The question has gone unanswered for years: did RAF Canberra PR9s fly from Chilean bases during the Falklands War? Operation ‘Folklore’ was the codename given to a planned deployment — but, despite its eventual cancellation, rumours still abound. For his new book Harrier 809, author Rowland White talked to some of those involved, and researched in official archives, to investigate one of British military aviation’s most enduring mysteries
Gp Capt Colin Adams had the radio on as he got ready for work, the Today programme a regular companion to his morning routine. After 20 years as a front-line pilot in the RAF he was now finally, and permanently, flying a desk. A varied and exotic career that had seen him deploy around the globe from South America to East Africa, and from Europe’s arctic north to the South China Sea, had given way to a posting to RAF Innsworth in Gloucester, at what was, in effect, the air force’s human resources department, responsible for every aspect of ‘light blue’ personnel and career management. It didn’t, admittedly, have the same appeal as evading enemy MiGs in the skies over Indonesia, but he’d had a good innings in the cockpit, and more fun than most.
