It’s a snowy evening here so I thought I’d present a little ‘photo story’:
In July 1962 the Indian Navy’s first carrier INS Vikrant visited Singapore.
Three of her Sea Hawks arrived on a very dismal day, probably having been playing on the gunnery range.
Come start up time, some trouble was experienced and a ‘Chiefy’ was brought in by Alize to sort it out.
After suitable repairs the Sea Hawk flight was able to leave.
The engine mechanic was picked up in another Alize.
A short time later and another couple of Sea Hawks 076 and 077 arrived,
alas with more engine trouble.
So our galant ‘Chiefy’ re-appeared, borne in on an Alize again. Here the pilot of one of the Sea Hawks talks to the Alize crew whilst the engine fitter gets to work.
As there was magnificent evening light I was at last able to get a couple of really nice pictures as well.
Cartridge starts were always wonderful to behold- but 077 didn’t want to move!
So more Alize action.
and even the ‘plane guard’ S-55 Whirlwind got brought into play.
The engine mechanic toiled long and hard..it was the school holidays and I used to go and have conversations with him.
He’d tell me of his training at Culdrose and how much he’d enjoyed his time in England.
Vikrant however was wanting her Sea Hawk back, so the decision was made to ‘lighter’ her back to the ship.
077 gets carefully transported through the roads of the RAF camp to a suitable jetty.
Here manouvered over the original railway tracks at the end of the jetty that serviced the ‘Singapore Big Guns’ pre-war.
Finally onto the lighter.
At this point I ran out of film so never did get her ‘sailing off into the sunset’!
But oh dear, looking down onto the pan …there’s another Sea Hawk in with starting problems!
That’s the first Indian built Avro 748 ‘Subroto’ down there alongside Brit 520.
Another few cartridges go bang.
A few days later and the Sea Hawk has been despatched and a final Alize journey takes away our hard working ‘Chiefy’ again.
This time it’s a different Britannia..that’s ‘the survivor’ XM496.
A short time after I got rewarded with a picture of INS Vikrant with all of the Sea Hawks, Alizes and the Whirlwind as she sailed through the Straits past Changi on her way into the Naval Base.
There are a total of 50 pictures in this sequence and if your interested in seeing more, I’ve uploaded them to the following website link:
http://www.davidtaylorsound.co.uk/Vikrant/
Be warned though it took me 1 minute with a resonably fast PC to access the file as I’ve kept the sizes pretty big and like the Lancaster pics previously it will require ‘Flash’ on your computer.
Hope you get there OK..do report back.
David Taylor.
By: Postfade - 11th February 2009 at 20:05
Hi Jagan…been meaning to contact you again! The pics are available to you if you want them for your website.
Thanks for pointing us to the underwater ejection story …I hadn’t noticed it.
I don’t think I could ever have been a Naval flyer, such a dangerous existance.
DT
By: Cees Broere - 11th February 2009 at 19:01
The very first pic has Hastings TG536 in the background, the wings are now fitted to the Halifax at Elvington.
Very ihteresting pics, thanks for posting
Cheers
Cees
By: Jagan - 11th February 2009 at 17:29
David, thanks for those great pictures and the story.
Alizes 204 and 206 still survive today in Cochin.
WV903
The underwater ejection story is narrated here
heres a photo of it going into the drink 
By: WV-903. - 9th February 2009 at 19:07
The Reluctant Sea-Hawks—-Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
🙂 Hi Dave,
What superb pictures—– is there no stopping you-LOL.+
Up here in Mersey side /Nth. Wales area a small group of us have been putting time and effort into Aquisition-History-Restoration and fun with most of 2 Sea- Hawks and 2 Cockpits. All documented now on other threads here.
They are bare bones skeletial scrappers saved from extinction 2 yrs. ago. out of Yeovilton scrap compound and are now located at old RAF Hooton Tech Site up here on the Wirral. the Country has been scoured for spares with some amazing results, but wings–big panels–Control surfaces ,etc,etc, still needed. Roy Coates has re-built WV-838 ‘s C/pit from a scrapyard wreck ( see wv-838.com ) and she looks good, now owned by Jon Howard. ( Hi Jon/Roy ). And of course G. Sparkes with his ” Unknown” C/pit.
Although we have a really good Info coverage, Tec. Manuals-Pics. Histories-Books, up till now what’s lacking has been pictorial coverage of A “Liney’s” life on Sea-Hawks. Your brilliantly taken Pics. have changed that and here is a slice of Indian Navy / RAF Changi –“Life”. For me, the close up shots ,especially of the underwing stores, and Nav. lights are wonderful, ( Nav. lights aren’t clearly defined anywhere.- till now )
If you intend to come up this way at some point, PM me and we’ll be happy to show you our situation so far, have a look around and a good old Yap. And you can get aquainted with 2 old warriors type.
A Sea-Hawk from the Vikrant went into sea after take off and the pilot stayed in and sank down with her whilst the Vikrant passed overhead, he then ejected, underwater, successfully, Phew!!!!! ( Name and other details escape me ) I would not wish to eject in a M.B. Mk.2D seat at any time.!!!!!:eek:
It’s gerr–ait to see such interest in the Sea-Hawk, as till recently, she has been one of the “Forgotten Aircraft.” Here’s some pics. from WV-903 and XE-339’s recovery from Yeovilton, We had to split each Aircraft into 3 big lumps to get them in Brothers yard and 2 yrs. later got the OK to move them to Hooton, where they will enjoy a static but exuberant 4th. life.
