Lost Javelin

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16 years 8 months

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'Q' sheds in the process of being built. Butterworth has a similar arrangement which is still extant and can be seen on Google Earth just to the left of the threshold of Rwy 36.

I have been trying to place the location of the 'Q' sheds at Tengah but can't. Anyone?:confused:

Thanks Lauriebe, didn't realise that the Far East airfields had them until now, I take it that they saw little use given their build date and RAF withdrawel.

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24 years 4 months

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Pagen01, I can count three bays in the photo posted by stevew. It was probably the same arrangement as the shed at Butterworth which housed 4 aircraft in seperate bays. I suspect that this was brought about because the RAAF at that time still operated the CA-27 Sabre as its main interceptor. When they (the RAAF) stood 'Q' at Butterworth, there were 4 Sabres on the ORP at readiness. The RAAF, as far as I can remember, only stood the daytime 'Q'. After dusk, the Javs took over and then just two aircraft were needed.

When the sheds were planned and built, during the height of Confrontation, there was no hint of a withdrawal from east of Suez. That came later.

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15 years 7 months

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Thanks Adrian. Good to see these excellent colour photos of the Javelins in their SAFTECH markings. As you can see from the posts above, I think "V" in the newspaper cutting seems to be SAFTECH 6. Do you have anything on that one?

Laurence

Sorry Laurence, those are the only two I have photos of.

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18 years 2 months

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After fiddling with the newspaper cutting as much as I could, I am convinced I can read "V" as being SAF-TECH6, so presumably XH893.
Putting that together with SteveW's father's records, it looks as if V was XH910 1964/65, was also XH961 (w/o 1968) and finally was worn by XH893 in 1968.

Laurence

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18 years 7 months

Posts: 32

Javelin 'V', 60 Sqn.

There were three 'V-Victor' machines with 60 Sqn.

FAW.9R XH961 joined 60 Sqn. 30 January 1964, becoming 'V'. On 28 May 1965 it joined 64 Sqn. becoming 'H'. It rejoined Sixty on 16 June 1967, still as 'H'.

FAW.9 XH893 was allocated to Sixty on 01 March 1965, becoming 'V'. It was transferred to 64 Sqn. on 16 November 1965, staying as 'V'. On 16 June 1967 it returned to Sixty, still as 'V'.

FAW.9R XH910 joined Sixty on 09 March 1965, and took up the code 'V'. On 02 December 1966 it was retired to 389 MU at Seletar and was struck off charge on 20 July 1967.

Re XH777, I have seen it reported elsewhere that it was the last Javelin to fly as an RAF machine, allegedly being the very last Javelin to take off from Tengah, enroute Seletar.

I lived at Seletar during the late sixties and can still remember the noise made by the nine machines that flew round the island in late April 1968, prior to disbandment. Pure magic!!!!

Ian

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Thanks Ian. Now to try to find out which were the 5, including V, that went to SAFTECH.

Laurence

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18 years 7 months

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Coltishall dump Javelin T.3 1968

According to the excellent Scramble show reports site, the Javelin T.3 on the dump at Coltishall in 1968 was XH396. XH390 ended its days at Seletar in 1968, hence its SOC date of 01/05/68.

Ian

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15 years 7 months

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After fiddling with the newspaper cutting as much as I could, I am convinced I can read "V" as being SAF-TECH6, so presumably XH893.
Putting that together with SteveW's father's records, it looks as if V was XH910 1964/65, was also XH961 (w/o 1968) and finally was worn by XH893 in 1968.

Laurence

Have a look here and scroll down the 'XH' Javelin serials - all the SAFTECH serials are listed http://www.ukserials.com/

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18 years 2 months

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Thanks Adrian. Thunderbird also noted that in post #30.
I wish I could find any trace of these Javelins, but it seems they were all disposed of when the Poly moved house.

Laurence

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14 years 2 months

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Lost Javelin

Sorry if I get this wrong - first time I have posted.

