Quote:
Originally Posted by FlashDrive
50 Years ago this Year, I started my working life at the age of 17 in the Royal Australian Airforce.
I had to go thru' a rigorous selection ( several exams, 7 of them if I remember correctly ) for ' Ground Crew ' Training on Aircraft.... I chose Aircraft Engines as my Trade.
We ( 10 of us in this course ), started out with the inline / inverted Gypsy Major 4 Cylinder Engine. PHOTO 1
Then went to the Spitfire V12 Merlin Supercharged Engine PHOTO 2
On again to the Rolls Royce R1830 Radial Engine PHOTO 3
First Jet Engine in training was the Goblin Nene, which has the ' Centrifical Compressor ' used in the Vampire ( inventor was Sir Frank Whittle )
Next we went over to the Avon ' Axial Flow ' Engine as used in the Canberra Bomber / Gloucester Meteor / F-86 Saber Fighter ( used in the Koren Air War )
Then was posted to 82 Wing Bomber Command at Amberely, just when we handed back the last of the F4 Phantom to the USAF ... and a couple of weeks later, our 1st ( 6 ) F111C Strike Bombers arrived....the whole base was on Parade that day.... AirVice Marshall's, Group Captains, Wing Commanders and other Senior Officers were all on board of course...the Tarmac was was strewn with Airman ( including myself ) from one end of the field to the other.
A couple of years later,I was posted to RAAF Edinburgh, to the Orion P3B Maritime Reconnaissance Squadron PHOTO 6 ( That ' Green Torque Shaft ' that you can see in the last photo, it transfers power from the Jet Engine to the Propeller Hub Planetary Gearing, with horsepower, rated at 14,000hp
Would I do it all again ....Yep .. !!
Col...
|
Hi Col,
Great stuff! Anyone with any mechanical incline whatsoever, has a soft spot for aircraft.
Just curious when the V12 Rolls Royce Merlin stopped being used in the Australian Air Force. While it was one of the greatest aircraft engines of all time (the yanks even loved them in preference to their own) it was an early 1940's engine and way past it's use by date by the 1970's?
Cheers
John B