727 Naval Air Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Navy

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

. It was formed in 1943 as a Fleet Requirements Unit, being disbanded in December 1944. It was reformed twice in the 1940s and 1950s to provide flying experience for naval officers. The current squadron was created on 6 Dec 2001 from the Royal Naval Flying Training Flight. It operates the

Grob Tutor The Grob G 115 is a general aviation fixed-wing aircraft, primarily used for flight training. It is built in Germany by Grob Aircraft (Grob Aerospace before January 2009). The E variant with a 3-blade variable pitch propeller is in service wi ...

, with its primary role to provide grading and legacy-Elementary Flying Training for Royal Navy and Royal Marine pilots under training. It also supports the Royal Navy's "Flying Start" flying scholarship scheme.

History of 727 NAS

Fleet Requirements Unit (1943 - 1944)

727 Naval Air Squadron was formed on 26 May 1943 at Gibraltar as a Fleet Requirements Unit covering the area from Bizerta to Algiers. The squadron was equipped with target-towing

Boulton Paul Defiant The Boulton Paul Defiant is a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter", without any fixed forward-firing guns ...

Fairey Swordfish The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also used ...

and Hawker Hurricane IIc. The squadron was disbanded on 7 December 1944.

Air Experience Unit (1946 - 1960)

After World War II it was decided to provide air acquaint courses for junior Royal Navy and Royal Marines officers who were not aviation specialists. 727 NAS was reformed on 23 April 1946 at

RNAS Lee-on-Solent Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent (HMS ''Daedalus'') was one of the primary shore airfields of the Fleet Air Arm. First established as a seaplane base in 1917 during the First World War, it later became the main training establishment and ad ...

with gliders,

Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. ...

Supermarine Seafire The Supermarine Seafire is a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire adapted for operation from aircraft carriers. It was analogous in concept to the Hawker Sea Hurricane, a navalised version of the Spitfire's stablemate, the Hawker Hurri ...

North American Harvard The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces ...

s and a

Fairey Firefly The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It was developed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviatio ...

. Disbanded on 17 January 1950, the squadron was reformed on 4 January 1956 as the Dartmouth Cadet Air Training Squadron. Now operating from

RNAS Brawdy The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps ...

, Pembrokeshire, the squadron flew

Boulton Paul Sea Balliol The Boulton Paul Balliol and Sea Balliol are monoplane advanced trainer aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Boulton Paul Aircraft. On 17 May 1948, it became the world's first single-engined turboprop aircraft to ...

s, De Havilland Sea Vampire T22s and a Percival Sea Prince T.1. Two

Westland Dragonfly The Westland WS-51 Dragonfly helicopter was built by Westland Aircraft and was an Anglicised licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-51. Design and development On 19 January 1947 an agreement was signed between Westland Aircraft a ...

helicopters were provided in September 1958, but the squadron was disbanded on 16 December 1960.

History of the Royal Naval Flying Training Flight

Since 1949 the

Britannia Royal Naval College Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), commonly known as Dartmouth, is the naval academy of the United Kingdom and the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy. It is located on a hill overlooking the port of Dartmouth, Devon, En ...

at Dartmouth has operated light aircraft for recreational flying, as well as running summer flying camps. Types flown have included

De Havilland Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. ...

Auster Auster Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1938 to 1961.Willis, issue 122, p.55 History The company began in 1938 at the Britannia Works, Thurmaston near Leicester, England, as Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited, ma ...

and De Havilland Chipmunk.

Miles Messenger The Miles M.38 Messenger is a British four-seat liaison and private owner aircraft built by Miles Aircraft. Design and development The Messenger was designed to meet an informal request from a group of British Army officers for a robust, slow ...

and

Miles Gemini The Miles M.65 Gemini was a British twin-engined four-seat touring aircraft designed and built by Miles Aircraft at Woodley Aerodrome. It was the last Miles aircraft to be produced in quantity. Development of the Gemini was conducted at a rap ...

aircraft were also introduced. After grading of potential aircrew was introduced, these aircraft were employed during the week for assessing future aircrew and at weekends for recreation. By this time the aircraft were based at Roborough Airport, on the outskirts of Plymouth. By 1966 the flight had been stabilised at 12 Chipmunk aircraft.

Commissioning the RNFTF as 727 NAS (2001 - present)

On 6 December 2001 the Royal Naval Flying Training Flight was commissioned as 727 Naval Air Squadron, at

Plymouth City Airport Plymouth City Airport is a 'mothballed' airport located within the Plymouth, City of Plymouth north northeast of the city centre in Devon, England at Derriford (formerly Roborough, South Hams, Roborough). The airport opened on this site in 1 ...

