the meteorological research flight and its … meteorological research flight and its predecessors...

Journal of Aeronautical History Paper No. 2012/06

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The Meteorological Research Flight and its

predecessors and successors

G. B. Gratton

Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements

Building 125, Cranfield University

Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK

Abstract

This paper surveys the history of atmospheric research flying in Britain. The history includes

substantial use of balloons and kites before the first world war, and expanded with the wartime

need for meteorological understanding, leading to the creation of the first dedicated “Meteor

Flight” in 1918, which existed for nearly 2 years until being disbanded as part of a post war

general demobilisation. Between the wars, regular meteorological observations from aircraft

were taken, as well as the provision of crew meteorologists to the new airship services. But

airborne atmospheric research activities and the improvement of such capability were minimal

through 1941.

The creation of a new organisation attached to the Boscombe Down High Altitude Flight in

1942 re-discovered and expanded a “three-strand” pattern of atmospheric research flying which

combined instrument development, scientific understanding and enhanced aircraft capability.

This led to the creation of the Met Research Flight or MRF in 1946, which from 1946 to 2001

established and maintained a British lead in such work, and led to many fundamental

discoveries in meteorology, as well as in several distinct fields of instrument science. Other

organisations contemporary with the early period of MRF carried out similar observational

work, but lacked the three-strand approach which characterised MRF’s world leading

organisation. They had all been disbanded by 1965, superseded by automated observations and

irrelevant to research requirements.

A continued atmospheric research flying effort, built upon the MRF model, was explored

elsewhere in Britain from the mid 1980s and continues to the present day with both new and

successor organisations, the largest present successor being FAAM operating a BAe 146

aircraft.

1. INTRODUCTION AND EARLY HISTORY

The development of the two sciences of aeronautics and meteorology are necessarily

intertwined. As aircraft have become more capable they have needed increasingly high quality

data about the atmosphere in which they must operate safety, whilst in order to provide this

information, meteorologists must use aircraft to determine the characteristics of the

atmosphere, to refine their ability to produce a variety of types of forecast.

Meteorological observations from aircraft and balloons cover a spectrum from routine

observations for immediate use in producing forecasts to experimental observations that


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provide data to advance the science of meteorology, but are not used for immediate forecasts.

This paper is mainly concerned with the latter type of observations, but sets these in the context

of the full range of meteorological flying.

The United Kingdom, historically a leader in both aeronautical development and in

meteorological research, has unsurprisingly also tended to take an initiative in meteorological

research flying. An early visionary was William Napier Shaw (later Sir Napier Shaw, FRS (1)

),

director of the Meteorological Office, who in 1913 (2)

was already carrying out experiments

using kites. In 1907 he had published papers (3)

on the effects of vertical air currents and use

of kites in meteorological research, proposed that vanes could be mounted on aircraft to

measure motion of the air, and proposed that other quantities including “atmospheric

electricity” might also be measured. This was arguably impracticable with the crude

aeroplanes of the time, indeed Britain would not achieve powered manned flight until 1908,

but the rapid development of aeronautical technology during WW1 started to make this

possible.

A further and more practical pioneer was Flt.Cdr. B C Clayton of the Royal Naval Air Service

(RNAS), who in 1916-1917 produced “Records of temperature and altitude” which were

published with comments by Shaw in 1917 (4)

. A contemporary of his, Major W R G Atkins,

flying with the Royal Flying Corps in Egypt, was taking similar readings which were published

in 1918 (5)

. Through the middle and later part of the war, despite early resistance, most British

military units had access to a meteorologist; The Royal Flying Corps had introduced

meteorological training for pilots in 1913 at Upavon (6)

. In particular, the use of poison gas had

substantially concentrated the army’s mind on knowing from which direction the wind was

blowing. By 1918, the British armed services were releasing 13,000 balloons per month in

order to determine wind strength and direction.

Particularly following the earlier work of fighter pilot turned eminent meteorologist

C K M Douglas, a further and similarly minded contemporary (7, 8, 9)

of Clayton and Atkins, the

Royal Flying Corps Meteor Flight was established about February 1918 at Berck (later known

as Berck-sur-Mer) in France for weather research flights (10, 11)

. This consisted of two pilots

and four groundcrew, operating two Armstrong Whitworth FK8 aeroplanes (Figure 1), later

replaced after several accidents with two de Havilland dH.9s. The aircraft were fitted with

psychrometers (combined dry and wet bulb thermometer devices that provided relative

humidity) and paper trace recording RAF barothermographs. From March 1918 cloud

photographs were also being taken, with a “photographer” (actually a photographic technician)

attached to the flight to process these. With the formation of the Royal Air Force from the

RFC and RNAS it became the “RAF Meteorological Flight”, but otherwise continued its work

as originally established, and Douglas himself took command in May 1918.


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Figure 1 Armstrong Whitworth FK8

(Expired Crown Copyright)

After a last instrumented ascent on 31 March 1919 this was partially disbanded at the

beginning of April 1919, moving to Bickendorf near Cologne where flights recommencing on

10 June. In July the dH9s were replaced by a third type, the Bristol fighter. The flight

however was permanently disbanded in September following a last flight on 28 August 1919,

as part of the general post-war demobilisation, but not before it had obtained substantial

temperature and humidity data up to 14,000 ft. It is certainly this short-lived unit that built on

pre-war foundations of kite and balloon observations, and wartime balloon observations, to

first formally and rigorously fly instrumentation on board a powered aeroplane in support of

meteorological research. Douglas himself transferred to the Meteorological Office where he

later became regarded as his generation’s pre-eminent forecaster.

Figure 2 Meteor Flight’s “logo”, as displayed on their aircraft

(From reference 10)

By the end of WW1 then, meteorology was developing the form of a science, and the taking of

measurements in aircraft was, whilst in its infancy, both established and published (12)

. In 1919

for example, there was a meteorologist in the crew of the first flight of the R34 Airship across

the Atlantic – Lt. Guy Harris (6)

. It is known that there were observations made by, and

forecasts issued to, pilots of the new airborne mail services, but historical records in this regard


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are poor. In the same year, the Meteorological Office became part of the newly formed Air

Ministry.

Two further, short-lived met flights are known to have been formed, at Baldonnel (southwest

of Dublin) and Upavon in the early 1920s, but their impact was small.

A new start occurred in 1924 when a Meteorological Flight was formed within the Royal Air

Force, initially at Eastchurch then moving to Duxford in 1925. This operated for most of its

history with Siskin IIIa aircraft which appear to have been on the strength of the unit until

1936, occasionally supplemented by Gloster Gauntlets and Gladiators. The flight suffered one

fatal accident (a mid-air collision killing Met Flight pilot Flt.Sgt. Cecil Tostevin in December

1928 (13)

). In 1936 the unit was moved to RAF Mildenhall. Little published research exists

from the work of this unit, but given that it existed for about 12 years, presumably at the time it

was considered to have considerable value to the RAF and the meteorological office. A similar

unit was also established at RAF Aldergrove in 1936, equipped initially with Bristol Bulldogs,

which were replaced early in 1937 with Gloster Gauntlets. All of these were arguably obsolete

aircraft when in Met Flight use – a pattern that typifies much of the history of meteorological

flying.

The most notable pilot of the flight was Flying Officer Jeffrey Quill, later Chief Test Pilot of

Supermarine, who joined the flight in 1933 and became its commander in 1934 – receiving the

Air Force Cross in recognition of achieving a 100% flight record for twice daily meteorological

ascents to 25,000 ft through a 13 month period ending in December 1935 (14)

. This was his last

RAF position, as he left the service to become deputy Chief Test Pilot at Vickers Supermarine

in January 1936. Quill describes flights measuring humidity at 50mb (~1400 ft) intervals using

a psychrometer mounted on a wing strut, very similarly to that flown by Meteor Flight in

1918/19, and a large accurate altimeter calibrated in millibars (now known as hectoPascals).

He also describes that:

The RAF in those days was very far from being an all-weather air force. In the Met

Flight we developed our own all-weather techniques and very effectively in the

circumstances.

Many of these techniques seem to have spread informally through the RAF, and became a

standard currency in aircraft operations – including contacting and obtaining meteorological

information from potential diversion airfields, use of controlled descents over low terrain to

make cloudbreaks, and accurate flying in cloud using only airspeed, altitude, a slip-ball and

turn needle and no horizon reference (which would now be known as “partial panel” but at that

time reflected the total instrumentation available in these open cockpit biplanes). Whilst Met

Flight were not alone in trying to develop such techniques, since in particular CFS (Central

Flying School) at Upavon were also doing so, it is likely that this small unit made advances

that were of significant value to the RAF in the coming conflict. Their operations were also

marked by a continued determination to obtain meteorological data at all costs. This is typified

by the following account from Quill concerning an occasion where he destroyed a Siskin

crashing in a field whilst attempting to make a cloud break in zero-ceiling conditions.


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I found that I had crashed quite close to a country lane and there was a small house

nearby which had a telephone. I dictated the met figures to the Air Ministry and then

rang up Duxford informing them of the accident and requesting a crash party.

In long retrospect, it is regrettable that this work did not engage with true scientific research in

the way that the earlier Meteor flight, and certainly some later organisations did. It is also

perhaps surprising given that the same station had other aircraft allocate to aeronautical

research on behalf of the nearby University of Cambridge. But nonetheless it appears to have

had significant informal impact, in assisting effective forecasting at this formative period, in

developing techniques for all-weather flying, and not least in providing a training ground for an

exceptional pilot who would go on to heavily influence the development of the Spitfire.

Also in 1925, the Meteorological Office formed an Airship Division (6)

, located at Cardington

(where the Met Office still maintains an observation facility); this was a unit with a research

role that appeared aimed at serving the new airship industry and community rather than using

airships for airborne observations. Nonetheless, meteorologists flew, as is illustrated by the

death of Mr M A Giblett, head of that division, in the loss of the R101 airship where he was the

constituted “Meteorological Officer”. This may have contributed to the Meteorological

Office’s decision to close the unit in 1931, but the importance of meteorological data to airship

operations is made very clear in the official report into that disaster (15)

.

At least 19 semi-independent met flights, similar to those which had existed pre-WW2 at

Duxford and Aldergrove, were created through the course of that war to obtain data for

forecasts to support operations. These used a very wide variety of aircraft types, presumably

based upon local support and availability. For example, a Mosquito equipped No. 1409 Met

Flight, which may in part have been a predecessor to THUM (Temperature and HUMidity; see

section 3.2 below) was brought into being in 1941 within RAF Coastal Command, then

transferred in 1943 to Bomber Command.

A similar unit, also equipped with Mosquitos was created in a similar role of providing

meteorological reconnaissance ahead of bomber raids was formed within the USAAF 8th

Air

Force in the summer of 1944, with their crews having initially been trained by the RAF (16)

.

This unit in particular tended to fly at night, using techniques developed by one or more of the

RAF Met Flights, such as dropping flares to establish cloud levels. The day-flying RAF units

in particular seem to have combined their meteorological role with one of more conventional

reconnaissance. These units on the British mainland were all disbanded by mid 1946. This

was partly due to the advent of cheaper fixed-base peacetime weather stations, but presumably

also Air Ministry and Meteorological Office senior management took the view that a single

centralised MRF at Farnborough, plus 202 squadron at Aldergrove, were between them a

cheaper and more effective resource than multiple small units scattered across RAF and RN,

mostly without competent scientific support. Elsewhere in the empire, flights continued into

the early 1950s performing meteorological reconnaissance.


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2. THE CREATION OF MRF

2.1 Initial establishment within HAF

In 1942 Mr A Brewer (who became Doctor and then Professor Alan Brewer after the war), was

appointed to form a new unit at the Aeroplane and Armaments Experimental Establishment at

Boscombe Down. This was to be attached to the existing High Altitude Flight (one of three

HAFs formed, the others being at Northolt, followed by one in 1943 at Bari in Italy). Dr.

Brewer was a Meteorological Office forecaster who had received an MSc in physics at

University College London in 1937; his unit initially consisted of himself, a sergeant

instrument maker and the use of two Hudson and one Spitfire aircraft (17)

(see Appendix A

Tables 1 and 2). The initial objectives were closely associated with the high altitude flight

problems already being investigated at HAF, which was the prediction and prevention of the

creation of visible contrails by high altitude bombers and reconnaissance aircraft operating

over mainland Europe – a major interest of the allied powers at that time (18)

.

Under Brewer, the initial problems associated with understanding contrail formation proved

not to be those of meteorology, but of metrology – in other words of obtaining accurate

airborne instrument readings. Work on hygrometry had been started by G M B Dobson (10)

,

who previously as a serving army officer had worked from RFC Upavon in 1916 where he had

designed and flown the first airborne barothermograph (the “RAF barothermograph”, built at

RAE Farnborough). But Brewer himself took the lead in the development of airborne

thermometers which unlike existing laboratory models would not be affected by substantial

variations in solar radiation as the aeroplane manoeuvred and entered or left cloud. This

problem was solveable, but proved also to apply to the hygrometer:

In the first place Dobson supplied a hygrometer which he had shown to work in the lab

under a wide range of temperatures. However, in the aircraft it suffered from the fact

that the light changes as the aircraft passes through cloud and turns etc. So, for aircraft

use it was clear that we needed a proper illumination system. We therefore further

developed the frost point hygrometer. The object is to watch for deposition of dew or

frost on a surface that is ventilated by outside air. It is cooled by pumping a coolant

from below. The temperature is measured by a resistance thermometer. The viewing

surface is at a focus of an elliptical glass lens, with a lamp at the other focus for

illumination. You watch for deposition on the surface through a good magnifying glass.

Alan Brewer (17)

The initial use of a Boston aircraft allowed flight to 30,000 ft with developing thermometry

and hygrometry instruments, and this work expanded further by the use of a Flying Fortress,

reported to have been one of six aircraft that were a personal present from Roosevelt to

Churchill, but more significantly able to climb (stripped down to a lightweight airframe) to

37,000 ft, putting instruments consistently into the stratosphere for the first time. The lower

temperatures at these altitudes also meant that hygrometers could no longer be cooled with dry

ice, and liquid oxygen started to be used.

