Transport Command 1961

[sandozer]

Hope it is not a repeat post, found this 23 minutes of our Air Force in the old days RAF Lyneham, Transport Command to the fore. enjoy . . :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfiHqdQ-IHk

[Herod]

Already running on History and Nostalgia

[Tankertrashnav]

Well thanks for posting it here I wouldn't have seen it on History and Nostalgia. Great memories of Aden and Singapore from only a few years after the film. I'd forgotten how big the Britannia looked up close, and I always regretted I never managed a trip in a Comet. One question, 3minutes 50 secs - what does anyone make of the wings on the chap in the centre? I cant make them out myself

[India Four Two]

TTN,

The chap you pointed out seems to have a lighter blue uniform. Could he be RAAF?

[Hydromet]

I'd forgotten how big the Britannia looked up close

When the first Britannia came to Australia it was dubbed the "Whispering Giant". Crowds came to the airport to see it and some even ducked under the rope barriers to try & scratch their initials on it. Airport security has changed a little.

[sandozer]

Already running on History and Nostalgia
Thanks, have not looked at History and Nostalgia before .👍

[OvertHawk]

What's the aeroplane shown at Eastleigh at 14:50? Is it a DC3?

[longer ron]

HP Hastings I believe OH

[Chugalug2]

HP Hastings I believe OH
The VIP Mk4 version (CinC MEAF?). Fitted out with retractable airstairs and furnished as a Pall Mall Club. Not a lot of use though for moving earth, roses for the growing of, hence replaced with an Argosy shortly after. :ok:

[Herod]

Not a lot of use though for moving earth, roses for the growing of, hence replaced with an Argosy shortly after.

Ooo err, Matron!

[longer ron]

The VIP Mk4 version (CinC MEAF?). Fitted out with retractable airstairs and furnished as a Pall Mall Club. Not a lot of use though for moving earth, roses for the growing of, hence replaced with an Argosy shortly after. :ok:

I know exactly who you are referring to there Chug :)

[OvertHawk]

The VIP Mk4 version (CinC MEAF?). Fitted out with retractable airstairs and furnished as a Pall Mall Club. Not a lot of use though for moving earth, roses for the growing of, hence replaced with an Argosy shortly after. :ok:

Thanks Chaps! ;)

I should have twigged that myself.

Cheers!
OH!

[Tankertrashnav]

They used to say that the max payload for an Argosy on the Nairobi to Khormaksar route was a verbal message

[NRU74]

Not a lot of use though for moving earth, roses for the growing of, hence replaced with an Argosy shortly after. :ok:
But the Argosy wasn’t big enough to take the Air/Sea Rescue craft to Perim Island for a fishing expedition for JJ and his mates, so a Beverley had to be used.

[The Oberon]

Came back from Goose Bay in VIP Comet once, mid 70s, ACM Sir Ruthven Wade. How the other half lived. Whoever ordered the rations did everyone proud, one of the best fillet steaks I have eaten.

[NutLoose]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTSD0zE1Iuc

[Geriaviator]

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/900x685/hastings_khormaksar_0ea8e7d8b8df30d6d0701c7ddaa2e8b14080ce4f .jpg
Thanks for posting this, brought back happy memories of Khormaksar as a little lad 1951-53, mesmerised by the Hastings, Brigands and Valettas, with the Argonauts, Hermes and Connies on the civil east end of the airfield. This was me, Box Brownie case in hand, checking out the a/c which took us back to Lyneham over the next day, and the following day (night stop Castel Benito I think, or maybe it was Khartoum)
I sat behind the door with the loadmaster, lasting memory is the fiendishly cold draught from the battered doorway. At least it gave an excellent view downwards ...

Edited after seeing Oberon's post: Lucky you, for two days we had dried-up sandwiches in a cardboard box!

[MPN11]

By heck, Geriaviator, they didn’t do fashion clothing for kids back then ... or indeed adults! At least when we moved to Jamaica in c. 1955 I had jeans and sneakers!

[India Four Two]

Home for the Giants video.

How did that cantilevered hangar design stand up (pardon the pun) over time?

[eckhard]

It’s still there!

[MightyGem]

Britannia a:
"Whispering Giant"

Not when I flew in one.

[AnglianAV8R]

My earliest recollection of flying, actually my second ever flight, was an Argosy from khormaksar to Mombasa. I vaguely recall being allowed to look thru an observation window which i think may have been under the nose/cockpit area in an access panel/door ? The view was of pyramids along the Nile in Sudan. It seemed we had to fly a rather odd route due to diplomatic clearances (lack of) from countries who had the nerve to object to our colonial policies. How very dare they !

[Easy Street]

Well thanks for posting it here I wouldn't have seen it on History and Nostalgia.

Why, is H&N too full of posts about old stuff to be worth visiting? ;)

(Posted with light hearted intent, before anyone gets cross!)

[Dougie M]

Anglian.
The route to Mombasa was over Somalia Ethiopia and Kenya from Khormaksar. Without dip clearance it was mostly out over the Indian Ocean. I never went to Mombasa by way of Sudan.

[AnglianAV8R]

Anglian.
The route to Mombasa was over Somalia Ethiopia and Kenya from Khormaksar. Without dip clearance it was mostly out over the Indian Ocean. I never went to Mombasa by way of Sudan.

i just wish I could find the photos we took of the pyramids.

Edit: If we flew over Ethiopia, then that would most probably be where the pyramids were. Ethiopia is the land of Kush. Incidentally, Sudan has many more pyramids than Egypt, from the Nubian Dynasty.

