Yester Year

• The Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department has acquired four former USN Sikorsky SH-3H helicopters to replace its existing S-58Ts which operate from its base at Long Beach.

• The Republic of China Air Force has received the final batch of eight Dassault Mirage 2000-5 fighters on board a French freighter which arrived at Hualien Harbour on October 28.

Taiwan has now received 48 single-seat 2000-5Ei and 12 two-seat 2000-5Di fighters to complete the RoCAF’s ‘Flying Dragon’ plan.

• The Mosquito Control Department of Beaufort County Council has acquired three former USN Convair C‑131Fs which had been stored at AMARC since 1986. They will be based at Lady’s Island Airport, South Carolina, equipped as sprayers for mosquito control.

• President Clinton signed into law on October 21 legislation by Congress which in part provides US$886. 5 million for the Treasury Department in FY1999-2001 to procure 10 Lockheed P-3B AEW and 10 P-3B ‘Slick’ Orion aircraft for the US Customs Service.

25 Years Ago

• Pan American commemorated 25 years of Boeing 707 transatlantic services with a special 707 flight between New York and Paris on October 26 flying on the original route including a stop at Gander, Newfoundland.

• The Lockheed F-117A stealth fighter achieved IOC with the 4450th Tactical Group at Tonopah Airfield, Nevada, on October 28.

• Following a military coup on October 19 the government of Grenada was overthrown.

Concern about the safety of about 1000 US citizens on the island prompted the diversion of a task force of 12 ships including the carrier USS Independence en route to Lebanon. On October 22 the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States formally requested the US to intervene.

Two days later President Reagan ordered US forces to occupy the island. The following morning Army Ranger parachutists were dropped from C-5A and C-130 transports to secure an unfinished 2750m airstrip at Point Salinas built by Cuban forces.

• Fairchild’s production of the A-10 Thunderbolt II is nearing completion. By August, 704 of the 713 ordered by the USAF had been delivered.

• Qantas has ordered six extended range versions of the Boeing 767-200 and three 747-300s. The first 747-300s will be delivered in November 1984 and the first 767-200 in October 1985.

• Short Sandringham VP-LVE Southern Cross, ex N158C and Ansett Flying Boat Services VH-BRC Beachcomber, is now in a new Hall of Aviation at Southampton, UK.

50 Years Ago

• Two BOAC Comet 4s inaugurated jet services across the Atlantic via Newfoundland on October 4, with simultaneous flights from London to New York with G-APDC with Captain R E Millichap and New York to London using G-APDB commanded by Captain T B Stoney.

• Pan Am introduced the Boeing 707 into airline service on October 26 with the first revenue flight made by 707-121 N711PA Clipper America from New York to Paris/Rome via Gander, Newfoundland, flown by chief pilot Captain Sam Miller and acting first officer Captain Waldo Lynch.

• An order for Lockheed F-104 Starfighters was announced in Bonn on October 31 for West Germany’s Luftwaffe which had its rebirth in 1956. Six to 10 aircraft will be bought direct from Lockheed while 300 will be built under licence by firms such as Dornier, Heinkel and Messerschmitt in southern Germany. They will supplement and eventually replace Canadair Sabres and F-84Fs.

• The 27 year old mystery of the disappearance of Avro 618 Ten VH-UMF Southern Cloud on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne on March 21 1931 was solved on October 26 with the discovery of the wreckage of the aircraft in the Tooma Gorge in the Toolong Range in the Snowy Mountains. The wreckage was located by T R Sonter 25km to the east of the direct Sydney-Melbourne track.

• Howard Hughes’s order for a Vickers Viscount 763 has been cancelled. The aircraft had been in storage at Weybridge for two years.