I found the "Lost Jav" thread when Googling for info about XH708. I was cataloguing a photo of a pair taking off from (I think) Tengah. 64 Sqdn's XH708/P is nearest camera and the second (lead) aircraft is XH893/V in full 64 Sqdn markings.

I believe this was taken at Tengah as I don't recall seeing 64s Javs taking off in pairs at Waterbeach. It was certainly sop from Tengah's much wider runway though. (I was on 1 Sq at Waterbeach and 20 Sq at Tengah)

So. Question. Did XH893/V actually serve with 60 Sq or did she go direct from 64?

http://www.na3t.org/images/photos/air/MIL25070.jpg
Sorry about the watermark - can't work out how to attach an in-line image.

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So. Question. Did XH893/V actually serve with 60 Sq or did she go direct from 64?

Served on both squadrons as "V"

See post 47 above from Ian Old

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16 years 10 months

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The serial of the Javelin T.3 on the Coltishall fire dump in the early seventies was XH396/Z. With it were Varsity WL671/Q ,Vampire T.11 XH298,Meteor F.8s WK786,WF643/X, Lightning F.1A XM188,F.3 XR719/D,XP752/D.

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15 years 2 months

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Javelin at Box near Bath

I saw this thread and it prompted me to ask does anyone know if the Javelin that was outside the underground munitions depot at Box is still there? I went there about 20 odd years ago and it looked pretty ropey then,so hopefully it may have had a bit of TLC in the meantime.

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8 years 11 months

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Anyone know if this still exists- left in Zambia in the 60's XH890 post landing accident

The aircraft XH890 is no longer in the park at Ndola, Zambia. See attached new clipping of its scraping on the 03/06/1972
[ATTACH=CONFIG]238110[/ATTACH]

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15 years 4 months

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....And I wonder if anyone will ever find the one that crashed into the Bristol Channel during the flight trials.....

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13 years 8 months

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Hi Sopwith. In answer to your question about XH767, she was moved from the museum at Monkton Farleigh in 1991. We (the Avon Aviation Museum) who owned her, placed her in storage at Yatesbury alongside the Meteor Flight chaps, who took us under their wing as it were! We decided to loan the aircraft to the museum at Horsham St Faith, and so she made her way to the City of Norwich Museum where they carried on the work we had started by replacing some of the damaged and corroded panels. She is now on exhibition at the Yorkshire Air Museum. Unfortunately, RAF Leeming had said they wanted to borrow her for a sqn anniversary and offered to paint her, an offer which the museum obviously thought was too good to be true. Unfortunately, while she was in the 'tender care' of the RAF, they managed to break the new canopy that we had put onto the aircraft! She is now wearing a black painted canopy to hide the broken section which some ham fisted idiot had covered in filler!

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13 years 8 months

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Also I have to thank the people who have posted the Javelins at Tengah, including the marvellous example wearing the markings mHm on the tail. This was the personal aircraft of the CO of 60 Sqn Michael 'Dusty' Miller, a man who I was privileged to have worked alongside as he was one of the pilots of No 6 AEF in the early 1980s, when I was a Staff Cadet. And as for the Javelins at Singapore, here's SAFTECH 9
[ATTACH=CONFIG]238968[/ATTACH]

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Member for

15 years

Posts: 519

Such a pity none of these fabulous aircraft have been restored to flying condition. Would be a lot cheaper to achieve than the Vulcan and damned near as exciting. I trained to service them (A.I.17) but was ended up in the 2nd line electronics center. Saw one land with a 'D' door jammed so only had one main wheel down. It's Firestreak missiles kept the wing off the ground. Later that evening, another had the same problem and all Jav's were grounded for remedial work.
Another unsung hero of the RAF me thinks.

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A flying Jav is a great idea, Doug, but I think it's been touched on before about the lack of serviceable AS Sapphires that could be used to get one flying again!

Rob

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15 years

Posts: 519

A flying Jav is a great idea, Doug, but I think it's been touched on before about the lack of serviceable AS Sapphires that could be used to get one flying again!
Rob

where there's a will there's a way. Put a couple of Avons in it, might not be kosher but..................:stupid: