po",er Plant: One Pratt & Whitney PT6A-25C
IUrboprop rated a t 750 shp (559 kW). driving a
propeller of 7 rt 6 in (2,29 m) diameter. Full
load, 869 1b (394 kg),
Performance: Max speed, 228 kls (422 km/h) at
15,000 ft (4 752 m) and 20S klS (380 km/h) at
sea level; max cruise, 217 kts (402 kmfh) at
15,000 n (4572 m) and 193 kts (357 kmfh) at
sea level; approach speed , 73 kts (1 35 kIn/h)
CAS; stalling speeds, 64 kts (118,5 km/h) fl a~
up and 57 kts (105,5 km/h) landing flaps; initial
ft (725ftm);
ta,~';;:i; ~;:~~;~~h'
3,710
(I1~
(295 kmlh);
ft (7 620 m); take-ofT distance to 50 n (15,2 m),
1, 180 n (360 m); landing distance from 50 n
(15,2 m), ) ,640 n (500 m),
Desip speeds: Limit speed VL, 280 kts (5 19
kmfh) EAS up to 16,000 n (4877 m), M L,
0·575; max level fli ght speed VH, 240 kts (444
kmfh) EAS up to 16,000 n (4877 m), MH,
0·493; max gust speed Vo, 182 kts (337 kmfh)
EAS up to 16,000 ft (4 877 m).
Weights: Equipped empty weight, 3,064 Ib
( 1390 kg);aircrew, 420 Ib ( 19Okg): parachutes,
40 Ib ( 19 kg); survival pack, 20 Ib (9 kg); usable
fuel, 13 1b (6 kg); full usable fuel . g551b (388
kg); max take-off, training configuration,
4,41 0 Ib (2000 kg); max take-off, future
versions, 5.7321b (2600 k ~).
DimeDSiQDS: Span, 36 ft I In}; '"";' .~' ~, ";~'
33 ft Ii in (10,10 m); height,
wi ng reference a rea, 215·3
undercarriage track, II n:
wheelbase, 8 ft 9 in (2,67 m).
INDIA
H A.L AJ EET T RAI NER
first flight of the HAL Ajcct Trainer at
Bangalore on 20 September 1982, in the hands
ofWg Cdr M W THa k, provides a further lease
of life for the aircraft that began its life as the
Petter-designed Folland-built Gnat light fighter. As a fighter, the Gnat's primary success
was achieved through the licence agreement
negotiated by the Indian government in
September 1956. leading to the asse mbl y by
HAL of 2 13 Gnats as well as 15 assembled
wholly or in part from U K-su pplied comTHE
-,,-;,-".;,-;
m); fcrry ra nge
(900 km); ferry end ura nce,
Weights: Empty, 5,686 lb (2579 kg); normal
take-off. clean, 8,000 Ib (3629 kg); max takeo ff,9.683 Ib (4 392 kg).
Oim('nsions: Span, 22 ft I in (6,73 m); length, 34
ft 3! in ( 10,45 m); height, 8 ft 5i in (2,58 m);
underca rriage track, 5 ft I in ( 1.5 m);
wheelbase, 10 ft I in (3,07 m); wing area, 157·7
sq ft ( 14,65 m l); anhed ral, 5 degconsta nt.
Armament: Two 3O-mm Aden cannon in
fo rward fuselage. Two inboard wing strongpoints - each carry o ne 550-Ib (250-kg) bomb,
one 500-lb (227-kg) Mk 2 1 H E bomb with
Type 11 2 tail unit, o ne Type 122 practice
rocket pod, or one C BLS carrying four 25-lb
(I I-kg) practice bombs, o ne 57-mm rocket pod
o r a cluster bomb.
rate of climb, 2,250 ft /min (11,43 m/sec); time
10 10,000 ft (3050 m), 5·5 min; service ceiling
(for 200 ft/min, 1,02 m/sec climb ratc), 25,000
ponents. In the UK, meanwhile, Folland had
evolved the Gnat Trainer fo r the RAF, with
tandem seatin, and a slightly enlarged airfram e; productIon totalled 105.
