DCAE Cosford - 18th May 2007

Friday was another historic day in the life of the Sepecat Jaguar, and No 6 Squadron, "The Flying Canopeners", as they retired the first five of their aircraft to DCAE Cosford where they will be used by No 1 School Of Technical Training (1 SOTT).

The delivery of the aircraft was in itself quite a feat. Cosford's runway is a mere 3890 feet in length with no permanent arrestor gear in place. Compare this to the RHAG (Rotary Hydraulic Arrestor Gear) equipped 9000 feet of tarmac at their home station of RAF Coningsby, and you can understand why the decision was made to install a temporary one.

Initially the aircraft had been slated for delivery the previous day, but a crosswind caused a postponement until the 18th, when the wind was a healthy 16kts, gusting 20+, but most importantly straight down the runway.

Around 1600 "Tempest 2" called up on the radio, before breaking into the circuit, performing a gear up fly through, and then a left hand pattern with the gear down, overshooting spectaculary when over the piano keys. The next circuit would see XX748/EG, a GR.3A, make it's last ever landing.

Shortly after "Tempest 1, 3, 4 and 5" called up. They arrived in the overhead as a four-ship before splitting into two pairs. The first pair screamed through at runway heading before breaking left-hand into the visual circuit. As with "Tempest 2", all aircraft performed a gear down overshoot before landing for the final time.

Three of the four aircraft did something rather different and it spoke volumes about the concerns regarding the runway length - they spectacularly deployed their braking chutes whilst still in the air!!

With all five Jaguars safely on the ground, the support aircraft for the crew's return to Coningsby arrived - a 32[The Royal] Squadron BAe146.

The 1 SOTT guys couldn't wait to get their hands on the aircraft and they were quickly towed to the hangars on the far side of the airfield.

And so another chapter in the RAF's history started to draw to a close....