Outlook AHSA Newsletter December 2024

DerekB30/12/202431/12/2024

The December 2024 edition of Outlook / AHSA News was distributed to members recently.

This edition can be read online in the viewer below.

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1896 Sir Lawrence James Wackett was born at Townsville, Queensland on 2 January 1896, to English-born general merchant James Wackett and his Victorian-born wife Alice, née Lawrence. Wackett was an air force officer, aircraft designer, aeronautical engineer and aircraft-industry pioneer and has been described as “one of the towering figures in the history of Australian aviation”. Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography

1943 No 467 Squadron (RAAF) conducted its first operation over Europe flying Avro Lancaster bombers on 2 January 1943. The squadron was formed on 7 November 1942 as an Empire Air Training Scheme Article XV squadron at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, England. Although a RAAF Squadron, it comprised many Commonwealth aircrew throughout the war and when first formed, comprised over 90% RAF aircrew. On 24 November, the new squadron relocated to RAF Bottesford, Leicestershire, before again relocating a year later to its permanent base at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. Initially equipped with Mk I and Mk III Lancaster aircraft, the squadron steadily built up and on 2 January 1943 conducted its first operation over Europe. Five Lancasters were tasked with a ‘gardening’ mine-laying operation in the vicinity of Bayonne and St Jean de Luz. Five days later, the squadron conducted its first bombing operation when the squadron participated in an attack on Essen, Germany. The squadron went on to serve with distinction throughout the war participating in Bomber Commands offensive against Germany. It saw action in the Battle of the Ruhr, Battle of Berlin, the Normandy landings, and strikes against V1 and V2 targets. Flying its last bombing operation in April 1945, 467 SQN was then used for the transportation of liberated Allied POWs to the UK. It was earmarked to form part of the new Tiger Force to operate against Japan and the squadron actually commenced conversion training onto B-24 Liberators for that purpose until the war in the Pacific ended and the Squadron was disbanded on 30 September 1945. Several 467 SQN Lancaster aircraft survived the war with the most notable, S for Sugar, flying 137 operations and now preserved and proudly on display at the Royal Air Force Museum, RAF Hendon. 467 Squadron flew a total of 3,833 sorties during the war but suffered heavily losing 118 aircraft and a total of 760 aircrew of which 284 were Australian.

Image of 467 Squadron Lancaster S for Sugar being loaded up for another operation. (Image courtesy of Australian War Memorial Digital Online Collection Copyright expired, public domain). Sources: Australian War Memorial, RAAF Association - SA Division

2006 At about 1040 Eastern Standard Time on 2 January 2006, a Cessna Aircraft Company U206 aircraft, registered VH-UYB, took off from the parachuting centre at Willowbank, Qld on a tandem parachuting flight. On board the aircraft were the pilot and six parachutists. At about 100 ft altitude, the aircraft performed as if the power had been ‘pulled back’. The aircraft was observed to bank right, before it impacted a tree and became submerged in a dam. The aircraft was destroyed and five persons on board received fatal injuries or were drowned. The two survivors received serious injuries. Source: ATSB.gov.au

2018 The first serially-built Pipistrel Alpha Electro took flight in Australia on 2 January 2018. The electric-powered aircraft, which received a Special Certificate of Airworthiness from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) in October 2017, took off from Perth’s Jandakot Airport and conducted two circuits around Jandakot. It then went on to complete another seven hours of flying over the following two days before being handed over to Electro.Aero, the aircraft’s operator. Source: pipistrel-aircraft.com