Navigator training since 1957.
The ending of the NATO scheme, under which foreign aircrew had been trained in Canada since 1951, was marked by a ceremony held in Winnipeg on 19 July 1958. By that time approximately 1,800 RAF navigators (and about 2,000 pilots) had been sent to Canada, although not all had been successful.1 Obliged to reinstate its domestic arrangements, HQ Flying Training Command devised a forty-eight-week draft syllabus. By the time that this had done the rounds of the other Commands, it had grown by a week but it had been finalised in time for the re-launch of UK-based all-through navigator training.2 The scope of the course is summarised at Figure 60.3
The first in the new series of courses began at No 2 ANS on 3 April 1957, just two days after the last batch of trainees had been despatched to Canada. Of the sixteen men who started, twelve graduated on schedule on 19 March 1958; two were suspended from training and two were re-coursed.4 Before the end of the year Thorney Island’s output was being supplemented, albeit at a much lower rate, by that of No 1 ANS which had reopened at Topcliffe. It had originally been intended that Thorney Island would handle all ab initio navigator training plus the Canadian Acclimatisation Course (and pilot refresher training on the Varsity) while Topcliffe would deal with radio observers, navigator refresher training, jet familiarisation flying for Cranwell-trained navigators and Pilot Navigation Instructors Courses for QFIs. In the event No 2 ANS was oversubscribed and the ending of the radio observer programme created sufficient spare capacity to permit Topcliffe to absorb the last six Canadian Acclimatisation Courses and handle the occasional ab initio course.5
For the jet phase of the course the original Vampires were replaced by Meteor NF(T) 14s in 1959. This one, WS774, is parked alongside a Valetta T.3, WG262, both of No 2 ANS.
Apart from some early use of the Marathon (only by now at Topcliffe and where they had faded from the scene by the summer of 1958), the flying content of the course was conducted on Valettas, Varsitys and Vampires.6 In 1959 the Vampires were replaced by Meteors, but only at No 2 ANS, pupils from Topcliffe and Cranwell being obliged to spend a few weeks at Thorney Island to complete the jet phase of their courses.
Fig 60. The syllabus for the forty-nine-week course when UK-based all-through training for navigators was reinstated in 1957.
Entering service in 1965, the Dominie (XS731, above) marked a significant advance in the provision of training for navigators. (CRO RAF Finningley). Meanwhile, the Varsity (below left), represented here by WF372 of No 1 ANS, seen landing at Luqa at the end of an overseas navigation exercise, soldiered on as the mainstay of the system until 1976 (MAP), by which time, the Jet Provost T.4 (XP560) had already been flying with No 6 FTS for some five years to provide an introduction to tactical low-level techniques. (CRO RAF Finningley).
In January 1962 the lessons learned through wartime experience were set aside when the ‘all through’ concept, which had prevailed since 1947, was discarded in favour of a two-stage approach. This involved No 2 ANS moving to Hullavington where, flying only Valettas and Varsitys, it became the basic air navigation school. At the same time, No 1 ANS moved to Stradishall where it assumed responsibility for the advanced phase of the course which was flown on Varsitys and the Meteors it had taken over from No 2 ANS. Three years later No 2 ANS moved to Gaydon while No 1 ANS began to receive Dominies.
The Dominie represented such an advance in training capability, compared to the old Meteors, that a streaming policy was introduced. For a time, trainees earmarked for ‘high and fast’ types flew their advanced phase solely on the Dominie while those destined for ‘low and slow’ operations stayed on the Varsity. This approach did not last for long, however, perhaps because it had omitted the crucial combination of ‘low and fast’ which had become the cornerstone of RAF tactical doctrine by the mid-1960s. In any event, the system was changed so that everyone flew both the Varsity and the Dominie during their time at Stradishall, No 1 ANS continuing to provide facilities for Cranwell cadets, since the RAF College’s resident fleet of navigation trainers still did not cater for jet flying.
A reduction in throughput permitted the schools to be amalgamated in 1970, both ANSs moving to Finningley to re-establish the ‘all-through’ system that had been abandoned in 1962. In the long term it was envisaged that facilities for training all non-pilot aircrew would be concentrated at Finningley, which meant that it would be inappropriate for the unit to be designated as an ANS. The identities of the old navigation schools were, therefore, suppressed in favour of that of a defunct pilot training school, No 6 FTS.