[JW411]

Whispering Giant:

The unkind comment in the day was that they they were called Whispering Giants because they had bu**er all to shout about.

[bingofuel]

I believe the name Whispering Giant came about after a demo flypast, possibly at Farnborough where the run in was made a high power then for the flypast of the crowd they reduced to flight idle so it would sound very quiet!

[Warmtoast]

Whispering Giant

When I was on 99 Sqn (1959 - 1963) we initially titled our Britannia's 'Whimpering Giants' because of the engine troubles suffered at the beginning of their service. ISTR mods were made by Bristol to the engines and afterwards the modded engines were relatively trouble free.

[Cornish Jack]

The full 'revised' description of the Britannia was " the Whimpering Giant, powered by 4 Bristol Protest engines and operating Around the World in 80 Delays!

[Thud_and_Blunder]

1961 - the year my dad finished his final flying tour, as 2i/c of the Transport Command Examining Unit at RAF Benson. I shall be sending him the linky - he still enjoys Silver Surfing t'interweb at 96 (even if he will have to turn the sound way past 11 - years of flying the North Star on exchange with the RCAF did for his hearing. Something to do with the propellers being exactly in line with the cockpit, he thinks).

[Geriaviator]

T&B -- props could well be your dad's downfall. When visiting New Zealand in 2001 I was invited to an aircrew reunion at which no participant was under 77 and many were deaf. The latter were ex-Catalina pilots who explained they had spent hundreds of hours only a few feet below the prop tips -- plus the pair of Twin Wasps which drove them. The reunion chit-chat was almost as noisy despite their hearing aids ... I felt privileged to meet such a wonderful bunch of people.

[Lyneham Lad]

Prop noise and the Britannia brings to mind my only flight in one. Sept '67 Coningsby to Akrotiri on 6 Sqdn's first Phantom MPC. Found myself allocated a seat in line with a blanked-out window...

Mind you, the flight out was considerably quieter and more comfortable than the Herc flight back.

Pardon?

[Dan Gerous]

My earliest recollection of flying, actually my second ever flight, was an Argosy from khormaksar to Mombasa. I vaguely recall being allowed to look thru an observation window which i think may have been under the nose/cockpit area in an access panel/door ? The view was of pyramids along the Nile in Sudan. It seemed we had to fly a rather odd route due to diplomatic clearances (lack of) from countries who had the nerve to object to our colonial policies. How very dare they !

My first flight was on an Argosy, with the ATC flying from Cottesmore. I remember that door under the nose very well, after all these years. I was too sh1t scared to to put any weight on it , in case I fell out the aircraft! I also remember there was a switch nearby marked Bomb Release.

[BEagle]

On 99 Entry RAFC Cranwell, we had 2 trips to Germany in 1968/69; one was a week with BAOR and the other was for King Rock '69.

First trip - out by Britannia, back by Comet 4
Second trip - out by VC10, back by Belfast

The variety of Air Support Command in those days! All legs were very comfortable and infinitely better than being stuck in the bowels of an Albert.

[Tankertrashnav]

As a Rockape I went out to Laarbruch by Britt to take part in the Nijmegen marches. I remember going up front when the aircraft was on the ground and thinking "this has got to be a better job than charging around Catterick Moors getting soaking wet and freezing", and I think I can date my decision to apply for nav training to that occasion. Never got onto Britts though, although I had several longer trips in them including in a British Eagle trooping flight from Heathrow to Paya Lebar, Singapore via Kuwait and Columbo. Just over 24 hours as I recall.

[MPN11]

TTN ... yes, my posting to Tengah also involved an endless day by British Eagle, albeit with slightly different routing. Only comfort was being sat next to a nurse being posted there too!

Now, I have a Britannia recollection as an ATCO, that the prop/ground clearance was so limited we had to remove taxiway snow-flags. 10” springs to mind.

1. Am I now old and stupid? or 2. Was that the case? :)

[Vasco Sodcat]

11:30: "The island is six and a half miles long and ten miles wide"; be still, my inner pedant! :}

Re Post #3, at 3:50, that was a Canadian Navigator. In the 80s/90s 47 Sqn always had one on exchange, but I have no idea to which Sqn this one would have belonged.

[harrym]

Yes indeed MPN11, the Brit's props did run rather close to the ground, rendering them prone to slight damage from pebbles or other objects. Such damage could usually be dressed out without problem, but loose grass clippings were another matter being quite a nuisance during the mowing season. Stirred up by the props and subsequently ingested they often found their way into the compressor blow-off valves, causing these to stick open - resulting in a considerable drop below the required torque reading when the affected engine(s) were powered up immediately prior to takeoff, with consequent abandonment of that flight.

All in all the Brit was a pleasant aircraft, if somewhat over-complex in the systems department (especially electrical); having said which, during six years on type the electronic throttle control never gave me a moment's grief!


TTN ... yes, my posting to Tengah also involved an endless day by British Eagle, albeit with slightly different routing. Only comfort was being sat next to a nurse being posted there too!

Now, I have a Britannia recollection as an ATCO, that the prop/ground clearance was so limited we had to remove taxiway snow-flags. 10” springs to mind.

1. Am I now old and stupid? or 2. Was that the case? :)

[MPN11]

Yes indeed MPN11, the Brit's props did run rather close to the ground, rendering them prone to slight damage from pebbles or other objects. Such damage could usually be dressed out without problem, but loose grass clippings were another matter being quite a nuisance during the mowing season. ....Oh, thank you for restoring my faith in my brain-cells [well, at least one of them!] :ok: