Aviation Historian 1
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P.Brooks - One furious summer
Brooks took this photograph of Air Ceylon Douglas DC-4 CY-ACA Laxapana (c/n 10365), at Cairo on the somewhat more comfortable journey home. This machine was later converted by Aviation Traders Ltd into Carvair G-AREK.
Hawker test pilot Neville Duke taxies out at Langley in Fury FB.60 K857 on May 12, 1949, shortly before taking off for London Airport (Heathrow), where he was to begin his record-setting flight to Karachi via Rome. Duke set new records to both points, reaching Rome in 2hr 31min and Karachi in 15hr 24min, giving an average speed of 256 m.p.h.
Fury FB.60 L935 on the flight test line at Langley before its delivery to Pakistan, in company with unpainted Sea Fury VX691, which went on to serve with the Fleet Air Arm’s 807 Sqn in the Korean conflict.
By the time the Furies had reached Sharjah, their factory finish was somewhat the worse for wear, despite the group being given specific orders to deliver the aircraft in pristine condition.
A line-up of Royal Pakistan Air Force (RPAF) Hawker Fury FB.60s at an RPAF base in the North-West Frontier Province (now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province) in the early 1950s.
Истребители "Фьюри" из 9-й эскадрильи ВВС Пакистана
Furies of the RPAF’s No 9 Sqn being readied for a sortie with wing-mounted rocket projectiles. The type was the last of the RPAF’s piston fighters, the Service entering the jet age with the introduction of the Supermarine Attacker in 1951. The Furies were phased out of Pakistani service with the arrival of the F-86 Sabre from 1957.
Brooks’s machine, L904, at Nice, where the Fury delivery team stayed overnight. Although the aircraft had developed a fault with one of its air intakes, it was decided to press on with it as it was until arrival on Malta . . .
Standing beside Brooks’s Fury at Bahrain are fellow pilots Jimmy Hall (furthest left) and Johnny Johnson (beside droptank). On landing at Bahrain one of the other pilots told Brooks that his engine had momentarily cut just after taking off from Baghdad - a foretaste of Brooks’s own later troubles.
Established with the independence of Pakistan from British India in August 1947, the Royal Pakistan Air Force was initially equipped with predominantly British aircraft, eventually receiving a total of 93 Hawker Furies, including five two-seat trainers.
Johnny Johnson prepares for the final leg of the flight, from Sharjah to Karachi.
Brooks photographed the RAF fitter who fixed the filter shutter into the ram-air position.
Two of Brooks’s fellow Fury delivery pilots at Luqa: Johnny Johnson (left) and Paddy Norton.
Fitted with an outer pair of Bristol Theseus turboprop engines, RAF Transport Command Lincoln RE418 was a regular visitor to Luqa, as seen here.
Brooks photographed Lockheed 18 Lodestar F-ARTF, one of five operated by Air Afrique, at Nice.