At the beginning of 1971, in an effort to keep up with the times, a short ‘low and fast’ phase was introduced using Jet Provosts. Another major advance occurred in that same year when a computer-based synthetic training system was commissioned at Finningley to replace the 1950s-vintage DRTs.7 It was hardly a flight simulator, as a pilot might understand the term, but it did permit sorties to be ‘flown’ on the ground in real time under relatively realistic conditions. Since the machine was required to function as both a Varsity and a Dominie, however, the generic instrument panel represented neither aeroplane. Nevertheless, the simulator did reproduce the very different performance characteristics of both types quite convincingly. The summary at Figure 61 provides an indication of the content of the, by now, fifty four-week course in the mid-1970s.8
As intended, the navigators at Finningley were joined by the other remaining categories of non-pilot trainee aircrew during 1973 and three years later the venerable Varsity was withdrawn from service. Since the planned replacement for this workhorse, the Argosy, failed to materialise (see page 321), No 6 FTS was left to do the best it could with its remaining Jet Provosts and Dominies.
The navigator’s station in a Varsity of the early 1970s. The four dials at top left are the readouts of the ARI23102 Decca Mk 1 (Air); below these is the compass repeater and, to its right, the controls for the Marconi radio compass; the three dials are an altimeter, an airspeed indicator and an oxygen flow meter, and to their right the busy-looking ARI 18089 radio/intercom selector. The three large pieces of kit are, from the left, the readouts of the ADF and TACAN (with channel selector beneath); the GPI Mk 4, a mandatory cup of coffee (for spilling on the chart) and, on the right, the ARI 5851 GREEN SATIN Mk 1 Doppler.
The ‘Nav Sim’ that was commissioned at Finningley in 1971. Left, the students stations had a generic instrument panel that provided all the necessary information but represented neither the Varsity nor the Dominie. Right, the controller’s desk from which he could inject faults and monitor the progress of the student in each cubicle on the large display screens.
By the mid-1980s the navigation school had finally moved out of its ‘temporary’ wartime accommodation into a purpose-built, permanent building but this was already too big, as the numbers passing through the system had declined significantly in the intervening years since the new facilities had first been requested. For instance: the two-nav Vulcans had been replaced by single-nav Tornados; the remaining Victor tankers were being adapted for single-nav operation and the recently acquired TriStars had dispensed with navigators altogether. The breaching of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent collapse of the USSR was inevitably followed by a reduction in the overall size of the RAF, the disbandment of several squadrons during the 1990s further reducing the numerical requirement for navigators.
Fig 61. The 54-week Air Navigation Course Syllabus as at October 1974. *Note that there was an allowance (not reflected here) for up to 36 hours of additional airborne time to cater for re-flights of air exercises and/or adverse weather factors.
While the numbers of navigators needed by the RAF had declined steadily, those that were required had still to be trained and the course continued to be progressively adapted in an effort to reflect the changing demands of the front-line. The first major innovation had been introduced as early as 1976 when the Dominie had begun to operate at low-level in order to provide trainees with practical experience of radar navigation in that very demanding environment. While the use of the Dominie at low-level did represent some progress, it has to be said that its EKCO 190 weather radar and its V-bomber style, backwards-facing seating arrangements fell a long way short of simulating the conditions in a Buccaneer.
At much the same time, the syllabus was being extensively revised in anticipation of the entry into service of the Tornado. These aeroplanes, with their inertial platforms and digital computers, would render the largely analogue based techniques of the past redundant which, in turn, dictated the adoption of a fresh approach to operating procedures. The new course, which was longer and introduced a degree of ‘streaming’, was introduced in 1976. Early feedback led to further refinement, with greater emphasis being placed on aspects relating to airmanship and aircraft operation to reflect the fact that navigators were becoming increasingly involved in the direct supervision of flying as authorising officers and through the responsibilities associated with executive appointments as Flight and Squadron Commanders.
