12 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 21
almost half of the establishment. Recruitment
would henceforth be on a volunteer basis, but
if one volunteer is worth ten pressed men,
volunteers come with costs, and a two-year tour
in the Far East without family was not conducive
to recruitment. Therefore, personnel would need
to be moved back and forth between the Far East
and the UK, preferably by air. The plus side of
such a commitment was that, should the balloon
go up, the means would be in place to reinforce
rapidly. The General Staff had drawn up a
requirement for an infantry brigade to be moved
to Singapore in seven days.
THE TRANSPORT ISSUE
From this grew the requirement for trooping
flights on a larger scale than before, and with a
“surge capability” and the possibility of “family
trooping”, Sandys’ plan needed transport
aircraft to replace the available ageing Avro
Tudors and Canadair Argonauts. This had been
in hand before 1957 with the Vickers V.1000 (see
The Blame Game by Prof Keith Hayward in TAH
14), but its cancellation led to the acquisition of
the Bristol Britannia and, later, Vickers VC10.
Modernising the Services’ equipment also
came at a price, not just the new guided weapons
and associated radars, but their requirement
for updates and regular servicing. This posed a
problem for the UK armed forces because in 1957
Britain still had a considerable presence “East of
Suez”. Despite moves towards withdrawal from
Empire, the UK still had treaty obligations in the
Middle and Far East which required a presence
to act as a “fire brigade” should events take a
turn away from HM Government’s interests.
The perennial answer was to stockpile the kit
and fly in personnel as and when required, but
this presented two problems in the post-Sandys
world. The first was that the new high-tech kit
was too expensive to stockpile and, secondly,
the equipment needed regular servicing and
updates. There was also the possibility of it
falling into the hands of the forces they were
to be used against.
To identify the transport needs of British
forces, a committee was established under the
chairmanship of Admiral Sir Alexander Bingley.
An admiral? Advising on aircraft for the RAF
and Army? Whatever next? Bingley was Fifth
Sea Lord, responsible for all aspects of aviation
in the Royal Navy. Bingley confirmed the need
for a trooping type, which emerged as the
Britannia and later VC10. Moving an infantry
brigade and particularly its equipment, however,
was beyond the payload/range capability of
RAF Transport Command’s beloved Beverley, so
a new strategic freighter was needed.Vickers VC
Military FreighterHandley Page(^0) HP.
0
50
15
ft
m