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The Aviation Historian
ENDANGERED
SPECIES
60 YEARS ON: THE 1957 DEFENCE WHITE PAPER
The modern journal of classic aeroplanes and the history of flying
®
20
ISSUE
Published quarterly by:
The Aviation Historian
PO Box 962
Horsham RH12 9PP
United Kingdom
Subscribe at:
www.theaviationhistorian.com
(published July 15, 2017)
The Aviation Historian
The modern journal of classic aeroplanes and the history of flying
®
ISSUE NUMBER 20
TM
Editor’s Letter
A SEASONALLY WARM welcome to our 20th issue, another
milestone for us and — we hope — another edition packed to
the hangar roof with new and fascinating material for you. Our
plan has always been to bring fresh perspectives to light, and
Matt Bearman’s compelling investigation into the
real
reason
why the Westland Whirlwind never lived up to its operational
expectations emphasises how often “conventional wisdom”,
particularly about this aircraft, is revealed to be little more than
an aggregation of lazy clichés established as fact by endless
repetition. The Whirlwind
did
have early troubles with its
propulsion — but not in the way you’re probably thinking.
Talking of perceived wisdom, we continue our coverage of
1957’s Defence White Paper with Greg Baughen’s appraisal of
the RAF’s historical attitude to unmanned aircraft — which,
contrary to popular myth, had always been one of keen interest;
so was it
that
big a surprise when Duncan Sandys decreed no
more manned fighters? And since distinguished airpower
thinkers like Hugh Dowding had long viewed pilots as “the
weak link” in air-defence systems, wouldn’t it make sense to
strengthen those systems with “billion-dollar brains” instead?
Unmanned air defence certainly came into its own for the
French when faced with Libya’s Tupolev Tu-22
Blinder
bombers
in neighbouring Chad in the 1980s, as detailed in our dramatic
account of the often-suicidal missions undertaken by the
Soviet-built bombers’ Libyan Arab Air Force crews.
Finally, thanks to
TAH
reader Mick Jeffries, who asked us to
take an in-depth look at a 1939 plan to fit an early Whittle jet
engine into an Avro Anson. Yes, an Anson. We love it when
readers let us know what they want to see — so if you have a
subject you think we should turn our spotlight on, tell us!
Nick Stroud
e-mail nickstroud@theaviationhistorian.com
Mick Oakey
e-mail mickoakey@theaviationhistorian.com
EDITOR
MANAGING EDITOR
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Amanda Stroud
Lynn Oakey
FINANCE MANAGER
For all telephone enquiries:
tel +44 (0)7572 237737 (mobile number)
Gregory Alegi, Dr David Baker, Ian Bott,
Robert Forsyth, Juanita Franzi, Dr Richard
P. Hallion, Philip Jarrett HonCRAeS,
Colin A. Owers, David H. Stringer,
Julian Temple, Capt Dacre Watson
EDITORIAL BOARD
David Siddall Multimedia
www.davidsiddall.com
Published quarterly by
The Aviation Historian,
PO Box 962, Horsham RH12 9PP, United Kingdom
©
The Aviation Historian
2017
ISSN 2051-1930 (print)
ISSN 2051-7602 (digital)
While every care will be taken with material
submitted to
The Aviation Historian,
no responsibility
can be accepted for loss or damage. Opinions
expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect
those of the Editor. This periodical must not, without the
written consent of the publishers first being given, be
lent, sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of in a
mutilated condition or in any unauthorised cover by way
of trade or annexed or as part of any publication or
advertising literary or pictorial matter whatsoever.
WEBMASTER
If you do not wish to keep your copy of
The Aviation Historian
(impossible to imagine, we know),
please ensure you recycle it using an appropriate facility.
Printed in the UK by
The Magazine Printing Company
using only paper from FSC/PEFC suppliers
www.magprint.co.uk
FRONT COVER
The first line of defence on the Cold War frontier
— an RAF pilot climbs aboard an English Electric Lightning F.3 at
Wattisham in 1965.
CROWN COPYRIGHT/MOD VIA RAF AIR HISTORICAL BRANCH
MADE IN BRITAIN
BACK COVER
Avro Yorks framed by the fin of a Trans-Canada Air
Lines North Star at Heathrow in 1948.
JOHN STROUD © A FLYING HISTORY LTD
THE AVIATION HISTORIAN
3
Issue No 20
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4
THE AVIATION HISTORIAN
26
CONTENTS
3
EDITOR’S LETTER
6
AIR CORRESPONDENCE
10
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE
98
Issue No 20
Continuing our 60th anniversary coverage of the infamous
1957 Defence White Paper, Greg Baughen argues that the
concept of unmanned aircraft was nothing new to the RAF
20
THE BLUE FALCON
In 1932 millionaire Francis Francis acquired a Sikorsky
S-38B amphibian, naming it the
Blue Falcon;
Philip Jarrett
traces the aerial yacht’s travels with the Standard Oil heir
26
AN EYE FOR AN EYE
African aviation specialists Arnaud Delalande and Tom
Cooper detail the Libyan Arab Air Force combat career of
the Soviet-built Tu-22
Blinder
in Chad in the 1980s
36
THE WHIRLWIND BECALMED
36
84
The Westland Whirlwind fighter was let down by its flawed
Peregrine engines — unassailable fact? Matt Bearman
offers compelling evidence that the blame lay elsewhere
46
HEATHROW: THE ROARING FORTIES
56
HOW TO BUILD A SEA HAWK
The John Stroud Archive returns with a visit to London’s
newly-established airport at Heathrow in the late 1940s
With the help of a sequence of stunning photographs from
a contemporary Hawker brochure, Matthew Willis guides
us through the manufacture of a Sea Hawk prototype
64
THREE DEADLY MINUTES
Farnborough 1968: the Breguet Atlantic is 2min into its
display routine, but something is badly wrong. Richard T.
Riding, who was there, investigates what happened next
74
LAST DAYS OF THE CONDOR
10
90
Luftwaffe historian Chris Goss takes a look at the last year
in combat of the once-dreaded Focke-Wulf Fw 200
Condor, which was long past its prime by 1944
84
NÃO OBRIGADO!
José Matos examines Portugal’s ultimately fruitless
relationship with the Hunting Jet Provost trainer and its
more potent ground-attack sibling, the BAC Strikemaster
90
FIRE IN THE BELLY
By late 1939 work on Frank Whittle’s radical new jet
engine had advanced to the point at which it could be
test-flown; enter the Jet Anson, as Nick Stroud explains
98
A SKY FULL OF FRONTIERS
Maurice Wickstead chronicles the flying career of one of
the USA’s most distinguished airmen, Charles F. Blair,
whose record-setting flights became the stuff of legend
110
THE FLYING DARKROOM
46
The French licence-built version of the Siebel Si 204, the
Nord NC.701, saw more than two decades of service as a
mapping platform in Sweden, as Jan Forsgren relates
118
ARMCHAIR AVIATION
123
LOST & FOUND
124
HIJACK HIJINKS!
“There was a muffled bang as the flightdeck door
crashed violently open . . .” Ed Wild recalls a memorable
Tradewinds Boeing 707 flight to Mogadishu in 1978
130
OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
Issue No 20
THE AVIATION HISTORIAN
5

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