I lived in quarters above the main aircraft park at Changi, the western dispersal in the early 1960's and watched the UK endless Transport Command Britannias and Comets plying from the UK. As previously stated the standard route was from Lyneham to El Adem, then onto Khormaksar, where the 99 Sdqn and 511 Sqdn crews 'overnighted'. Their aircraft however were immediately continued onward by another crew, travelling to Gan and to Changi. Sometimes these then went onto Kai Tak or perhaps to Darwin and Edinburgh Field, if servicing the Woomera range.This 'slipping' of crews wasn't initially carried out by the 216 Sqdn Comet crews, but they often went to Kai Tak to pickup 'Casevacs' for ferrying back to UK hospitals.
When the Comet C4's took over from the Comet C2's in mid 1962, the 216 Sqdn crews also soon adopted 'slipping' as well. Overnighting didn't seem to only take place at Khormaksar though and depending on other factors crews could stop off and change aircraft at Gan or El Adem.
Here's a Britannia arriving:
Flight 6377 Britannia XL639 ‘Atria’ from Lyneham at Changi at 1120 on 15th July 1962 as the ground crew move towards the aircraft with the steps, auxiliary power unit and air-conditioning. The 511 Sqdn crew, under Flt.Lt.C. Brown, an Australian exchange pilot had left Lyneham on the 12th July as Flight 6376 in Britannia XM491 routing to El Adem and Khormaksar where they overnighted. They left for Gan and on to Changi now in XL639 as Flight 6377. Their aircraft was carrying both passengers and freight, the latter of which was unloaded into Royal Navy trucks using the large lift called a 'Britannia Freight Loading Platform' and a crane. The presence of a fire engine indicated it was probably carrying ammunition or missiles. The same crew were to leave Changi heading home as Flight 6378 on the 20th in XM497 and swopping to XM490 at Khormaksar as Flight 6379, arriving back at Lyneham on the 22nd.
Here's a Comet C4:
The last of the gorgeous Comet C4’s delivered to 216 Squadron, XR399 basks in the sun in June 1962. XR399 had left Lyneham on the 11th June, piloted by Flt. Lt. D. Draper, routing to El Adem and Khormaksar. On the 12th it left Khormaksar for Gan and Changi. Then going on to Darwin and Edinburgh Field and returning on the 16th, when this was taken. On the 17th it departed with Flt.Lt. Senior going to Gan, Khormaksar on the 18th, then Khormaksar to Karachi on the 19th. Karachi to Nicosia on the 20th and back to Lyneham on the 21st.
On the 27th Nov ‘62, captained by Flt.Lt. T. Clarke, XR399 hit the lead-in approach lights whilst landing at Gan. Tony Birchenough, a member of the crew sent to repair it remembered: “The flaps were knackered, with cartoon-like outlines of the approach lights embedded in the inner sets, the outer pair having badly kinked trailing edges. Apart from that and some minor damage to the fuselage skin, repaired by a party from the MU at Singapore, and damaged tyres, there was no further damage. We changed the badly damaged flaps, roughly straightened out the outer pair with the approval of the DH structures engineer and a week later, after new wheels had been fitted and a satisfactory air test had been carried out, we came home”. He adds: “ It was also rumoured at the time that it was not the Captain landing at Gan, but an onboard high-ranking officer, although naturally this was never confirmed.”
(Comet XR399 landing incident at Gan by Tony Birchenough -
Halton 81st Entry)
None Transport Command aircraft could choose different routes, here's a Vulcan that preferred Nairobi to Khormaksar:
Vulcan B1A XH476 piloted by Flt.Lt. J.C.Williams and his crew from 44 Squadron at Waddington taxi out for what they booked as a ‘practice demonstration scramble and display’ in the cool of the late afternoon of September 13th, although they were airborne for a total of 7 minutes only. They gave a rather longer display two days later at the Airshow on the 15th. The aircraft had left the UK on Sept 9th and arrived at Changi on the 12th via El Adem, Nairobi and Gan and apart from Pilot Flt.Lt. Williams the crew was Co-pilot Flt.Lt. G.W.Rippin, Navigator Radar Flt.Lt. G.B.Walker, Navigator Plotter Flt.Lt. J.F.Scofield and Air Electronics Op Flt.Lt. A.R.Yapp. The crew chief Chief Technician C.E. Pratt and technician Cpl. A.J. Riley were also onboard during the flights out and back so it was quite cramped in there.
The 20 Squadron Hunters were flown to Singapore in small groups and the first flight planned for seven stops from the MU at St Athan. Going to Luqa (Malta), Nicosia (Cyprus), Tehran, Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta and Bangkok to get to Tengah. The aimed at 4 days with 18 flying hours but in fact it took them 19 days, proving that flying in the Indian Monsoon season wasn't straight forward.
Here's a couple of later 20 Sqdn Hunter arrivals:
It's a long way to fly a jet fighter to Singapore and the ferry pilots of these two Hunters, XG272 and XG293 for 20 Sqdn. are seen telling the stories to the ground crews at Changi after their long flight in July 1962. Still in the full markings of 43 Sqdn, these were additional aircraft for 20 Sqdn at Tengah, which had reformed in the UK and and had started flying out to the Far East batches of their newly converted FGA9 Hunters directly from the MU at St Athan, beginning in mid-1961. These FGA9’s were F6’s, with quite a lot of mods, such as pylons for large 230-gallon fuel tanks inboard and 100-gallon tanks outboard, rails for mounting 3inch high-explosive rockets, a braking parachute, Marconi AD722 radio-compass, extended oxygen capacity and air-conditioning. The Hunters with their long-range tanks had a range of about 1,500 miles and the aircraft routed Malta (Luqa), Cyprus (Nicosia), Tehran, Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta and Bangkok to Singapore. Such deliveries by air required that some of the airfields used were 'civilian' and the Hunters Avpin starters had to be supplied with the highly flammable fuel by BOAC personnel. However by 6th November 1961 ten of the FGA9’s and a T7 were all in Singapore, giving the squadron a full complement plus two spares. These two new aircraft were also initially kept as spares, going into storage before being rotated to into service.
Many more Changi pics at
david taylor images under 'aviation'
David