Tony Cunnane's RAF Years

One of the less pleasant things any pilot has to do is take an aircraft on its final flight. I had to do this several times during my last few months on Victor Tankers at Marham as the Mk 1 and Mk 1a aircraft reached the end of their service life. One aircraft was Victor B1A K2P XH648, belonging to 57 Squadron, which I delivered to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford on 02 June 1976, just a few days before work started on the embankment for the new M11 motorway. The aircraft had to be delivered that week because once work started on the M11 the huge temporary embankment to be constructed on the runway undershoot would effectively knock 2,000 feet off the available length and render it unusable for Victors.

My crew (see image at top) comprised: co-pilot Group Captain David Parry-Evans (Station Commander Marham); navigators Wing Commander Alistair Sutherland (OC 57 Squadron) and Flight Lieutenant Thompson; AEO Flight Lieutenant Dave Head.

Duxford is just about 30 nautical miles off the end of Marham's Runway 24. I took off on that runway, made one left hand orbit over Marham to increase speed, and then made a low level fly past over 57 Squadron HQ at 330 kts. Strictly speaking, Victors were limited to a maximum of 250 kts below 10,000 feet to conserve fatigue life but, since this was the final flight, that did not seem adequate reason for restricting the speed. I did not tell the Station Commander and 57 Squadron Commander that I intended to disregard one of the Group Air Staff Orders so the responsibility was mine alone. In fact turning finals for runway 24, I had to retard the throttles all the way back to about 80% to prevent the very light aircraft accelerating further. As we crossed the runway threshold at Marham I throttled all engines back to flight idle – for watchers on the ground this produced the so-called 'whistle' when the aircraft is almost soundless apart from a distinctive whistling noise created as the airframe slices through the air. After passing the Squadron HQ a quick burst of 100% on all four engines produced a mighty roar on the ground. I then gently eased up to 1,000 feet, throttled back to idle again and more or less coasted all the way to Duxford.

A reporter and photographer from the Eastern Daily Press were present at RAF Marham to see XH648 depart on its final flight. This clipping, above, from the EDP dated 03 June 1976, is reproduced by kind permission of the Editor of the EDP. Please note that copyright of the image belongs to the Eastern Daily Press.

Click on the image to download a more readable version

We knew that a reception committee would be waiting for us so, for the benefit of photographers, I made a very slow, maximum drag, flypast overhead Duxford with undercarriage down, full flap lowered, airbrakes extended, and bomb doors open. After that it was a normal left hand visual circuit to land and 648's final performance under its own power was over.

A reporter and photographer from the Eastern Daily Press were present at RAF Marham to see XH648 depart on its final flight. This clipping, above, from the EDP dated 03 June 1976, which I have just found in my archives is reproduced by kind permission of the Editor of the EDP. Please note that copyright of the two images belongs to the Eastern Daily Press.

PS Added on 27 October 2005 XH648 still lives! For up-to-date information visit this excellent site.

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