After months of bad luck, there’s finally some good news for the Royal Navy Historic Flight. Having been grounded for the first weeks of the 2011 airshow season, its Fairey Swordfish II LS326 was cleared back to operational status on 21st June. This came after it had been returned to flight at the tail end of the 2010 season, having emerged from a lengthy restoration. Since early May, the Swordfish’s future had been uncertain and its situation not without irony: here after all was a perfectly serviceable aircraft without permission to fly. Even with the Swordfish's rejuvenation though, the Flight’s woes aren’t over. Its Sea Hawk is presently mid-overhaul and Sea Fury FB.11 is awaiting a new engine, but there is some further promise on the horizon. We’ll come onto that a bit later on but for now, what exactly’s been going on and why, again, has the Flight been hit so hard?
If anyone knows the answer to that, it’s the new Commanding Officer of the RNHF, Lieutenant Ian Sloan, who took over from Lieutenant Commander Mike Abbey last month. GAR’s Karl Drage, Geoff Hibbert and I caught up with Lt Sloan during a recent visit to RNAS Yeovilton. “These are very interesting times at the moment...very interesting times”, he stated in reference to the RNHF’s situation. We couldn’t help but agree, as Lt Sloan spelt out each aircraft’s predicament in turn.
Sea Fury FB.11 VR930 hasn’t been seen flying for several seasons and it currently sits, engineless, at the back of the RNHF’s hangar, although a Centaurus powerplant has been sourced in the States and it’s due to arrive in the UK in late summer. It’s hoped the combination of engine and airframe will then be paired up pretty swiftly so, “come the back end of the year, we’ve got our own Sea Fury up and running!” Lt Sloan explained.
Until VR930’s return, the Flight has the use of Sea Fury T.20 VX281. It’s not formally owned by the RNHF but on loan for the remainder of this decade, as Lt Sloan told us. “It’s been acquired by Naval Aviation Ltd, which is the company set up by the Fly Navy Heritage Trust to run this aircraft and potentially any others that rear their head. The owner said “have it, and in ten years, I’ll have it back!”
“Performance-wise, its 2,500hp and it goes! It’s a beautiful aeroplane and [Lt Cdr Chris] Gotke’s got a nice little display: it’s pretty much his baby at the moment.” Evidence of the last sentence was supplied in abundance at the 2011 Cotswold Airshow, where Lt Cdr Gotke performed an exquisite routine on both days, beginning with an almost pure knife-edge run and including spearing vertical manoeuvres and some really well-judged repositioning rolls. I mentioned in my GAR report on RNAS Yeovilton’s Air Day press launch event back in March (at which the Sea Fury flew) that I was looking forward to seeing more comprehensive workouts from this aircraft than the simple but effective passes and wingovers performed that day. Well without doubt the full display’s one of the best warbird routines out there at the moment and at Kemble, it was certainly one of the real highlights for me.
Since the start of the 2011 season, VX281 has essentially been the Flight’s flagship whilst the Sea Hawk, which has had a busy couple of seasons, is currently being overhauled. “The Sea Hawk has really been the champion of the Flight for the last three years”, said Lt Sloan. “It’s been the good old lady out there doing the biz. As a result, she’s reached the point where she needs a good look and she’s now on a 15 yearly service.”
The detection of any serious airframe deterioration, specifically signs of corrosion, would be very bad news indeed and, as Lt Sloan told GAR, could stop the Sea Hawk flying altogether. That would be a pretty deep loss to the airshow scene; after all, the Sea Hawk’s been on and off the circuit for 30 years and is the sole example of its breed left flying anywhere in the world. If this did happen perhaps there’d be a sense of the aircraft having reached the end of its natural life – a situation that would be easier to deal with than it being grounded for other reasons, or exported overseas indefinitely.
The issue with the Sea Hawk being the sole airworthy example is that, by definition, it’s powered by the world’s only operational Rolls-Royce Nene 103. “This will be the first time we’ve really stripped the engine down to the extent that we’re going to look in each pot and check for corrosion”, Lt Sloan confirmed. “If we find any corrosion, then that might just be the end.”
“As it stands, we’ve got another 300hrs left in the engine, so that’s another six seasons”. It’s impossible to ignore the Sea Hawk’s ultimate destiny, but it’s reassuring to think at the same time that, fingers-crossed, she’ll be back and sweeping through the air for some time yet. Fairey Swordfish LS326 had been in a curious situation indeed. Post-restoration, it was reflown in time to make a static appearance at the 2010 Duxford Autumn Airshow and displayed briefly at the Air Day Press Launch. Between then and 21 June, however, it had essentially been a static exhibit, as a result of what Lt Sloan termed an “engineering issue”. He went on to say: “What has happened is that the waiver we were operating under before, for data-gathering equipment, has expired and the 2 star (officer) who signs that off has said I want to see more evidence of structural integrity”.
This left the Flight engineers having to report on every element of the Swordfish’s construction, “from the bottom of the wheels to the top of the wing.” The team’s confidence in its ability to provide the required data was not in doubt. “We can account for every landing it’s done, we know what it’s been doing...we’re pretty sure she hasn’t been thrashed in the meantime”, said Lt Sloan. “So it’s an ongoing battle and it could take two weeks, it could take two months, it could take six months.”
As it happened, the timeframe was close to the middle one of these and LS326 is now on course to take a starring role in the RNHF’s 40th anniversary year, in 2012. Since the Flight was founded around this aircraft, it couldn’t be more appropriate that not only its original Swordfish but, all being well its other Swordfish, Mk1 W5856, should be active next year. “Swordfish ‘5856 looks pretty naked, but BAE Systems at Brough are in the process of re sparring and re fabricing the wings, so effectively it will create spanking new wings for her to be delivered in December ”, said Lt Sloan. “We’re going to get an engine back for her at the end of this year, so that’s a second Pegasus engine and again, all being well, the end of this year looks like [she’ll be] a goer.” So the RNHF COULD have two Sea Furies and two Swordfish doing the rounds in 2012. It’s a mouth-watering prospect and I really hope it happens.
Having discussed the aircraft, we move on to the pilots and the Flight’s criteria for new entrants. ”Our benchmark is 2,000hrs and really that’s the bottom line. They're going to be an experienced aviator, who is going to have done an instructional tour of some sort.” Overall, said Lt Sloan, “experienced pilots, who have got a level head on them” are top of the list. It’s worth adding that pilots of the sort mentioned above are indeed coming up through the ranks and could be on course to join the Flight in the future.
As Lt Sloan said at the very start, these certainly are interesting times. Without doubt, the Sea Fury T.20 is a stellar addition to any airshow line up and that for the moment represents the Flight’s most powerful contribution to the display scene, while the Swordfish is its statelier, parading hero. From next year onwards, the RNHF could be able to make its biggest ever contribution, with two Swordfish and two Sea Furies, and possibly even the Sea Hawk as well! Interesting times indeed.
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