By the end of 1976, No 6 FTS’s original Jet Provost T.4s had been replaced by T.5s which, unlike those used for pilot training, were fitted with wingtip fuel tanks. (MAP)
After some fine-tuning (a more or less continual process), the streamed sequence began with a common thirty-nine-week basic stage, involving a notional 44 hours of flying time in a Dominie (some of it in the right hand seat as ‘pilot’s assistant’, reading check lists, handling radio traffic, etc) and 20 in Jet Provosts, but there were now alternative advanced stages. Trainees who had been earmarked to fly ‘fast jets’ (eg Buccaneer or Phantom), were assigned to Group 1. Those destined to fly in heavier, multi-engined types (eg Nimrod or Hercules) went to Group 2. Either way, the two-phase advanced stage took twenty-two weeks and yielded another 70-80 hours of flight time. Some impression of the content of the basic stage, and the differences between the advanced stages, may be gained from Figure 62 which reflects the syllabus as it stood in the summer of 1981.9
The limitations imposed by the Dominie’s equipment fit were well understood from the outset, of course. Some early improvement was made by the introduction of a navigational computer (Decca TANS) from 1978 but it was many years before it became possible to provide the major upgrade that was really required. In the mid-1990s the eleven remaining aircraft of the Dominie fleet were finally fitted with entirely new avionics, including a proper ground-mapping radar (Thorn EMI’s Super Searcher). The seating arrangements for the crew were also revised, the trainee navigator now facing forwards, like his pilot (thus removing any potential confusion as to who meant what when somebody said, ‘Look to your left’).
The so-called Dominie Avionics Upgrade (DAU) project was only one element of yet another new approach to the training of navigators which had been implemented in 1992. The most obvious external signs of this new philosophy were the introduction of an initial flying phase on the Bulldog, the progressive replacement of the Jet Provost by the Tucano and the adoption of the Hawk for advanced tactical flying. Not long afterwards, however, further contraction of the RAF precipitated the closure of Finningley in 1995 and with it the disbandment of No 6 FTS. The residual non-pilot training commitment was transferred to Cranwell (the navigators moving on 23 September) where it became the responsibility of the resident No 3 FTS.10
Fig 62. The streamed syllabus of flying training as at mid-1981. The overall duration was now 61 weeks involving approximately 150 hours of airborne time.
Above. Ever since the 1960s the navigators’ station in the Dominie had been rearward-facing in the style of a V-bomber; note the small and rather inadequate, centrally-mounted EKCO 190 weather radar. By the mid-1970s the advent of the Buccaneer and Phantom, and the prospect of the Tornado, had made this arrangement increasingly inappropriate. So, twenty years later, Marshalls were contracted to remodel the cabin (below) to provide a forward-facing position and install a Super-Searcher radar, Decca 72 Doppler, a digital computer and a colour CRT to display the radar image and all navigational data, including the route way points and flight plan plus heading, groundspeed, drift and readouts from the ADF, TACAN and VOR/DME, although this raw information was also available on analogue instruments. (Key Publishing)
Operating initially as the Rear-Crew Training Wing, the unit was reorganised and redesignated to become the Navigator and Airman Aircrew School (NAAS) with effect from 3 January 1996. The components of the NAAS were: a Headquarters; Low Level Training Squadron, for fast-jet navigators; Advanced Training Squadron, for navigators destined for heavy multi-engined aircraft; Air Engineer and Air Loadmaster Squadron; Air Electronics Squadron and the Airmen Aircrew Initial Training Squadron.
For the previous quarter of a century it had been possible to carry out all aspects of navigator training at one location but pressure on space at Cranwell, and the logistic complications arising from operating four different aircraft types, meant that this was no longer practical and the fleet had to be dispersed.
Since a significant degree of streaming had also been introduced, the sequence was relatively complicated but it may be summarised as follows. All ab initio navigators began their training at Cranwell where they flew in the Bulldog (later superseded by the Tutor) before being sent to Topcliffe to gain further flying experience on Tucanos. On returning to Cranwell all students underwent a period of synthetic training after which they were earmarked for one of two styles of operation, their subsequent courses being outlined below.
a. Trainee navigators who were expected to fly high performance combat aircraft spent a little more time at Cranwell, flying in the Dominie, before moving on to Valley (later Leeming). They eventually gained their flying badges after successfully completing their training on the Hawk, the later stages of this phase differing in content depending upon whether a student had been earmarked to fly in the attack or air defence role.
b. Those selected to fly heavy, multi-engined types remained at Cranwell for the remainder of their course, all of their subsequent flying being conducted on the Dominie. Streaming was eventually introduced, a common stage being followed by a sequence focused on the requirements of maritime operations (the Nimrod) or the other heavy aircraft (Hercules, VC10 and Sentry), this experience being reinforced by extensive use of synthetic training facilities – the Air Navigation Trainer.