, initially with the de Havilland Chipmunk and later with the

, and in January 2007 the squadron relocated to

RNAS Yeovilton Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, or RNAS Yeovilton, (HMS ''Heron'') is an airfield of the Royal Navy and British Army, sited a few miles north of Yeovil, Somerset. It is one of two active Fleet Air Arm bases (the other being RNAS Culdrose) ...

. The commissioning ceremony was attended by an original pilot member of 727, Geoffrey Harrington, who served with 727 in North Africa during WW2.

Current role

The squadron currently operates five

trainer aircraft under a

private finance initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 199 ...

with

Babcock International Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

's aerospace division. This, along with five Qualified Flying Instructors (QFIs), allow up to ten students to be accommodated with the squadron at any time. Grading Pre-selected prospective pilots are assessed for their suitability to continue flight training. During Flying Grading, they fly a twelve hour syllabus with an instructor before flying a pre-FHT with a different instructor and then a Final Handling Test (FHT) with the Squadron Commanding Officer. The aim of the FHT is to fly the aircraft unassisted whilst being assessed on complete Departure, Climb, Level Off, Turns, Stall, Spin, Aerobatics, Recovery and 3 Circuits (a Standard, Glide and Flapless circuit). If the student performs well with only limited prompting in the FHT then he will pass; The FHT is designed to assess the pilots rate of progress and temperament to ensure it matches the fast pace of further training. Successful pilots continue their flying training with

703 Naval Air Squadron 703 Naval Air Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy was formed as a long-range catapult squadron on 3 March 1942 at RNAS Lee-on-Solent. During the Cold War, it was reformed as an experimental trials unit, and then as a helicopter traini ...

RAF Barkston Heath Royal Air Force Barkston Heath or RAF Barkston Heath is a Royal Air Force station near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. RAF Barkston Heath has the Naval Element of No. 3 Flying Training School RAF (No. 3 FTS) which, for a period between approx ...

, whilst those unsuccessful are rebranched for other duties within the Royal Navy and have the choice to resign from training. Special Flying Award The squadron also undertakes many other roles, one of which is the Special Flying Award. This scheme is open to any member of the public who has expressed an interest in joining the

as aircrew and have been put forward by their Careers Office. The course lasts for two weeks with the aim of 10 hours in the cockpit. There are also a number of Special Flying Awards organised for members of the

URNU The University Royal Naval Units (URNU) ( , less commonly ) (formerly Universities' Royal Naval Units) are Royal Navy training establishments who recruit Officer Cadets from a university or a number of universities, usually concentrated in one ...

and the CCF. Elementary Flying Training 727 also accommodates students who undertake Elementary Flying Training on the Tutor, which sees them complete a course similar to the legacy EFT, still being undertaken by 16 Squadron at

RAF Wittering Royal Air Force Wittering or more simply RAF Wittering is a Royal Air Force station within the unitary authority area of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire. Although Stamford, Lincolnshire, Sta ...

. The Squadron Today The squadron currently has just two full-time Naval personnel; the commanding officer and the training officer. Babcock employs five civilian flying instructors under their contract to teach the students. The squadron is also supported by a number of ex-service QFIs from the

RNR The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

to instruct and two holdover student pilots who are between flying training courses bound for general duties. Maintenance of the Grob fleet is provided by a Babcock senior licensed engineer with three engineering support staff. An aircraft handler provides aircraft handling, refuelling and assistance to aircrew. The squadron moved from

Plymouth Airport Plymouth City Airport is a 'mothballed' airport located within the City of Plymouth north northeast of the city centre in Devon, England at Derriford (formerly Roborough). The airport opened on this site in 1925 and was officially opened by ...

in early 2007, following the departure of the last

Sea Harrier The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical landing/vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft. It is the second member of the Harrier family developed. It first entered servic ...

squadron from RNAS Yeovilton in 2006.

Aircraft flown

Since 1943, 727 NAS and the Royal Naval Flying Training Flight have flown a wide variety of aircraft: *

* Hawker Hurricane IIc *

* De Havilland Sea Vampire T22 * Percival Sea Prince T1 *

* De Havilland Chipmunk *

* Grob Tutor T1

References

External links

Official Website
{{Royal Naval Air Squadrons 700 series Fleet Air Arm squadrons Air squadrons of the Royal Navy in World War II