An RAF Story of AW650 Argosy XP444.

Armstrong-Whitworth AW650 Argosy XP444, ( An RAF Story.) or-

Be Careful, Things Can Come Back and Haunt You!

December 1969 found me driving a clapped-out Thames 7cwt van (actually a Ford 100E van with heavier rear-springs...) from RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall; on route to RAF Benson in Oxfordshire. I had 'exchange-posted' with an airman of equal rank as an Aircraft Engine Fitter, Junior Technician. The van had everything in it I owned, and the 'swap' between us both had to be carried out off-duty, so each could take up the other's job without any break. 'Exchange-Postings' were a way of getting to where you wanted off your own back, but you got no assistance from the RAF, unlike being 'posted' at the end of a tour, where you would get a free railway warrant or petrol mileage money, and if married the removal costs paid. So it was often single people who 'exchanged'. I wanted Benson as it was only 50 miles away from the girl I was courting, where as driving the 280 miles to and 280 miles back every second weekend, to see her, was bankrupting me. A Junior Technician earned just £9 a week. I had left St Mawgan where I was working on RR Vee-12 Griffon engines, with contra-rotating propellers fitted to the Shackleton maritime reconnaissance (MR1), to now work on the AW650 Argosy fitted with four RR Dart turbo-prop transport aircraft.

The Argosy had begun life as a civilian transport, with an opening nose so it could be loaded with cars, etc. The RAF had looked at it and had it modified so it had clam-shell doors opening at the rear, the huge front door being permanently riveted closed. The opening rear was so that parachutists could jump out of the aircraft, and things like Landrovers, field-guns, huge bags of fuel or water, etc, could be 'dropped' when flying low-level. In other words it had been militarised. It was (and still is) an ugly aircraft. Its big-round fuselage was built especially for it, but the wing was from the Mk3 Shackleton, the Dart turbo-props were from the Viscount airliner, the twin tail-boons looked very like extended Meteor fuselages and the rear tail-plane looked like an adapted light-aircraft mainplane. It was a 'committee' design, a 'bitsa'. The wing had in fact first been seen on the Manchester WW2 bomber, then the Lancaster and its derivatives, so I found myself quite at home with the 'same wings' having four engines sticking out the front. I was put on Rectification Flight, known as 'Rects'.

The Thames Van went, and a tatty 1952 Wolseley 4/44 replaced it (I still had an 1954 Matchless G80 motorcycle in my father's garage at home in occasional use), purchased in Benson village for £30, taxed and Mot'd. I got it from the local publican, who had taken it as part-payment for a rent arrears. I got £15 for the van and lied that it did not burn oil, it drank it. I was soon up to speed on the Dart engines and the little Rover AAPU (Auxiliary Airborne Power Unit, used to provide power on the ground to start the engines, and emergency hydraulic and electrical power in the air.) I went on detachments all over the UK to recover aircraft with faults, and spent three-three month detachments to Muharaq in Bahrain, where we had four Argosy's used to supply the many small UK outposts in the Middle East. I got married in November 1970, and was off to Bahrain within eight weeks again. Eventually in 1972 the Argosy was to be phased out and it was sad to see them all go. Many were scrapped, some sold to the French Post Office for use in North Africa, some to private transport companies, and six went to RAF Cottesmore for Instrument Landing Systems Training (training pilots to land with instruments only...ILS)

Of all the aircraft at Benson, one was a real pain. It was a Friday Afternoon aircraft. It spent more time up on jacks being fixed that it ever did in the air. Other similar aircraft just few and flew and flew, only going into the hangar for servicing. The errant 'kite' was XP444.

