Almost certainly two different airframes. There are external differences in the photos of the two aircraft.

A little info from the ABIX site which I hope they won’t mind me sharing here.

EC-47P, 43-48886, arrived at Paya Lebar Airport, Singapore, on 29 Apr 75 carrying refugees. It was impounded on arrival and handed over to the US authorities but later sold to the Singapore AF. Seems that although it might have been evaluated by the RSAF for possible use, that was not the case and the aircraft was left parked up. It, and several other ex-SAFTECH airframes, were moved to the Sentosa display site in November 79. It was scrapped in 1987.

Laurence, Penang is still a nice place to live.

I have seen another photo of this aircraft on the Air-Britain Information Exchange site. It was taken by an ex-student at the Poly in 1978. That student has also been trying to identify the aircraft, so far without success.

Pagen01, yes, this aeroplane was allocated to my old ATC Sqn, 335 (2nd Plymouth), as a training airframe in 1958. It fitted in between two of our wooden training huts with the wings folded.

Had it not been able to fit in that space, it would have been scrapped by the Royal Naval Engineering College at Manadon, Crownhill, Plymouth. It remained with us until mid-January 1964 when it was recovered to RNAS Culdrose for restoration to static standard.

Since the question of whether or not there was a Singapore Auxilary Air Force was raised in this thread, I have been doing some research into that. Recently, I came across the site in this link:

http://webspace.webring.com/people/rj/jica-aas/airforce/index.html

It bears out what I had always believed and that is there was no seperate Singapore Auxiliary Air Force. The Singapore units, both flying squadrons and the FCU, were an overall part of the Malayan Auxililary Air Force (MAAF) while that existed.

The site is very informative and well worth reading through.

Ah, happy memories indeed! To see and hear this aircraft fly some 46 years after I first became acquainted with it was an experience that I shall never forget. Wonderful stuff. If I may add this one Mark:

Have looked through Air-Britain’s “Fleet Air Arm Fixed Wing Aircraft since 1945”. It seems that 030/R at that time was XN977. The other aircraft in the strike pair, 021/R, was most likely XT275. Perhaps Lee Howard, one of the co-authors of that excellent tome, can provide more info.

Have also browsed through ‘Phoenix Squadron’ again but can’t find any reference to the codes of tankers. Anyone know what they might be? Might be able to trace a serial number then.

stendec7, are you referring to this incident:

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/134346-97-iot-fly-past.html

16 Dec 53, three Meteor F8s; WA769, WA930 & WH283, were all abandoned after running out of fuel trying to land at Waterbeach after failed GCAs.

The pilot of the fourth aircraft, WE510, Fg Off Weerasinghe, was seriously injured in a forced landing rather than abandon his aircraft.

Hope that helps.

Info from Colin Cummings’ book ‘Last Take-off’.