SERVICING OF CANBERRAS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29008, 24 September 1959, Page 20

SERVICING OF CANBERRAS

N.Z. Officer’s Post In Singapore

SINGAPORE, September 15.

A 39-year-old R.N.Z.A.F. engineering officer has been put in charge of all major servicing and overhaul of Canberra bombers on t*he R.A.F.’s all-jet operational station at Tengah, on Singapore Island.

He is Flight Lieutenant R. F. Ward, of Tauranga. who in more than 21 years of service has worked on every type of aircraft the R.N.Z.A.F. has ever operated, with the exception of the four-engine Hastings long-range transport. Flight Lieutenant Ward was engineering officer for the R.N.Z.A.F.’s No. 75 Squadron for more than 12 months and as part of the policy of integration between the R.N.Z.A.F. and R.A.F. personnel who man the Tengah station, he was chosen to take charge of all major rectification, repair work and routine servicing of both R.N.Z.A.F. and R.A.F. Canberras on the station. Staff of 40

Responsible for keeping 20 Canberra bombers in operational flying condition. Flight Lieutenant Ward has a staff of 40 skilled tradesmen under his command Fifty per cent, of them are drawn from the R.N.Z.A.F. squadron on the station. In Flight Lieutenant Ward’s 12 months as engineering officer of No. 75 Squadron there has not been a single aircraft accident or incident and in that time the squadron’s Canberra aircraft have flown more than 1,000,000 miles.

Flight Lieutenant Ward began working on aircraft early in 1939 when he joined the R.N.Z.A.F. as an airframe mechanic.

He finished the war as a flight sergeant but because of his experience his services were retained and in 1945 he was sent to Singapore as n.c.o. in charge of the small servicing team to the R.N.Z.A.F. Dakotas which were detached to fly prisoners of war back to Australia and New -Zealand.

Serving on the Trade Test Board between 1948 and 1950 he was commissioned in 1951. He then went to the R.A.F Engineering College, Henlow in the United Kingdom for. training. The next four years he spent in various engineering posts at the air force repair depot at Woodbourne. Training in U.K.

When the R.N.Z.A.F. decided to' re-equip with Canberra jet bombers, Flight Lieutenant Ward was selected for training in the Unite? Kingdom as engineering officer of the first Canberra squadron.

After completing the course he then flew to Singapore to take up his new post with No. 75 bomber squadron. During the last S.E.A.T.O. exercise in Thailand Flight Lieutenant Ward was selected as officer in charge of all Canberra servicing of the United Kingdom and New Zealand force and flew to Manila to look after the Cahberras taking part in the Philippine International air show.