Fantastic footage from aboard the “Papyrus Hunter” during its display at the Zigermeet 2016.
The “Papyrus Hunter” is a Hunter F.Mk.58, built in 1956 and delivered to the Swiss Air Force on May 29, 1959 as J-4040.
The aircraft served with the Swiss Air Force until Nov. 26, 1993, when it was retired after logging 2,700 flight hours and 1,490 landings. After a period of storage the Hunter was brought back to flight with the new civilian registration HB-RVS on Aug. 19, 2000.
Since then the aircraft has taken part in airshows across Europe, wearing the “Papyrus” white with black newspaper lettering scheme much similar to the livery sported by the Hunter J-4015.
The following footage was filmed in August 2016, when the aircraft took part in the Zigermeet, at Mollis, flying also in formation with the Patrouille Suisse in the Swiss Alps.
At about 1.20PM LT the two seat Hawker Hunter T.Mk.7 WV372 crashed into cars on A27 in West Sussex during its display at Shoreham air show near Brighton.
Shoreham airshow website says that the T.Mk.7 was a two seat development of the F.Mk.4, the RAF’s standard day-fighter. WV372 is owned by Graham Peacock and is based at North Weald Airfield in Essex. It carried the markings of No. 2(AC) Squadron when they were based at RAF Gutersloh in Germany. WV372 has been active on the display circuit for many years, first with Jet Heritage at Bournemouth before passing through several other owners and operators.
Based on the video posted on Youtube, the Hunter was performing a loop that it didn’t manage to close.
According to the first reports, 7 people died as a consequence of the incident.
Although it might be hard to believe, in the age of stealth bombers, standoff weapons, drones, cyberwar, electronic warfare, etc. low-level high-speed flying is still one of the most important parts of both planes and helicopters combat pilot training.
Since a 20mm high explosive shell doesn’t care for stealth technologies a 5th generation bomber embeds, being able to approach the target shielded by the terrain is still as relevant today as it’s ever been.
During the Cold War, Britain introduced the AVRO Vulcan, a big delta four engined jet which could cruise at 50,000 feet safe in the knowledge that it could not be reached quickly enough by any Soviet interceptors that was sent to shoot it down at such lofty altitudes.
But Soviet fighter and anti-aircraft system development was such that, quite soon, the 50,000 foot ceiling wasn’t enough to provide the required security to the bombers and the engineers at AVRO had to go back to the drawing board and come up with a solution to keep the Vulcan on top of its game.
This particular headache fell to an engineer called Stuart Davis who had the unenviable task of improving on Roy Chadwicks 1946 design. However, it wasn’t just a case of fitting more powerful engines as the engineers found over that the jet had issues with flutter over the wings surfaces at certain speeds: to fly higher, new engines had to be developed and the flutter issue resolved.
The solution was found by introducing a kink in the leading edge of what was a pure delta design, along with an increase in wingspan by 12 feet. These improvements along with a state of art jammer again put the Vulcan out of reach of Soviet fighters by having a 60,000ft ceiling, only surpassed by the famous U-2 spyplane (still flying for a few years to come).
An event took place that totally changed the mindset that the RAF had at that time and that was the shooting down of the U-2 piloted by Gary Powers. No longer was the bomber out of reach of Soviet SAMs so another method of delivering its nuclear payload had to be found.
The best way to penetrate the enemy airspace avoiding detection by the opponent’s air defense system, was to fly at tree top height then to pop up to medium altitude to release the weapons.
Britain’s nuclear deterrent at that time was carried by three 4 engine bomber types: the Vickers Valiant the Hadley Page Victor and the AVRO Vulcan.
Interestingly, the low level maneuvers in the thick air played havoc with the Valiant and Victor: the Valiant was found to have serious cracks in its wings from all of the stresses of low level flying and was removed from service, the Victor also had issues and was removed from the bombing role and modified for the tanker role which saw its active service out. The Vulcan by its design had no such issues and was regularly seen practising low level flying.
Low level flying is quite demanding because of the risk involved with flying at high speeds few meters above the terrain. To enable its crews to train as realistically as possible, the RAF had to find somewhere where all types of attack aircraft could fly fast and low.
Some unpopulated areas of the UK were selected and given the designation ‘Low Flying Area’ (LFA). The most used were LFA-14 (Scotland), LFA-17 (Lake District) and LFA-7 (North West Wales) and the limit to how low the pilots could fly in these areas was reduced to 250 feet.
LFA-7 has a series of valleys that allows the pilot to do circuits or to leave this circuit at any point (usually due to low cloud). The valleys are lined by steep sides with mountains either side rising to around 1,000 metres the highest in the chain being Snowdon (1,200 metres).
Although not high in the Rockies or Andes scheme of things these mountains provide a very challenging training environment for pilots.
LFA-7’s valleys were too narrow and tight for aircraft the size of the Vulcan but Hawker Hunters were numerous and after several near misses with aircraft doing circuits in different directions, the valleys were flowed so that all pilots had to do the circuit anti-clockwise making the area safer. The area was then home to F-4 Phantoms, Sepecat Jaguars and Harriers. Later along came the Panavia Tornado and currently Eurofighter Typhoons and even C-130J Hercules can been found flying down low and dirty. The most numerous aircraft type to be found currently is the Bae Hawk T Mk1 or Mk2 flying from RAF Valley (only a few minutes flying time from the circuit), fast jet pilots flying in the RAF and a number of other Air Forces temporarily or permanently based in the UK, as well as U.S. AFSOC planes from RAF Mildenhall.
Image credit: Richard Clements
UK aviation enthusiasts have nicknamed LFA-7 the “Mach Loop” after the small town at the circuits’ most southern point: Machynlleth.
The area has become popular with photographers from all around the world and some stunning photos have been taken with not only the RAF types but also USAF aircraft using the “round-a-bout” (as they know it). Quite often other airforces can be found on detachment and the French Air Force usually makes one or two visits a year and even the Belgian Airforce have visited with their F-16s. Among the most frequent visitors of the North West Wales valleys are the F-15E Strike Eagles from RAF Lakenheath.
Every now and then, aircrews “send” local spotters some messages as well.
These low flying areas have trained the RAF’s pilots for combat.
During Gulf War 1 Tornado and Jaguar pilots were tasked with taking out Saddam’s airfields and in the case of the Tornado the aircraft were so low many pilots reported scrapping their wing tips on the runway whilst evading anti-aircraft fire. The Tornado used the JP-233 runway denial weapon (now banned by the UN) which meant the aircraft had to fly at night at 50 feet above the runway to lay the parachute retarded mines. However, that ultra low level flight exposed the Tornado to the anti-aircraft barrage fire and later on in the conflict the bombers flew medium altitude sorties (above the Iraqi AAA reach) using Paveway laser guided munitions that were buddy spiked by the then very long in the tooth Blackburn Buccaneer (itself an attack aircraft) which carried a laser targeting pod.
More recently, the low flying training that the C-130 Hercules pilots had undergone in areas like LFA-7 came in handy when they were tasked to rescue oil workers that were trapped in Libya. The C-130s took off from the airport on Malta and flew over the Mediteranean, called Tripoli air traffic control, explained who they were and what they were up to, they got no reply from the controllers, therefore continued at low level once over the desert and in hostile air space.
Once all the oil workers were picked up (in more than one location) footage was shown on TV in the UK of the Hercules leaving the small remote airfield and the pilot was seen to leave the runway and immediately retract his undercarriage gaining very little height once out of the danger zone the aircraft rapidly gained height out of range of small arms.
In recent years LFA-7 and the other low flying areas have seen a reduced level of traffic due to operational commitments but the the need for low flying is as great now as it was during the Cold War.
