Ebook: Lightning up: the career of Air Vice-Marshal Alan White CB AFC FRAeS RAF (Retd)
Author: Great Britain. Royal Air Force, White Alan
- Tags: Fighter pilots--Great Britain, Marshals--Great Britain, Marshals, Armed Forces--Officers, Fighter pilots, History, Biography, Biographies, White Alan, Great Britain. -- Royal Air Force -- Officers -- Biography, Great Britain. -- Royal Air Force -- History, Fighter pilots -- Great Britain -- Biography, Marshals -- Great Britain -- Biography, Great Britain. -- Royal Air Force, Armed Forces -- Officers, Great Britain
- Year: 2009
- Publisher: Pen & Sword Aviation
- City: Barnsley;Great Britain
- Language: English
- epub
Alan White served in the RAF from 1953 to 1987 – roughly the period of the Cold War. His introduction to flying came in his University Air Squadron. This seduced him into dropping out of University and joining the RAF. He initially had success during the piston-engine stages of his training but damage to a Vampire T11 and a bad start on the Hunter Weaponry Course set his confidence back until he recovered during service with his first Hunter Squadron. The infamous Duncan Sandys' cuts of 1957 caused the closure of his squadron and he found himself towing air-to-air gunnery targets, but luckily he was then moved to instruct on the Hunter Operational Conversion Unit where he developed his solo aerobatic display skills. He was then posted to take Hunters to Singapore and form a Squadron. He became involved with the SEATO response to assist the Thai government's request against communist insurgents from Laos and spent five months at Chiang Mai camping in a paddy field. After...