COLD WAR 1957 WHITE PAPER
94 FLYPAST February 2018
purpose, will be maintained and will
progressively be equipped with air-to-
air guided missiles. Fighter aircraft will
in due course be replaced by a ground-
to-air guided missile system (author’s
italics).”People not platforms
With reduction in the size of
garrisons and other British forces
overseas, it was essential to be
able to dispatch reinforcements at
short notice. With this objective,
a ‘Central Reserve’ was to be
maintained in^ the British Isles.
The White Paper continued:
“To be effective, the Central
Reserve must possess the means ofrapid mobility. For this purpose,
a substantial fleet of transport
aircraft is being built up in RAF
Transport Command. This is at
present mainly composed of [de
Havilland] Comets, [Blackburn]
Beverley freighters and [Handley
Page] Hastings aircraft, to which a
number of [Bristol] Britannias will
later be added.”
However, the main thrust was on
people rather than platforms. After
reviewing manpower requirements,
the document announced there
would be no further National
Service call-up after the end of
1960.
“The recent improvement in its
recruiting makes it reasonable to
hope that the RAF will be able to
enlist enough regulars to meet the
smaller numbers required under
the revised plan.” In other words,
nuclear weapons plus the latest
aeronautical technology were torapid mobility. For this purpose,
a substantial fleet of transportRight
A model of the
Saunders-Roe
SR.177 mixed
powerplant
interceptor. The
project was
another victim of
the White Paper.AboveAbove
A model of the A model of the
ambitious, 160ft ambitious, 160ft
long, Avro 730 long, Avro 730
supersonic bomber supersonic bomber supersonic bomber
project of late 1956. project of late 1956. project of late 1956.
JOHN HALLJOHN HALLJOHN HALL“The increasing complexity of weapons
systems was thought to be beyond that
which reservist training could achieve,
so the Royal Auxiliary Air Force’s fl ying
role and the Air Branch of the Royal Navy
Volunteer Reserve were terminated”