The fact that most recent scenarios, in which the combat planes could quietly operate at medium or high altitude with stand off weapons, because of the lack of anti-aircraft threats, doesn’t imply there’s no longer need to to train for flying at low level.
To be able to fly at less than 2,000 feet can be useful during stateside training too, when weather conditions are such to require a low level leg to keep visual contact with the ground and VMC (Visual Meteorological Conditions).
Aircraft involved in special operations, reconnaissance, Search And Rescue, troops or humanitarian airdrops in trouble spots around the world may have to fly at low altitudes.
Even a stealth plane (or helicopter), spotted visually by an opponent, could be required to escape at tree top height to survive an engagement by enemy fighter planes or an IR guided missile.
Written with The Aviationist’s Editor David Cenciotti
Located mid way between downtown Paris and Charles De Gaulle-Roissy airport, the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace Paris (Air and Space Museum), in the south eastern part of Le Bourget airport, is a must for any aviation enthusiast. The Museum stretches on 150,000 square meters of aprons and hangars and contains a collection of some 180 aircraft: from 16th century items tied to the Montgolfier brothers, to the parts of the Zeppelin LZ113, from biplanes of the beginning of the 20th century, to the ballistic missiles or the legendary Vietnam War veteran Republic F-105 Thunderchief “Thud”. The Museum’s collections are organized in different areas or collection halls, each representing a different period or theme.
Admittance is free, but you have to pay a ticket if you want to make a tour inside an Air France B747-128 (F-BPVJ, performing last commercial flight Beirut-Paris on Feb. 10, 2000), in an American DC-3 or in the two Concorde planes that you can find in the Concorde hall of the Museum (that, to me, alone, were worth the visit): the prototype 001 “F-WTSS”, that made its maiden flight on Mar. 2, 1969, piloted by André Turcat and Jacques Guignard and was retired from service after 397 test flights and 812 flight hours (255 supersonic ones); and the Concorde F-BTSD Sierra Delta, one of the last of such type to fly with Air France, that was retired to the Museum on Jun. 14, 2003, 13 days before the last flight of the Fox Charlie (F-BVFC) the last Air France Concorde that landed in Toulouse on Jun. 27, 2003. The two aircraft are parked side-by-side so you can easily esteem the different internal and external layouts. The F-WTSS prototype wears the “Eclipse Solaire 1973” badge that recalls the historic solar eclipse of Jun. 30, 1973, an event that seven scientists were able to follow for 74 minutes from inside a Concorde fitted as a flying laboratory that, taking off from Las Palmas, Canaries, for the special flight flew within the dark area at supersonic speed at 17.000 meters above Mauritania, before landing in Fort-Lamy (N’Djamena), Chad.
Other interesting aircraft are the German F-104G Starfighter, the Mirage IV, the DC-8 SARIGUE “F-RAFE” used for electronic warfare, the Dassault Super Etendard Modernisé SEM 64, the SAAB J-35A Draken, the Russian Mig-23ML “26” and all the prototypes displayed: the Super Mirage 4000, the Rafale A, the Griffon II and III,
the Mirage III V-01, the LEDUC 010 and the Mirage G8-01. Anyway, the collection is huge and there are so many interesting examples that I suggest you having a look at the following site for a complete list: http://www.aviationmuseum.eu/World/Europe/France/Paris-Le_Bourget/Musee_de_l_air.htm (beware, serials/codes are not correctly aligned with the aircraft type!).
I organized my trip to the museum during Aéropuces 2010, an annual event (hosted in the Concorde hall, as the pictures show) for buying, selling, trading aviation items: models, books, magazines, patches, aviation art, military and civil aircraft parts (control sticks, ejection seats, rudders, panels, cockpit instruments, blades, etc.), flight gear, and everything you might be interesting in collecting.
For more details about the collection, the Museum and the related events, I suggest you visiting the official Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace Paris website that cointains plenty of information (in French language only!).
The pictures above were taken by both me and Giovanni Maduli.
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