The characteristics of the upgraded Dominie were reproduced in the successor to Finningley’s 1970’s Simulator, Cranwell’s Air Navigation Trainer. This is Station No 3 (of 12) which, while entirely computergenerated, provided a faithful facsimile of the updated navigator’s display in a 21st Century Dominie. (Ian Thompson)
By the first decade of the 21st Century, the training of non-pilot aircrew had become increasingly modular and episodic. By the time that the last navigators (by then WSOs) graduated in 2011 the sequence involved four types of aeroplane operating from three airfields. Initial air experience was gained on civil-registered Grob Tutors (above left) based at Cranwell and operated under a commercial contract. The second phase involved a stint on the Tucano (above right) at Linton-on-Ouse where the erstwhile Tucano Air Navigation Squadron had been rebranded as No 76(R) Sqn in 2007 after which its aeroplanes carried that unit’s WWII identification code; this one is ZF378/MPW. Having entered service in 1965, the Dominie (below left) remained in harness, latterly with Cranwell’s No 55(R) Sqn, whose XS728 is seen here on a low level exercise over Cumbria – note the slightly extended nose and blanked out cabin windows, the hallmarks of the 1990s upgrade. When Finningley closed in 1995 No 6 FTS was operating its own Hawks (below right) but, with the demise of that dedicated school, the Hawk phase was farmed out, first to No 4 FTS at Valley and later to No 100 Sqn at Leeming. This is No 100 Sqn’s XX331. (All Shaun Connor/Air Britain)
The amount of airborne time tended to vary because the courses were subject to progressive refinement but representative figures involved about 15 hours on the Tutor and 30 on the Tucano during the early common phases. The fast-jet stream then flew 30 hours on the Dominie and another 30 on the Hawk for a total of a little over 100. Those destined for transports or tankers within the heavy stream flew about 60 hours on the Dominie plus another 20 for those earmarked for Nimrods. There was, for a time, a third stream, leading to helicopters (see page 327).
To begin with the NAAS and the Dominie Squadron (restyled No 55(R) Sqn with effect from 1 November 1996) ran in parallel as sub-units within No 3 FTS’s Flying Wing. There was a further rationalisation of facilities in 2001 whereby the two units were merged. On 1 November, the NAAS ceased to exist as such, its former CO, a wing commander navigator, becoming OC 55(R) Sqn. There was some internal reorganisation within the unit but there was little change in its core functions, except that responsibility for the AAITS was transferred to the newly created OACTU in 2004 (see page 327).
Another organisational change had occurred in 2003 when the Tucano Air Navigation Squadron, which had been operating out of Topcliffe as a detached element of No 1 FTS, was withdrawn to Linton-on-Ouse to rejoin its parent unit. Four years later, on 13 May 2007, it was redesignated as No 76(R) Sqn.
Post-war post-graduate navigation training.
When WW II ended Shawbury’s Empire Air Navigation School (EANS) had an unrivalled reputation as a world-class authority on all aspects of air navigation. Its core activity was represented by its twenty-strong, thirteen-week Staff Navigator Courses which began at roughly one week intervals, supplemented by an annual nine-month ‘Spec N’ Course.
Peacetime brought a new broom when No 1 of a new series of six-month Specialist Navigation Courses began on 7 April 1946.11 As before, graduates of this course were awarded the symbol N in the Air Force List but, as a further refinement, for the next few years, one or two graduates of these courses were kept back after school to do the Advanced Specialist Navigation Course (aka the ‘Spec N Star’ Course) which attracted the symbol N* (later Nx), this distinction also being granted in arrears to those who had attended the series of four wartime ‘Spec N’ courses that had been run in the UK since the end of 1942.12 These were supplemented by a series of just three three-month Staff Navigation Conversion Courses which were run between June 1947 and May 1948 in order to upgrade selected ‘Staff Navs’ to transform them into ‘Spec Ns’.
Fig 63. Representative of the post-war ‘SN-grade’ courses, this is the syllabus content of the sixteen-week Staff Navigator Course as at January 1957.
