Royal Air Force History

1950 to 1959

This Time Line traces the history of aviation and the Royal Air Force in detail from the end of 1950 to 1959, documenting the major events in the development of flight and the service during this period.

 
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Click on the year to move back to the 1945 - 1949 wartime timeline.
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26 Mar 1950 - Eight Avro Lincoln bombers, a descendant of the Lancaster, deployed at Tengah airfield, Singapore, use 1,000lb (450 kg) bombs to attack a terrorist base in Malaya.

 Avro Lincoln B1s of No 1 Squadron RAAF taxy in at Tengah after a strike
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Aug 1950 - A stop-gap measure to fill the long-range bomber requirement in the Cold War, the Boeing B-29D Washington began entering service with Bomber Command Squadrons during August. The type began to be retired in 1953 with the advent of the V-bombers, but the last did not leave the RAF until 1958.

 A Boeing Washington. Many of these aircraft were taken out of cocooned storage and modified with RAF equipment
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22 Aug 1950 - RAF Sunderland flying boats begin blockade operations off the west coast of Korea.

 Sunderlands of 88, 205 and 209 Squadrons were based at Iwakuni on Honshu, Japan, for operations bloockading the Korean coast
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5 Apr 1951 - The Avro Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft enters service with No. 120 Sqn Coastal Command, at RAF Kinloss.

 The Avro Shackletons MR1 and T4 had a distinctive bulbous glazed nose, unlike later variants
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May 1951 - The RAF's first jet bomber, the Canberra, enters service with No. 101 Sqn at RAF Binbrook, Lincolnshire.

 The English Electric Canberra B2 was the first variant of this superb aircraft to enter service. The Canberra PR9 is still in service today, testimony to the types utility
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Jan 1952 - As a stop-gap, while the Avro Shackleton entered service, four UK based Squadrons were equipped with the Lockheed Neptune MR1. With a crew of seven and an 8,000 lb weapon load, the long range Neptunes were returned to the US in 1956

 Lockheed Neptunes return from patrol. The large bulge under the fuselage is a search radar
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12 Mar 1953 - Seven airmen are killed when the Avro Lincoln B2 they are flying in, RF531, is shot down by a Soviet fighter in the Berlin air corridor. The aircraft, from the RAF Central Gunnery School, was on a training flight.
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15 Jul 1953 - RAF Odiham hosts the Coronation Review of the RAF by HM Queen Elizabeth II. The flypast included 640 aircraft.
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Feb 1954 - The first British swept-wing fighter, the Supermarine Swift, enters service with No. 56 Sqn, at RAF Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire.

 The Supermarine Swift was beset with technical problems, leading to a large number of variants in rapid succession. The Fireflash missile on this development aircraft did not enter service
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1 Apr 1954 - Photo-reconnaissance Spitfires make the last operational flight by the type during Operation Firedog, Malaya.

 Spitfire PR 19 PS836 on a photo-recon sortie over Malaya in March. The last sortie was made by PS888 this day
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31 Jul 1954 - The classic British single-seat jet fighter, the Hawker Hunter, enters service with No. 43 Sqn based at RAF Leuchars in Scotland.

 The beautiful Hawker Hunter was also a delight to fly. The last Hunters were not to leave RAF service until the 1990s
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Oct 1954 - A Canberra bomber belonging to the RAF Flying College, Manby, makes the first jet flight over the North Pole.
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Jan 1955 - The first of the new V-Bombers, the Vickers Valiant, enters service with No. 138 Sqn at RAF Gaydon, Warwickshire.

 Crews walk out to their Vickers Valiant B1s. These are aircraft of 49 Squadron, the unit chosen to carry Britain's first hydrogen bomb
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Aug 1955 - An experimental all-jet training programme commences at No. 2 Flying Training School, Hullavington using the Jet Provost trainer.

 Only ten of the Jet Provost T1 were ordered for the RAF, but the later versions, such as the T3 here, were to be built in the hundreds and remained in service until the 1990s
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Feb 1956 - The Gloster Javelin all-weather fighter enters service with No. 46 Sqn, Odiham.

 Aside from being the first all-weather jet fighter in RAF service, the Javelin was also one of the largest. Power problems led to a series of variants until the advent of the FAW9R, one of the first jet fighters to be equiped with afterburners
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10 March 1956 - The second Fairey Delta 2, WG777, today captured the World's Absolute Speed Record at 1,132 mph between Ford and Chichester in Sussex. Piloted by Lt Cdr P Twiss, this was the first aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight.