The use of the Fortress was relatively shortlived and replaced with the first of several Mosquito

aircraft. These proved highly successful, popular with the scientists (due to good performance

and accommodation), and led to the first rigorous investigation of the characteristics of the

tropopause (the transition between the troposphere and lower stratosphere). This led to the


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discovery, now generally attributed to Brewer, of the extremely low levels of water in the

stratosphere (19)

.

With the growing maturity of this unit attached to HAF, there was an increasing separation of

the areas of scientific investigations, albeit with a continuous core of instrument development

and calibration work. Instrument development has proven to be at the core of all

meteorological research flying before and since the time of Brewer’s unit. The main divisions

of instrumentation owe their roots to that time and have not changed substantially since. These

are:-

Thermometry: The measurement of temperature is fundamental to all airborne science: for

example to determine humidity, energy changes within changes of water phase, or to determine

lapse rates with altitude in various conditions. Earliest temperature measurements used

conventional mercury or alcohol thermometers, but these in particular only give mean

temperatures, with little fine resolution. Further, aircraft mounted thermometers must not be

influenced by changes in ambient solar radiation as the aeroplane manoeuvres or changes its

proximity to cloud. The vortex thermometer proved to be the best instrument during this early

period (20, 21)

.

Hygrometry: At first hygrometry was a close relative of thermometry with the use of dry and

wet bulb thermometers. This however ceases to have value below the freezing point of water

so around 1942/43 the Dobson-Brewer frost-point Hygrometer (22)

, which first flew in a

Fortress on 22 December 1943, was developed. It used a cooled surface “thimble” whose

temperature can be accurately measured, thus allowing the frost point of the air to be accurately

determined by observing the frosting of the surface of the thimble. This remained the preferred

instrument until replaced by more advanced instruments in the 1960s. Early concentration on

this was dictated in large part by the interest in contrails, but led later to very profound

discoveries of stratospheric dryness and global atmospheric circulation (19)

.

Wind measurement: Accurate measurement of wind is clearly at the root of meteorological

forecasting, and was also fundamental to the earliest intentions of met research flying during

WW1 where artillery trajectory prediction and the direction of movement of poison gas were

important military needs. During and immediately following WW1 early attempts were made

by having an aircraft fly along the smoke puffs cause by exploding anti-aircraft shells, a

process described dispassionately in contemporary papers, but which must have been

somewhat disconcerting for the pilot. Ultimately accurate determination of wind from an

aircraft is dependent upon good knowledge of the aircraft’s speed and heading within an air

mass, and then very accurate navigational knowledge. With the technology of the 1940s

neither were trivial problems to solve.

Vertical current and turbulence measurement: It was appreciated during this early period

that turbulence measurement would be important in order to influence aircraft structural

design, and that vertical current measurement was important in understanding the structure and

development of clouds. However, beyond empirical estimates of turbulence, and measurement

of altimeter parameters on the aeroplane, instrument technology had not yet developed

effective means of measurement, although early use of hot-wire anemometers was showing

promising initial results.


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Cloud Physics: Originating as a sub-field within the work of MRF, cloud physics has become

a subject in its own right. Whilst replaced much later by more complex instruments, the 1940s

state of the art involved capturing cloud particles on slides coated in oil, soot or magnesium

oxide, exposed by a device that allowed exposure to the passing airflow for a few hundredths

of a second. Rain droplets were also of interest, using similar techniques and also a rotating

drum device where droplets impacted a sheet of aluminium foil backed by gauze. Ice crystals

provided another area of interest, and as early as 1943 images were successfully taken of ice

crystals in the stratosphere, usually using remaining images in either an evaporating solvent

such as chloroform, or on sooted gauze. This also included the determination of the

characteristics of core cloud nuclei, which might be either solid matter or frozen water.

Chemistry: One might suppose that interest in atmospheric chemistry would be relatively

recent since the recent interests in climatology and greenhouse effects. In fact, HAF was flying

instrumentation to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) and helium (He) during WW2, and an ozone

(O3) instrument shortly after the war. Along with data from hygrometers these led to Brewer’s

proposal of global circulation in 1949.

2.2 Subsequent post war independence and development

With the end of WW2, interest in contrails was diminishing whilst development of the

technology of high altitude flight was becoming merged into the broader issues associated with

development of the new generation of jet aeroplanes. So the need for separate RAF High

Altitude Flights had ceased. However, the importance of meteorological research was

increasing, driven by the need for improved weather forecasts for a post war global economy

built upon shipping and commercial aviation, and a less happy interest in the spread of nuclear

fallout with the beginning of the cold war. So in 1946 a new and independent Meteorological

Research Flight was formed at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Farnborough. The

scientific staff was more permanent and complete than the “bolt-on” to Boscombe Down’s

HAF, and the flight was supplied with two Mosquito and two Halifax aircraft (replaced in 1950

by two Hastings aircraft, see Appendix A Table 1), as well as a small permanent unit of RAF

aircrew to operate them.

The structure of MRF was typical of other flying organisations based at RAE at that time, with

a pivotal Flight Liaison Officer (FLO) acting as a point of contact between the RAF operator

on one side, and the scientific taskers on the other. This role, albeit later renamed as the

Aircraft Manager (AIRMAN), continued to the end of both MRF and the RAE and was a

critical and highly regarded role normally held by a civilian; in the modern equivalent

organisation, FAAM, it is split between the Operations and Technical Managers. Similarly, the

division between aircraft operations by military aircrew and the scientific management

primarily by civilians, continued until the end of military flying operations at Farnborough, and

continues to this day at Boscombe Down.


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Significant new science was done during this period. Under Assistant Directors* Frith and

then Murgatroyd (Appendix A Table 5), the use of atmospheric tracers was evaluated – using

distinctive characteristics of an air mass such as ozone or water concentrations (ozone

instruments first flown in the early 1950s) to track the changing behaviour of that mass. This

for example allowed some detailed characterisation of the jet streams.

Flying rates during this period were variable; the aeroplanes were sometimes old and always of

their time, so significant periods of downtime was inevitable with various unserviceabilities.

The Mosquitos appear to have been the most reliable aeroplanes, sometimes achieving nearly

50 hours in a month.

2.3 Investigations into making weather

The concept of cloud seeding to modify weather behaviour was first mooted by American

scientist V J Schaefer in 1946 (23)

, and numerous organisations worldwide tried to explore this,

which included MRF between 1950 and 1955 using one of its Hastings aircraft (24, 25)

. The

process generally involved releasing a powdered salt such as silver iodide, or powdered dry ice

within a cloud to provide artificial cloud nuclei upon which rain could form.

It was however concluded that:

The practical value of these experiments is however limited. In favourable conditions,

areas of perhaps 10 to 15 square miles in a cloud 2,000 feet thick may be cleared by

using about 100 lb. of dry ice. However the whole process takes between 40 minutes

and an hour, and during that time the seeded area may drift 20 or 30 miles, so that any

operational work based on it would be difficult to plan. Moreover, the occasions when

these experiments can be carried out in the United Kingdom are few. In Southern

England large areas of supercooled stratocumulus usually only occur during the winter

months during periods of easterly winds (26)

.

