A view inside the main hangar with Sea Vixen D.3 XP924 in the foreground. This aircraft is now G-CVIX with de Havilland Aviation at Swansea.

Unpiloted and towing its target ‘bird’ on a ‘short leash’ for photographic purposes, the current U.16, WK800 ‘Z’. Behind is a ‘client’, a Panavia Tornado F.3. WK800 has had an interesting history and really deserves not to fall into Cardigan Bay and she out its life in a museum - perhaps in Australia. Built in 1952 as an F.8 it joined the Royal Australian Air Force as A77-876 in January 1953 and served with them in the Korean conflict, first at Iwakuni and then Kimpo. It then served with 23 Squadron at Amberley until the unit disbanded in 1960. It was converted to U.21A drone status and flew from Edinburgh Field. By 1971 it had been transferred to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (now known as the Defence Test & Evaluation Organisation) at Llanbedr.

The main drone activity from Llanbedr has long been dominated by the GAF Jindivik. Illustrated is Mk.4A A92-726. This version has been in production since 1981 and with another order underway for DERA, the type will be familiar over Cardigan Bay for a long time to come.

A Meteor U.16 drone on a sortie out of Llanbedr, North Wales.

WA991 was the last U.16 to go down fighting at Llanbedr! Built in 1951 by Armstrong Whitworth as an F.8, it served respectively with 41 Squadron, 13 Group Communications Flight from Ouston and then with 1 Squadron. It was transferred to the Ministry of Aviation for use as spares in the drone programme in October 1961, but was eventually converted to U.16 status as ‘F’. It survived into the late 1980s until downed in the name of Skyflash AAM development.

The now retired and stored U.16 WH453 ‘L’. Built as an F.8 in 1952, it served 222 then 72 Squadron, ending up with 5 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit at Woodvale. Upon that unit’s disbandment, it moved to Flight Refuelling for conversion to U.16 drone status during October 1971. In its new guise, it kept the code ‘L’ that it had with the CAACU and flew until 1991.