Maintenence

[R J Kinloch]

Can anyone tell me what the RAF's maintenance regimen was during WWII?
Did each A/C have it's own crew like the yanks or was there a flight line crew that went from a/c to a/c performing daily servicing? Also, where were the mandated servicings (100 hourlies etc) performed? Lastly, what trades were involved and what did they do?

ta muchly

[alisoncc]

To the best of my knowledge RAF Lineys on a squadron looked after all the squadrons aircraft and were not tied to any particular one. That was the case in the early sixties on a Vulcan squadron. Most of our SNCO's were around during WWII and seemed to consider what we were doing as quite normal. So most probably the same as they did then.

Each individual aircraft did have their own crew chief who was responsible for the airworthiness of their own aircraft. He would chase up the squadrons heavies, sooties, magicians and fairies as necessary.

When a flight returned, the F700 would be plonked on the desk in the crew room. Each trade SNCO would then allocate personnel based on need. Thus one might be instructed to check the No2 VHF on XH537 or the Green Satin on XH534 seems intermittent - have a look at it. An aircraft might be on a major inspection in Hangar 3, so go down and drop the ECM cans.

Really enjoyed the variety of tasks. Mind you we also got to push hangar doors, work the handles on the jacks when raising an aircraft for undercarriage maintenance, etc. Even worked the winches when helping the sooties drop an engine.

[ian16th]

There was an early attempt at 'centralised servicing' that was abandoned, as the aircrew liked having 'their' fitter and rigger that they knew and trusted.

[Blacksheep]

I was on centralised servicing at Waddington: after 50 squadron won a bombing trophy a selected group of us were invited down to the squadron crew room to join in the celebration beers. That was when the squadron found out that we ground crew hadn't even known there was a competition going on. Squadron servicing was resumed not long afterwards. The flight line was widely dispersed over two or three miles, with Line huts on each dispersal pan. The huts provided warm shelter and the means for communicating with the Line Office, that during my time was at the farthest dispersal point between Delta and Echo dispersals. QRA was close to Operations Wing HQ at Alpha dispersal.

I believe that during the war aircraft were even more widely dispersed with some being out on farmers fields. In these cases 1st. Line ground crews operated as Fitter/Engine teams at a particular dispersal point, in their own individualised huts. So they worked on whatever aircraft turned up on their pan. There are some intersting photos of these ramshackle facilities in the 'Lancaster' books. Here's one example . . .

http://www.planetdiecast.com/hwdphotos/upload_tinymce/thumbnails/Tweddle%20Photo%20AV1.jpg

[alisoncc]

So Blacksheep do I understand it correctly with centralised servicing when there were multiple squadrons on the station the ground crews were consolidated and serviced all aircraft irrespective of squadron.

At Finningley on the OCU we had 'A' and 'B' squadrons with 'A' flying the B1's and 'B' the B2's. Whilst I was there there was never any crossover of ground personnel between the two. This was 1963 to 1966.

Was amused down in Sharjah when the USAF phased a couple of Phantoms through. I think it was a Herc that turned up and disgorged hundreds of ground crew to service them. We just did anything that dropped in - Beverley, Javelin, Argonaut, whatever. We even had a commercial passenger flight call in with radio problems. Fixed that to. I think it was an Arab airline, so we organised two tin cans and a bloody long piece of string. :)

[Blacksheep]

Yes, that is centralised servicing, alisoncc. I was at Waddington from September 1966 to March 1969 and we were "centralised" for the whole of that time. We looked after both B1As and B2s for 44(R), 50 and 101 Squadrons, including QRA - 23 aircraft in all.

We had a similar amusing situation to your USAF Phantoms when a squadron of RAAF Mirages routed through Brunei from Singapore to Manila for an exercise. A huge swarm of Flight Line Mechanics turned them round. I have to admit they were well organised and damned quick, though. The pilots remained in the cockpit throughout.

I managed to "Zap" their C130 while they were busy - using a red marker pen to put a ball and chain on the kangaroo in the "offside" roundel. :)

[ian16th]

allisoncc

We just did anything that dropped in

As we did at Istres 1957-8.

I was a Radar Fitter and all I did was re-fuel and re-oil.