Best of Breed The Hawker Hunter FR10

Ref: 5390

SOLD In stock

Price: £14.00

sadly, flyingbooks is now closed.

{detailed description}This book focuses on tactical reconnaissance with the Hunter FR10 and its front line commitments in the timeframe 1961-1971. With the Hunter already well proven in the air defence and ground attack roles, the FRIO was also found to be ideal for FR as a platform for the excellent Vinten F95 strip aperture cameras. Installed in port, starboard and nose oblique stations these cameras, operating at 8 frames a second, could give sufficient clarity and overlap up to 600 knots and down to 50 ft. The heavy armament of four 30-mm Aden cannon was retained for use in defence suppression and target marking, unilateral action against high value targets and if necessary in self- defence. The aircraft's role and capabilities are described in detail, some comparisons being made with its contemporary tactical reconnaissance aircraft in NATO, the RF-84F Thunderflash, RF-101 Voodoo and RF-104 Starfighter. The pilots selected for this demanding operating regime had to show an ability to operate alone over long distances using basic pilot navigation techniques only at high speeds and ultra low levels; in the main, therefore, they were second or third tour fast jet pilots. 'Training the Best' therefore touches on the rigorous lead-in training given and the personalities involved at No 229 Operational Training Unit, RAF Chivenor. Personalities also feature strongly in the four main chapters, narratives of events (professional, social and peripheral) at the primary operating locations for Nos II(AC) and IV(AC) Squadrons, RAF Gutersloh, No 8 Squadron and 1417 Flight at RAF Khormaksar, Aden, and RAF Muharraq, Bahrain. Much is made of the operational commitment of the FR10 in the Aden conflict, in which the special abilities of the pilots and the aircraft came to the fore in joint operations with the Hunter FGA9s and land forces - the only time that the aircraft could be said to have been taken to war in earnest, but a brief commitment to the defence of Gibraltar is not overlooked.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Grp. Capt. Nigel Walpole
published by Pen and Sword 2006 1st edn. 215pp profusely illustrated, index, bibliography 18x25
{condition}mint, inc. d/j
{delivery info}