Supermarine Southampton – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB06/03/202303/06/2023

Aviation Heritage Vol. 54 No. 1 (March 2023) Contents Listing

The latest quarterly edition (March 2023) of the AHSA journal – Aviation Heritage – has recently been posted to members. The full contents are...

1974

RAAF Lockheed C-130A Hercules (A97-210) from No 36 Squadron, flown by Flight Lieutenant John Pickett, set a new record when it departed Darwin for Adelaide with 179 passengers on board, many of them children, during the evacuation necessitated by Cyclone Tracy. Shortly after becoming airborne the aircraft’s radar failed, causing it to fly into a thunderstorm. The extreme turbulence inside the storm caused the passengers so much stress and airsickness that one passenger suffered a heart attack. After struggling to keep the aircraft right way up until clear of the storm, the captain decided to return to Darwin to get treatment for the heart attack victim. When the aircraft departed the next day with a serviceable radar, most of the passengers had already been evacuated on other flights. Source: Air Force Association Victoria, No 2 Squadron Branch

2020 The Australian Minister for Defence declared Initial Operational Capability for Australia’s F-35A Lightning II aircraft on 28 December 2020. The RAAF Lightnings could now be deployed operationally, joining the other services around the world that had already achieved the capability: the United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, Italian Air Force, Israeli Air Force, Republic of Korea Air Force, Royal Air Force, Royal Norwegian Air Force, and Japan Self-Defence Air Force. The RAAF planned to achieve Final Operational Capability (of all F-35 aircraft) by 2024. Source: Wings Magazine RAAFA Publications