Meanwhile, the last of the wartime series of Staff Navigator Courses, No 136, had ended on 16 April 1946. By that time, the first of its successors had also been completed, having been run in February/March. Known initially as the Advanced Navigation Course, this eight- (later ten-) week course ran at roughly three-week intervals, with an average intake of eighteen, of whom about three could usually be expected to fail. In 1948 the title was changed to the Intermediate Navigation Course (that is to say half-way between the standard represented by the current ‘all though’ ab initio course and the ‘Spec N’) and it continued to run as such until 1951, the last in the series being No 60 Course.13
Prior to this, on 31 July 1949, Shawbury’s EANS had reverted to its previous title, of the Central Navigation School, only to become the Central Navigation and Control School on 10 February 1950 when it absorbed the School of Air Traffic Control. Beginning with No 11 Course, which started on 11 August 1952, responsibility for the, by now ten-month, Specialist Navigation Course was transferred to the RAF Flying College at Manby.14
By that time, the erstwhile Intermediate Navigation Course had been superseded by a reinstated fifteen-week Staff Navigator (NB not ‘Navigation’) Course.15 With its flying exercises being carried out in Lincolns, No 1 of the new series began at Shawbury on 26 September 1951. Subsequent intakes, each of about a dozen men, ran at roughly monthly intervals to begin with, although the frequency had fallen to about six per year by 1955. Both the content and the duration of post-war ‘SN-grade’ courses were adjusted periodically in order to reflect changing circumstances; the 1957 iteration of the syllabus, as summarised at Figure 63, is a typical example.16
As with the syllabus, the title of the early post-war ‘SN-grade’ courses had also changed from time to time, but the majority of those attending had always been navigators. There was, however, a specific requirement for a number of pilots to be qualified at this level to act as ground instructors and to fill the posts of Station Navigation Officer at Cranwell, the CFS and the Advanced FTSs. This demand was satisfied by running a series of eight-week Intermediate Navigation (Pilots) Courses at Shawbury between 1949 and 1951,17 when, to keep in step with the revamping of the main course, it became the twelve-week Staff Navigation Course (Pilots). As always, however, pilots showed little enthusiasm for the more esoteric aspects of navigation and the first of the new-style courses did not actually get underway until as late as August 1952.18 The last, No 8, graduated in May 1954 and shortly afterwards the Air Force finally admitted defeat when the ‘course was disestablished on grounds of lack of support and economy.’19
The initial attempt to fill the gap involved the CFS running four ad hoc courses in 1955-56 to train, as pilot navigation instructors, QFIs who had already completed an initial instructional tour and who were destined to remain in the training game. This was not entirely satisfactory, however, as this was an unestablished task and it was, in any case, doubtful whether the CFS actually had the necessary depth of navigational expertise to permit it to teach itself. A permanent solution to the problem was found in 1957 when it was decided that the post of Station Navigation Officer at all pilot training schools could be filled by any ‘SN’ qualified GD officer; this fine example of air force doublespeak actually meant that pilots had been relieved of this unwelcome burden, leaving all such appointments to be filled by navigators in the future.20 Nevertheless, in order to keep a handful of pilots in the loop, Topcliffe’s No 1 ANS was tasked with running a biannual four-week Pilot Navigation Instructors Course for half-a-dozen QFIs at a time; the first such course began on 28 August 1957.
While the provision of a ‘Staff Nav’ course dedicated to pilots had been abandoned in 1954, in the following year eligibility to attend the main course had been extended to embrace any GD officer.21 Perhaps to reflect this change, at the end of 1959 its title was changed, yet again, to become the, less specific, Staff Navigation (ie not ‘Navigator’) Course.22 On 1 July 1962 the RAF Flying College was restyled the RAF College of Air Warfare and in February of the following year, Manby assumed responsibility for ‘Staff Nav’ training, No 91 Course, which began on 4 March 1963, being the first to be run there.23
Ever since 1952, the training records of individuals who had passed any of the courses which had had ‘Staff Nav’ status had been annotated with an ‘n’, but there had never been a symbol corresponding to the N that had distinguished the names of ‘Spec N’ graduates in the Air Force List. During the 1960s, however, the compilers of the List had begun to recognise a wider spectrum of academic qualifications and this eventually embraced ‘Staff Navs’. From 1970 onwards anyone who had passed the Staff Navigation Course was identified by the symbol snc in the gradation lists.24
In the meantime, in 1968 the Specialist Navigation Course had morphed into the General Duties Aerosystems Course.25 This had introduced yet another symbol in the Air Force List. Graduates of the new course were identified by an asq26 while alumni of the old ‘Spec N’ Course had their bold Ns and Nxs reduced to a lower case n or nx.27
Between 1966 and 1974, when it moved to Cranwell, the College of Air Warfare operated a small fleet of Dominies from Strubby to support the flying exercises associated with the ‘Staff Nav’ and GD Aerosystems Courses. This one, XS733, sports the CAW’s ‘arrow point upwards enfiled by an Astral Crown’ emblem on its cheat line. (MAP)
In 1974 Manby’s College of Air Warfare closed down, its GD Aerosystems, Staff Navigation and sundry other postgraduate courses moving to Cranwell where they continued to be run under the auspices of the RAF College’s newly established Department of Air Warfare.
