R.A.A.F. NEPTUNE AT WIGRAM

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27912, 8 March 1956, Page 12

R.A.A.F. NEPTUNE AT WIGRAM

Arrival For Air Force Day PRECAUTIONS BEFORE LANDING No risks were taken with a longrange Neptune bomber, its rectangular fuselage housing the latest electronic anti-submarine equipment developed in the United Kingdom and the United States, when it arrived in Christchurch after a six-hour flight from the Royal Australian Air Force base at Richmond. New South Wales, yesterday afternoon.

The heavy plane landed at Christchurch airport on sealed runways. To make sure that its precious gear, said to be the most effective and up-to-date in the world, would not be endangered by a possible subsidence in the grass field at the R.N.Z.A.F. Station. Wigram, senior officers left the Neptune and made a personal inspection of the ground before they would permit the plane to go there. Satisfied with what they saw and were told of the field—American Neptunes and heavier Skymasters used it frequently earlier this summer—they decided that the plane, which will be on display for Wigram’s Air Force Day on Saturday, could be transferred safely. The captain (Flight Lieutenant J. T. Dollisson, D.F.C., A.F.C.) returned to Harewood, climbed into the' Neptune’s cockpit once more and made the short hop of three miles or so to Wigram. He reported that the ground was firm.

Members of the Neptune’s crew are proud of the capabilities of their aircraft. They include a Royal Air Force exchange officer. Flight Lieutenant A. A. Macßean. who is navigator, and Squadron Leader R. Heathcote, signaller. who helped to ferry the first Neptune to Australia from America in 1952.

Air Commodore G. C. Hartnell, senior air staff officer of the R.A.A.F.. who works at the air force's secret headquarters in the New South Wales Blue Mountains, is enthusiastic about the Neptune.

“It is probably the world’s most notent anti-submarine weapon,” said Commodore Hartnell. “At combined air-sea exercises in the Darvyin-Malaya areas some months ago the facility with which the R.A.A.F. Neptunes traced and caught surface vessels and submarines rather shook the navy.

Co-operation With R.N.Z.A.F. “Such aircraft have a big role to play in the Australian and New Zealand theatre because if you look at the waters around Australia, and New Zealand, and throw your mind back to what happened in the early stages of the war with odd attacks bv the Japanese. you will find that there is a tremendous area to be covered—thousands of square miles,” he said. “We are both pretty small countries, and we really want something which can get up to an area where we know something is happening, and we want something we know is going to be effective when it gets there. The Neptune fills the role

‘‘l think that as the Commonwealth strategic reserve develops in Malaya undoubtedly we will be thrown together a lot closer because there will be quite a number of units of the R.A.F.. R.N.Z.A.F.. and R.A.A.F all in the same locality.’’ Air Commodore Hartnell said. “They will all be under the same command, so we should get a lot of useful combined experience up there.”

Although the Neptune is a relatively old plane, it still holds the world’s longest standing distance record of 11.235.6 miles in a straight line from Perth. Australia, to Columbus, Ohio, in the United States. The record was made by a U.S. Navy aircraft of the first mark on September 29-October 1 1946.

The Australian air force has one squadron (No. 11 Maritime) of eight Neptunes, and is so “very happy” with them it is not looking for a replacement plane. Apart from the Neptunes and anbther maritime squadron of Lincolns, the air force intends to change all its present fighters and bombers from piston engines to jet propulsion.