Hawker Hunter crated Gatwick 1973

[Londoneye]

Going through an old log - I found this noted...…..

Gatwick 13th October 1973
Hawker Hunter, crated bound for Alkharj, Saudi Arabia. Red roundel visible, and letters ADAF.

Anyone hazard a guess ?

Thanks, Pete.

[tm74sqn]

Aby Dhabi air force perhaps? They operated about 10 Hunters.
HTH, TM74

[JAWS]

I had a look through " Hawker Hunter 1951 - 2007 " under Abu Dhabi , and all their Hunters were apparently delivered by 1971 , no mention of any coming back to UK for any reason that I can find . All Saudi Hunter's had already been delivered before 1971 as well . Any other details or can you expand on the roundel any ?

[Nighthawke]

Not much help but ADAF could only be Abu Dhabi Air Force as a Hunter operator I would have thought.

[Londoneye]

Sadly, the note is exactly as written. No more detail.
The old pier viewing area was the place, and to the left as entered you would get cargo flights.
Often see some strange things crated.
On 4th August 1973 I logged 3 chipmunks.

WD344 Y, WG318 W, WP829 Z

"All three crated up. Black, red and green innermost roundels."

Which suggests they were heading to Kenya.

Thanks for looking guys.

Pete.

[JAWS]

Trawled through some more of the Book , and the only Hunter's being delivered from UK to anywhere in 1973 seems to be the Singapore Air Force , these may have had the old Red / White / Red Roundel instead of the next Red and White " Yin Yang " thing they had before their latest roundel which has a Lion in it .

Including the following two which are marked as delivered in October 1973 , all others where delivered before then .

544 Hunter T.75A Ex. WT741 del 10/73

546 Hunter Mk.74BS Ex : XF460 del 11/10/73

Not sure where the Hunter's were all re-worked to Singapore standards though .

However , I believe there was a Singapore Air Force detachment at RAF Brawdy ? sometime in 1973 - 1975 , not sure if those were all flown out under their own power ( some were ) or crated and shipped .

However , the ADAF would still infer Abu Dhabi AF , and I'm not sure if they would deliver to Singapore via Saudi Arabia in those days ?

And your Chippies were heading to Kenya .

[Londoneye]

Thanks again for the replies everybody.
The old style Singapore roundels would make sense now.
ADAF made me think first of Abu Dhabi, but the roundels were wrong.
Singapore Air Defence Command SADC was the original name for the air force.
Did somebody put Air Defence Air Force ADAF by mistake? Did I miss seeing a letter S... ?
It will remain a mystery. Wish I had a digital camera then !! Anything weird I see now, I take pics to refer back too.
cheers everybody.
Pete.

[MCB]

Just to point out that the Singapore ADC Hunter Det was at Chivenor '73-'75.

Re the Chipmunks, these were more likely on their way back from Kenya having been delivered in '65 (WG318) and '69 (WD344, WP829).

MCB

[MCB]

.... though Hunter Det moved from Chivenor to Brawdy 9.74.

MCB

[mustang5861]

ADAF made me think first of Abu Dhabi, but the roundels were wrong.

How were the roundels wrong? You mentioned a red roundel - that was the colour of the outer ring of the ADAF red/white/gold roundel at the time, before the ADAF was swallowed up as part of the UAEAF. At least some (possibly all) of the Abu Dhabi Hunters wore the inscription 'ADAF' ahead of the fuselage roundel. Perhaps you saw part of the aircraft's rear fuselage - enough to make out the red (outer) ring of the roundel and the letters, but not the white and gold elements of the roundel; and the gold could well have blended in with the 'desert' camouflage colours worn by ADAF Hunters.

Seems to me that you did indeed see an ADAF Hunter; perhaps it had been brought back to the UK for repairs/reworking in the same way that Strikemasters were brought back to the UK from Arab operators for attention by Field Aviation at Bournemouth and then transported back to their respective operators. Also, transporting the ADAF Hunter to Saudi Arabia would make sense - Saudi Arabia was a Hunter operator at the time and would have had the right support facilities to facilitate reassembly (possibly by British technicians?) and flight-testing prior to the aircraft passing on to Abu Dhabi itself.

The Singapore line of thought is, to my mind at least, a wild goose chase.

It will be interesting to see if the BARG DVD1, due 'later in 2018', will contain any pertinent information.

M

[plmc135]

To save the wait for DVD1 to come out, I have had a quick look through the BARG's for late 1973 and early 1974. Afraid there is no mention of an airframe going through Gatwick at that time; it confirms that the last four Singapore Hunters were delivered by air in August / September that year.

Unfortunately for the original enquirer, I was on a trip in Europe at the time, otherwise I would have almost certainly been able to answer the query as I worked at Gatwick then.

[mustang5861]

Thanks for checking the 1973/74 BARGs. I'll have access to copies of Air Pictorial for those years next week; there might be a reference in one of the Airport Movements listings, but I'm not overly hopeful. Just wondering if there is a Gatwick spotters group that might have records going back that far?

[Doughnut]

What aircraft would have been used to transport a dismantled Hunter ?

[plmc135]

In those days a Tradewinds CL-44 would have been the logical choice.