Memories of a Beau, (or at least a bit of it ).
It may come as a bit of a surprise to readers that the RAF had a Beau on strength in 1966. How come you may ask and where? The where first, at Halton on the airfield, and the how come was that it had had the aft fuselage removed behind the mainplane and a hut built on in its place and it was used for ground running training of Halton Apprentices. It was here you realised that the real world was about to intrude on your training as you were despatched outside the shed and into the undercarriage bay to operate the priming pump by hand for the engine start procedure, almost a real baptism of fire as the engine burst into life about six feet in front of you! You never realise at the time just how rare these aircraft were, they were just something to train on.