XP444 looked just like any other Argosy, big and ugly but efficient as a short take-off and landing local delivery truck. They were very solidly made and often had to bounce along roughly prepared runways in the Middle East Air Force. They also carried out lots of local deliveries and collections all over the UK as well as disgorging lots of Army Parachutists (paras) and their equipment where needed. Its floor had been reinforced to take a tank, but the extra four inches of beams on the floor raised it just too high for the tank's turret to go under the mainplane main-spar (it is a high-wing aircraft). So it never carried a tank, but lots and lots of Landrovers with trailers and small field guns, ammunition, etc. 444 had been a pain in the proverbial backside from the day it had arrived brand-new from Armstrong Whitworth. It was forever going 'U/S' (unserviceable) with silly little faults. An undercarriage door would indicate via its microswitch that it was not fully shut on take-off. This meant a hangar visit to be jacked up and the undercarriage operated to see what was the cause. A microswitch would be renewed and off 444 would go to fly again; only to get an overheat switch indication on the Rotol feathering propeller. The 'Prop was electrically de-iced and had a big commutator at its rear face with carbon brushes rubbing on the copper rings, to conduct electricity to the leading edge heating elements on the propeller blades. It would indicate one of the rubber-boots on the leading edge was too hot and about to melt. This meant the propeller had to come off. Nothing was ever found wrong, but it would be changed 'just in case'. The 'old' prop would go to the 'prop-bay' to be serviced and it was found serviceable. De-icing is an important function on any aircraft, even in hot climates; it is not very hot when you get to 20,000 feet. Undercarriage microswitches, overheat indications, jet-pipe temperature overheats, lack of prop torque, wing-tank fuel pumps failing, and so on and on. Bits were changed to 'cure' the 'snag' (RAF slang for an aircraft fault). Over the years the majority of the mechanical and electrical bits had been changed numerous times on 444, only for the supposedly U/S item to go through the relevant checks in a bay, to be fitted to another Argosy and work perfectly well.

My memory of 444 was not good. During the removal of one of the Shorrocks superchargers, used to pressurise the huge cabin area, to lift the heavy thing out from behind the gearbox which was situated in the wing, behind the engine, one had to put ones fingers inside the manifolds. As the RR Dart was an early turbo-prop engine, it had the propeller driven directly from the front of the LP centrifugal compressor. Later turbo-props had a separate turbine behind the actual 'gas-producer' to drive the prop, so the prop could be turned without turning the main engine. On the Dart the whole rotating mass one one, no separate turbines for the prop. During working on the engine or its gearbox, a sign would by hung on the prop to say, “Do Not Turn”. The prop's blades were 7ft long and had huge leverage. Someone moved that prop just as a Sgt lifted out the supercharger. As the engine turned, so did the shaft that drove the gearbox, and the rotors inside the supercharger neatly chopped off his finger ends. After that any work on Argosy gearboxes had to have the drive shaft from the engine disconnected first. It was another black mark against 444.

Because of this constant failing in service, 444 was not piling up the flying hours on its airframe. Airframes are 'lifed' by flying hours, (as are engines and virtually everything else). 444 wore out more tyres being towed about the station into and out of hangars than it did in landings. But you can never plan for an office worker. Some twit in High Command had been looking for an Argosy to fit out as a 'VIP' aircraft. Argosy's could be 'rolled' to carry out many tasks, either seats for passengers, or empty floor for freight, or para seats for the Army, and so on. No one had ever thought to use one as a 'VIP' transport. The 'office worker' spotted the low flying hours on 444 so assumed it would be in good condition, which it indeed was as it never got wet, or flew anywhere very often. It even got a new coat of paint when we changed from 'Transport Command' to 'Support Command' and was very free of all those scrapes and dents well used equipment gets. So it got a nice posh interior with reclining seats, extra sound insulation, and a proper toilet at the rear. The 'normal' toilet was just a Racasan bucket at the front behind a curtain usually, RAF transport aircraft seats normally face to the rear of the 'kite, unlike civilian 'kites; the better to absorb you in a crash. And it got a tiny kitchen for the prep of in-flight meals, definitely one up on the single microwave ovens of the others. But 444 lived up to its name, it hardly ever flew, constantly being U/S for one reason or another. So VIPs were taken in a scruffy, normal Argosy with the cleanest, least unworn seats that could be found. I actually went as ground crew on a VIP visit to Pakistan from Bahrain, with the Imperial War College on board. But it was not in 444 but a less spruced up old bus.

