The Hawker Siddeley Dominie T1 served as a navigation training platform with the RAF for 45 years, in recent times equipping No 55 (Reserve) Squadron at RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire. As such, the Dominie was the RAF's oldest active aircraft, having preceded the VC10 into service by a matter of months. The first Dominie T1 produced was XS709, one of 20 for the RAF, which went to No 1 Air Navigation School at Stradishall in December 1965. Eleven of these aircraft were later rebuilt to a new and improved standard, the first (XS728) flying from Cambridge on 31 August 1994 following conversion. These had modernized avionics, a new Thorn/Racal Super Searcher radar in an elongated nose and a re-designed cabin layout with forward-facing consoles. While the designation T2 was mooted for the re-worked examples it never became official, the aircraft remaining as T1s, although a black color scheme did become standard. No 55(R) Squadron maintained a strength of eight Dominie T1s to the end, one of these being XS709/M.
No comments:
Post a Comment