In 1975, HAL first flew a prototype o f an
improved version of the Gnat which It named
Ajeet (Invincible) a fter first referring to it as
the Gnat 2. This introduced a num ber o f
systems and annament improvements, a nd
production totalled 89, wit h deliveries completed in March 1982. Although this appeared
to bring down the c urtain on production of
Petter's no table light fighter a ft cr 22 yea rs,
work was already well adva nced in India on
HAL's own version o f a two-seat training
variant, to meet an Indian Air Force reljuirement for a replacement for its Hunte r tramers.
Ajeet Trainer uses
same basic
,,;;~';,~;:~ the single-seat
but
Ie
fuselage, with:, ,,_.: ~: ,_, : _,and nosewheel
",;5«1 rockp;' ;~" ,od~':Cd-, d;'p"'ci,'~
rellisiot/$ hal'e bun made to the AU.flro/ian &sic Trainer. as shown her€'. sinu a threeI'i~wdrawing wasfirst published in our August 1981 issue.
tho
- -- - --,
traini~~g~b;;;;:;;;;;;;~~~~~S~~g;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;~
manoeuvres can be perfonned at or above that
10,000 The
ft (3 050
m). so thaweight
t all manual
level.
maximum
for training
provision
tanks.
Performance (Oean, max internal
sea level. uro wind): Max I I 'p'= , ."m{,"
(J 070 kmfh); max s~ at
km), M = 0·95; initIal rate
ftl min (16,5 m/sec:); time to -')''- .,,,- ,.
(l2000 m), 7·5
.",.•
~ - ,"
r~~;~!~1~1~~:~1fl~j~~~~~~~.lr~[~~gearis
generator serves
DC
system, wi th two static
; ~::f~:;i;! fo r AC, a nd two sta nd-by batteries.
p
comprise a UfVH F communica tion
bCSli·;;<nd.-~bY UHF, IFF M k 10 and
11
the cockpits. The two 30are re tai ned, a nd there a re
points fo r assorted ordancc
:;;;;;;om
' ~£i~:'~~~;t!~two
wet l pylons
outboard,
interna
fue l capacity
in
.:
The Ajeet Trainer is stressed for a maximum
sustained load of 4·6g. The loading envelope as
an intercepto r is + 7'2g and - 3·6g, and for
ground a ttack it is +8g and - 4·2g. The
maxi mum sustained tu rn rate a t sea level is 15
des/sec. The cockpit pressurisation system is
aCliva ted a utomatically as the aircraft climbs
through 15,000 ft (4 572 m) and auains its max
differen tial of 3·6 lb/sq in (0.25 kg/cm !) at
43,000 ft (13 106 m).
The Indian Air Force has ordered an initial
batch of 12 Ajeet Trainers for the OCU, at
presenteq ui ppcd with Hunter trainers, a nd the
India n Navy is likely to procure a t least eigh t.
Further o rders are expected to take total
productio n to 40 or more, apa rt from any
possible exports. At a unit cost o f abo ut Rs l
Crone (around £600,(00), the Ajeet Trai ner
appears to be one o f the most cost-effective
trainers currently available in its class.
Power P lant: One Ro lis- Royce(Bristol), HAL-
POLAND
PZL M-ZI MI Nl DROMADER
WSK factory of the Polish state i
induslry at Mielec has developed, C': ; ; :c : ' ~'
test-flying d uring 1982, a less
lighter version of the M- 18
prane. Kn-own as the M -2 1 Mini
has been developed under the
Ja roslaw Rumszewicz, a nd fl ight
the hands ofTade usz Pakula.
