VISIT BY R.A.F. SHACKLETONS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27444, 2 September 1954, Page 10

VISIT BY R.A.F. SHACKLETONS

ARRIVAL NEXT WEEK AT HAREWOOD

40,000-MILE GOODWILL TRIP The Christchurch airport’s log of aircraft types accommodated will receive a new entry on September 8 with the arrival of two Royal Air Force maritime reconnaissance Shackletons. The aircraft are part of a flight of four making a 40,000-mile goodwill tour of India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. The others will land at Whenuapai. All aircraft will leave for Nandi airport, Fiji, on Thursday, September 9. The Shackletons will land at Harewood but refuelling and other work will be handled by men from the Royal New Zealand Air Force station. Wigram. Lectures on the work of Coastal Command, of which the longrange Shackletons are a part, and demonstrations of equipment, some of it on the secret list, will be givgn at Wigram by the specialist officers travelling with the mission. - The flight took off from St. Avail, Cornwall, on August 13 to take part in maritime exercises off Ceylon. From there they flew to Australia. From England the mission flew as two parts,, each of two Shackletons and a Hastings of Transport Command with servicing staff. They met over Ceylon and will separate again for the transTasman crossing.

N.Z. Officers With Flight Group Captain R. Faville, C.8.E., formerly of Christchurch, is in command of the flight and with him will be another New Zealander, Squadron Leader M. A. Ensor, D. 5.0., D.F.C., an old boy of St. Andrew’s College, who distinguished himself in service with Coastal Qbmmand during the war. The Avro Shackleton M.R.2 is used by Coastal Command for duties rather similar to those performed by the Sunderland, now in service with maritime squadrons of the R.N.Z.A.F. It was derived from the Lincoln bomber which in its turn was a development of the well-tried and magnificent Lancaster. In many respects the Shackleton is similar to its forebears. It retains the twin-rudder tail, long, slim fuselage and wing plan of these earlier aircraft (the first Shackleton prototype made its maiden flight on March 9, 1949, and the Mark 2 first flew in June, 1952), but the design is much cleaner. Powdr is provided by four Rolls Royce Griffon 57 engines, each deliverihg 2450 horsepower through contra-rotating airscrews. No details of performance or weights have been released for publication, but it is reported to have a longer range than the 3000-mile Sunderlands. Armament consists of four 20 m.m. cannon mounted in pairs in nose and dorsal turrets. The tail turret position on the Lincoln has been replaced in the Shackleton by a transparent fairing for a lookout. Anti-shipping weapons are carried in the long single bomb bay.