Much to be done, but great fun being able to do it and really good that you recorded all that interesting Stuff 43-6 yrs. ago. Many thanks for sharing.
Bill T.
By: Monsun - 9th February 2009 at 17:42
A trial was conducted in 1963 by AFDS using a Lightning F.3 and a Spitfire PR.19 (PS853) to see how a Lightning would cope if it encountered an aircraft of such performance. One of the pilots involved was John Nicholls (later AVM).
It was found that the best form of attack was for the Lightning to approach the Spitfire from underneath and behind as in any attack from above it built up speed too quickly. An attack from below also put the Lightning in the Spitfire pilot’s blind spot.
Peter
By: Postfade - 9th February 2009 at 17:29
“Did those Hastings ever move”
Well interesting question as they are ‘in the background’ of all the Changi dispersal pics! But yes they did and by December 62 and all through 63 etc were pretty well ‘tasked’ with drops in Borneo.
This thread on PPRune
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/359772-1966-cine-film-featuring-javelin-vulcan.html
later on has a YouTube video showing a Javelin flight protecting the poor old 48 Sqn Hastings when dropping up near the border as Indonesian aircraft were overflying into Borneo.
An ‘Air Exclusion Zone’ (shades of ‘The Falklands!’) was declared and the Indonesian’s kept out after that.
Later 74 sqn Lightnings were deployed at Tengah in 1964 to counter threats from the Russian aircraft that Sukarno was getting for Indonesia.
However at one time the UK Lightning pilots were having to think about the possibility of coming up against prop fighters in the form of Indonesian P-51’s! So a test was carried out to see how a Lightning performed against such a foe. I believe the outcome was that the EE Lightning would be able to ‘deal’ with the P-51 …fascinating to consider but I can’t now find out anything about it. Anybody got any info on this?
DT
By: Wyvernfan - 9th February 2009 at 17:03
SeaHawks are so beautiful. I’d have one of those if I was 1: Rich and 2: Had got the PPL that I didn’t finish 10 years ago!
DT
Me too.. it was 15 years ago that i ran out of money and the flying lessons stopped. And three kids later i still can’t afford to start again.:(
By: pagen01 - 9th February 2009 at 16:42
I think the Seahawk is a beauty as well, and would love a cockpit from one!
Alizes’, I think there was a search light fitted in one of the weapons pods, just looked at my pictures of French ones but they have been modded with sensors in them.
Did those Hastings ever move?!
By: Jon H - 9th February 2009 at 15:38
Sea Hawks are so beautiful.
I agree – hence why I bought the cockpit of one 😀
Jon
By: Postfade - 9th February 2009 at 15:27
“French Gannet”…yes they had the same wonderful ‘aura’ that a Gannet has, with that big airframe and whistling turboprop sound!
I see they have biggish lights in both wing pods and also in the tail. Surely more than ‘navigation lights’.
The carrier INS Vikrant was ex HMS Hercules and was still ‘straight deck’ so landing was undoubtably ‘fun’ for those Indian Navy guys.
SeaHawks are so beautiful. I’d have one of those if I was 1: Rich and 2: Had got the PPL that I didn’t finish 10 years ago!
DT
By: pagen01 - 9th February 2009 at 15:03
David, you realy, really should do a book or a contract with a magazine, these pictures are absolutely fantastic.
Oh and nice to see a French Gannet!
By: Monsun - 9th February 2009 at 13:42
Great photos. You should consider sending a batch to that other monthly magazine (best not mentioned) for their Readers’ Archive feature. They pay £100 apparently!
Peter
By: John Eacott - 9th February 2009 at 09:47
Terrific photos 😀
By: Jon H - 9th February 2009 at 09:46
IN157 in its previous life was WF293 a FB.3 with the Royal Navy.
Jon
By: kodak - 9th February 2009 at 09:29
Super stuff, easily some of the best captures of Indian Alizes.. Great.
By: mike currill - 9th February 2009 at 07:25
Very nice maye, thanks for sharing them with us. I agree with the previous comment about the DSLR and finding out if you still have the flair you had then. Go get’em tiger
By: hunterxf382 - 9th February 2009 at 07:24
Wonderful photos – thanks for sharing….
I bet that shot of Britannia 496 will please the guys at Kemble who look after her 🙂
By: bms44 - 9th February 2009 at 07:09
You’ve done it again David ! Excellent photos ; you mentioned a book could be a possibility : looks like you could have the makings of several books with your fantastic library, with many eager buyers queuing up to get a slice of history and nostalgia.(I know I would be, certainly!) Regards, Brian S. 🙂
By: l.garey - 9th February 2009 at 06:51
Panaji in 1984
Fabulous pictures again David.
I note that 2 of the Alizés are IN201 and 210. That reminded me that I saw both of them flying over Panaji, Goa, in November 1984. At Dabolim airport there was one of the Sea Hawks, by then a wreck. A beautiful Constellation IN315 “DAB15” too.
Laurence
By: lauriebe - 9th February 2009 at 06:09
Great photos, David. Thanks for posting. Ahhhh!! Those ‘smokey’ starts!!
Sign In
February 8, 2009 at 8:13 pm