Supermarine Spitfire. European Users, part ten. Irish & Swedish Spitfires plus Estonian what-ifs.

 

The following countries employed or would have acquired the Supermarine Spitfire:

• Estonia: The first export contract for the Spitfire was signed in February 1939 with Estonia, to supply the Estonian Aviation Regiment with 12 Spitfire Mk. I. Those aircraft were not ready until August and, given the shortage of fighters the Royal Air Force (RAF) was suffering at the time, those 12 Spitfires were never delivered. We, however, have drawn some what-if Spitfire Mk. I in Estonian colours.
• Ireland: In 1947 the Irish Government acquired 12 Seafire Mk. III and three years later, in 1950 six Spitfire T.IX  two-seater trainers to equip their No. 1 Fighter Squadron and the Central Flying School respectively. At Air Corps' request, the Seafires were de-navalized, with their arrestor hooks removed, but they retained the engines and four-blade propellers. The Irish Seafires served from February 1947 until 1954 while the T.IX trainers of Central Flying School served from May 1950 until September 1961!.
• Sweden: In 1948 Sweden ordered 60 refurbished ex-RAF Spitfire PR.19 (an advanced recon variant). Eventually that order was reduced to 50 machines.
  However, the total amount of that order is somewhat mysterious. During those years other neighbouring Scandinavian countries such as Denmark had three Spitfire PR. XI and Norway another three PR. XI (the PR. XI was another reconnaissance sub-variant). For strategic reconnaissance over the coast of south China the RAF maintained a flight of three Spitfire PR. 19 in Hong Kong during the post-war years and early 1950s, so that made a total of approximately 100 recon Spitfires of both PR. XI and PR. 19 and half of that number belonged to Swedish PR. 19s. 
  Deliveries began in October 1948 and lasted until May 1949. They were designated as S.31, from Swedish word 'Spaning', meaning 'Reconnaissance' and were given five-digit registration numbers, where the first two digits were '31' (the aircraft type code) and the following three digits were the individual seria number of each aircraft ranging from 001 to 050.
  The Spitfires were assigned to Flottilj 11 at Nyköping, composed of a headquarters squadron plus four additional ones, listed as 1, 2, 3 and 5 squadrons. In early 1950 plans were made for reconnaissance flights over Soviet bases in Murmansk and Polyarny on the Kola Peninsula, so some S. 31 were rebased to Lulea, closer to the Arctic Circle, however, those plans were called off as the risks were too high, resulting in a very tense diplomatic situation. However, at least two recon flights were made over the Soviet Baltic Coast in September 1950.
  The PR. 19s remained in service until 1954, when they were put into reserve and in August 1955 they were withdrawn and written off. One aircraft was donated to the Stockholm University of Technology, where it disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
  In 1981 a PR. 19 was bought for the Swedish Aviation Museum. The Spitfire, PR. 19, which served with India after the war, did not receive markings of one of the scrapped aircraft, but got a new serial - 31051 - and is nowadays at exhibition at the aforementioned museum.
  

Sources:

1st AJ Press - Monografie Lotnicze 40 - Supermarine Spitfire part 3.

2nd https://www.key.aero/article/swedens-spitfires-cold-war

3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Supermarine_Spitfire_operators

de Havilland Vampire. Part Twelve. Swedish Users

 

The Royal Swedish Air Force (RSAF) was committed to incorporate jet fighters in their squadrons from a very early stage. That's why in 1946 they ordered enough Vampires to equip a full fighter wing. 
In an unusual order for the time, they ordered a total of 70 Vampire F.Mk.1 fighters on 9th February 1946 plus some spare Goblin 2 engines and a license to manufacture Goblin 3 engines at Svenska Flygmotor Factory in Tröllhattan, Götaland. 

The Vampires were ferried in June 1946 with the last one arriving in August 1947 and they were known in Swedish service as J-28A. 

