Marc Joel Atrero

10 Years Ago • The Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force is to re-activate its six remaining Grumman S-2A Trackers as a replacement for other S- 2As which have reached their maximum permissible hours. The MSDF is retiring an average of five S-2As annually and the type will have been withdrawn from their service by 1983.

Grumman American’s ‘Aa’ Series The Chief Structural Engineer at Piper at the time once indicated to me that Piper had worked on more than its fair share of ‘potato heads’ – a reference to models that emerged as extensions to existing ones, reflections perhaps on the extent to which the Company exploited the popular Cherokee

Sydney Skycom Sydney Maritime’s Coast Station located at La Perouse has recently commenced 7 day a week, 24 hours a day listening watch on three discrete HF frequencies, 4687, 8930 and 11342 KHz, a service known as ‘Sydney Skycom’. The service is intended for international airliners or other aircraft that from time to time may

Haaf Planning for 21st Century Operations via Updated F-111 Force A planned $200m avionics update of the RAAF F-111C force will see this unique strike aircraft remain in service through till the year 2010. A Request For Tender was issued at press time for the long awaited upgrade which will essentially convert the aircraft’s 1960s

The Trojans Are Coming From a northern source we learn that a number of T-28 Trojans are destined for Australia. The T-28’s were formerly in service with the Laotian Air Force. As Laos is a landlocked nation, there have been some problems in getting the aircraft out of that country following acquisition but at last

Navalised Squirrel to Be Developed Aerospatiale is to produce a navalised attack version of their successful twin engined AS. 355 Squirrel. Designated the AS. 355M2, the new light helo will be the smallest blue water naval shipboard deployed helo ever built. The AS. 355M2 will be equipped with a chin mounted 360° search radar and