DCAE Cosford - 15th July 2008

The second stage of our bumper Tuesday was spent at the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering (DCAE) Cosford, where I'd manage to organise acess to my old friends, the Jaguars, principally for Skippy and Dunny's benefit.

Cosford currently plays home to No 1 School of Technical Training, representing one fifth of DCAE. The primary objective is to provide a high quality, relevant and up-to-date aeronautical engineering (AE) training to fulfill the needs of tomorrow's front line.

We arrived to find the "Spotty jet", the one I'd shot some 378 days earlier, making its last ever landing at Cosford and signalling an end to the Jaguar's RAF service, sitting outside on the ramp. It was only then that our host, Sqn Ldr Graham Lee, let on that the aircraft was due an engine run and that it had been arranged specifically to coincide with our visit! What a bonus!!

We walked through the first hangar while the Jag was being prepped. The orange light made it quite hard to tell, but the first Gazelle pictured below is wearing the BATUS (British Army Training Unit Suffield) two-tone brown camouflage, as used at the facility in Canada.

Non-rotary items contained within included a 233 OCU Harrier GR3, and the tail fin from a 229 OCU Tornado F2.

Then, it was time. It was absolutely fantastic to hear those Adours spool up once more....!

On the other side of the hangar were another few ex-6 Sqn Jaguars, positioned nicely against the trees.

The next hangar contained long-term residents. Jaguar GR1s, many sporting squadron markings worn during their time at RAF Laabruch in Germany. The aircraft here belong to what was known as the Line Training Flight, since 2007, 238 Sqn, No 1 School of Technical Training.

On our way in we'd seen a Harrier looking slightly worse for wear. We'd noted it's GR5 nose, but it wasn't until we got up close that we realised it was a GR7 airframe with various parts replaced, and plenty of others missing.

A little digging on our return showed that the aircraft had ditched into the Mediterranean Sea off Sardinia on the 25th of November 1997, whilst in the hover off the port side of HMS Invincible, after returning from a training sortie. Certainly a Harrier with a history!

With the tour of the 'live side' complete, Graham asked if we'd like to look at the hangars on the other side of the road.

The first one that we came to is perhaps better known as the building that used to be Cosford's Indoor Arena. Now it's home to a raft of Jaguars, Jet Provosts and a few other bits and pieces.

Our final stop was in a newly refurbished building - one that hadn't been open on my last visit. We weren't allowed down to ground level, but to be honest, the views from up above were probably better anyway!!

Sincere thanks go to Sqn Ldr Graham Lee for taking the time out of his schedule to escort us, and to Sqn Ldr Dick Delaney for organising the access to start with.