Fly Past

100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

Above

Handley Page O/

F5417 was built at

National Aircraft

Factory 1 at Waddon,

Surrey, in 1918.

Underneath the

centre section is a

1,650lb bomb.

PETE WEST

Below

BAE Systems Taranis

ZZ250 during test

fl ying in Australia in

2014. Taranis, named
      after the Celtic god
      of thunder, is an
      unmanned combat air
      system demonstrator
      and part of a
      comprehensive
      series of trials that
      BAE Systems has
      been conducting
      towards the RAF’s
      next generation of
      warplanes.
      COURTESY AND
      COPYRIGHT BAE SYSTEMS

BOMBERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 7

Operating from

Afghanistan but piloted

from Creech Air Force Base in

Nevada, USA, in May 2008 the

RAF began to drop precision-guided

weapons from its General Atomics

MQ-9A Reapers. In British parlance

these machines are called RPAS –

remotely piloted air systems. They

point to the future, but Reapers

have severe limitations, they can

only function in uncontested

airspace.

The words ‘bomber’ and ‘fighter’

have become more and more

difficult to define. With the advent

of the Lightning II these labels are

so blurred that a new name is called

for. The RAF describes the F-35B

as a “multi-role supersonic stealth

aircraft that will provide the UK

with a hugely capable and flexible

weapons and sensor platform”.

Looking beyond the F-35 and

the Eurofighter Typhoon the

design teams at BAE Systems

are busy testing their ideas for

combat aircraft for the 2030s.

While heralding a new era during

the RAF’s centenary celebrations

September 1939 the
RAF still had biplane
bombers on charge,
although they were
carrying out secondary tasks. World
threats in the 1920s were ‘low
tech’ but by the 1930s the pace of
development had to quicken to
meet a changing world.
Nineteen years separated the
first flight of two Handley Page
products, the O/400 of 1917 and
the Hampden, and the difference in
layout, construction and capability
was vast. The prototype Avro
Lancaster first took to the skies in
1941 – eleven years later the same
company had flown the delta-
winged, nuclear-capable Vulcan.
Technology has continued to
enhance the shape and scope of the
RAF’s aircraft.

END OF AN ERA?
Since 2007 the RAF has had a new
form of ‘bomber’ in its arsenal. This
type is not included in depth within
this magazine because, for the
first time, the RAF has a frontline
aircraft that does not have a cockpit.

it might well be that Marham’s

Lightning IIs mark the twilight of

the piloted warplane.

TURKEYS AND TRIUMPHS

Inside this publication the reader will

find every manned frontline bomber

type that the RAF has operated in its

100 years. Already we can ‘hear’ the

cries of anguish: “Only two pages

on the Lancaster?” With limited

space, to make sure that all the RAF’s

fighters get a mention, the most well-

known have been slimmed down.

In the pages that follow are a few

turkeys, but most of the RAF’s

bombers have been triumphs. The

emphasis is less about derring-do;

seasoned FlyPast readers will already

be well versed in the valour and

exploits of RAF personnel.

Here, the intention is to be

concerned with where the subject

fits in the RAF’s centenary and its

heritage, or even in the context of

world aviation history. The hope is

that the reader will find more than a

few “I never knew that” moments as

we pay tribute to the finest air force

in the world.