I ■ii Wm ■ I ■'M■ Hi PI m HI :iI I >M l m .'T, •■ " ' '^v.: I K m 11# I !;■: ■ • -, - . -V. , 'Y_^ IIH IRSIII K I .:SJ i /• i.:» . ■ .^m ■i ■ k i m I ■ m I ii 1 I I I n I - -I M ii il Hi I ’m pi IH M "I Ii I a ii :MJ lii^H il ................................ ...............Ii- ', ilipf - 1:W I ^He Journal of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia Inc. aoossgssp WM VI- Volume 29 Numbers M i .... m liillii iii i ill ‘ iiii II lipl ill ii ill IIP m mmm sS :i■ 1 Ii ■ Duigan and Ro m ■ 11 iiil ■ II •3 Flying the Jindivick _ IIPIi ■ Paddy Heffernan ~ Series - Part 5 I mPlH 'Mil II m 8#' 1 fc. IP The Journal of the AVIATION HISTORICAL SOCIETY im of AUSTRALIA Inc. A00336533P Volume 29 - Number 3 - June 1998 EDITORS, DESIGN & PRODUCTION Bill and Judith Baker EDITORIAL Address all correspondence to; This month we say goodbye to another Australian The Editor, AHSA, Aviation legend - The Jindivick. Sold down the river, P.O. Box 2007, gone is the manufacturing capabilities, the trained flying South Melbourne 3205 Victoria, Australia. controllers. To be replaced by an American product. 03 9583 4072 Phone & Fax Sound familiar? Nomad, Victa, Wamira and on and on! Subscription Rates; What is wrong with our, as in most of afore mentioned Australia A$40. products, service personnel who are responsible for Rest of World A$50. Surface Mail these decisions. As in the case of Wamira the goal A$65. Surface Airlifted posts were moved after the design criteria was A$85. Air Mail established. What to do about it? Overseas payment to be in Australian Ben Dannecker takes us through the steps of flying the currency by International Money Order or Jindivick and what is entailed in making everything work. Bank Draft. Overseas personal cheques cannot be accepted. Now an apology to John Wilson, somehow we managed in the last Issue to repeat one page of the text. This Articles for Publication; Are to be on an however did not detract from John’s big effort. Australian theme. The Editor reserves the right to edit any The Editors wish list;(still wishing) article accepted for publication. Any facet of Australia’s aviation history. Compass Payment is not made for articles. Airlines, GAF Nomad, DMA Drover, Korea, Vietnam, Please Include sufficient postage for the anything that interests you and can be printed. return of originals if that is required. A - H and the Computer; Contributions for the Journal are most welcome in any form, Cover; Jidivick N22-742 being put on the transport but if you have a computer, exported on a vehicle after recovery. 3V2" disc in ASSCII format (plain text), or WIN 6, would be just great! (Include hard Contents; copy also). 95 Flying the Jindivick - Ben Dannecker Disclaimer; 1. Whilst every effort is made to 104 The RAAF Metrological Flight - Heffernan check the authenticity of the material and 107 de or De - Warwick Henry advertising printed, the Publishers, Editors, 108 Air Services in Australia - Howard G. Quinlan and the Aviation Historical Society of 121 Talkback Australia and its Office Bearers cannot 123 Dulgan and Roe - Phillip Jarrett accept responsibility for any non­ 129 Australia’s Junkers Ju 86 - David Eyre performance. 2. The views expressed in 'Aviation Heritage’ are not necessarily those of the AHSA or its Editors. Meetings of the AHSA; Melbourne Branch: The fourth Wednesday in every month, 7:30 at the Airforce Association, 4 Cromwell AVIATION HERITAGE Street, South Yarra. Further Information - Keith Meggs ISSN 0815-4392 9580 0140. Print Post Approved PP320418/00017 NSW Branch: The first Wednesday in every month © 1998 By the Publishers; 7:45 Studio 1 at the Powerhouse Museum, enter from AVIATION HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF the Macarthur Street end. Further information - Gordon AUSTRALIA INC., A0033653P Lasslett 9416 7603 P.O. BOX 2007 SOUTH MELBOURNE 3205, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA 94 AHSA Aviation Heritage FLYING THE JINDIVIK By Ben Dannecker The Jervis Bay Range Facility aerial view looking north. DRONE TARGET BASE sight for the Australian program with perhaps a year to Jindivik flying at Jervis Bay first commenced on 7th go, although Britain plans to continue operation of the February 1967, when No. 496 took off for its range ac­ type for the foreseeable future. For missions specifying ceptance trial flight, with the aircraft, operating and sup­ high-speed airborne target presentation, the subsonic port crew and equipment all here on temporary detach­ Jindivik is quite versatile and able to perform a variety of ment from Woomera, South Australia. After 23 years at tasks. No doubt this feature coupled with its relative its original Woomera base, the permanent home of Aus­ economy has contributed to its