The origi nal M- 18 Dromade r. wi th a I
hp ASh-62 I R engine, is among the largest
most powerful o f ag-planes at present o n
market. Development of the M-21 , with
70 I;lCr cent commonality, offers operators
chOIce of a more economical aircraft when
working areas not exceeding 50 hectares,
particularl y if they al ready have M-1 8s also in
use. In size, the M-2 1 is close to another Polish
ag-plane, the PZL-I 06 Kruk (a product o f
T HE
The PZL Mini Dromader difl~rsfrom the 1.1-18 Dromoder primarily in respect ol;",h'''''''-'I''m
wing and leu powerful engine .
-------,
Th~ prototype
PZL Mini Dromader, shown in the Ihree-vie'tl'drol4'ing on the previous page, entered
flight tesling during /982. Production de/il'eries aft! not expected to begin umiI1986.
Okecie, Warsaw. factory), although the latter
has rather less engine power and a smaller
hopper capacity.
The M·21 differs in two principal respects
from its larger forebea r: the engine has been
changed to a 600 hp (442 k W) PZ L·3SR sevencylinder radial - uncowled, as in the M-1 8 and the wing span has been red uced by
changing the centre section. Altho ugh overall
length remai ns virtually unchanged, the size of
the ho pper in the fuselage ahead o f the cockpi t
is reduced from 550 Imp gal (2500 I) to 374
Imp gal ( I 700 I) in order to restrict the gross
weight to manageable limits.
.
Applications fo r the M·21 inelude field and
forest spraying, using water or oil·based
solutions o r oil or water·based aerosols:
dusting and seed·sowing. Polish sources have
spoken o f plans to produce the Mini Dra ma·
de r in fi ve versio ns, ineludi ng one with a
turboprop. Productio n is expected to begin at
Mielec in 1986 and then to proceed at a rate of
abo ut 50 a year.
PO~'er Plant: One 600 hp (442 kW) PZ L-3S R
air-cooled radial engine, dri ving a three-bladed
Polish·built propeller. Fuel capacity. 88·9 Imp
began test Hying for the Firefly 160M certification o n 15 July 1982. The first Firefly 160M
airframe was shown al Farnborough International '82 in a near-<:omplclc Sla le. and
sho uld have Slarted flight testing by the time
Ihis issue a ppears.
Slingsby will begin delivering FireHies next
year, the first an nounced order being for 10,
placed by Specialist Flying Training LId after
evaluation of the T67A lasting several months.
SFT will use the 'aircraft as primary trainers for
overseas students, fl ying from the College
Air Training at Hamble.
The Firefly 160M has been designed to
comply with BCAR Section K and the
ae roba tic category of FAR 23. and is stressed
for +6 and -38 at aeroba tic weight or +5
and - 2·5 g at max take·off weight. It has
manually-opcrated flaps and push-rod aile·
rons and elevator controls. $eating is side-byside beneath a large one-piece canopy that
opens up and rearwards.
Po~-er P lant: One Avco Lycoming AE IO-320DIB flat·four engine rated at 160 hp at 2.700
rpm for take-off. Hoffmann two· blade con·
stant speed propeller of 5 ft II in ( 1,80 m)
diameter. Fuel capacity, 24 1m p gal ( 1081).
Perfonnance (at aerobatic weight): Neverexceed speed (VNB), 175 kts (324 km /h); max
level speed, sea level, 132 kts (245 km/h):
cruising speed at 8.000 ft (2438 m), 118 kts
(2 19 km/h); initial rate ofelimb. 1,150 fi/min
(5,8 m/sec); take-offto 50 ft ( 15,2 m), 1,066 ft
(325 m); endurance, 2 hrs 45 mins (plus
reserves) at 65 per cent power.
Weights: Typical empty, 1.350 Ib(6 12 kg); max
ae robatic weight, 1,800 Ib (817 kg); max takeo ff and landing. 1,900 Ib (862 kg).
Dimensions: Span, 34 ft 9 in (10,60 m); length,
23 ft 0 in (7, 10 m); height. 8 n 3 in (2.5 1 m);
wing area, 136 sq ft ( 12,63 ml); dihed ral, 3 deg
30 mins constant ; aspect ra tio, 8·88: 1; under·
carriage track, 8 n 0 in (2.44 m); wheelbase, 4 ft
II in(l,50m).