Thus it would appear that MRF was amongst the first organisations to attempt experimental

cloud seeding using aircraft – within 4 years of Schaefer’s initial proposal, and was also

amongst the first also to abandon this direction. Subsequent revisitations of cloud seeding with

variably success appear to bear out that judgement. However, it must have supported the

growing understanding of the significance of cloud nuclei in airborne meteorological research

that continues to the present day.

2.4 The mature, multi-aircraft period: 1950s to 1970s

By 1951 MRF was established in what proved a very stable form. For most of that time the

flight operated with three aircraft types: the versatile Mosquito (replaced in the mid 1950s by

the larger and equally versatile Varsity), the high performance and high altitude Canberra, and

* Assistant Director, or “A/D” was the grade for many years in the British civil service for

functional department heads, also referred to as Grade 6 or Grade 5. The term “superintendent”

was also sometimes used, but this could also be applied to other grades in some circumstances.


92

the large workhorse Hastings (Figure 3). Whilst there were several changes of airframe and

one non-fatal aircraft loss (Canberra WJ582 in 1962, see Appendix A Table 6), this

combination was stable and effective for the purposes of the flight. As a unit it became firmly

bedded into the main Meteorological Office organisation and it became routine for scientists to

rotate between positions in MRF and elsewhere in the organisation. The post war

Meteorological Office was working in particular to develop and improve its forecasting

models, and also in this early part of the cold war, models for predicting the spread of

radioactive fallout.

Figure 3 Met Research Flight Hastings, probably TG618 (Met Office)

A major development of this period in airborne science was in the measurement of radiative

transfer. Estimation of the energy absorbed, transmitted or reflected by levels of the

atmosphere and by the surface is fundamental to any attempt to model the atmosphere. So,

from the late 1950s infra-red instrumentation was being developed and mounted to a Mosquito

PR Mk 34 aircraft at MRF (27)

. This concentration on radiative transfer / flux, with ever more

specialised airborne radiometers, continued throughout the future of MRF, and indeed

continues now with FAAM (Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements). It was MRF

who first flew a radiometer, initially on behalf of the University of Cambridge, initiating an

entire field of observational science (although ground based radiometers had existed for some

time, none were until then capable of being flown). Amongst other discoveries, MRF was the

first to identify the absorption of solar radiation by aerosol in apparently clear air, particularly

downwind of urban areas – a fundamental advance in weather prediction.

Cloud physics work expanded substantially from 1965 when the Meteorological Office

appointed Professor BJ Mason to become its new Director General. Prof. Mason brought with

him a large part of his cloud physics group from Imperial College, which became the largest

single user of MRF.

In the early 1970s the two main workhorses of the MRF fleet, the Varsity and the Hastings,

were coming towards the end of their service lives, whilst there was a need for a highly capable

airframe that could allow participation in the coming international GATE (Global Atlantic


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Tropical Experiment) campaign (2)

. This very large campaign (with 13 aircraft and 40 ships

from 10 countries, it was and probably still is the largest such campaign ever undertaken)

would be the first major multi-platform international campaign that MRF would participate in.

It was correctly perceived that this would be a future and important pattern. So a Hercules C

Mk 1 was procured, substantially modified into a one-off “Hercules W Mk 2” standard and

added to the fleet, nominally replacing Varsity WH428, but providing MRF with its most

capable low to medium level platform to date. This aircraft, XV208, with several external and

very visible modifications, was considered by many to resemble a famous cartoon character so

became rapidly and universally known by the nickname “Snoopy”.

A further and significant change was the engagement with the Central Electricity Research

Laboratories (CERL), who started in the 1970s to use MRF facilities to research atmospheric

chemistry and brought in appropriate expertise. That work, primarily in the Hercules,

continued to the end of MRF’s existence. It continued at FAAM, carried on solely by the

university community (2)

, as the Meteorological Office itself abandoned chemistry research

around that time. It was found necessary to split this work between using vacuum bottles or

bags to obtain airborne samples and using continuously reading onboard chemistry

instruments. This combination of instruments, new at the time, continued to be applied later in

other British and overseas aircraft. Universities both in the UK and overseas also became

increasingly engaged with the provision and use of these instruments, which was part of the

growing and pivotal role MRF played in British and international atmospheric science.

The introduction of inertial navigation systems in the early 1960s, coupled to external airspeed

measurements, to characterise turbulence was another innovation which can now be found on

almost any atmospheric research aircraft worldwide – although now GPS would be more likely

to be used. This was pioneered on the Canberra and then on the Hercules.

Cloud physics work, pioneered from the late 1940s, was massively enhanced by the use of

American optical sensing techniques from the 1970s, which could then generate high rate data

that the new onboard computer (see below) was able to record continuously. This was, whilst

perhaps not the first, one of the world’s first airborne uses of laser technology.

Radiative transfer work also continued, with continuous improvement and miniaturisation of

instruments and an increasing appreciation within the forecasting community of the importance

of understanding this within their forecast models. This was also reflected by the incorporation

of such instruments on satellites – and such instruments needed testing. The MRF Canberra

was, for example, used to test the new Selective Chopper Radiometer (SCR) before it was

launched in 1973 on NASA’s new Nimbus-5 satellite. It was clearly very unusual that NASA

would go to another country for such testing, although this was in large part because of

collaborative work with the University of Oxford by both parties and the prototype SCR was

later moved to the Hercules and developed as an Oxford / MRF instrument known as the Multi

Channel Radiometer – MCR. Further such instruments were also developed and became part

of the standard aircraft equipment, including pyranometers (solar radiometers) and

pyrgeometers (terrestrial radiometers). Other satellite instruments would later be tested on the

Canberra and Hercules, as well as these aircraft being used for calibration of instruments

actually being flown in space (known as “ground truth measurements”).


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At the start of this period, most data was recorded manually, or occasionally with crude paper

trace or similar devices. However, increasing availability of computer technology allowed

automated data logging. Similar progression was going on elsewhere, particularly with the

research aircraft fleet co-located at RAE Farnborough. So for GATE in 1974, MRF’s first

onboard computer and magnetic tape recorder were installed within a soundproofed cabin (“the

van”) in the centre of the aircraft. Ground based computing power was used for data analysis –

initially by RAE, but by about 1980 entirely in-house.

2.5 The latter single aircraft period: 1981 to 2001

Although at no point in the history of meteorological flying has any aircraft only been taking a

single measurement, prior to the creation of MRF in 1946 aeroplanes were configured for a

relatively narrow set of measurements. In MRF’s multiple aircraft period any aircraft was

configured with a limited set of instruments for a defined experiment. However, with the use

of Snoopy, a new paradigm had to be found – that of an aeroplane which could be serve as

wide as possible a range of science needs with minimal reconfiguration. Figure 4 illustrates

the progression in 30 years from a relatively roomy “lab-bench” arrangement in one of MRF’s

Hastings to a much more complex racked arrangement in the Hercules. To a large extent this

only became possible with developing miniaturisation of electronics. The original radiometer

installation on the Mosquito for example took up much of the aeroplane, whilst on the Hercules

it was both proportionally, and actually, far smaller and lighter. And so, a true multi-purpose

meteorological research aeroplane became feasible.

