ALL-WEATHER NAVY UNIT

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28985, 28 August 1959, Page 8

ALL-WEATHER NAVY UNIT

N.Z. Officer To Lead Fighter Squadron

A New Zealander. Commander M. H. J. Petrie, R.N.. is in command of the first squadron of the Royal Navy’s latest all-weather fightbr, the Sea Vixen, which came into operational service in July.

Commander Petrie who was born in Greymouth and educated at St Andrew’s College, Christchurch, entered the Fleet Air Arm in 1941. He has flown Mcsquito night fighters and Hornets with the Royal Air Force and spent 18 months with the United States Marine Corps. He flew Sea Venoms during the Suez operation.

The Sea Vixen which weighs about 14 tons has a wing span of 50 feet, more than seven feet wider than the Sea Venom, and can reach its operational ceiling m less than halt the time taken by its predecessor. Armed with four de Havilland Firestreak infra-red homing missiles and 28 two-inch air-to-air rockets carried internally, it provides a powerful addition to the Navy’s air strength.

The new squadron will fly at the Farnborough display this year and early- next year will embark in H.M.S. zArk Royal, according to the Royal New Zealand NavyNews Summary.

Missing Boy Returns.— Rov McNichol, the 14-year-old Christchurch boy who has been missing from his home in Stanmore road for the last eight .days, returned there at 11 p.m. on Wednesday.