The long series of four-month/30-40 flying hours ‘Staff Nav’ Courses finally came to an end with No 189 Course in 1985. They were replaced by a six-week, entirely ground-based, Navigation Specialist (renamed, from No 7, Systems) Course. No 1 Course began on 7 April 1986 and the last, No 22, ended on 1 November 1991.
The arcane procedures and techniques that had always underpinned ‘sn’-style courses, eg astro, gyro steering, compass swinging with Fourier’s analysis, fixed monitored azimuth and the like, were largely redundant in the era of INS/GPS so their termination was probably inevitable. That said, their withdrawal appears to have meant that there was no longer any form of broad-based post-graduate professional training for navigators and that subsequent generations of instructors would not have had that ‘snc’-endorsed cushion of knowledge to fall back on.
The far more challenging, year-long General Duties Aerosystems Course began to accept students from disciplines other than aircrew in 1990 and, having been accredited for the award of an external MSc from Kingston University in 2001, it lost its ‘GD’ prefix to become simply the Aerosystems Course. The first was No 34 Course in 2001-02 and it continues to run – No 44 graduated in 2013. Incidentally, lest there be any doubt about the degree of rigour involved in studying at this academic level, Wg Cdr Norman Hughes has recalled that, ‘It was undoubtedly the most intense and demanding intellectual year of my life, surpassing with ease my later Masters and PhD in Physics.’28
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1 AIR2/12122. Figures taken from a Note drafted by ACAS(Trg), AVM G D Harvey, for DCAS, Air Mshl G W Tuttle, towards the end of 1957. The last RAF navigators graduated from Winnipeg on 14 February 1958, the last batch of Canadian-trained RAF pilots gaining their ‘wings’ on 18 July.
2 AIR2/13600. The draft syllabus was published under cover of HQ Flying Training Command letter FTC/S.101336/2/Nav dated 8 January 1957. The subsequent amendments were summarised in an annex to a letter of the same reference dated 22 March. Air Ministry loose minute C.84781/56/TNav1 dated 28 March sought the necessary financial approval for the additional week. This was eventually granted in June, by which time No 1 Course was already in its third month, working to a forty-nine week syllabus which had actually been published, as 25G/2218/1/Nav, in the previous January (AIR25/1581).
3 References to basic and applied phases within the 1957 syllabus are technically anachronistic as ‘applied’ had been superseded by ‘advanced’ in both navigator and pilot training, by a policy decision of 7 February 1951 recorded in HQ Flying Training Command’s ORB (AIR24/2132).
4 Only Nos 1 and 2 ‘All Through Courses’ retained that title throughout, as the label was changed to ‘Navigation Course’ in April 1958, No 9 being the first to start as such. Remarkably, the series of numbers begun at Thorney Island in 1957 remained in use until the last navigators, by then WSOs, graduated with No 512 Course in February 2011 (see page 355).
5 No 1 ANS’s first ab initio intake, also a No 1 Course, began on 11 December 1957 but Topcliffe’s courses had reached only No 4 by the end of 1959 by which time Thorney Island was dealing with its No 19.
6 AIR2/11785. An HQ Flying Training Command paper, FTC/S.102282/Air dated 7 March 1957 noted that No 1 ANS had been allotted seventeen Marathons, four Valettas and nine Vampire NF 10s plus a T.11, while No 2 ANS had twenty-one Varsitys, three Valettas and six Vampire NF 10s plus a T.11.
7 AIR2/15942. Built to satisfy ASR 567, which was initially drafted in 1964, the simulator was built at Finningley during the latter half of 1970 and accepted from the contractor (Hawker Siddeley) on 22 February 1971.