By 1981 MRF was the globally pre-eminent airborne atmospheric science facility, being flown

worldwide, and very much in demand for numerous international campaigns. So there was

every reason of both scientific advancement and national prestige to maintain and continuously

improve this facility.

Figure 4 Illustration of two MRF aircraft interiors: Hastings circa 1955 (left)

and Hercules circa 1985 (right). (Met Office)


95

It is also true that the retirement of the Canberra in 1981, leaving MRF with only the Hercules

which had replaced the older Varsity and Hastings, was in large part for budgetary reasons, and

left a substantial gap. The Hercules had an operational ceiling of around 25,000 ft compared to

around double that with the Canberra. So, stratospheric science in the UK from aircraft

observations was no longer possible. However, the Hercules was nonetheless an extremely

capable platform which by comparison to any previous aircraft had a large payload, long range

and long endurance. So the opportunity existed and was taken to create a world leading multi-

purpose atmospheric research platform in XV208 (Figure 5).

Figure 5 Hercules W2 “Snoopy” XV208

(Met Office)

Snoopy’s military function was revisited in March 1991, immediately following the first Gulf

War, when the departing Iraqi invaders left numerous oil wells burning in Kuwait. The aircraft

operated by an MRF team was deployed to the region to track chemical tracers in the resultant

fumes, allowing Meteorological Office model predictions that the effect would be locally

severe but insignificant further afield to be validated. This was some months faster than any

other country was able to do so, and most likely was possible because the single organisation

contained both instrumentation and aircraft teams, which characterised most of the history of

British atmospheric research flying.

In 1991 the MoD had announced that military flying would end at Farnborough in 1995. So in

March 1994, XV208 was relocated to Boscombe Down, where HAF had been until 48 years

earlier with MRF’s predecessor organisation under Alan Brewer. MRF’s main organisation

remained at Farnborough and Bracknell. Nonetheless, the work of the aircraft and the team

continued with typical 6-8 annual detachments, covering every part of the world except for

Antarctica which to-date has eluded all but some very specialist modified aeroplanes.


96

Figure 6 Met Research Flight Crest, designed and approved 1992

(Met Office)

2.6 The end of MRF

2.7 What Snoopy did next

Following the retirement from meteorological use, XV208 did not have value to the RAF

directly, but did have potential as a test bed for future aeronautical development. It was

acquired by Marshall Aerospace (28)

, who had originally converted the airframe to

meteorological use in the early 1970s and thus had an excellent corporate knowledge of the

individual airframe. The airframe since about 2006 has been in use from Cambridge airport as

a test platform for the Europrop International TP400-D6 engine that is now in the A400M

military transport. Some existing meteorology instrumentation was transferred to G-LUXE,

the new BAe 146-301 operated by FAAM, including the “HORACE” data recording system,

filters and some radiometers. But the majority was not, as the creation of the new aircraft was

taken as a long overdue opportunity to update much of the ageing MRF equipment. The

During the 1990s, an expensive MRF was becoming vulnerable to budget cuts, and the team

at and around the aircraft felt very insecure about their and the facility’s future. Also, the

aeroplane itself, whilst still a world leading facility, was becoming increasingly difficult to

maintain and improve.

In the meantime, NERC, the Natural Environment Research Council, which has since 1965

been the UK’s major funder of university based research in the natural sciences, had taken

an increasing interest in the role of MRF, appointing an Aircraft Officer to the flight in

1993. So, a decision was made that in 2001 XV208 would be retired and MRF would be

disbanded. However, this was not an end so much as a reconstruction. The Met Office

(renamed from the old name of the Meteorological Office in 2000) and NERC agreed that

they wished to replace the aircraft and organisation with a civil aeroplane to be managed by

a new “Joint Facility”. This was to become FAAM, described in section 4.1 below.

This roughly coincided with the creation of a new purpose-built Met Office headquarters in

Exeter, so that apart from a small number of staff involved in the creation of the new joint

facility, most of the MRF scientific staff moved to the Observation Based Research

department at Exeter, whilst the aircrew went back into the main Royal Air Force.


97

famous “snoopy” nose-boom (Figure 5) went to the Met Office’s new headquarters in Exeter

where it formed a commemorative centrepiece in the central atrium.

This illustrates the value of long familiarity with equipment in several ways. Marshall

Aerospace was familiar with the airframe, which allowed it to continue to serve aeronautical

research. The MRF staff transferring to either FAAM or the main Met Office had strong

familiarity with the scientific equipment on board the aircraft, and with the general task of

implementing such equipment, that allowed the adaptation of G-LUXE to be achieved to an

acceptable budget and timescale. The wisdom of not allowing that knowledge base to be

dispersed cannot be overstated.

This illustrates a very important point that underlies the entire history, prehistory and

succession from MRF – the continuity of knowledgeable people throughout the programme

history has allowed scientific and technological achievements that could not have been

accomplished through discrete and unconnected programmes, however good the

documentation was at each stage.

3. OTHER PLAYERS

Given the increasingly large and competent HAF/MRF both during and after WW2, one might

reasonably have assumed that this comprised the entire UK weather forecasting flight-effort.

This however was far from true. Indeed there were critical high risk weather observation tasks

flown with substantial fatalities by other units, which are difficult to numerate for the wartime

period, but included 34 lives and 6 aircraft lost during the ten years immediately following the

war. That these losses were accepted without a cessation of this flying, which is described

further below, can only emphasise the high importance allocated to obtaining airborne

meteorological data.

The following sections detail the main two such organisations in Britain, which appear to have

used MRF developed instrumentation, but perhaps surprisingly there seems to have been

relatively little interaction between them. It is hard now to understand why this interaction did

not take place; the most likely explanation is that meteorological research and meteorological

reconnaissance (the first being data acquisition to support research activities, and the second to

support production of immediate forecasting activities) were considered so different as to have

no crossover.

3.1 202 Squadron and the met reconnaissance aircraft

In a number of cases specific aircraft variants were created to meet the requirements of the

wartime and to a lesser extent post-war met flights. The most significant was probably the six

Hastings Met 1 aircraft (modified late production Hastings C Mk 1s) flown by RAF No.202

squadron, which operated from RAF Aldergrove between 1946 and 1964, initially with Halifax

Met Mk 6 aircraft, then the newer Hastings from 1950. These flights appear to have been

hazardous: 202 squadron lost 32 aircrew during the Halifax period, although none during the


98

Hastings period. These flights were in support of routine forecasting, with routes dictated daily

by the Meteorological Office directly.

Crews at 202 squadron were large and multi-functional, not dissimilar to the latter days of

MRF and the present day at FAAM. A typical Halifax crew of 7 would comprise 2 pilots, 2

met observers, a navigator, a flight engineer and a signaller. For the later Hastings operations a

further signaller was added and the met observers became known as “AMOs” or Airborne Met

Observers, the senior AMO occupying the right hand pilots seat – a role that at MRF in the

Hercules and later FAAM would be known as the Mission Scientist, or MS1.

