Beaufighter and Meteor target tugs -Singapore 60's

Thanks for sharing, lovely to see such unusual pictures.

I much prefer the user/visitor type pictures, to the official Mill shots.

I found another pic with Beaufighter RD809 in it. Once again not taken by me and I can only date is as pre-mid 1961.
This also has Meteor F8 WH398 in it – this is the Meteor shown in the first pic that Dave Homewood links to in his post above. It is shown in flight with 14 Sqn RNZAF’s Vampires.

This looks very much like the Aircraft service flight area at Changi to me, not Seletar and the Beverley could even indicate that as 48 Sqn at Changi received the first Beverleys but they moved to form 34 Sqn at Seletar.

I like the fact that we can compare the size of the Beaufighter to a Meteor in this pic.
Even looking at the example at Duxford, I believed them to be rather bigger, as perhaps a Mosquito is.

DT

Since we started on Target Tugs and progressed to Canberras…I have to post a couple of pictures of Canberras going off to meet their fates at Woomera, probably as lunch for ‘Bloodhound’s.
Presumably what Canberra, still in ‘front line service’, offered over say a radio controlled Meteor or Jindivinks was great altitude capability. At that time in the early 60’s we still were trying to protect from high flying Russian bombers and I assume the Bloodhound missiles needed proving up there.

So sad to think that these pristine white remote control Canberras were just blown out of the sky.

This is WH652 by the way.
If you Google Canberra WH652 you find a report from a 1953 ‘Flight’ about Canberras and Avon engines being tested for 600 hrs of intensive flying. One of the 3 Canberras mentioned is WH652.
The 600 hr was completed in 50 days, in
which time some 300,000 miles were flown. Turn-round time
improved tremendously as the trial progressed; the average for
the first month was 1 hr 35 min, for the second month 1 hr 10 min,
and for the third month 36 min. On one occasion Canberra
WH652 landed, was serviced and took off again in 30 min.
She needed TLC – not blowing up!
The ADF Serials website has the following details:
WH652 U.10 Built by English Electric 31/10/52. Delivered to RAF as B.2 WH652. Converted to U.10. First flight 12/12/61. Allocated to WRE 23/02/63. Delivered to RAAF 16/03/62 at Edinburgh SA. Destroyed by missile 12/02/64. Written off 31/03/64
I wonder how easy to manually fly a converted Canberra was?

David Taylor.

Planemike:

Regarding the date for VP-KJJ. I through away my spotters note book a few years ago. Silly thing to have done after so carefully looking after the products of my ‘misspent youth’ for so long!
Therefore I’m left with my notes on the back of the original prints and the neg files to use to date things by.
This film with the Macchi on has some pics, all shot at Paya Lebar, of an Air India 707 and a shot of RAF Brit XM496 on it. The 707 doesn’t help with dating but the RAF Brits didn’t use Paya Lebar until the Western dispersal at Changi was resurfaced. That took place mid 1963. So I’m pretty convinced that the Macchi was still surviving in 1963.

She’s named ‘Pandora’ by the way.

This pics a bit soft and I can’t blame the processing this time as I was developing and printing them myself. Ahh those long nights in bedroom that became a dark room!

My dad must have given me more pocket money by now…I was taking more than one picture each time.

DT

Brilliant period shots Dave.

[SIZE=”2″]Thanks for sharing these superb Pics. Dave.-:D

I passed through Changi ,stayed in Transit in Oct. 62 and back through in April 65. Those colonial Barrack blocks were quite something too.

It was all Hastings, These Aircraft,PSP and manned machine gun emplacements then, but I got the flavour OK, Pity I missed the Beaufighters. Ar well, funny how memories stick down the years, awakened by pics. like these.

Brilliant Dave,

Bill T.:D

Nice photo, thanks for that!

ohhh yeah!

Ooooh now that’s an aeroplane!

Gorgeous, thanks DT!

Thanks Dave I enjoyed the 14 sqn Vampires.

