Yester Year

• The last 12 airworthy Swiss air force Dassault Mirage IIIS fighters made a flypast of Bouchs on October 22, with a special colour scheme applied to Mirage J-2326. Until a suitable replacement is found, about 12 reconnaissance IIIRS and four IIIBS/DS trainers will remain in service until about 2003. A likely replace-ment for the surviving IIIRS Mirages could be about eight to 12 reconnaissance pod equipped F/A-18s.

• A ceremony at British Aero-space Australia’s Williamtown facility on October 28 marked the arrival of A27-013/DT13, the first Hawk Mk 127 Lead-In Fighter which will be assembled locally and the 13th aircraft for the RAAF. The first 12 Hawks are being assem-bled at BAe Warton with the remaining 21 to be assembled at Williamtown, subcontracted to Hunter Aerospace, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BAeA. The announcement of Hunter’s acquisition by BAeA was an-nounced the previous day.

25 YearsAgo

• The maiden flight of the first production Rockwell Interna-tional B-1B strategic bomber took place on October 18 from Palmdale, California. The US Air Force will acquire 100. Meanwhile, an investigation into the loss of the second prototype B-1A, 74-0159, on August 29 in the desert near Boron northeast of Edwards AFB, California, indicates it was due to the crew failing to transfer fuel properly and maintain the C of G within acceptable limits during mini-mum control speed tests.

• McDonnell Douglas was awarded a US Navy contract on October 2 to initiate full scale development of the T-45TS Jet flight training system. The system’s aircraft, the T-45A, will replace the Rockwell T-2C Buckeye and McDonnell Doug-las TA-4J Skyhawk. Ultimately 300 T-45A Hawks, based on the British Aerospace Hawk, will be acquired together with 32 simu-lators and other equipment.

• McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extenders for the USAF from aircraft number 26 due for delivery this month will now be painted in a grey camouflage instead of white.

• The RAF has purchased two Lockheed TriStar 500s from Pan Am, with the option on a third. They will be converted into tanker transports by Mar-shalls of Cambridge where the conversion of six former British Airways TriStars is in progress.

• British Aerospace has re-vealed the breakeven point for sales of the BAe 146 are about, 350 and between 200 and 250 for the Jetstream 31.

• Aerospatiale and Messer-schmitt-Bolkow-Blohm have established a new joint firm called Eurocopter to handle Franco-German cooperative military programs.

50 YearsAgo

• The first round-the-world turbojet-powered passenger service was inaugurated by the Pan American Boeing 707-321, N719PA Clipper Windward on October 10 on a flight from New York to New York via San Francisco, Honolulu, Manila, Karachi and Rome.

• The name Phantom II has been given to the McDonnell F4H-1 two-seat shipboard interceptor and strike fighter. Armament development tests of the Phantom II are pro-gressing under control of the Pacific Missile Range at Point Mugu. Test flights at Edwards AFB, California, have seen the aircraft approach world record altitude heights.

• The first production Boeing B-52A Stratofortress, 52-001, which first flew on August 5 1954, has made its 320th and last flight and has finally been delivered to the US Air Force’s Air Training Command at Chanute AFB, Illinois, rel-egated to the role of a ground trainer. During the past five years the aircraft has been used continuously by Boeing for experimental work.

• The US Navy has cancelled further development work on the Martin SeaMaster. The USN has four flyable aircraft of 12 prototype and produc-tion aircraft built from the 32 originally ordered, while both XP6M-1 SeaMaster prototypes were lost during flight testing.

• The British Ministry of Supply has ordered 20 Arm-strong Whitworth A. W. 660 tactical freighters for the RAF. This military version of the A. W. 650 Argosy will be 70 per cent structurally similar to the Argosy, with the main changes arising from increased wing tankage and a modified beaver tail rear fuselage door.