The 202 squadron aircraft were fitted with the Dobson-Brewer frost point hygrometer that had

also become a fundamental instrument of MRF, and accurate low level flying was facilitated

by early radio altimeters (29)

.

3.2 THUM Flights (Post War)

It appears that that in addition to 202 squadron and MRF, there was also a requirement for

daily higher altitude data (directed by a continuous forecasting requirement, rather than the

more research programme directed flying of MRF). This was served by the creation in April

1951 of a contracted organisation based initially at RAF Hooton Park near Liverpool (now

Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port factory), which moved in July 1951 to RAF Woodvale near

Southport, called THUM - Temperature and HUMidity (30)

. THUM flight was formed

alongside No.19 reserve flying school and used Spitfire PR19 aircraft flown by civilian

contractor pilots.

These Spitfires (see Appendix A Table 5) were equipped with a relatively old-fashioned

balanced bridge psychrometer (measuring humidity, a more basic instrument than the MRF and

202 squadron equipment), an aneroid barometer, and of course a human pilot who was

expected to make empirical weather observations during daily climbs to the 300mb level

(equating to around 30,000 ft in a standard atmosphere). These climbs were carried out each

morning, aiming to reach 30,000 ft at 0900Z, almost without interruption from 28 April 1951

to 1958. Despite the peacetime scientific role of these flights, they clearly caused a very high

workload and in the first 3 years of THUM flight’s existence, it suffered two fatal accidents:

Mr Gordon Hargreaves (F/O RAFVR) was killed in a landing accident at Woodvale on 4 May

1952, and on 4 March 1954 Mr T V “Tommy” Heyes DFC (Flt.Lt. RAFVR) was killed on his

427th

met flight trying to execute a forced landing with a rough running engine near

Shrewsbury.

With the ageing of the Spitfires, the Mosquito was selected as a replacement in 1956, with

aircraft delivered in 1957. THUM Flight as a unit however was disbanded in 1958 with the

appreciation of the lower risk and cost of automatic weather recording, and the far greater

research capability that existed with the multi-crew instrumented aeroplanes at MRF.

Disbandment events appear to have been regarded as significant, attended amongst others by

the Director General of the meteorological office and Air Officer Commanding 64 Group RAF.

An MBE and the LG Groves Memorial Prize (for services to the Meteorological Office) were

awarded to the last commanding officer, Mr John Formby.


99

However, a postscript to this is that three aircraft of THUM: PM631, PS915 and PS853 (the

latter now owned by Rolls-Royce), maintained in service condition for some years after WW2,

formed the core of the newly formed RAF Historic Aircraft Flight, which is now the Battle of

Britain Memorial flight (Figure 7). A non-meteorological result of post war meteorological

flying, but a significant one to aviation historians.

Figure 7 PS915, THUMS Spitfire PR Mk 19 now with the Battle of Britain Memorial

Flight (Crown Copyright)

4. SUCCESSORS TO MRF

4.1 FAAM (Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements)

The task of creating the new NERC / Met Office Joint Facility at first was vested in UMIST,

the University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology (now absorbed into the

University of Manchester) who managed a tender process. This was won by BAe Regional

Aircraft who tendered to provide an aircraft based upon G-LUXE, which been G-SSSH, the

BAe 146-100 and later -300 prototype airframe, but with substantial upgrading and

modification. This aircraft was finally delivered in 2004 to the new joint organisation, which

had been named FAAM, the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements. FAAM

employed (and still employs in several senior roles) a number of former MRF personnel, as

well as an active engagement with numerous scientists who had worked at or with the former

flight, based then at either the Met Office, or within various university departments. The

aircraft, the UK’s BAe 146-301 Atmospheric Research Aircraft (Figure 8), has shown a

substantial ability to meet scientific needs with excellent reliability and up to a 4 tonne

instrument load, although with its relatively low service ceiling of 35,000 ft the UK remains

without a high altitude research aircraft capability. At the time of writing this may be obtained

in the near future through access to the unmanned NASA Global Hawk aircraft (31)

. The BAe

146-301’s lack of the 10+ hours endurance capability of the Hercules was often commented

upon by scientists who had worked with both.


100

Figure 8 BAe-146-301 Atmospheric Research Aircraft (ARA) G-LUXE (FAAM)

4.3 MOCCA (Met Office Civil Contingency Aircraft)

One of the major national emergencies suffered by British aviation was the contamination of

European airspace by the volcanic efflux from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in the spring of

2010. Britain led the European response to that emergency, and the use of research aircraft

was at the core of that response. NERC’s ARSF (Airborne Research and Survey Facility)

Dornier 228 aircraft (32)

, more normally used for surveying work, initially led this in

collaboration with FAAM and the Meteorological Office. A broader FAAM / Met Office

response using the BAe 146-301 then continued throughout the emergency. This was

successful, but the massive disruption to ongoing scientific work created a realisation that the

nation could not rely upon aircraft which are dedicated to long term science programmes

necessarily being available in an emergency.

So the Civil Aviation Authority contracted for the Met Office, which in turn used its MRF

history and current FAAM / ARA experience, to create a modified C421 Met Office Civil

Contingency Aeroplane (Figure 9), which remains on standby for future atmospheric

emergencies in British airspace. Almost certainly this aircraft could not have been created

without the historic expertise that came from MRF.

Figure 9 Met Office Civil Contingency Aircraft G-HIJK (FAAM)


101

4.3 Smaller university aircraft

The involvement of various universities with MRF and FAAM through NERC, also built up a

realisation that at a lower scale research aircraft could be managed by individual universities.

The most successful and prominent of such aircraft was Cessna 182J G-AVCV which was

acquired and operated by the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

(UMIST) Atmospheric Physics Group (33)

. This aircraft, brought into service in 1983, built upon

the NERC funded community’s history with MRF. During the latter days of MRF it provided

a much lower cost partial stopgap, particularly for the active atmospheric sciences community

at UMIST (now University of Manchester). Work for it dried up, particularly with the advent

and growing maturity of FAAM, and it was nominally retired in 2012.

As the Manchester C182 came towards the end of its life, the University of Edinburgh started

to commission an instrumented Super Dimona aircraft, working partly in collaboration with

FAAM and ARSF within the NERC community. This aircraft has yet to make a mark in the

atmospheric science and aeronautics arenas, but is still young.

5. IN CONCLUSION

Britain has arguably the world’s longest and most influential history of atmospheric research

flying. The field’s origins lie in instrumented kites in the 19th

century, the expansion of

meteorological forecasting in the first world war, and the first crude carriage of instrumentation

on manned aeroplanes certainly in 1918, and arguably as far back as 1916. The attachment of

the Meteorological Office’s Alan Brewer to the Farnborough High Altitude Flight in 1942 was

a significant landmark and eventually led to the formation of MRF in 1946, but from a base of

existing expertise built up over the previous 40 or more years. Brewer in particular re-

discovered that obtaining quality results and good value from such flying requires three

strands: aircraft capability, instrument capacity and scientific understanding.