Jim Barrett, my best friend at Changi, father was with 41 Sqn RNZAF, the Bristol Freighter unit on ‘the other side of the runway’. So I always was interested in the Kiwi comings and goings. Apart from the regular 40 sqn DC6A’s and the Bristol Freighters we did get 14 Sqns Canberra B(i)12’s pass through October 61. My pics need more salvaging with PhotoShop as the were severely scalded when developed by the Changi village processors.

Here’s NZ6106 on the taxyway. The ‘Interdictor’ Canberra’s always looked ‘the business’ because that fighter style cockpit so suited them.

DT

Interesting photos there David.

You may find some of the Singapore photos on this epic thread on my forum of interest:
http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=Postwar&action=display&thread=7587&page=1

The F8 shown WA880 survived and is at the Queensland Air Museum, painted as an RAAF aircraft.
I have pics of other TT aircraft and noticed web discussion about WL180, another F8. My pics of this only show it after delivery to the Far East so I am not able to confirm that the Corgi model is incorrect in only having the last 2 digits of its serail (ie ’80’) showing on the fuselage.
However I would doubt if that is correct. The F8 in the pic above has the day-glo stripped back to allow the full serial to be shown. I feel that must be how it was.

David Taylor.

Modeller

Very nice clear pic of the F.8, thanks.
Black and white photos are very atmospheric.

Absolutely brilliant stuff!

Delighted with the Meteor shots – I’d been looking for some decent pictures of the target-towing gear and they’re not as easy to find as you’d imagine!

Postfade………..

Just wonderful pics. My interest is mainly civil but these “period” shots from overseas are just special.

Very intrested to see the pics of the Kenyan Macchi 320. I remember seeing this aircraft when I lived there in the 50’s. East Africa Airways bought three of them but they were not a success. It is likely VP-KJJ was in the ownership of Air Safaris when it visited Singapore. Quite a long trip for that a/c. Do you have an exact date for your photograph? A couple of sources I have checked show the a/c as being written off in 1962, no month quoted. It was back in Africa by then, w/o at Mbeya Tanganyika.

The aircraft has Royal connections as it was used by Princess Margaret during her visit to Kenya in 1956.

Planemike

Sorry- no more Beaufighters. they had gone when I got to Seletar, so I also can’t wait to see the Duxford example completed.

Yes that’s a Macchi 320- It’s VP-KJJ. Must have been a great flight from Kenya in 1963.

The RAAF Dak is A65-73, a regular in Singapore as it was presumably one of the Daks at RAAF Butterworth in Malaya.

Getting back to Meteors. I had noticed that some modellers have, in the past, discussed how accurate the Corgi model of a 1574 Flight F(TT)8’s markings were.

Here’s a shot of F8 WA880 in the ‘later markings’ that it wore when at Changi from mid 1963. Does this help any modellers?

David Taylor.

Really interesting photos , has anyone any more showing the detail of the tackle under the Meteor ?

Id love to see some more of the Beaufighters if you have any.

It’s a Macchi 320 Keith.

John

Seletar scrappings

Thanks for the excellent pics postfade, there’s some good info there for the modellers amongst us too.
Seems incredible the way they would break up serviceable aircraft in days gone by and there was no emotion involved, the job had come to an end or the type wasn’t keeping pace with the demands of the role so, off to the breakers they went.
Those were the days when there were many hundreds of the type still extant. No-one thought that one day (in the not-too-distant future) there would be aircraft restorers struggling to find the parts for their projects.
Not only the aircraft went but the huge spares holding they had for all the aircraft of the day, engines and props too – unceremoniously binned!

Anon.

Postfade, We can never get enough of these quality photo’s, supurb, now I will do to you what others keep doing to me, seeing things in the background !
Any idea of the identity of the small civilian aircraft in the first Dak photo, possible Bahamas registration ? I cannot recognise it, Apache size, but too much glazing ??

Keith.

To whom it may concern….

….folks, just to head off a bit of confusion, the Dave T’ known as ‘Postfade‘ is not myself posting under a different account name, and is in fact a pure coincidence there’s now 2 of us. So be afraid… !!! :diablo:

Cheers….

Dave T’

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