- Title: UK: 92 SQUADRON - RAF'S NEW AEROBATIC TEAM
- Date: 14th April 1961
- Summary: 1. SV PAN pilots move to airfield 0.07 2. GV planes lined up 0.11 3. CU Squadron's insignia 0.14 4. MV Plane boards 0.20 5. CV another pilot settles on cockpit 0.26 6. Cu another pilot puts helmet on 0.30 7. MV pilot closes canopy 0.33 8. SV Plane taxies 0.39 9. LV Pan five planes take off 0.47 10. LV more planes take off 0.54 11. AIR TO AIR..planes in formation 1.00 12. GROUND TO AIR..box formation 1.06 13. GROUND TO AIR..formation with smoke trails 1.15 14. NEARER V..DITTO 1.24 15. AIR TO AIR..PAN of planes passing camera 1.32 16. AIR TO AIR..Planes in line formation 1.40 17. LV above photographers plane 1.43 18. GROUND TO AIR..planes in 'T' formation with smoke trails 1.50 19. AIR TO AIR NEARER V..DITTO 1.54 20. AIR TO AIR SIDE V.. planes 2.01 21. DITTO 2.08 22. AIR TO AIR formation 2.13 Initials KJ/V/ES PC/V/JH/ES Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 29th April 1961 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MIDDLETON ST GEORGE, DURHAM, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVAEPCLTSM3HRJ0CI02B2NR0N0I1
- Story Text: Visnews cameraman Bob Turner - who won the 1960 "Britannica Award" for his film of aerobatics by the famous No. 111 "Black Arrows" Squadron - visited the RAF station Middleton St George, County Durham, Apr 13, to film their successors in training.
No. 92 Squadron - the "Falcons" - are to take over the main RAF Fighter Command aerobatic commitment this year. They were selected from among Hunter squadrons to supersede the "Black Arrows", now re-equipped with Mach 2 Lightnings. The Falcons are at present commanded by Squadron Leader Brian Mercer who will lead the aerobatic team of nine aircraft.
Squadron Leader Brian Mercer is a Lanash???, and his men come from far and wide. There is Flt-Lt Channing Biss, from Melbourne, Australia F.O. Anthony Aldridge, from Northern Rhodesia; F.O. Donald Oakden, from South Africa; Flt-Lt William Stoker, from Hongkong; and Flt-Lt Hamid Anwar, from India.
The squadron has seen many battle-fields and many types of aircraft. In the First World War it was equipped with SE-5A single-seat scouts. Disbanded in 1919 and re-formed 20 years later, it started its new life with Blenheim night-fighters, then became the first squadron to fly cannon-armed Spitfires. Its last operational mission of World War Two - with bomb-carrying Spitfires - was on May 1, 1945.
After another, very brief term of disbandment the Falcon graduated to Meteor twin-jet fighters in 1947, then to Sabres, and finally - in 1955 - to Hunters.
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