Air Navigation in the Service
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A History of Navigation in the Royal Air Force RAF Historical Society Seminar at the RAF Museum, Hendon 21 October 1996 (Held jointly with The Royal Institute of Navigation and The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators) ii The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the contributors concerned and are not necessarily those held by the Royal Air Force Historical Society. Copyright ©1997: Royal Air Force Historical Society First Published in the UK in 1997 by the Royal Air Force Historical Society British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available ISBN 0 9519824 7 8 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission from the Publisher in writing. Typeset and printed in Great Britain by Fotodirect Ltd, Brighton Royal Air Force Historical Society iii Contents Page 1 Welcome by RAFHS Chairman, AVM Nigel Baldwin 1 2 Introduction by Seminar Chairman, AM Sir John Curtiss 4 3 The Early Years by Mr David Page 66 4 Between the Wars by Flt Lt Alec Ayliffe 12 5 The Epic Flights by Wg Cdr ‘Jeff’ Jefford 34 6 The Second World War by Sqn Ldr Philip Saxon 52 7 Morning Discussions and Questions 63 8 The Aries Flights by Gp Capt David Broughton 73 9 Developments in the Early 1950s by AVM Jack Furner 92 10 From the ‘60s to the ‘80s by Air Cdre Norman Bonnor 98 11 The Present and the Future by Air Cdre Bill Tyack 107 12 Afternoon Discussions and Questions 127 13 Conclusion 135 14 Biographical Notes 136 ‘Dickie’ Richardson’s Contribution to RAF Navigation 143 by Humphrey Wynn iv v Illustrations Page Question times, morning and afternoon vii RAF Museum Lecture Hall 3 Squadron Leader Kellett’s Wellesley 51 Aries I in 1994 before conversion 86 Aries I modified for polar flights 86 Crew of Aries I, May 1945 87 The routes flown by Aries I 87 Aries II, Lincoln RE364 88 Crew of Aries III, August 1951 88 Polar ice from Aries III in 1951 89 Aries IV and V in June 1955 89 Britannia which hosted the Aries flights 90 Comet 4C ‘Canopus’ 90 A recent Aries scene from the middle 1990’s 91 Aries presentation at Shawbury, 1984 91 British Aerospace ‘Active Cockpit’ 122 Air Marshall Sir John Curtiss 136 Mr David Page 136 Flight Lieutenant Alec Ayliffe 137 Wing Commander C G Jefford 138 Squadron Leader Philip Saxon 138 Group Captain David Broughton 139 Air Vice-Marshal Jack Furner 140 Air Commodore Norman Bonnor 141 Air Commodore Bill Tyack 141 Group Captain F C ‘Dickie’ Richardson 144 Graduation Parade, June 1954 152 vi vii From left to right: Alec Ayliffe, ‘Jeff’ Jefford, Sir John Curtiss, Philip Saxon, David Page From left to right: David Broughton, Jack Furner, Sir John Curtiss, Norman Bonnor, Bill Tyack viii A HISTORY OF IR NAVIGATION IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE 1 1. Welcoming Address by Air Vice-Marshal Nigel Baldwin Chairman of the Royal Air Force Historical Society Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Nigel Baldwin; as the relatively newly elected Chairman of the RAF Historical Society, this is the first time I have had the privilege of welcoming you to an all-day seminar. A special welcome, of course, to the members of the Royal Institute of Navigation (who have provided half of the speakers) and to the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. Walter Blanchard, President of the RIN, and Ron Bridge, Master-Elect of GAPAN, will be called on to say a few words later in the proceedings. This is the first such joint meeting that the Historical Society has held, and it comes at an apposite time. Ten years ago yesterday, Professor R V Jones addressed the founder members at their first meeting. We have now grown to around 650. Today’s attendance has broken all records for the Hendon seminars and, as always, I would like immediately to put on record our appreciation to Dr Fopp and his Museum colleagues for allowing us to use their splendid facilities. Doubtless like our sister organisations, we are always seeking new members: in the reception area there is information about all three bodies. There is already a deal of cross-membership, but we are very happy to encourage more. Also in the reception area, British Aerospace have provided a fascinating display of the most up-to-date navigation systems: and we are grateful for that. So to today. Nobody is better qualified to guide us through the day than Sir John Curtiss. First of all he is a navigator with an RAF career that spanned just about all the Commands, beginning with Bomber Command in 1944. He commanded Brüggen in the early ‘70s: he was Commandant at Bracknell, and the Senior Air Commander at 2 A HISTORY OF IR NAVIGATION IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE Northwood during the Falklands War in 1982. He retired as AOC 18 Group, and has spent much of the subsequent years as Director and Chief Executive of the Society of British Aerospace Companies. Sir John, it gives me great pleasure, as a pilot, to say to you, as a navigator, — ‘You have control.’ A HISTORY OF IR NAVIGATION IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE 3 n Seminar Royal Air Force Museum Lecture Hall – Air Navigatio – Air Hall Lecture Museum Force Royal Air 4 A HISTORY OF IR NAVIGATION IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE 2. Introductory Remarks by the Seminar Chairman Air Marshal Sir John Curtiss Thank you, Chairman, very much indeed. Right, on with the proceedings. The invention of the aeroplane by itself was, of course, just the first step. If the aircraft was going to be of any use and to take Man where he wanted to go, he had to be able to take it to the right place at the right time and over the shortest distance; and thus the art of aerial navigation was developed. Very similar problems had faced Mankind countless years before. Having designed ships that could cross oceans, Man set out to explore the World and to exploit the lands that he found. Polynesians, for example, like those who crossed the Pacific to colonise ‘Aotea-roa’, or New Zealand as it is now known, used the stars to guide them although, like so many of the ancient mariners, they had no certainty as to their precise position or, indeed, where they were going. Centuries later navigation at sea was still an uncertain art, and countless ships and many thousands of sailors came to an untimely end because no-one knew how to measure longitude accurately. It was, in fact, not until 1713 when the Government of the day set the prize for the discovery at the then very princely sum of £20,000 that enormous energy was applied to solving the problem. Although it was well understood that an accurate time-keeping clock was the key, no one at that time knew how to construct one. Many theories were advanced: some were bizarre, if not simply lunatic. The one that I think must appeal to all navigators was the ‘wounded dog’ theory, put forward in 1687. This was predicated on a quack miraculous cure called ‘the powder of sympathy’, which could heal at a distance. All one had to do to release the magic was to apply the powder to an article from an ailing patient. It was not, however, painless; so the theory postulated that by placing a dog with an unhealed wound on board a ship, and retaining a used bandage back at base and then applying the powder to that bandage at precisely 12 noon each day the dog would yelp, thus disclosing the precise Greenwich Time! Sadly, I A HISTORY OF IR NAVIGATION IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE 5 recall no such marvellous nostrums for position-finding when I was doing my navigation training. However, the longitude problem was solved in the middle of the 18th century when John Harrison patented an accurate chronometer for use at sea for the first time, and even then, I am sad to say, the Longitude Committee managed to cheat him out of a large proportion of his prize. Turning back to this century and to the conquest of the air, it is really quite astonishing that in the course of the lifetime of many of us here today aerial navigation has run a complete course from road maps and binoculars to instant and accurate positioning to within a few feet anywhere in the world; or out of it for that matter. Now to tell you this fascinating story we have assembled a small team of expert protagonists who, between them, have some 232 years of service. They are led by Philip Saxon who conceived, developed and has arranged this day’s Seminar, and to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude. But before introducing the first speaker, may I just remind you that we are running a very tight schedule here today and that timing is of the essence – not, I hope, a difficult concept for the navigators amongst us. But we must have a full discussion period at the end of both the morning and afternoon sessions, so I do ask that we try to keep to time, and to give a good example of this I think that I have managed to steal about seven minutes by cutting my introduction short. 6 A HISTORY OF IR NAVIGATION IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE 3.