A«ommodation: Two pilots side-by·side.
•
~
::: .
PC-7
Turbo Trainer
gal (404 1).
Performance: Max speed, 143 mph (230 km/h);
cruising speed. 141 mph (227 km/h); operating
speed range, 96- 119 mph (155· 180 km/h): takeoffdistancc to 50 ft (15.2 m), 1.542 n (470 m);
landin~ distance from 50 ft ( 15,2 m), 1.804 ft
(550 m); range (no reserves), 435 mls(700 km);
worki ng endurance, wit h 30-min transit
reserve, 3·6 hrs.
Weights: Max take-off. 7.275 Ib (3300 kg);
payload, 1,984 Ib (900 kg).
Dimensions: Span, 47 ft 71 in ( 14,5 I m); length.
3 1 ft 11 in (9.48 m); height. 12 n 61 in (3.82 m).
Pilafus
In Ihe same general calegoryas Ihe Aermacchi MB·339andpo....ered bya similar 4.(}()() Ib Sl ( 1814
kgp) Viper 632 turbojel. the SOKO Super Gafeb ( Super SeagufJ) appears to hm'e been heal'if),
injluenced by Ihe British Aerospace Ha'lI'k in its design. Possessing no commonalif), with the G2A
Goleb which i l is apparently intended 10 succeed in Yugoslav Air Force serl'ice, Ihe Super Gafeb has
apparently been under flight test since / 981. sel'eraf prototypes/pre·series aircrtift participating in
the flight del'elopment progromme by mid·J982, but the present prod/lclion status is uncertain.
Conforming with now standard practice. the Super Galeb possessesfollr wing ordnollce stations for
armament training and a secondary light strike r61e, and it may beassumed that. ifpre~ious Yugosla~
practice isfollo .....ed. a single-seal dedicated light tacticall'ersion will el'entually emerge.
Those are the facts:
• More than
300 Aircraft sold
• To 10 Air Forces
and Navies in 4 Continents
• To Airlines and Private Operators
F
UNITED KINGDOM
SLlNGSBY FIREFLY 160M
LTD, the recently renamed
aviation subsidiary o f the British Underwater
Engineering Ltd group of companies, eXpe<;ts
to have completed certification of the FIrefly
160M by the end of this year. Previously
known as the T67M, the Firefl y is an allBritish. all-plastics derivative of the Fournier
RF-6B, 10 examples o f which have been built
by Slingsby under licence as T67As.
The Firefly 160M differs from the T67A in
having a structure built entirely of glassreinforced plastics (G RP), and an uprated
Lycoming engine, offering 160 hp in place of
the 120 hp of the RF-6B(f67A. One o f the
T67As (G- BJ NG) was re-engined with the 160
hp unit, with a constant speed propeller, and
SLiNOSBY AVIATION
L
..
,=PILATUS=,
Pilatus Aircraft Ltd., CH-6370 Stans/Switzertand
Tel.: 041/631133. Telex: 78329. Cable: Pilatusair
Member of the Oertikon-Bilhrte Group
PlL-620
The G 222 is the only medium range
military transport aircraft available on the
market today. Wide operational capabilities and
high reliability even in critical flight conditions
are guaranteed by the advanced G.E. T64 P4D
turboengines.
The most sophisticated avionics systems and
airborne instrumentation enable the aircraft
to operate in all weather conditions
independentiy of ground assistance.
The G222 is certified for operation
with a crew of two and can take-off and land on
grass strips.
Its large volumetric capacity allows to carry a
wide range of loads (up to 20,000 Ibs.) or 53
fully equipped soldiers and to parachute 42
paratroopers or to air drop heavy loads up to
11,000 Ibs.
The G 222 can be rapidly converted to
fulfill rescue missions, aeromedical transport,
aerophotogrammetry, fire fighting and radio
calibration. And all the above at a very low
operational cost.