Anyway, it was on the list of Argosy's to be scrapped in 1972, and we would all be glad to see the back of this expensive 'Friday afternoon' white-elephant. And prior to its last take-off it developed a fault, would you believe? The fuel tank venting system was indicating a blockage. This was not unusual with aircraft that sat in a hanger for some time, birds would build nests in vent-pipe exits and the like. So Cpl Barry Norton (known as 650 Norton due to his loud voice) and myself, Cpl Neil Cairns, both 'sooties' (the nickname of engine fitters on RAF jet aircraft) climbed up onto the high-up wing and removed the panel where the vent pipe exited. We found the hose had collapsed and was causing a restriction. As it would have to be put on order through the RAF Supply System, and could take a day or two to arrive, and because this 'kite was only going to fly one last time, we used an old bit of rubber hose we found to replace the aged, collapsed hose. Two tightened Jubilee clips later, and we signed 444 off as serviceable. And it eventually flew away to be cut up, or so we thought.....

A year later both of we Cpls were still at RAF Benson, all the Argosy's had gone, but we were part of a Station Flight left to caretake the station and look after any visiting aircraft, as Benson was also a Master Diversion Airfield. There were about a dozen of us airmen who manned a 24-hour, 7 days cover three shift system (8 hours per shift). I found myself doing an engine change on a post WW2 Spitfire. It had 'diverted' to Benson with engine trouble and was privately owned. We assisted its owner to remove and fit the engine, and I did quite a bit of panel repairs where they were worn, cracked, or had loose rivets. Once it had been inspected by a Licensed Aircraft Engineer, it flew away. Shortly after that we had a Mosquito land, again with engine trouble. We two changed this engine on our own and carried out (under the supervision of its owner) the necessary engine runs. Barry was in the cockpit and I out on the communication lead and the fire extinguishers. To start the engine the first time required me to 'prime' the fuel system. To do this I had to tuck myself behind the propeller and up at the rear of the cylinder block. A little lever was used to pump the extra fuel. Just above my head was the exhaust stubs. Barry pressed the start-button and the engine turned over, it fired then roared into life. So did my RAF berry, it too caught fire and I lost me eyebrows. I had not ducked low enough! It had been purchased by a Canadian in an auction in the UK, and he had been about to fly around the north Atlantic Route back home with it when he got a huge magneto drop and lots of misfiring. This burnt out the top of a few pistons in the Merlin engine, so he had to fit a new/reconditioned engine (then reconditioned at RR Glasgow).

The six Argosy's that had been transferred to RAF Cottesmore were being flown a lot, and the ground crew were struggling to keep up with servicings and curing snags. For six 'kites you would only have perhaps three Riggers and two Sooties with an Electrician (fairy) thrown in. So Barry and I found ourselves being sent off on a months detachment to Cottesmore to help out. Our experience on the relevant aircraft obviously being a clue. We had only been there a day when we spotted, much to our horror, 444. We had though that by now it would have been cut up and rolled into cat-foot tines or something similar. The bodged hose had obviously kept up, our bodged 'repair' for its final flight. Now, RAF aircraft servicing is all recorded in a thing called a Form 700, or F700 for short. You sign for everything you do, so it can be traced. Now even though a very remote possibility that bit of gash hose could itself collapse and block the fuel system venting exit. This would prevent certain tanks from emptying, or if they did bits of the wing tank imploding as the pumps forced the fuel out. Should this cause a crash, we would go to prison for manslaughter at worst, or be cashiered at least if found prior to that during any routine servicing.

Barry was quick off the mark, he offered to refuel 444 and strangely 'found a fault with the venting system'. I shot out with a toolkit and a new, aircraft airworthy hose from stores, (yes, they had one amazingly) and fitted it. The old one was burnt in the line-hut coke fire before anyone could ask and awkward questions.

Apparently, the 'low flying hours' had given 444 a reprieve and it had ended up at Cottesmore with another of the original six being put into storage in case of any loss (ie a crash). And yes, XP444 was virtually U/S most of the time.....now most of the time living in a hangar at its new home.

Neil Cairns.