Whilst there was development in meteorology overall between the wars, and clear appreciation

of the importance of good forecasting, the inter-war history of the most prominent Duxford

Met Flight is one of static instrumentation, crude and unimproved aeroplanes, and little

engagement with the scientific community beyond provision of simple data in support of

routine forecasting.

Post war, there were three organisations in the United Kingdom with a role of obtaining

airborne meteorological data. The activities of THUM and 202 Sqn were substantial and

admirable, but their lack of continuous instrument development and engagement with the

research community left them in a position of only supporting routine forecasting; worthy but

limited successors to the inter-war Duxford met flight. It could reasonably be argued that with

a similar research engagement to that at MRF, perhaps through MRF itself, both could have

made substantially greater contributions to the sister sciences of aeronautics and meteorology.

The three-strand approach started with the work of Shaw and his associates before WW1,

continued with Clayton, Atkins and Douglas, who between them inspiring the creation of

Meteor Flight in 1918, and which ended with post-war demobilisation in 1919. It was


102

recreated by Brewer and the team he built from 1942, remained in place throughout the history

of MRF, and continued subsequently in Universities and with FAAM. There may be useful

parallels here in other branches of scientific or aeronautical development, but the author will

not attempt to draw those here; the reader may wish to.

The core period of MRF’s operation from 1946-2001 remains the most significant in this

particular history. MRF was at the forefront of creating much of the modern understanding of

the atmosphere including stratospheric dryness, planetary atmosphere circulation,

characteristics of the tropopause, speed corrections to airborne temperature measurements,

airborne observations of radiative transfer, velocity/compressibility corrections to airborne

temperature measurements, detailed understanding of clear air turbulence, and the discovery of

solar absorption by clear air. It also made hopefully permanent (at least in the UK) the three-

strand approach to atmospheric research flying, and established the main fields of

instrumentation work.

It is believed that this paper has also illustrated the paramount importance, through over 100

years of atmospheric aeronautical research, of the continuity of high quality people on whom

such work rests far more than on any individual instrument or aeroplane. In this regard, the

United Kingdom has been particularly fortunate or even prescient, in never losing a core of

skilled people who could continue this work.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank for their assistance in researching this paper, Dr. Ann Webb at

the University of Manchester for advice concerning the history of their C182 aircraft, and Mr

Geoff Butler at the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust for historical documents from the early

period of MRF at Farnborough. Advice and support from several staff at the National

Aerospace Library in Farnborough was also extremely valuable, Dr. Jonathan Taylor at the

Met Office kindly checked this paper for accuracy, sourced the right hand part of Figure 4, and

provided some expanded information on MRF’s scientific impact.

G B Gratton

Dr. Guy Gratton is the current Head of Facility at the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric

Measurements [FAAM], which is a joint entity of the Natural Environment Research Council

[NERC] and the Met Office). He was originally an RAE Farnborough Student Apprentice, and

then later a Trials Officer at A&AEE Boscombe Down, although he wasn’t part of MRF. He

has a background in flight testing and airworthiness, and has also been an academic at Brunel

University specialising in similar topics before moving to FAAM in 2008. His degrees are in

Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southampton, and he also continues to engage

with aeronautical research primarily through Brunel University.


103

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MA, Weather 54, 10 pp321-327 (Oct 1999)

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Weather 65, 11 (November 2010) pp302-305

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questions, Airships and Model Aeroplane research, HMSO 1923

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March 1931.

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their Role in Climate) Brewer-Dobson Workshop, 13-15 December 1999, Oxford, UK

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can be done about them, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, September

1942


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helium and water vapour distribution in the stratosphere, Q..J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 75,

351-363, 1949

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Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics 8, 3 (21 April 1955) pp246-264.

21 VONNEGUT B Vortex thermometer for measuring true air temperatures and true

airspeeds in flight, The review of scientific instruments 21, 2 (February 1950) pp136-

141

22 BREWER A W, CWILONG B, DOBSON G M B Measurement of Absolute

Humidity in Extremely Dry Air. „Proc. Phys. Soc.”. 60, s. 52-70, 1948

23 SCHAEFER V J The Production of Ice Crystals in a Cloud of Supercooled Water

Droplets, Science Vol. 104 no. 2707 pp. 457-459 (15 Nov 1946)

24 FRITH R Wind shear revealed by artificial nucleation, Quarterly Journal of the

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25 PASQUILL F Preliminary studies of the distribution of particles at medium range

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Society vol 81, iss 350, p636 (Oct 1955)

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Meteorological Committee 31 July 1956

27 YARNELL J & GOODY R M Infra-red solar spectroscopy in a high altitude aircraft,

Journal of Scientific Instruments 19, 352 (issue 11, November 1952), pp352-357

28 LOCKHEED MARTIN UK COMMUNICATIONS A very special relationship:

celebrating 40 years of cooperation on the C-130 Hercules, 2006, pp33-36

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Publications 1991, pp55-56

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34 JOHNSON B Test Pilot, BBC Publications 1986, p277

35 COOPER, P J Farnborough - 100 Years of British Aviation, Midland Publishing;

First Edition edition (28 July 2006)

36 BREWER A W Ozone concentration measurements from an aircraft in N. Norway,

Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., 83, 266-268, 1957


105

37 Jane’s fighting aircraft of world war II, Bracken Books 1989

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43 RAF Museum, A/C SERIAL NO.TJ138 SECTION 2B INDIVIDUAL HISTORY DE

HAVILLAND MOSQUITO B.35 TJ138/7607M MUSEUM ACCESSION NUMBER

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106

APPENDIX A HISTORICAL TABLES

Table 1 Aircraft used by MRF and HAF (34, 35)

Years Aircraft Type Regis-

tration Role Notes

1942 Spitfire F Mk 6 BR287 Original establishment

1942 - 43 Boston Mk 3 AL481 Instrument

development. Original establishment

1942 - 44 Boston Mk 3 AL480 Instrument

development. Original establishment

1943 - 44 Boston B Mk 3 BZ315

1943 - 45 Hudson Mk 6 FK 406

1943 - 44 Fortress B Mk 2A FK192

High Altitude Flight

First flight of a frost point

hygrometer

Flew to 35,000 ft+ on 22 Dec 1943

1944 - 45 Mosquito Mk 16

1944 - 45 Fortress B Mk 1 AN531 Unknown Believed used by High Altitude

Flight

1945 - 52 Fortress B Mk. 3 HB778 Unknown

This aircraft was at RAE on a

variety of tasks, mostly secret and

was “probably” used by HAF /

MRF at some point.

1945? Mosquito MM174 Radiation

measurements

Aircraft built 1944, little else

known.

1946 - 50 Halifax Met Mk 6 ST817

Medium and low level

work on cloud structure

and atmospheric

characteristics.

1946 - 50 Halifax Met Mk 6 ST796

Medium and low level

work on cloud structure

and atmospheric

characteristics.

1946 - 54 Mosquito PR Mk 34 RG248 Hygrometer research. First flight of IR radiometers ~1951

1946 - 55 Mosquito PR Mk 34 VL621

High level

thermometry,

hygrometer

research.Tropospheric

IR radiation.

