Albert,

The answer, I think, is ‘Ecuador’… No, I haven’t been at the Arkell’s best…

If you look at World Air Power Journal Autumn 1997, page 140, it says (of Ecuador’s Strikemasters):

“Attrition was quite high, with at least ten of the original two batches [ of Strikemasters] being lost by 1981. During 1985, Ecuador expressed an interest in acquiring six more Strikemasters three being from the embargoed Sudanese order (my emphasis). Built in 1978, these aircraft had been stored at the BAe Samlesbury facility in expectation of an eventual order; two of the jets were completed to serve as company demonstrators and were registered as G-BIDB and G-BIHZ. Negotiations were completed in 1987, and the first three Strikemaster Mk 90s were accepted in Novermber of the same year, with the final trio following on 21 November 1988. These aircraft now serve in a dual capacity of advanced flying training and close air support.”

I always liked the tale that Soviet pilots said that the ‘LaGG’ bit of LaGG-3 stood for ‘Lakirovanny garantirovanny grob’ – Guaranteed Varnished Coffin…

I think the second part of the Argosy’s ‘Whistling Tit’ name came from the small radome on the nose.

I was told (by the son of a chap who flew Vampires) that the ‘kiddy car’ name came about because of the close proximity of the pilot to the ground and the fact that from certain angles, the aircraft looked liked one of those small cars which can be pedalled about.

In RAF service, the SA330 Puma is often referred to as ‘Percy’ while the Wessex used to be known as ‘Walter’.

Paul,

I think it would have been 13 Sqn aircraft that you saw in Malta. The squadron was there at the time (relocating to Wyton in 1978). 9 Squadron were back at Waddington with their Vulcans (after the sojourn in Cyprus) by this point.

I’d have thought, given the Cold War connections of the Canberra, that a space ought to be found for the airframe at Cosford. I know they have a PR9, but one can never have too many Canberras on display…. I wonder if someone will have the gumption to rescue the B(I)8 from NZ? A display of three Canberras – to show their versatility in Cold War roles – would be quite acceptable…

Ten shiny Lightnings standing on the line,
One must have a wheel change, now there are nine.
Nine costly aircraft, looking simply great,
One needs a bullet change, now we have eight.
Eight eager Lightnings wait to soar to heaven,
One is put on QRA so now we’re left with seven.
Seven potent monsters which fly like powered bricks,
But one has sprung a fuel leak, leaving us with six.
Six high speed fighters must scramble to survive,
One can’t start an engine, so taxying are five.
Five Tiger warplanes running up full bore,
One’s AC comes off line, leaving only four.
Four remaining aircraft, straining to get free,
One has a fuel light one, for take off we have three.
Three noisy Lightnings, streaking for the blue,
One aborts with bird strike, and now we’re down to two.
Two lift off successfully, as all ten should have done,
The leader cannot raise his wheels, climbing there is one.
The one roars off to sea to chase the wily Hun,
But his AI blows every fuse and targets he finds none.
The costly interceptors lie on the hangar floor,
This surely cannot happen here… it can to 74!

(poet uncredited; page 206 of Bob Cossey’s book)

HTH

A by no-means complete list to start you off, sourced from a very quick look at Jeff Jefford’s book on RAF squadrons:

127 Squadron operated from Cyprus (with Spitfire Vs [and Hurricane IICs for a bit) in 1943; with detatchments at Paphos and Nicosia;

274 had a det in Cyprus as well in August 43;

603 Squadron might have been there, but I can’t quite decide from the info I’ve got here at home whether they had their aeroplanes with them, or whether it was the ground echelon (but the squadron history will tell you);

74 Squadron was certainly there with Spitfire IXs (have a look at Bob Cossey’s ‘Tigers: The Story of No. 74 Squadron, RAF’ for more).

Hope that’s a small help to start you off – if you don’t get any further, Jefford’s book (‘RAF Squadrons’ pub. by Airlife) gives a list of the bases of every squadron, and you can cross reference the bases on Cyprus with the squadron numbers; you could have the complete answer to your question after a couple of hours of cross referencing between the list of who was based where and the squadron equipment list.

I’d have thought that the only Tomcats capable of operating aboard the Ark Royal would have been used to catch mice…

I strongly suspect that the Ark’s catapults would have been unable to give the F-14A sufficient flying speed to get off the end of the deck – remember that the Ark Royal’s flight deck was shorter than the Midway class, which didn’t operate F-14s. I seem to recall seeing photos of A-7s cross-decking with the Ark, and I may have seen pics of 892 Sqn Phantoms aboard America, although I have a suspicion that I’m thinking of the photos of operations aboard Saratoga in the late 60s as the Phantoms were entering RN service.

F/A – at the very least, Maggie would have found herself reprising the role of Anthony Eden as the US crippled the UK economy overnight and forced her resignation. I daresay that the Hague tribunal would have been open for business a good fifteen/twenty years earlier, and we’d be about to have the tenth book written from comfort of her cell hitting the bookshops about now.

More seriously, such an approach would have been contrary to a variety of things pertaining to nuclear weapons such as negative security assurances. Even making the threat would have been disastrous.

Phil’s correct – any attempt to indict Baroness Thatcher would be counter-productive. A colleague of mine knowledgeable in these matters suggests the following:

1) Those officers involved in planning the invasion in 1982 would be open for prosecution and, if the act of invasion was considered to be illegal, all those who participated in the invasion could (admittedly at a stretch) be open to prosecution for carrying out an illegal order. Not so sure that the Argentine parliament would be popular if that resulted from a counter-suit.

2) A defence could be made on the grounds that the Falklands (whatever your position on who should have sovereignty) were de facto British territory, and that an illegal act of aggression had been perpetuated. Without boring on, my (learned) friend suggests that Maggie could argue that by not declaring a war (as she could have, faced with an invasion of British territory) she limited the scope of the conflict – but not the point where sinking the Belgrano outside the exclusion zone was illegal. The sinking of the vessel would also, in probability, be shown to have met the necessary conditions laid down by the laws of armed conflict, thus leading to a not guilty verdict (assuming that the case ever went to court).

Any chance that King Jester could be elected to the Argentine parliament to inject a bit of wisdom to said establishment??

The RAF exchange tour on the F-117 didn’t have that much to do with the idea of the RAF buying the aircraft. There was some British involvement in the development of Stealth technology, through something called the Dawson Report – this was covered in Janes’ (or was it Flight?) some years ago. In essence, Mr Dawson, a boffin, produced a report on low-observable technology, based upon material captured at the end of WW2. It was quite clear that the UK would never be able to develop this technology, so all the info was handed over the US. To cut a long story short, and to over-simplify it as well (I’ll try to dig out the reference), this assistance bought the RAF an exchange posting on the F-117.

The RAF did consider the F-117 as a complement to the Tornado force, but the end of the Cold War killed the idea. The current (at least I think he’s the current one, but may be nearing the end of his tour) CO of 617 Squadron was the F-117 exchange officer at the time of the Kosovo campaign, and won an American gallantry award.

juniper – you’re right; but that was the F3, not the GR4. The plan is still that the Typhoon replaces just the F3, but as I said above, people are now talking about whether to use it as a partial replacement for the GR4)