The next year, an enormous order for 310 Vampires FB.50 was placed. These were known as J-28B in Sweden and were intended to be used as an interim fighter while the SAAB J-29 Tunnan was developed. Most of the Vampires from this second batch were built at Hatfield with some few machines being completed at Chester. They were delivered between 27th May 1949 and summer 1952. 
In 1953 the Vampires began to replace the SAAB B-18 piston-engined bombers in the ground-attack role, equipped with rockets. These Vampires were re-designated as A-28B, where the letter A stood for Attack while J stood for fighter. The Vampires, however, didn't live long in this role as they were withdrawn in 1955 and assigned to the Combat Flying School of the RSAF at F.5 Ljungbyhed where they would finally be withdrawn from active service in 1967. In 1953 the RSAF ordered 20 Vampire T.55 of the earlier variant, with framed canopy and no ejection seats. They were designated as J-28C. They were manufactured at Hatfield and were delivered between February and July 1953 to be assigned to the Basic Flying School at Ljungbyhed. This unit operated SAAB 91 Safirs for elemental flight training and Vampire trainers for jet conversion. A second batch of T.55s were ordered, this time of the upgraded sub-variant with ejection seats and bubble canopy. They were designated as Sk.28 C-2s and the earlier T.55 Sk.28 C-1. Twelve Sk.28 C-1s were upgraded in 1956 to C-2 standards with new front fuselages supplied by Chester. De Havilland called these upgraded machines as T.55A and the RSAF Sk.28 C-3. They served until 1968 when every remaining Vampire was sold for scrap or sent to museums.

Sources:

1. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 27 - De Havilland Vampire

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Vampire

Fairey Firefly, various users

 

The Fairey Firefly was a British World War II era carrier-borne fighter and anti-submarine aircraft that in its TT (Target Tug) version was produced in small numbers from various of the original fighter variants like the Mk.I or the Mk.4. It was exported to various countries, among them, the following ones:

• Denmark: The Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) received two Firefly TT.1 originally converted from the Swedish Svensk Flygtjänst AB. The TT.1 was adopted by the RDAF as the standard target-towing equipment for all their three aerial branches of the Army, Navy and Air Force. 
  The first TT.1 was flown to Copenhagen on 4th October 1951 by Cpt. A.M. Kock. Additional four Fireflies were received from the Royal Canadian Navy one year later in 1952. Those ones were converted to the target-towing role in Denmark using Fairey's conversion kits. They served until 1957 when the three surviving Fireflies were sold back to the Svensk Flygtjänst AB which employed them only for spare parts.
• Sweden: Back during World War 2 the Swedish civilian company Svensk Flygtjänst AB, provided airborne target services for the Swedish Army. In order to fulfil this task, the company looked in 1948 for an effective target-tug and asked Fairey to develop a version of the Firefly. Therefore, Fairey modified 14 Fireflies Mk.I to TT.1 standards by adding windmill-operated type B.Mk.2B winches.
  A total of 12 Firefly TT.1 were delivered to Svensk Flygtjänst AB, being the last two ones diverted to Denmark. Fairey's chief test pilot, Group Cpt. G. Slade, delivered the first Firefly TT.1 by air to Sweden in December 1948. Four further Fireflies were acquired later and served until as late as 1964.
• India: The, back then, newly founded Indian Naval Air Arm bought two Firefly TT.1 which were delivered to Cochin, in the Indian State of Kerala, on 14th February 1955. Three further TT.1s arrived in India three months later. Another five Firefly TT.4 were exported in September 1958.
  Indian Fireflies were used by the 550 Squadron of the Indian Navy at Cochin Air Base to tow drogue targets for the Fleet's anti-aircraft gunnery practices. The TT.4 versions were fully armed with four 20 mm guns and were able to carry offensive stores beneath the wings, in addition to long-range fuel tanks.

Sources:

1. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 28 - Fairey Firefly

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Firefly

3. https://www.valka.cz/Fairey-Firefly-T-Mk-1-t113116

Airspeed AS.65 Consul, part six, various European Users

The Airspeed AS.65 Consul was a British twin-engined light airliner which was a direct conversion from the previous AS.10 Oxford. All of them were converted in the immediate post-war period. Many of them were sold to many airlines all around the globe, among them, the following ones:

• Switzerland: One machine, originally registered as G-AIDX, was eventually sold in 27th June 1955 to a Swiss private owner who registered with Swiss codes, HB-LAT. This aircraft was interned in Sabadell, Spain, accused of nylon smuggling. According to one of our sources, this happened in 1952, but it wasn't until 1955 when the aircraft passed on to Swiss owners. After that it was sold in an auction in Barcelona.
  There was another Consul which ended in Swiss hands. Originally registered as El-ADC, this one was bought by the Aerocentro Sportivo Ticinese SA in Lugano, on 12th February 1959. It was later sold to Spanish Iberia airlines on 6th June 1962.
• Spain: A total of 9 Consuls served with various Spanish airlines. The main operator was Iberia which, in 1947, was in the need for cheap twin-engine aircraft for crew training which eventually operated 7 of them from the late 1940s until the early 1960s. Initially some of them were used for local flights but eventually all of them ended up as ground crew trainers.
  Spantax, another Spanish charter airline, also operated the type as they bought three machines and operated them in local flights, specially between the Canary islands and Spanish Sahara.
• Sweden: There were various Swedish operators of the Consul. These were Aero Nord Sweden, Aeropropaganda, Nordisk Air Transport and Transair Sweden. A total of 15 machines served with those companies mainly during the 1950s. Most of them were used in charter flights in Sweden. One machine, registered SE-BTD, crashed near the city of Gävle, on 14th July 1951 when serving with Aeropropaganda AB.
  Unfortunately we couldn't find graphical evidence of the Consul serving with these Swedish companies so the profiles depicted below should be considered as speculative.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Consul

2.https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_oxford_&_consul.pdf

3. http://leandroaviacion.blogspot.com/2013/04/1952-bimotor-airspeed-as65-consul-hb.html (translated)

4. http://www.aviationcorner.net/gallery_en.asp?aircraft_type=Airspeed%20AS.65%20Consul&aircraft_type_id=1690 (translated)

5. https://www.iberia.com/es/fleet/historic-aircrafts/Airspeed_AS-65_Consul/

Airspeed AS.10 Oxford, part five, various European Users

The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford was a British twin-engined multi-purpose aircraft which was designed and developed by Airspeed Ltd. With more than 8.500 exemplars manufactured, it saw service with many countries all around the globe. Among them, the following ones:

• Norway: From 1947 until 1953, when they written off, the Royal Norwegian Air Force had a total of 22 Oxfords serving in three squadrons (Nos. 333, 334 and 335). Four aircraft were sold between 1951 to 1953 to the Norwegian airline Wideroe which employed the aircraft for photo-surveying Norwegian territories in a commission for the Norwegian Geographical Society. Eventually only three of them were sold with the fourth one not being registered as sold and was hold by the Royal Norwegian Air Force for spare parts. The aircraft were taken out of service in 1960 and were used at Fornebu, Oslo, as target practice.
• Poland: At least one unit of the Polish Air Force in exile had some Oxfords in their rows. Among them there was the No.16 (Polish) Flying Training School which from July 1941 until December 1946 employed them as trainers at RAF Newton, in Nottinghamshire.
• Portugal: Both Portuguese Army and Navy received six Oxfords in 1943 as part of the Operation Oatmeal (thanks to which the Allied set up bases in the Azores islands). When the Portuguese Air Force was formed in 1952, there were still four of them in active service. 
• Sweden: The Swedish charter airline Transair Sweden AB had three Airspeed Oxford in 1950 as part of their fleet. They were used with the aim of flying newspapers from Stockholm to other parts of Sweden. They served until September 1955 and December 1959.
• Yugoslavia: Five Oxford were obtained from Norway, via H.A. Berg, under the mutual Defence Aid Programme in 1951. They were used by an unknown unit based at Pancevo as twin-engined trainers for the De Havilland Mosquito crews. They were withdrawn from service in 1958.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Oxford#Operators

2. https://www.wikiwand.com/no/Airspeed_Oxford (translated)

3. https://codenames.info/operation/oatmeal/

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transair_Sweden

5. http://transairsweden.com/aircraft/airspeed/

6. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7160847?descriptiontype=Full&ref=AIR+29/570

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Newton

8. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/yugo/af2/types/trainers.htm

To know more about the Oxford in Norway:

1. https://flyblader.com/onewebmedia/Nr%2012%20Oxford.pdf (in Norwegian)