8 RAF Museum X005-7873. Published under cover of HQ Training Command letter TC/251114/FT dated 10 October 1974, Figure 61 represents the third iteration of the Finningley syllabus and reflects the reinstatement of ‘all-through’ training and the introduction of a ‘low-level, fast-jet’ element,
9 RAF Museum X005-7875, -7876 and -7878 respectively. The basic stage was published by HQ Support Command as its Syllabus of Flying Training 2.1 dated March 1981, while the Group 1 and 2 advanced stages were covered by Syllabuses of Flying Training 2.2 and 2.3 of August 1981.
10 At the time the navigators offered the helpful suggestion that, if it were necessary to reorganise No 3 FTS in order to accommodate them it would be logical to do it so that rear-crew training would be handled by 1 Wing and pilots by 2 Wing, but the latter were apparently unable to appreciate how appropriate this would be and/or were incapable of grasping the subtlety of the joke.
11 AMO A.518/1946 dated 13 June.
12 AIR24/1798. Having already been defunct for some time, the N* Course was formally ‘dissolved’ by HQ Flying Training Command Organisation Memorandum 62/49, FTC/S.70471/Org dated 23 June 1949.
13 The last of the mainstream courses had actually been No 59 Course, No 60 having been a one-off special run for the benefit of two students fielded by the Indian Air Force.
14 The RAF Flying College had been formed at Manby on 1 June 1949, by renaming the Empire Flying School and absorbing the Empire Air Armament School with effect from 31 July.
15 AMO A.422/1952 dated 14 August.
16 AIR25/1581. A copy of the January 1957 Staff Navigator Course syllabus, L895, is appended to HQ 25 Gp’s ORB.
17 Although Nos 1-9 Intermediate Navigation (Pilots) Courses had been programmed, Nos 5, 6 and 9 were cancelled, in all probability because they had been undersubscribed.
18 AMO A.422/1952 dated 14 August.
19 AIR2/11095. FTC/101044/5/Nav dated 30 April 1957, minutes of a meeting held at HQ Flying Training Command to consider the future provision of Station Navigation Officers and navigation instructors at pilot training schools.
20 Ibid.
21 AMO A.260/1955 of 1 September stated that candidates for the course ‘must be general duties officers (normally navigators) who have….’, thus permitting any pilot who actually wanted to specialise in navigation to realise his ambition.
22 AMO A.56/1959 of 4 March, as amended by AMO A.301/1959 of 23 December.
23 With the departure of the last of the navigators, the residual unit at Shawbury became the Central Air Traffic Control School with effect from 11 February 1963.
24 DCI(RAF) S21 of 4 February 1970. The snc symbol actually appears for the first time in the Spring 1971 edition of the Air Force List with a note to the effect that it is awarded to graduates of the Staff Navigation Course ‘series beginning April 1957’. That would presumably have been No 46 Course, which ran from 27 April to 21 August, but the significance of this proviso is obscure. The syllabus current at that time had been published in January 1957 but this had been a routine revision of the course content, rather than a major restructuring, and there appear to be no contemporary references to any associated change in its status (there are certainly none in the ORBs of HQ Flying Training Command, HQ 25 Gp or the CNCS or in any of the relevant Air Ministry policy files that the author has examined). It is conjectured that when, in 1970, it became necessary to nominate a ‘start date’ April 1957 may have been chosen because it reflected the reinstatement of all-through ab initio training in the UK.
25 No longer focused on ‘navigation’, the new syllabus was concerned with all aspects of integrated aerosystems, including radar, electro-optics, computers, electronic warfare, propulsion, materials and the means of evaluating all of these. It drew its students from all aircrew categories, including the Army and RN, although, for a time at least, RAF navigators continued to predominate.
26 DCI(RAF) S58 of 15 March 1967. The new symbol first appears, as Asq, in the Autumn 1969 issue of the Air Force List, but it is corrected to an all-lower-case asq in all subsequent editions.
27 As previously noted (on page 338) the 2007 edition of the Air Force List was the last to be published. As a result of this most short-sighted and regrettable decision, it is no longer possible to track the accumulation of honours, awards and professional qualifications by individual officers or to monitor their promotions and senior appointments. This will represent a significant handicap to future writers of air force history.
28 Correspondence with the author; Wg Cdr N D Hughes was a graduste of No 8 GD Aerosystems Course in 1975.