record long service life. tralian Jindivik operations moved to its present site at The Australian-made Jindivik is unique in that it is the Jervis Bay in August 1975. Located at the Royal Austra­ only current drone aircraft using a discrete command lian Navy airfield on Bherwerre Peninsular, bordering the control system (signal blips) as opposed to a proportional southern edge of Jervis Bay, New South Wales, it is a command control system (constant signal), which is former World War 2 Beaufort bomber base and is termed standard for drone aircraft operations worldwide. The pre­ officially as the Jervis Bay Range Facility. Situated some sent ground control setup is essentially the original 36 kilometres south-east of the Navy’s major aerodrome Woomera system (yes, after four and a half decades!) at HMAS Albatross, near Nowra, Jervis Bay also doubles and a new state of the art, fully air portable control array as a satellite airstrip for Albatross with Army, Navy and could have allowed the Jindivik to continue well into the Air Force aircraft plus foreign defence force aircraft mak­ next millennium, let alone permit the type to become a ing regular appearances. In the nineties a variety of air much more saleable export product. This was not to be, traffic regularly flies into the field with the Cl30 Hercules and thus a potent, long proven and uniquely Australian being the current largest user. Falcon 900, Caribou, Da­ aircraft has been allowed to fade away unnecessarily. At kota and HS748 aircraft plus helicopters of all types, in first glance, the Jindivik looks just like any other small jet, addition to civil aircraft, are also seen here. The proximity particularly when airborne. However, up close the differ­ of the RAN Naval College at HMAS Creswell has resulted ences which distinguish it from a normal aircraft become in various RAAF VIP aircraft from Canberra making fre­ apparent: lack of a pilot’s cockpit, the special take-off quent visits over the years, including the Convair 440 and trolley on which the aircraft sits before flight and the ex­ the regular Falcon 900 trijet. The largest recorded turbo­ tended skid on which it perches after landing. The vividly jet aircraft to land at the drone base was the BAC 1-11, bright colour scheme of red and yellow (to assist in whilst in the seventies, the odd civil Bristol 170 Freighter maintaining visual contact with the plane in the circuit delivered new Jindiviks direct to the site from Melbourne. area) coupled with the stated features, ail add up to a most unusual aircraft. To briefly recap on some of the THE AIRCRAFT technical attributes of the bird - its powerplant, the Rolls At the time of writing (July 1997), the Jindivik was Royce Viper 201 axial-flow turbo-jet engine produces a celebrating its 45th year in operation, still being flown by nominal 2,750 lb thrust (the Viper used by the Macchi both the Australian and British defence forces, and having trainer, has less power). Average all up weight for take-off the honour of being the last fixed-wing turbo-jet aircraft in is around 3,800 lb dependant on the stores load under­ the Royal Australian Navy’s inventory. Sadly the end is in wing and internally. Initial rate of climb after take-off is 95 AHSA Aviation Heritage on TONIC presentations and are able to be wound in again, whereas the longer cables for HUTTS presentations nnust be dumped after completion of the exercise. Considerable use of the Jindivik target system is made by the Navy and RAAF with missile firings throughout the year, whilst the Army is a customer on a less frequent basis. BASIC ESSENTIALS How does one fly a full-sized high­ speed jet aircraft entirely from the ground? What are the special problems that must be addressed? What technical support is required to mount a sortie? What tasks is such an aircraft used for? What are the limitations on the Jindivik’s operations? The following text attempts to answer Close up of the HUTTS (Hayes Universal Target Towing System) target some of these questions and is a supple­ and wing mounting rail. ment to the technical description and his­ most impressive, over 9,000 fpm at an indicated airspeed tory of the aircraft which appeared in the of 230 Kt up to 25,000 ft. The aircraft can achieve Mach AHSA Journal Vol 22 No 2. .86 at 520 Kt in level flight. The first essential infrastructure item for the current In its role as a pilotless target tug (originally It was the Australian drone target system is a 5,000 ft hard surface target, but cost considerations have precluded using the runway with flight paths clear of built-up areas, with an multi-million dollar aircraft for just one missile shot), the associated restricted range area able to meet all Jindivik Jindivik excels.