 The Fairey Delta 2 that captured the World's Absolute Speed Record
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May 1956 - The Avro Vulcan becomes the second V-bomber to enter RAF service, equipping No. 230 Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) at Waddington.

The early Avro Vulcans can be distinguished by the straight leading edge of the wing. A remarkable aircraft in many ways, the Vulcan was not to retire until the 1980s
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Jun 1956 - No. 216 Sqn at Lyneham becomes the worlds first jet transport squadron after re-equipping with the de Havilland Comet.

 The early de Havilland Comets suffered from a new problem in aeronautical materials science, metal fatigue, which caused the loss of several aircraft. The Comet C2 solved these problems, but the aircraft was never to become a commercial success because of them
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11 Oct 1956 - WZ366, a Valiant of No. 49 Sqn, drops the first British nuclear bomb (Blue Danube) during Operation Grapple over the Maralinga test area, South Australia.

 Although several atomic weapons tests had taken place at Monte Bello and Maralinga prior to this date, this was the first air-drop of a British bomb
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31 Oct 1956 - Operation Musketeer, the Suez Crisis, begins. After failing to stop Egyptian and Israeli fighting around the Suez Canal, RAF Canberra and Valiant bombers flying from Malta and Cyprus, in conjunction with French Air Force aircraft, attack twelve airfields in the Canal Zone. Airfield attacks continued until 4 November, by which time the Egyptian Air Force had been decimated. Key installations were captured by Anglo-French airborne troops on the 5th prior to a major seaborne offensive. The operations continued until 7 November, when a cease-fire was arranged. So deep was the crisis, that the United States Air Force was brought to a high state of readiness in case of Russian intervention.

 The view across Nicosia airfield in Cyprus on 2 November 1956. Canberra B2s of 27 Squadron, Meteor NF13s of 39 Squadron, Hunter F4s of 1 Squadron and an unidentified Meteor T7 are all visible. In all, seven Squadrons of Canberras were involved in the Suez operation
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4 Apr 1957 - After publication of a Defence White Paper in the UK by the Conservative government, the days of manned aircraft look numbered when Britain chooses to concentrate on defence by advanced interception and nuclear strike missiles. This infamous paper, presented by Duncan Sandys, forces the cancellation of almost all new British military aircraft projects - notable exceptions being the Lightning fighter and the highly controversial TSR2 strike/attack and reconnaissance aircraft.

 The English Electric Lightning was one of the two manned aircraft programmes to survive the Sandys White Paper. Both were outstanding world-class designs
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15 May 1957 - The first British Hydrogen bomb (Yellow Sun) is dropped near Christmas Island in the south- west Pacific in a series of tests known as Operation Grapple. The aircraft involved, XD818, a Valiant of No. 49 Sqn, is now preserved at the RAF Museum, Hendon.

 The H-bomb trials continued throughout the year under the codename Grapple. The equivalent of one million tons of TNT, the mushroom clouds they created topped at over 60,000 feet
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29 Nov 1957 - No. 232 OCU at Gaydon receives the first Victor B1 aircraft, the third of the RAF's V- bombers.

 The distinctive crescent wing easily identifies the Victor. Aside from having a larger bomb capacity than any of the other V-bombers, the Victor was also supersonic in a shallow dive
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20 Jun 1958 - First flight of the Westland Wessex helicopter derived from the American designed Sikorsky S58.

 The Westland Wessex was not to enter Squadron service until 1964, but is still in use today
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Jul 1958 - The Bloodhound surface-to-air missile entered service with Fighter Command at North Coates in Lincolnshire.

 The Bristol-Ferranti Bloodhound Mk1 was initially deployed in defence of the V-bomber bases. This is a North Coates missile being inspected by the Duke of Edinburgh
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19 Sep 1958 - The first American-built Thor Ballistic Missile (IRBM) is handed over to No. 77 Sqn, Bomber Command at RAF Feltwell. The first RAF-controlled launch of Thor took place at Vandenberg Air Base, USA, on 16 April 1959.
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15 May 1959 - The last operational flight by an RAF flying boat is made by a Sunderland of No. 205 Sqn.

 The Sunderland Mk V was the last version to be operated by the Squadrons of the RAF. The end of a waterborne era that had existed for as long as the service
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1 Nov 1959 - The first RAuxAF Maritime Headquarters Unit (MHQ) is set up at Edinburgh. Others are later formed at Northwood, Plymouth and Belfast.
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Date Last Updated : Thursday, January 22, 2009 3:29 PM

 

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