The Evergreens

Strubby team

Hi all. This is an oldish thread which seems to get revived, so here’s a little more. The pics presented by Contrailjj are from one of my old sites. I used to have a couple of aviation-related websites some years ago and a friend of mine is a nephew of the late George “Rory” Rorison, of the “Strubby Team”. Having a little space, I scanned what he had, which was mostly photocopies of magazine and newspaper images, with Rory’s own info added on the back – pukka gen, very useful to enthusiasts. It made up for the poor quality of pics, by the time the original dotty magazines had been photocopied then scanned.
By way of example, here’s the team in 1962. You’ll see that no common scheme applied. WH301, closest, has broken dayglo lines around the rear fuselage. WL181 is the serial on the camo aircraft, I think. The silver one with more regular dayglo would be WL190.

George came to Australia some years ago and we took him on an aircraft museum crawl. My son, then at school and uninterested in aircraft, never left his side. He always had something interesting to say, no line-shoots, just fascinating facts and funny stories. He sent my friend (his nephew and namesake) the photocopied material I mentioned, plus schematics giving good info on the paintwork and features of some of the aircraft familiar to him. Partly this was to help make a model for his nephew (below – dropped and repaired a few times since building).

As for team members, this scan is from one corner of a full-page spread in the ‘Evening Telegraph’, 20 Sep. 62 – from memory published somewhere in the Yorkshire area.

Having been researching the past of Meteor F.8 WH291, recently arrived at Liverpool, I’ve been following this thread with interest and feel it is time to put forward my halfpennys worth of knowledge.

The Liverpool, Speke ‘At Home’ Air Display in May 1962 featured a Meteor F.8 team, refered to in the programme as the “R.A.F.Manby Aerobatic Team” provided by the R.A.F. Flying College (though no mention of the team as the “Evergreens”), led by Flying Officer Rorison. The team arrived from RAF Strubby with WH291, WK968, WL161 & WL166 on Friday 25th May. The three aircraft that flew the display routine on Saturday 26th are thought to have been WH291, WL161 & WL166. All four aircraft departed home for RAF Strubby Monday 28th May 1962. Unfortunately colour schemes were not recorded and photos rare as the team parked in a remote corner of Speke Airport, down by the river, away from the terminal and crowd line.

Pushes the existance of the team further back by a month, so adding to post #3. I am very reliably informed that the RAFFC became RAF College of Air Warfare (CAW) on 1.7.62 and the jets were operated from RAF Strubby, although the units were RAF Manby based. Must look out for the RAF Aerobatic Teams book, mentioned in the above post, for sale when out and about at airshows this summer. If WH291 is pictured in the magazine article mentioned in post #5, I’d love to see a photocopy or scan. I’ve placed what I know about WH291 on http://www.derbosoft.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=history&action=display&thread=5884 which in-turn cross-references to the SWWAPS thread on this forum! Link doesn’t appear to want to work so: www.nwan.co.uk link to ‘forum’ (you can visit as a guest), main index ‘history and memories EGGP’ section, then thread ‘Meteor WH291’, sorry for long way round.

Regarding the above aerobatic team: one of the team’s aircraft was in green/grey camo scheme and all wore dayglo orange on various parts of the airframe.

Does anybody know: were the remaining aircraft painted in silver or light grey as a basic airframe colour?

Anon.

From the pictures, I would say that the other aircraft were basically painted silver, and I’m pretty sure that Light Aircraft Grey was introduced later than the period in question.

BTW, An excellent book by David Watkins on RAF Aerobatic teams was published recently. I borrowed it from the library and it certainly mentioned the team you refer to, though I don’t recall them being called the Evergreens.

DD

The Evergreens

I am certain one of the pilots we traced from RAF Manby that flew our Jet Provost as a solo display pilot was previously ‘an Evergreen’.
Unfortunately Don Soames Waring passed away last year, but as Don was, his wife is very enthusiastic whenever she recalls Don’s RAF service, and if interested i can put you in touch with her ?

I know he had several photographs of ‘his’ Meteors around his home, including an apparent favourite, as he often recalled aircraft were very individual back then, and he spoke fondly of his Manby Meteor display days, so i’m fairly certain it was the Evergreens.

His logbooks are very detailed and i’m sure would confirm dates etc.

Paul
XS186 CREW

“Evergreens” – RAFFC Strubby 1962

Regarding the above aerobatic team: one of the team’s aircraft was in green/grey camo scheme and all wore dayglo orange on various parts of the airframe.

Does anybody know: were the remaining aircraft painted in silver or light grey as a basic airframe colour?

Anon.

If you can get hold of a back issue, the magazine ‘Scale Aircraft Modelling, Vol 26, No. 9, November 2004‘ had a photo of the team on page 576.

The feature section also details RAF aerobatic teams 1960 – present day and has some good photos of the other Manby teams as well.

aka ‘Strubby’??

Found these 3 pics about a year ago (the original source website no longer works) That site had named the team ‘Strubby’ circa 1962. WL181 is the lead aircraft in the first pic.

From what I recall from the original web site, (IIRC it was a personal site for a fellow who had flown with the team)… the aircraft were never standardized and usually flew in what ever colour happened to be on them… i.e. one in camo/aluminum, 1 alumunim with day-glow panels and 1 aluminum with day-glo strips…

I had started some preliminary profiles based on the info I had found, and attached are roughs that represent the 3 aircraft of the Team in 1962.

I was looking through old air show reports on the Scramble website a couple of days ago and came across reference to the Manby team in a few entries.

Those that I discovered were:

Plymouth, 16 June 1962. Aircraft involved: WK876, WL181, WL191.

Cottesmore, 15 September 1962. Aircraft involved: WK876, WL161, WL181.

Acklington, 14 September 1963. Aircraft involved: WH208, WH291, WK914, WK968, WL181.

Alconbury, 23 May 1964. Aircraft involved: WK876/A, WL181/D, WH291/E, WK914/H

I was at the 1962 Plymouth Display and so must have seen the team. Grey cells aren’t what they were now though so have no memories of it.

I am sure that I have seen a photo of the formation recently. Trying to remember where.

Ray Hanna’s involvement with The Evergreens has been confirmed, but the original request still stands – any information / pictures on the team?

Pilot list?
Groundcrew?
Display routine?
Places where they displayed?
etc.

Still looking for a high res shot of WL181 – was she allocated to any particular pilot or were the jets flown by anyone? We know 181 was the lead aircraft..