Splendid post,
Bof. It's a rare priviledge to be in at the beginning of a new era and you obviously had that. Imagine, these days, anyone keeping 3 spare Meatboxes to allow the "youngsters" to maintain their skills
in their spare time. With all the routes that were opening up at the time you must have been falling over each other for a tour on 216!
It is interesting what you say about the original 5-year life of the Comet 2. As far as I can tell, 51 Sqn flew its last one
(XK695) until 21 Jan 75, which was only 7 months before 216's
shiny Mk4s were sold-off to Dan-Air as part of the great Purge of '75
. Only the nose of 695 exists now, making 699 the sole complete airframe and therefore worthy of preservation - IMHO.
Lukeafb1, I've had a look through the records and, as with most Brit transports, it's all a bit complicated because there were so few airframes produced, and some (eg: 2Es) were used for R&D or modified (at Marshall's) before delivery. The grounding of the Mk1s after BOAC YP's demise, while the early 2s were in production, adds to the complexity. For example, the early models re-allocated for RAF recce did not require the higher cabin pressurisation of the C2s destined for 216. Anyway, delivery sequence goes something like this.
216 Sqn
216 received 10 x Mk2s, fairly swiftly, between Jun '56 and May '57. They were, XK-> 670 [Corvus], 669 [Taurus], 671 [Aquila], 695 [Perseus], 696 [Orion], 697 [Cygnus], 698 [Pegasus], 699 [Saggitarius], 716 [Cepheus], 715 [Columba]. As
Bof says, the first two were T2s, later reinforced to C2 standard. Perhaps their naming after stellar constellations illustrates the paucity of radio aids and the importance of Navs and sextants in those days!
192 Sqn (
became, 21 Aug 58)
51 Sqn
3 x Mk2R (or "RCMs") were delivered to 192 Sqn in this order: XK-> 663 [Apr '57], 659 [Jul '57] and 655 [Apr '58]. 663 was destroyed in a hangar fire at Watton 13 Sep 57 and therefore did not serve on 51, although listed as such elsewhere (even the official records are dubious here - personal memory anyone?). 216 Sqn started equipping with (5x) C4s in 1962 and passed on a further 4 x C2s to 51 Sqn, thus: 715 [May '62], 671 [Sep '62], 695 [Mar '63] and 697 [Mar '67].
And just to return to the original topic (
)
XK699 Saggitarius
Saggy 699 indeed arrived at Lyneham on 22 Feb 57 and served on 216 until being ferried to Henlow (didn't they preserve a TSR2 there in spite of Wilson?) on 16 Jun 67 and, much later, by road back to LYE! I am guessing that it may also have been the last 216 C2 at Lyneham, but 51 Sqn's continued to appear there sporadically during the early '70s as far as I remember. I also note that she clipped a tree with her starboard wing on approach to Turnhouse in Aug '58 (the mind boggles) but returned to service the following month.
Must dash. Matron's doing her night round.