Victor Bombers Due Tomorrow

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30364, 13 February 1964, Page 18

Victor Bombers Due Tomorrow

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 12. The first aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Forces’s allied services will begin to arrive in New Zealand this week-end for Air Force Day at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Ohakea, on Saturday, February 22.

On Friday at 2.30 p.m. the three Victor bombers from the Royal Air Force s bomber Command will arrive over Wellington on their way to Ohakea. A R.A.F. Transport Command Britannia will follow with servicing crews on board.

On Sunday at about 10.30 a.m. the Royal Canadian Air Force’s contribution to Air Force Day, a Yukon transport aircraft, will land at Wellington Airport with the R.C-A.F. Chief of Air Staff (Air Marshall C. P. Dunlap) on board. He will be met by the R.N.Z.A.F. Chief of Air Staff (Air Vice-Marshall I. G. Morrison) and the Canadian High Commissioner (Mr G. R. Heasman). Thunderchiefs Later that day the United States Fifth Air Force Republic F. 105 Thunderchief fighter-bombers will arrive at Ohakea and the accompanying four KBSO Aerial tankers and eight Cl3O Hercules transport aircraft will arrive at Christchurch during the afternoon.

The final U.S.A.F. aircraft to arrive will be the CllB V.I.P. transport on Monday. On the Tuesday the remainder of the Royal Air

Force contingent of aircraft will arrive. These will be the Argosy and Beverly mediumrange transport aircraft from the Far East Air Force. The Royal Australia Air Force aircraft, three anti-submarine Neptune aircraft and a Hercules Cl3O, will arrive at Ohakea that day. Anti-Submarine

The United States Navy Lockheed Orion antisubmarine aircraft, favoured as the R.N.Z.A.F.’s number one replacement for the Sunderland flying boat, will arrive at Ohakea early in the afternoon of Wednesday, February 19, from Hawaii. On board will be Captain J. B. Honan, chief of staff of the pacific anti-submarine warfare force to which this aircraft belongs. The final aircraft to arrive will be the U.S.N. Hercules Cl3O equipped for Antarctic operations, on February 20. It will be based at Christchurch.

By Thursday of next week there will be, in addition to the large number of R.N.Z.A.F. aircraft, 18 allied aircraft at Ohakea and another 13 at Christchurch, awaiting the opportunity to be shown to the public on February 22.