Group Captain David Greenway (ret’d), a former Shackleton pilot and commanding officer of 8 Squadron, talks to Dr Kevin Wright about the Shackleton AEW.2 in RAF service.

The Shackleton had a second career as an airborne early warning aircraft with the RAF.
Peter R Foster
When the Avro Shackleton AEW.2 entered service with 8 Squadron on April 11, 1972, most were already 20 years old and had been on the verge of retirement from the RAF. Intended only as an ‘interim solution’, it would be another 19 years before their replacement, the Boeing E-3D Sentry AEW1, finally began work – following the Nimrod AEW development flasco.