Air-drop jeeps in 1945?

The Beverley was definitely not long range. An ex-RAF guy told me that they could carry one boy scout for 500 miles or 500 boy scouts for one mile!

Whilst serving at RAF Nicosia 60-62 at TASF (Transit Aircraft Servicing Flight) we had a board displaying future arrivals. One ‘Bev’ took eleven days to reach us! Just slightly faster than by sea.:eek: They had to night stop at Orange Southern France then Malta followed by El Adem Libya before we got them and they always seemed to have a mag drop on at least one engine so they could have a nice time in the night clubs of Nicosia.
When preparing the Bev for dropping the pallets mentioned the rear doors had to come off, and deflectors fitted to the fuselage so lifting equipment had to be available.

The Beverley was definitely not long range. An ex-RAF guy told me that they could carry one boy scout for 500 miles or 500 boy scouts for one mile!

Maximum range was 1300 miles,Argosy max range 3400 miles. On that basis the Argosy was hardly any more than a tactical transport as you wouldn’t get anywhere near that range out of it with a meaningful load.

The ability to drop the Jeep wouldn’t have happend without the work put in to develop the parachute pack for the Airborne Lifeboat which came first. Jeeps, trailers, Six pounder anti tank guns, 75mm Pack Howitzers and 25 pounder Field Guns could be dropped this way from the bomb bay of Halifax’s and the beam underslung on a Hastings (I have a drawing of this beam somewhere).
After the war it was seen that the way to go was cargo aircarft with rear doors and so the 7000 lb Stressed Platform was developed and dropped from USAF C82 and C119 whilst the RAF waited for the Beverley to enter service which it hadn’t really done by the time the Suez crisis happened (When the USA officially didn’t help us). Therefore the heavy drop that took place had to revert to the Jeep crash pan system and to do this they needed to raid the museum at the AATDC as the stressed platform was now the way we did heavy drop!
The Stressed Platform grew from 7000 lb capacity to what it is today as the 18000 lb capacity MSP (Medium Stressed Platform), yes, its basically the same piece of kit that dates from the 50’s. Along the way there was the BSP (Boscombe Stressed Platform) that became the SSP (Stores Stressed Platform) which was used for the ULLA (Ultra Low Level Airdrop). There was also the HSP (Heavy Stressed Platform) which took over where the MSP left off allowing single loads up to 35000 lb to be dropped from the Hercules and 42000 lb from the Beverley (Is that the heaviest thing ever dropped from a British aircraft?).

You may be interested in these illustrations from an AATDC catalogue I have. I’m aoso open to any question of this subject, for as you can see I can bore for England on the matter.[ATTACH]185581[/ATTACH]

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Thank you all for your help, and the interesting diversions too. I must confess, rather pathetically, to Moggy that I’ve yet to get to Airspace despite the girlfriend nagging me to go to Duxford. Yes – you heard that right, trouble is I’m usually busy when I’m over that way!

I’ll have to ask what effect the Jeep had on the flying characteristics – it doesn’t look very aerodynamic, does it? I wonder where the drop pictured was – certainly wasn’t Great Sampford, though.

Nice Champ, by the way – more pugnacious looking than the Gypsy!

Adrian

Not a very good picture I know, heres my first champ (sold it about 4 years ago) painted in RAF blue; apparently the Champ was never adopted by the RAF, but whilst removing paint for respraying, there was a coat of RAF blue several layers down, it did however spend time at Jersey airport, probably used to ferry all of those unknown owners to their Jersey registered Spitfires…..

There are several Beverley shots in the album as well but these are all dated 1946.
Gerry

1956 possibly?

The medium-range tactical transport Beverly can trace its routes back to the war-time General Aviation Ltd GAL.49 Hamilcar transport glider (and Mk.X powered version). Here’s a brief Beverley time line,
GAL.60 Universal Frieghter WF320 FF June 1950
GAL.65/B-100 Universal freighter 2 WZ889 FF June 1953
B-101 Beverley XB259 FF January 1955
Beverley C.1 first operational March 1956

A visit to the airborne Forces section of Duxford Airspace will answer a lot of the original poster’s queries.

There on display is a WW2 Willys Jeep mounted on its airdrop frame.

An interesting feature in the crushable metal pans under each wheel, designed to collapse under the impact of landing and absorb a lot of the shock.

Moggy

Edit: As noted by austernj673 above

On a related topic…
Didn’t the post-war RAF sling some beneath Hastings?

I’m sure they did, and have seen pictures of the jeep (maybe even a pair) tethered to a dropping frame under the forward fusalage of Hastings – as usual I need to find the pics again.
They also devised a huge cargo container, or ‘Paratechnicon’ that could be fitted under a Hastings, and this was designed to airdrop vehicles and large guns from. However that caused Hastings TG499 to crash on its first trial when it released and hit the tail plane.

The Beverley was definitely not long range. An ex-RAF guy told me that they could carry one boy scout for 500 miles or 500 boy scouts for one mile!

Don’t forget the vehicle between the Jeep and the Land Rover, the lovely Austin Champ.

I once knew an ex para who had served in the late 40s / early 50s, he had taken part in a number of practice drops where Jeeps (and presumably Series 1 Land Rovers) were slung under Varsitys and Dakotas.

On one he said that his Sergeant had given the platoon a roasting because the vehicle was too slow getting down and ready for action, so next time some bright spark didn’t attach the static line. Apparently he said words to the effect of, you wanted it down quicker. The platoon then got to pull the field gun home by human power.

Hi Adrian,
I have attached some images that hopefully you will enjoy seeing.(If you haven’t already seen them!). They were taken in June 1945 and are dated clearly on the back. These are from the photo album of Arthur Piper who flew later in the war with transport command. There are several Beverley shots in the album as well but these are all dated 1946.
Gerry

That appeals to my warped sense of humour, well being ex forces myself it would wouldn’t it?:D:D

A SWB (short wheel base) Landrover could be got into a Hastings, but not the LWB version. A man, who’d suffered, with others, at the hands of a martinet of a Flight Sergeant, during National Service, told me how, on their last night, before demob, they dismantled a LWB, loaded it aboard a Hastings, then rebuilt it. They heard, afterwards, that the FS went almost demented, trying to work out why the thing wouldn’t come out.
Edgar

If by RO-RO you mean in one end and out the other we never have had. If you mean drive in drive out the Beverley beats the machines you mention by a few years.

I meant roll on, roll off…it can be out the same opening as long as the vehicle has a reverse gear. 🙂

Was the Beverly a long-range (or strategic) airlifter?
I thought it was a tactical type. In any event, with fixed gear, I’d imagine it was slow…

In any event, I would havet hought a vehicle carring type would have been a priority to support forces in the waning days of Empire.

If by RO-RO you mean in one end and out the other we never have had. If you mean drive in drive out the Beverley beats the machines you mention by a few years.

On a related topic…
Didn’t the post-war RAF sling some beneath Hastings?

Why the RAF didn’t have a long range airlifter with ro-ro capability before the Argosy (was it considered long range?), Belfast & Hercules is puzzling.

SAS Jeeps were being dropped into France for operations in support of the DDAY landings in June 1944, they were stripped down and loaded onto pallets that fitted ( Under slung) into the bomb bays of Halifax bombers. Later armoured jeeps with bullet proof glass were used but these were not parachuted in but arrived by ship.

6 Pounder anti tank guns were also dropped on their own special pallets, there is an airborne jeep on display in the Airborne Assualt museum section at Duxford.

If i remember rightly, i read some reports at the PRO that suggested that a couple of jeeps are still in a French lake that missed the Drop Zone.