1948 - 49 Halifax HX246 Used also by SME flight for

thermal de-icing trials.

1949 Mosquito PR Mk 34 RG205 4 weeks only August/September

1949 - 51 Mosquito PF673 High level climbs.

Properties of cumulus.

1950 - 55 Hastings C Mk 1 TG619 Cloud physics,

humidity, thermometry.

Replaced Halifax. Transferred to

RAE.


107


tration Role Notes

1950 - 67 Hastings C Mk 1 TG618

Cloud physics,

humidity, thermometry.

Carried experimental

weather radar from

~1955. First MRF

aircraft fitted with

dropsonde system.

Withdrawn late 1960s? Replaced

Halifax.

-1951 Mosquito PF673

1952 - 69 Hastings C Mk 1 TG618 Dates bracket known reports, actual

use probably wider

1953 - 62 Canberra B Mk 2 WJ582

Ozone sampling,

radioactive particle

sampling.

Lost in non-fatal accident at

Leuchars 21 Feb 1962.

1954? Mosquito B Mk 16 PF391

1955 Vampire T Mk 11 NK Ozone

measurements (36)

.

Brewer flew July 1955 to Tromso,

Norway

1955 - 69 Varsity T Mk 1 WJ906 Replaced Hastings TG619.

1958 - 75 Varsity T Mk 1 WF425

Second MRF aircraft

fitted with dropsonde

system.

Replaced WJ906. Went to IWM

Duxford on retirement, scrapped

there 1995.

1963 - 81 Canberra PR Mk 3 WE173

Fitted with

instrumented nose

boom, Selective

Chopper Radiometer

(SCR).

Replaced WJ582. Retired 1983

Cockpit now in Robertsbridge

Aviation Museum, East Sussex

1973 –

2001 Hercules W Mk 2 XV208

Sole MRF aircraft from

1981-2001; all aspects

except for high altitude

flight.

“Snoopy”

Acquired specifically for GATE

1974 from RAF 48sqn. Replaced

Varsity WF425. Relocated to

Boscombe Down 1994.

1974? Canberra PR Mk 9 WH793 B2 nose

Notes

(37)

- The Mosquito PR Mk 34 was a modified B Mk 16 with cabin pressurisation and

extended range fuel tanks.

- The UK designated Boston III was the US designated Douglas A20C Havoc.

- The UK designated Fortress 1, 2A & 3 were respectively the US designated Boeing

B17C, B17E and B17G.


108

Table 2 Aircraft types available to HAF and MRF by year (from Table 1)

S

pitfire

Bo

sto

n

Hu

dso

n

Fo

rtre

ss

Mo

sq

uito

Ha

lifa

x

Ha

stin

gs

Ca

nb

err

a

Va

mp

ire

Va

rsity

He

rcu

les

1942

1945

1946

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2001


109

Table 3 Commanding Officers of the MRF

Year appointed Name

1948 Flt. Lt. Tomlinson

1952 Flt. Lt. N C Thorne

1953 Flt. Lt. H Baker

1955 Flt. Lt. S F Ilomas

1958 Flt. Lt. D A Creed

1962 Flt. Lt. A Abczynsid

1966 Flt. Lt. G F Holbrook

1969 Sqn. Ldr. G F Holbrook

1970 Sqn. Ldr. N Lamb

1977 Sqn. Ldr. N J Bibby

1980 Sqn. Ldr. M K Allport

1983 Sqn. Ldr. M J Stokes

1985 Sqn. Ldr. D Curteis

1988 Sqn. Ldr. S R Roberson

1991 Sqn. Ldr. M Lampitt

1992 Sqn. Ldr. H Burgoyne

1995 Sqn. Ldr. C O’Brien

1997 Flt. Lt. M Purse

1999 Sqn. Ldr. C Slatter

Table 4 Assistant Directors (Met Office) (Met Research Flight)

Year appointed Name

1942 Mr. A Brewer

1946 Dr. R Frith

1951 Dr. R Murgatroyd

1961 Mr. F Zobel

1967 Mr C. Aanensen

1971 Dr. G James

1982 Dr. C J Readings

1984 Dr. R Pettifer

1985 Mr. W Roach

1988 Dr. P Jonas*

1989 Dr. S Mattingley

1990 Dr. G J Jenkins

1995 Dr. J S Foot

* As a professor at UMIST, Peter Jonas would become the first Head of FAAM


110

Table 5 Known THUMS aircraft (30, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)


tration Notes

1951- 1954 PM577 Original strength.

1952-1957 PS853 Now the “Rolls Royce Spitfire”. Replaced PM652.

Last THUM flight 9 June 1957.

1951-1952 PM549 Original strength. Destroyed in fatal landing accident

at Woodvale 4 May 1952.

1951 – 1952 PM652 Original strength. Destroyed in non-fatal landing

accident near RAF High Ercall 22 July 1952.

1951 – 1954 PM631 Added to strength in July 1951. Now with the BBMF.

1952 – 1954 PM628 Fatal accident 4 March 1954 near Shrewsbury, replaced

by PM651.

1954 – 1954 PM651 Now in the RAF Museum. Seen in the film “Battle of

Britain”. 42,500ft ceiling.

1954-1957

Spitfire PR Mk 19

(Griffon 66 engine)

PS915 Now with BBMF.

1957-1959 TK604 Destroyed in non-fatal accident Oct 1957 at Woodvale.

1957-1959 TJ138 Made the last THUM flight on 18 April 1959.

1957-1959

Mosquito B Mk 35

(Rolls Royce Merlin

113/114 engines)

TA722

1959

Meteor F Mk 8

(Rolls Royce

Derwent 5 engines)

VZ507

Table 6 Known accidents at MRF

Date Name / aircraft Nature of accident

Nov 1950 Flt.Lt. K L Howard

“Decompression Collapse” at 30,000 ft in Hastings

TG618. Died in the Cambridge Military Hospital,

Aldershot

21 February 1962 Canberra WJ582

Flew into sea on approach in bad visibility, about

1.5nm E of RAF Leuchars. All survived (AMO

injured ejecting from sea bed.)


111

APPENDIX B – ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS PAPER

AMO Airborne Meteorological Observer

B Bomber aircraft

BAe British Aerospace (now BAE Systems)

C Transport aircraft

CERL Central Electricity Research Laboratories

CFS (Royal Air Force) Central Flying School

F Fighter aircraft

FAAM Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements

GATE Global Atlantic Tropical Experiment

GPS Global Positioning System

HAF High Altitude Flight

MBE Medal of the Order of the British Empire

MOCCA Met Office Civil Contingency Aircraft

MoD Ministry of Defence

Met Meteorological

MRF Meteorological Research Flight

NASA (US) National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NERC Natural Environment Research Council

PR Photographic reconnaissance aircraft

RAE Royal Aircraft Establishment

RAF Pre April 1st 1918: Royal Aircraft Factory

From April 1st 1918: Royal Air Force

RFC Royal Flying Corps

RNAS Royal Naval Air Service

T Training aircraft

THUM Temperature and Humidity

UMIST University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

W Weather aircraft

the meteorological research flight and its … meteorological research flight and its predecessors...

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